The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1903-07-18
BE ALPING KNIFE
How LIVING ENGLlsHMAN LOST
: HIS HAIR. :.
His Original Head Covering Now Scat
tered Over Two continents-Pres-
ence Of Mind Saved His Life from
the Murderous Redskins.

There is a man living now in Eng
land who can tell how it feels to be
scalped. His hair is now hanging in
the public library in Omaha. That is,
part of it is there. He has fringe
around his head still, and another part
may still be On an Indian reservation,
if the Indians are at all careful about
preserving relics Of this sort
William Thompson, an Englishman,
once in the employment of the Union
Pacific railroad, is the man whose hair
is scattered over two continents. He
is getting along nicely with a small
remnant of his original headgear.
Thompson was one of five men who
went sent on handcar out of Omaha
in the early days of the Union Pacific
to splice a telegraph wire. It was in
August, 1867. The railroad only ex-
tended to North Platte The rest of
the trip to Denver was made by stage,
and a perilous trip it was. There had
been trouble along the line and the
squad of five men were sent out to To-
cate and remedy it,
It was located near what is now
Central City. 1t was discovered that
| the Indians had cut the wire. Scarcely
| had the linemen stopped their car
when they were fired on by party of
Cheyenne Indians concealed in the
prairie grass. The men returned the
fire, but, seeing that they were hope
lessly outnumbered, took to their
heels.
Thompson was shot in the arm while
running, and the next moment one of
his pursuers knocked him to the
ground by blow with a. tomahawk.
He was stunned but not rendered un-
conscious. He had the presence of
mind to feign death, and the Indian
supposed that all that was necessary
was to take his scalp: AS to what
follows, Thompson says:
with the ceftness of an expert, the
savage whipped out his knife and made
incisions around the top of my head.
When he had cut the skin all around,
doing it with great speed, he jerked
the hair off. The sensation was just
as if red-hot iron had just been
touched to my head
The Indian, in his hurry, tucked the
scalp lock insecurely in his belt. That
is why it happens to- be now in the
Omaha library. Thompson did not dare
to move, and while he lay there pre-
tending to be dead and suffering from
his wound another Indian found him.
He decided there was a little more
hair on the dead mans head which
might as we'll come off, so he repeated
the performance of the first and took
off some more around the corners.
In the meanwhile other Indians had
placed distractions on the track. From
wnere he lay Thompson could hear the
approaching freight train carrying gov
eminent supplies. He could not flag 1t
and he heard the engine crash into the
obstruction. The next moment the
train was a wreck, with the Indians
firing on the train crew.
Then began an orgie, which the
wounded man was forced to hear. The
Indians found whisky. with which they
proceeded to get themselves into a
beastly state of intoxication. They
rugged themselves up in calicoes and
woolens which they found on the
train. Then they took the still living
engineer and fireman and threw them
into the furnace of the engine.
When darkness came Thompson
managed to drawl away. At Willo7'
Creek he fell in with rescue party
which had been sent out and by which
he was taken to Omaha. He had no
ticed the scalp lock which had fallen
from the Indians belt, and when he
crawled away he picked it up.-Chi
cago Tribune.