Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1906-06-30


n take Greeley's advice and go
West" 1t required some little
ITve for young man raised OH
e finn in New York State to leave his
tends and make n break alone into
q Il then almost unknown West. There
/ VS. q frontier" then; now there is
g me.
s went to Junction City, Kan, and
i ten on foot south to the Santa Fe
!. Hilroad which was then just being
D bit, and finally stopped where the
ely of Wichita now is. At that time
n twas a military post. / could stand
y tire then, and looking southwest
adoss the Arkansas River, see the
e wble country speckled with buffalo
asar as the eye could reach, l stayed
thte a few days, and then went oil
uuthe river to what is now Hutchin-
e SOL Here | met a man who told me
!. abut the Medicine River country
ydich was about 125 miles further
Suthwest He represented it as being
= we'll timbered country, with quite
D high bluffs along the streams, and MS
| all the country where l was then had
scarcely any timber, 1t looked very
dreary to me; besides, l had an idea
of going into the cattle business, so !
decided to go and look at the Medicine
River country.
bought a pony and we started. We
had heard of a camp Of hunters at
the junction of the Medicine and Iur-
key Greek, who had wagon trail INTO
wichita. We went south, so as to
strike the wagon trail and follow It 10
their camp. l proposed taking along
some provisions, but my new friends
said there was no use buying or carry
ing supplies, as we could get all the
game we wanted; so we went without
any provisions.
Well. we started out, and there
reemed to be break in the buffalo,
as there were none in sight, and we
went on all the first day without n
chance to kill anything; and slept that
night on the ground by "chip" fire,
with nothing to eat and no timber Ill
sight. We were on what l afterWard
Plearned was the north fork of the MIN
isouaw River. The following day we
travelled all day and killed nothing
until night, when We stopped on the
south fork of the Ninisquaw, and l
killed a bird about as large as robin,
which we roasted and divided between
us.
The following day we began to see
buffalo, and about noon came to tim
bered stream, and within half an hour
1 had killed big turkey; and think
that 1 never tasted any other turkey
quite so good as that was. We camped
there in the timber. No one knows
Just what a luxury timber is to camp
in for fuel, until they have camped
on the bare prairie and burned chips.
That afternoon my friend killed n
buffalo. | was greatly surprised at the
size of the animal. l had seen the
buffalo robes that we used in the East,
and which at that time could be bought
for from So to SO, but they were small
and l learned that the large ones were
thickness called ff6 6ff too IS nfHHelf W 6SfAE
to dress them. White men never
| D.
their time was worth nothing. A
squaw would work a month or two
tanning a hide; then her lord and mas
ter would trade it to white man for
a plug of tobacco or pint of firewater
We went on the next day and reached
the hunters camp, which was owned
by Captain Griffin, formerly of Dutch
ess County, New York The following
fall Captain Griffin was killed by the
Indians about thirteen miles from his
camp ON the head of Mule Greek. He
: was q fine shot, and although he had
a wooden leg below the knee, he was
one of the best horsemen 1 ever saw
1t was by means of the wooden leg
that we were able TO identify his bones
when we found his remains. He had
needle gun, and in the buffalo wallow
where his bones were, we found about
100 empty shells, which showed thai
they had fought there for some time
There was q man from Pennsylvania
by the name of Van Buren, with Cap
! tain Griffin at that time. We buried
their bones together
The Medicine River country was M
ideal one for game. The bottoms were
, we'll timbered, and there were plenty
of red deer and turkeys in the timber
the prairies were alive with buffalo
and antelope. Sometimes the buffalo
would mass together and form a vas
herd. and when once started to run
would go for no one could know now
long. have seen mass OF them, say
half q mile wide and perhaps two miles
long, all on the run in a solid body
They would come to stream and g
roaring over the bluff and through the
water. and come in sight on the othel
side, and the great black river Of. liv
ing animals would go pouring Oh across
the prairie. If something alarme,
those in front they would wheel like {
body of cavalry by the flank, and OF
they would go in another direction
While this great mass of animals
would be sweeping past, others would
be grazing or lying down, and would
not appear to pay any attention to tn
galloping herd, unless in front of 1t
and then they usually Joined the here
and went with it. The numbers wer,
so great that it simply went past tn
power Of enumeration, and one nigh
as we'll attempt to count the sands OF
the seashore. saw them once in Jun
so thick that they nearly drank tn
small streams dry, and poisoned tn
water so that it was almost impossible
to get any to drink.
The buffalo was a noble animal. 1t
; habits differ from those of the dee
l. family entirely; with antelope, rec
= deer, elk, caribou and moose there !
/. a similarity in habits of them all, bu
the buffalo has no relatives. When
bull became old and was ;Ihipped h
Il n o11tno NVn