Waterbury Democrat., 1903-01-29
Y Y kzs7 The Pledge at ] Spruce Ridge ]
By EDWARD B. CLARK.

| : u 1 TT is now something over ten years l | ago when the Spruce Ridge and l Gray Creek Sioux were on the war; path. Thieving officials had robbed
 the Indians of large part of their rations, and the redskin fathers, sec | ing their children starving, had taken 1 their rifles and killed a few cattle be- 1 longing to some settlers. This high l handed outrage, of course, meant that l the Indians must be punished, while l the officials responsible for the trou- l ble, in accordance with government 1 well established ideas, were to go scot free. Thus the war began.
 l There were 5000 reds, all told, wom- l en and children, who scampered from 1 the agencies and were followed by the l troopers and dough boys" whom Un-
 ale Sam hurriedly gathered up and sent at double time to the front. l Standing Bull had been killed and his l particular band of followers was head l ed for the Bad Lands, where the war
 riors expected to be joined by their
 brothers of the band of Little Foot,
 Big Wound, Long Bull and Standing Bear. The reds knew it would be hard l to dislodge them from the natural l stronghold of the Bad Lands, and that l it would make good center of oper-
 ations for raiding the country round 1 about. l There was intense excitement all
 over the country and every newspa- l per of any prominence had a corre-
 spondent either with the troops ac- tually in the field or at the army headquarters at Spruce Ridge. Now l there were three newspaper men who l bunked together in miserable tum-
 bIedown shack near the Spruce Ridge headquarters. They were James
 Halliday, William Watson and Charles
 Deane, though, of course, among themselves and to others they were Jim, Billy and Charlie. Every day un- der escort they would ride out many miles to the north of the Ridge and get from the outlying bodies of troops, 1 the news from the front. Then back to the agency to get from headquar- l ters such news as the commanding general would vouchsafe to give them out of the mass of information which
 he had received from his couriers. Now, in order to get their ssstuff'' into their papers, these three newspa-. l per men were compelled to employ a courier to make the trip daily to Slow vile, on the northern Nebraska from
 tier IS miles away, where was situated
 the nearest telegraph office. The cour-
 rier left every afternoon at five o'clock
 on one or the other of his stout In-5 n T kI
 morning. This courier was a devoted little chap named Bob. He was noth- ing more than a boy, though he had the grit and determination of a man, and his devotion to his employers was such as to make him daily dare death to serve their ends.
 Bands of reds in their hideous green and black occasionally raided between Spruce Ridge and Slowvi1le. As rule they raided just after daybreak,
 fact that Bob, the courier, knew, so
 he profted by the knowledge to time
 his return from the telegraph office
 so as to avoid the painted raiders.
 No one on san Indian reservation is
 allowed to sell liquor. A man caught
 doing it is fined $1.O0o and imprisoned for year or thereabouts. The gov ernment imposes the fine and does the jailing, and as Uncle Sam rarely does. the punishing act by halves the vend- ing of whisky on an Indian reservation
 is not an occupation to invite even the reckless.
 It was pretty cold out at Spruce Ridge the winter of that Sioux upris-
 ing. The three newspaper corre- spondents found that a little liquor. inside the belt was conducive to
 warmth of body and warmth of imag- ination- Their courier, Bob, brought
 them over from Slowville two bottles
 of whisky every day. The newspaper boys didn't drink it all. They had friends in plenty to gather in their
 shack in the evening and help them
 dispose of their fire water. There
 were civilian employees at the Ridge,
 and occasionally an army officer would
 drop in, and there was rarely morn ing when either of the two bottles
 furnished forth enough for cock tail,
 One day when the Indian trouble
 was at it's very worst a courier came
 in from one of the outlying camps and told the correspondents that they
 might expect half dozen soldier
 friends the next evening to enjoy their hospitality. The newspaper men had
 been guests of these same soldiers and
 had asked them to name a night for a
 return visit. Bob was told that day
 to put half dozen bottles into his
 saddle bags instead of the regulation
 brace. The next noon Bob appeared with his six bottles of bad whisky, for it was bad, though good by sheer force of the fact that it was the only
 stuff to be obtained for love or money.
 s.Jim, we're in for wet night of it. said Charlie Deane to Jim Halli-f
 day.
 ''You bet we are, Charlie" answered !
 Jim. "Our own capacity is none tool small, and our guests have been dry
 for a month. There won't be drop
 left tomorrow morning with which to clear the cobwebs out Of cur brains
 and enable us to do a days work
 s'I'll be dead for a drink in the morn
 ing" said Billy Watson; Eve ought to
 have sent for more stuff, for as mat