The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-11-26
GREAT SLAUGHTER
 OF THE BUFFALO How Denizens of the West
 Were Exterminated THE SPORT WAS EXCITING Passengers Fired on Herds From Win dows of Passing Trains and Ev-
 erybody Joined In the
 Cruel Butehery.
THE SPORT WAS EXCITING
BY B. w. BAKER.

BY B. w. BAKER.
 Those happy days to the plainsman and hunter, when countless numbers of ] buffalo roamed the plains of the West are gone forever. The destruction of the buffalo was a perfect carnival of slaugh- ter that stands without parallel in the history of the animal world. In the year 1868 the Union Pacific railroad was com pleted to the Rocky mountains and there was begun at once a crusade against the buffalo that practically wiped out all the great hordes not later than 1885.
 Tourists shot buffalo from the cars as the train ran along at a slow rate of speed just for the sport and novelty of l the experience. Thousands of newcom- CTS and settlers on the public domain made it their business for years to kill buffalo and found it profitable to kill them for their robes alone.
 Buffalo hunting was sport of the high est order. There was just enough of the danger element in 1t to appeal to the man of nerve and daring spirit. If done on horseback it required skill and good horsemanship. The methods of hunting employed were different upon different occasions, but the following method seems to have been employed by Buffalo Bill and some other successful hunters:
 The hunters would go out on horseback and try to approach as near the game as 1 possible without being seen, using any ridges or natural barriers that the nature of the ground might afford. The game. on seeing the hunters, would stop for moment, cattle sometimes do upon seeing a strange object, then they would l turn and go laundering across the plains, while the hunters pursuing them would run their horses for all they were worth until they came up close to the herd. Then each hunter would select buffalo and, riding close up to him on the left would fire his six-shooter into the side | of the animal. The moment he fired his ! horse, if well trained, would turn to the left to avaoid any lunge the animal might make. The horse then would make i a half circle and bring up close to the herd again. when the hunter would fire Into another animal. This operation would be repeated again and again, until the hunters had killed as many as wished fer.
 How Indians Killed Buffalo. The Indians used to shoot buffalo with 1 their bows and arrows, though they as well as the Mexicans. sometimes used poles about fifteen feet in length upon the ends of which had been fastened iron spears about eighteen inches long. Mount ed upon their ponies. they would dash alongside of the game and thrust them through with these spears. Many buffa- To were killed by these crude methods of Indians and Mexicans before they ac- quired the use of modern firearms.
 Colonel Inman, of the United States army, and for a long time in the West, collected some statistics from which one | can form some idea of the enormous number of buffalo killed in a period of thirteen years. He says:
 "In Kansas alone there were paid out two and a half millions of dollars for Buffalo bones which had been collected on the prairies to be rsed in carbon works It took a hundred carcasses to make a ton, the price averaging $lS per ton so the enormous sum quoted above represented 31Oo0,OO0 of buffalo"
 As an example of what enormous num- bers a herd sometimes contained, I will state that 1t Is a matter of authentic record that in the spring of 1888 train 1 on the Kansas City railroad was delayed at point near Fort Harker from o'clock in the morning until in the aft | ernoon in consequence of the passage Of an immense herd of buffalo across the l track.
 A. C.. Green an old resident of New | Mexico tells me he was once on the
 
 | Smoky Hill route with OK teams and that | a herd of buffalo coming up and crossing | the route In front of him, he was com | pelled to stop his teams and wait for the | herd to pass. They travelled in body | about one hundred yards in breadth. and 1t required about two hours for the herd | to pass by.
 Bartering Was Profitable.
 When buffalo were plentiful the Ameri- | can fur traders did most profitable bar | ter business with the .ians. The fur | traders would give one pint of whisky | for robe worth 8. and, being opposed | to drunkenness as men who sell whisky usually claim to be, they would very | considera tely mix four pints of water with each pint of whisky, so that for | each pint of whisky before the mixing | the fur trader would get five buffalo robes worth s apiece.
 | Buffalo have been tanned and efforts have been made to work them, but they do not work satisfactorily, at times be- coming entirely unmanageable For in stance. on coming in sight of water they would strike out across the plains. over ! boulders gulches, arroyas. upsetting the wagon and showing the utmost contempt