Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1910-03-31

Still Capt. Bill could not believe it a gen.
uine Indian incursion. Hall county was in
the second tier from the Territory line and
the Indians would have had to cross Childress
county to get to it. He did not believe that
they would undertake to do this or that they
could have undertaken 1t without previous
alarms. Still it was his duty to investigate.
He got a special train, loaded in men, horses
and pack mules, and set out on a hunt for In
dians. 1t was about a hundred miles to Sails
bury and they reached there early in the day.
Not a soul was in sight anywhere. The in
habitants we're hidden, some in dugouts, some
In haystacks, some in the tall grass. Here and
there, as the train pulled in, Mcdonald saw a
head stick out from a sod house far out on
the prairie, then suddenly disappear, like a
prairie dog dropping into. his hole. He set out
to interview some Of these wary settlers and
learned that the Indian alarm had been given
by a mana new settler just arrived in the
countrywide had ridden his horse to death
and lost one of his children-having left him
far behind somewhere-in his wild eagerness
to escape the savages who, he declared, were
burning and ~scalping not far away. Capt. Bill
found this man and after a little talk with him
was convinced that what he had seen was
nothing more nor less than some cowboys on
a roundup, disporting themselves around their
campfire at night, as cowboys withdrawing
and capering In the mad manner of young
plainsmen whose ideas of amusement are ele-
mental and whose opportunities for social di-
versions are few. The man and the neighbor-
hood remained unconvinced. so 1t was decided
to visit the scene Of the disturbance.
Horses, men and pack mules unloaded
themselves from the freight car and went ra-
cling over the prairie, the pack mules, as usual,
plunging and braying with tail in air, their
1--WE gathering in a manner calculated to
put a whole tribe of Indians into a panic and
send them capering across the eastern hori-
zon into their own domain. But there were no
Indians. 1t was as Capt. Bill had thought; a
gang of cowboys, the night before, had round
ed up some cattle, killed a beef, carried it to
their camp nearby, where they had built a
great fire and roasted 1t, doing q wild war
dance of celebration and shooting off their six
shooters in their ~prodigal expression Of joy.
Viewed from a little distance, through a sort
of mirage condition which had exaggerated
the whole effect, the scene to the newcomers
was a horrifying picture of savages about a
burning home, with the inhabitants fleeing for
their lives.
The man who had Just moved in had STAN
peded for his own safety and started a gen
eral alarm, which did not subside even when
the cowboys themselves came in and testified
to the truth. The panic spread throughout
that section Of the country and other reports
of Indian outbreaks were circulated, becoming
magnifed until it was believed that the In
dams had broken out and were making a gen.
eral raid on the Panhandle. The inhabitants
of one town, south of Amarillo, threw up
breastworks, got behind them, and put out
pickets in preparation for the arrival Of the
Indians. Every man seen Looping across the
prairie was reported as an Indian, and all this
happened as late as 1891. when there had
been no Indian outbreaks for years and when
there was scarcely a possibility of anything of
the sort. 1t was a big joke, of course, after
ward, but 1t seemed no joke at the time and
It was Bill McDonald's initiation as captain.