Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1911-08-02
RESTORED
BY ELLEN TORBERT
Copyright by American Press Asso-
citation. 1911.

their house was burned. 1t so hap
pened that when the attack was made
my father had gone east and my
mother had left me asleep in my crib
to have 4 chat with neis hbor The
Indians took me, Il little chap but three
years old. and the first my mother
knew of the matter was seeing the
light Of her burning dwelling. Those
who were with her dragged her.
Shrieking, TO Il point where protection
WAS to he had. aud she never heard
what had become of me. There seem
ed to Ice no doubt. however. that | had
persisted either by Il toma hawk or i'm
the burning building.
An this came to my knowledge long
afterward. Meanwhile was taken
care OF by and wandered about with
the Indians When | grew older. not
liking the treatment received from
them and having learned that came
from a different race. | ran away ftom
them and appeared one evening at the
campfire OF some white men.
l gained little if any Improvement in
my cOmpanionShip. for | had struck
gang Of men who lived by rascality.
principally horse stealing They suf-
fered me to remain with them. and.
since had lot learned from the
ApacheS that an Indian owed any in
diligence to the whites. IL did not ap-
pear to me that these villains were
very bad men. They asked me how
came to be brought up by saw
ages. but was too young when can
tured TO remember much about it.
There was Il faint glimmer of mem
Dry Of painted savage bending over
me and my being carried, kicking and
sQualling. from warm bed out into
a cold night
We are made by our environment.
especially our associates. and became
1 horse thief was about fifteen
when ! joined the gang, and since
had learned many strategic methods
from the Indians they found me quito
/ valuable addition to their band. |
remained with them several months.
when we were attacked by n vigilance
committee. Some Of us were captured
and hanged. the rest escaping, i among
he number.
I drifted after this. picking up the
best living could. The first language
| had learned was Apache, so l spoke
broken English and was usually mis-
taken for a foreign born youth. MY
anteccdentS did not conduce to my be
ing considered trustworthy. and ] xsas
usually soon expelled from any settle
ment ! entered. | soon forgot any re-
deeminS traits that had learned from
the Indians. and ! had never gained
my such from my white aSSO -iateS
When | was about eighteen / got to-
gether several young rascals about my
own age and organized them into
band OF horse thieves, Of which | ap-
pointed myself the leader. We did
such thriving business that ut last it
became necessary for the settlers liv-
ing in the region we infested TO hunt
It's down. \ man we robbed cot to-
gethcr Il posse, armed with rifles. who
followed and attacked us. killing one
Of my men and wounding myself and
another
Our captOrs would nave hanged those
OF us they hadn't killed in the fight.
but they We're law abiding men and
hadn't the heart to string up wounded
men. We two who had been winged
they put on their horses. and we all
went back to the settlement from
which they had come.
The principal man OF the lot gave
me his horse and walked beside me.
He asked me Il number of questions
and wanted to know to what nation
atty belonged told him my accent
came from the ApaCheS, by whom I
had been brought up. Then he wished
TO know all about my capture. and I
told him all that | remembered. which
was faint vision of Il painted Indian
looking at me and carrying me in his
arms My listener questioned me with
IL view TO finding out what point had
been taken from. uut gained no salts
faction in this respect.
When we reached the settlement my
guestiOncr brought his wife TO see me,
ana they both stood a short distance
from me, looking at me and talking
about me, the woman evidently much
affected. They went AWAY and after
awhile came back with man to
where we were sitting under guard
and asked him to do something. He
looked at us all, then. pointing to me,
said IF any Of them is. that's the
one"
Inc woman began to take on, bccom-
ne hysteric.l. She looked wistfulIv
ut me and tried to come TO me. but
they wouldn't permit her.
They made tests with number OF
VERSIONS as they had with the first
man. and the majority said that I