The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-02-09
CAMELS AT LARGE.
How They Came to Run Wild in
United States.

low 4Aey N&m6 Co Run " 41u II
United States.
There are q few camels' running at
large IN New Mexico at this time.
These are supposed to be the same
camels which the government imported
fifty years ago and afterward liberated
in Texas The government does not ap-
pear to lay any claim to them at this
time. The most concise statement con-
corning these camels is by the we'll
known magazine writer, Mr.. G. A.
Stevens published in the Youths Com
panion on April 3. 1902, who says:
The fact is that our genial and
speculative Uncle Sam once engaged in
the camel business, and had an idea of
driving caravans across his southern
deserts, from Texas to California The
Pacific railroads had not been built, and
at that date the idea was not altogether
so extraVa CANT as it would seem now.
THE plan was original with a young
lieutenant, named Edward F. Beale,
who was stationed at Fort Yuma in
1853. There was then great difficulty in
transporting military supplies across
Arizona and Lieutenant Beale. after
ward General Beale, who must have
been a genius in his way, hit on the
bold plan of establishing caravans Of
camels like those of the Sahara and the
Arabian desertsl In fancy he saw these
vast caravans crossing the continent,
bearing not only military stores, but the
goods of merchants and the persons of
emigrants.
This was, in truth, grand scheme.
one of the kind that makes an enthus-
last of the originator Fired with this
great idea, the youthful lieutenant
rnemorialized the war department., set
ting forth at length and in glowing
coIors the possibilities of the plan.
Jefferson Davis-after president of
the Southern Confederacy-wa then
secretary of war. The fancy of the sec
ranfiUafpd Lieutenant
Beale's idea. The scheme was encour-
aged and in the end congress appro-
pTiated thirty thousand dollars for the
purchased and importation Of camels
from Egypt and Arabia.
I'm December. 1854. Major Wayne. L.
s A. went to Egypt to buy and bring
home camels. The uncouth creatures
bore the sea voyage well, and in Feb
ruary 1857, sixty-two camels We're land +
ed from the United States transport
Supply on the coast Of Texas. Thence
they were driven to Camp Verde. FL
Paso and Fort Yuma
THE ship Of the desert was now, so
to speak, fairly launched on the North
American continent: and the govern
nent looked for camel caravans in the
near future.
From this point the whole enterprise
went wrong. The government and army
officers who favored the scheme had not
taken into account the attitude toward
the animals of one important class.
namely. the army teamsters and hos
tiers. These men conceived a violen.
prejudice against the newly imported
beasts; they disdained to be called
camel drivers. and from the outset were
hostile to the project. Not being under
as good discipline as is desirable. they
wreaked their spite on the useful yet
ungainIy animals in a thousand ways
and even went so far as to turn them
loose to wander away into the desert. r
The quotation is a historical introduc-
ton into a story of q hunt for these
nondescriPt camels. and Mr.. Stevens
further along states that they found SIX
and photographed them