The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1911-06-02
BY SALLY MENDAM

ed from the western plains ! joined
hunting party 10 get a last crack nj
this. noble game We took the old
freIghting road from st. Joseph Mo,
TO Denver, on which many wagon
train had passed before the compile
ton Of the Union Pacific road al far
as Laramie enabled merchants to
transport their goods by much more
advantageous route We had been out
but few days when an old plainsman
wandered into our camp. He was the
ghostliest chap ever saw. He looked
10 be very old-how old we could not
tell--and yet he didn't seem TO have
any home. So far as we could judge,
he was an ,inhabitant Of the plains,
sometimes living with white men,
sometimes with Indians.
One night after the others had turn
ed in | was before my tent sitting
with the old plainsman smoking when
| heard the creaking of a wagon 1t
was bright moonlight. and | saw to-
ward the east what appeared to be an
old fashioned plains schooner-a wag.
on drawn by four horses coming
toward us. We were a quarter OF d
mile from the road on which It was
moying-the old ST. Joseph and Den-
ver freighting roadso that we got
only distant view Of the team
II didn't know | said to the plains
man, that wagons pass over this road
since the railroad has been finished"
"They don't; that's the phantom
team"
/ laughed incredulously.
EFF you'd like to hear the story" he
replied, "I'll tell you, But you won't
believe it nohow"
The wagon numbered along west
ward and disappeared The old plains
man told me the yarn,
zone mornin' about twenty years ago
spick and span wagon with a new
canvas cover drawn BY four shiny
horses was ferried across the Missouri
river from st. Joe and struck out for
Denver. Inside was q family of emf
grants. Jim Ringler, the husband and
father, drove, while the mother and
four children were inside They were
gpin' out TO make home In some of
the new territories into which the
western world was divided There
wasn't anything about the emigrant,
his family, his wagon or his horses
that wasn't prosperous looking. He
had sold out his business and put the
money into this outfit.
"Six months from that | met Rinpler
moyin' south Of Colorado Springs
His family didn't look so comfortable,
a good deal of the paint was wore or
his wagon, and his horses were lean.
He said he'd been disappointed in find
In a good place to settle. He'd Tried
the plains and the mountains. The
plains was too low and the mountains
was too high He was loolin' for
somethin' intermediate. I recommend
ed the foothills, and he said he'd try
'em.
Purity nigh year passed, and met
the Ringler family agin in Utah,
There wasn't one Of 'em that didn't
look like a skeleton, there wasn't bit
OF paint on the wagon, two Of the
horses had died, and the other two was
skin and bone. He said he was still
lookin for place TO settle, bit hadn't
found anything to suit him. .f
"The last time | ever seen Ringers
outfit was after another year Lad pass
ed. 1t was on this road. The family
had just been murdered by party of
Indians The wagon was turned up
side down, the Indians had taken the
horses, and the bodies Of Jim Riuglcr,
his wife and children were hyin' be-
side the road scalped I've seen EN- a
good many times since, always on the
old ~. Joe and Denver road headin'
westward. I've often tried to cit near
enough to 'em to see ef they vas spick
and span like they was wlou they
started or with the spokes rattjin' from
bein' dried out as they was when the
Indians got EN-
There was something about the
creaking OF the disappearing wagon.
the story and the old plain sman to
make me shudder As for real wag.
on passing over that deserted thor.
oughfare that had been abandoned for
the railroad. ii did not seem possible
that any emigrant or freighter would
take a route so dangerous and so ex-
pensiye. Yet | could hear the wagon
rattle, and, catching faint view Of
1t In the moonlight, saw that it was
a veritable schooner Of the olden time.
Without a word | said good night to
the man who had told me the story
and turned in
In the morning the old fellow was
not in camp. He had gone without
leave as he had come without iuyi.
tation.
That day we met some plains PEG
pie, | told them about our visitor aud
the story he narrated. They had evi-
IDENTITY heard the story before and
seemed 70 believe in its ghostly at
tributes, for they stood listening to 1t
~ a sort Of fright. When / had I'm
fshed they asked me to describe the