Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1903-01-30

time on until p. m, when we caught
low. We charged down upon them,
but failed to make a capture, as they
saw us in time to escape.
This old Mexican served as our
trailer for the rest of this brief cam
paign until we finally overlook and
captured our recalcitrant Indians. In
all that period he never once missed
we frequently passed over places where
no signs of tracks were apparent to
us. This, to my mind, was the most
wonderful piece Of trailing | ever saw.
Zone thing about the southwestern
Indian is that he can endure what
would kill three white men. In our
pursuit of Geronimo we at one time
went without water 4S hours. The
rains in that country occur in the
spring and winter, and all over the
country are deep holes in the rock,
in which water collects during the
rainy season and stands all the year
round until the next winter, and it was
upon such places that we had to de-
pend for our supply of water. You
have no idea of what the water in
these holes is like 1t fairly swarms
with tadpoles and wiggle-tails, but to
us it tasted sweet enough. Whenever
We reached these natural wells Gen.
Lawton used to place a guard around
them to prevent the men from wasting
oh ,,f htr
sergeant as long as it lasted. Some
times when we would camp in the bed
of dried-up creek, the men would
spend the whole night digging holes
in the sand in which about pint of
water would collect in three or four
hours.
The vegetation of the southwestern
country is peculiar in that nearly every
growing thing has thorns on it. The
result was that long before the six
months Of our campaign was ended
over half of our command were partly
naked. All l had was a pair of pants
and shoes and a ragged hat, the rest
of my clothing having been torn to
shreds. 1t used to amuse me when
passing through a Mexican village to
hear Gen. Lawton shout: Boys,
straighten up and try to appear as
decent as you can.' Of course, all that
we could do was to throw out our
chests and look brave with what few
worn and delapidated clothes we had
on our backs.
II accompanied Gen. Lawton as
member Of the guard that took Geron-
imo and his band to st. Augustine,
Fla. These Indians had never been on
a railroad train in their lives, and it
made them seasick. In fact, their i'll
ness became so serious that we had
to stop 10 days at San Antonio to let
them recover. In this the Indians
showed up at the little end of the en-
durance question, but take them in
their native mountains and they can
stand anything. I think, though,
that another six months of the kind
of campaigning that'we underwent on
this trip would have made us harder
than they. !
"The hardships that we stood were
something awful. On one occasion,
when we had been without food for
4S hours, we found a COW that the In
dians had killed, and the carcass of |
which had laid out in the sun for four
days. We drove the buzZards away, |
and though the meat was decidedly |
ripe we ate it. Gen. Lawton saw |
what we were doing and sent an or
derly to tell us to leave the meat alone, |
that it would make us sick But we i
sent him a steak, which he ate that |
evening. saying that he had never tast-
ed better in his life. On another
occasion we lived on dried apples and |
beans, without salt, mind you, for 16
days. s."-Washington Post.