Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1910-01-14
PASSING OF LAST CHIEF.

some StatlStlcal tlend'S table showed
that the West no longer led the coun-
try in homicide, men began to suspect
that the era of the Colt and sombrero
was doomed. Now, with the news that
old Red Cloud is dead and that the |
Texas Rangers will soon be disbanded, |
little is left to console the lovers of the |
wild and woolly.
Red Cloud and the Rangers, disap-
pearing at the same time, represent
the contending forces of the West.
Though the old chief never carried
death through Texas, he thoroughly
typified the life against which the
Rangers struggled. He was reaction;
they were progress. He was retreat;
they were advance. Both alike be-
ionged to an age when the cartridge
and the moose were the constitution of
the plains.
The old chief, born when the red men
held undisputed domain beyond the
Mississippi, and reared when pale-faces
hrst appeared on the ridges, represent
cd the spirit of an age. He was loath
10 oelieve that the white men could
triumph. He would not admit that the
newcomers could drive the Indians be-
yond the mountains. Not until he came
east and saw what the white men had
done did he realize what they could and
would do.
The Rangers were the incarnation of
the spirit that overthrow the red men.
They were organized when the Indians
were still to be feared along the ranges
and the ruffians and dad men" were
even more to be dreaded on the borders.
They were picked to deal desperately
with desperate men. They were ordered
70 arrest. to try; to convict and to
execute. Thus empowered. they secured
the plains until their prowess became a
warning and their name a terror.
Whatever of law there was, and what
ever of peace the herders enjoyed. men
owed to the Rangers. Their disband-
ment is not due to the presence of evil
In their midst, but to the absence of
EVIL IN Texas. The Indians are gone.
the border ruffian has disappeared; the
southwest has grown peaceful.
Conqueror and conquered will be en-
shrouded with romance. Some future
writer will glorify their deeds and mar
vel at their daring, as did Cooper when
Indians lurked in Western New York. /
and when their paddles still splashed the |
waters of the lakes.-Richmond Times
Dispatch.
When this writer was i'm his
fortune, for they were tamed-to
meet with Captain Jack. of the
Modoc Indians and Lava Beds
lame, with Sitting Bull, the most
renowned of the Sioux, and with
Red Cloud, his famed lieutenant.
Jack soon passed away; he was
an Old man then, and had fought
Uncle Sans trained troops al
most to a standstill, and when
retreat came, took up his station
In the desolate and almost i'm
penetrable lava beds and carried
ON desnltory defense and pillage
until an honorable truce was
granted him. We feel kindly to
the old scamp who did as the |
Hlndoo-the best he ''kin do"-Il
and who has now gone to the
happy huntingground. He gave
the youth his talisman, his medi- !,
cine charm, made of beads strung
on fine deer thongs and now J
nearly thirty years after, it bears {
a precious charm. Is
Sitting Bull and Red Cloud s
were less sociable but probably q
more picturesque. They had
made peace with a strong.armed
government, and under the tute- t
iage OF Buffalo Bill pretended to t
becoming assimilated. To the "
white man in common they were Il
would have nothing to do 81
with and less to say to him. The u
youth was enamored of the grim a
vlsages, portly frames and rain lc
bow blankets, and in efforts dav g
after day, finally ingratiated T
himself enough to get grunt OF G,
assent to queries when not too Of
thick and fast. These were true &C
types OF the savage breast that lie
not even music could charm and 81
d unreconstructed souls that a w
Vi ethuselah age could never al
break, hidden beneath immova- D
Die facial creases that no amount
u coaxlng could relax and i'm
)enetrable orbs that no diplo- pt
macy could pierce. Yet thew di
we're natures noblemen as com. tb
Jared with the subtle, cruel. th
reacherous yet plausible Geron- de
mo, the Apache lynx. al
For the advancement of civil. st
alton, the selfishness of the Call- tv
assian, the peopling of the world ch
nd, mayhap, the dawning of the M
ay when all nations and tongues fri
hall own one Lord, it is doubt MI
ISIS best that the old-time West ma
hould pass away, and i'm this it
lay be that the end justifes the
leans. But will the instrument 10
ass unscathed at the bar of fer
ldgment, when old Jack, and do
,.oical Bull, and stately Red to-
loud are told to depart with the Re
orkers OF iniquity? ey,