The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-02-01

You are not only an ingenious fool
but daredevil Come along home.
It's dinner time."
by two o'clock on Saturday after
noon the long, thin professions of
bucks and squaws which had been
stringing out from the four corners OF
the reservation were gathered around
the fence of Black Wings corral Bx-
oepting the monotonous mumbling OF
| 5000 cultural voices, the crowd was
remarkably quiet. Against the fence
near the long bar gate the post ambu-
lance was drawn up, and on top of 1t,
in camp chairs, under red and white
! parasols, sat the colonel and his wife
and the post adjutant and Mrs. Ur-
quart, the suffers wife--and a black
eyed girl. under big leghorn hat.
She looked down with studious tran
| qullty along The rows of ugly faces
turned toward her. or watched the
dozen steers that were grazing lazilyl
in the center of the corral.
Presently the mumbling along the
was slowly showed open and six bucks
rode in bareback at a lope, it swelled
into lusty shouting. Two of the riders,
in tight, beaded buckskins and flannel
shirts, wore red calico on their heads
and toed in Another, the brawniest
of the batch, had three speckled feath-
ers in his hair and sat his pony as If
he were posing for a photograph.
That was Black Wing.
According to custom, the riders
swung to the right and cantered down
around the corral and back to the
gate, waking up the herd and saluting
the party on the ambulance with wav-
ing of hands, amidst prolonged howl
ing from the throats along the fence.
Then there was a lull, which fell to
dead silence while Black Wing raised
his broad bowie as high as he could
reach, uttered piercing coyote cry,
and charged into the herd. He bore
down on the beast with the longest
horns and dealt it swooping savage
crunching blow behind the shoulder
with all his might, then drew back a
little, brandished his dripping knife,
and sprang in again.
The show had now begun A mighty
hurrah went up from the crowd along
the fence as all the riders closed In
Tor the fight and slaughter; and while
they punched and slashed on left and
right, and spattered themselves with
hot blood, the applause broke into
frantic screeching, and the 5000 spec
tators jumped up and down and waved
their hands.
Two steers dropped to their knees
and toppled over. The crazy herd
seemed TO understand and made a
furious dash for the lower end of the
corral, came together, hugged the
fence, and stampeded I'm sheer terror
with the ponies on run at their clat
tering heels in cloud of dust The
herd was rounding past the gate, well
punched, when suddenly there went
up along the fence yen that split the
air. One of the bucks with red calico
on his head had been pitched from his
pony. Sandman had warned Mix that
his ticklish pony might throw him;
and when he saw the boy lying at the
lower end of the corral in heap, mo-
tionless, with the frenzied herd aimed
straight at him, he grew a little pale
under his grease paint As he swung
away from the bucks and kicked his
pony into a dead run, the crowd quit
screeching and with jaws set watched
m tp hn
AT rs yards he passed 1t. Six lengths
farther he threw himself full length
half off his pony's back, swooped out
and down, snatched handful Of slack
in the back of Mix's shirt and took up
the race again, Juggling 1856 pounds of
limp, helplessness. II was a magnif.
cent showing Of skill and nerve, and
the crowd said so at once with an out
burst Of shrieking that increased TO a
panic when II realized that both bucks
were white men. Sandhams shirt was
ripped to his waist, and Mixs blonde
head was bare, to say nothing of the
plaster of sand and grass on his face
where the paint wasn't rubbed Off
The willing little beast that bore them
was badly frightened, and Sandman
couldn't stop him until some time
after Mix had been dropped in a lump
near the ambulance.
The boy was unconscious. He was
a hard-looking case, lying there fiat on
his back, with clenched fists. The
colonel felt him all over, swearing vio-
lently, and said that his left leg was
broken below the knee. They turned
the seats over in the ambulance and
laid him out on the rubber mattress
with the suffers shawl for a pillow
When he came to his senses Miss Cor
liss was bending over him and wiplng
his face.
lt was not long before everybody
knew the story and accounted Sand
ham hero. In the messroom of ID
company, he was voted NJ for breyet
captaincy, and Miss Corllss was unani.
mously recommended for the Red
Cross
After 20 days the post surgeon gave
Mix permission to be carried out on
the hospital yeranda. During the long,
balmy June evenings, when the big
atlf 4