Cheraw chronicle. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1896-2005, 1911-11-02
RESTORED
By ELLEN TORBERT
Copyright by American Press Asso-
citation, 1911.
By ELLEN TORBERT

during an uprising of the Apache tribe
their house was burned. 1t so hap
pened that when the attack was made
NV father had gone east and my
mother had left me asleep in my crib
to have q chat with n neighbor. The
Indians took me, 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 a point where protection
was to he had. and she never heard
what had become Of me. There SEEM
ed to be no doubt, however, that l had
perished either by tomahawk or in
the burning building.
All this came to my knowledge long
afterward. Meanwhile l 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 from
them and appeared one evening at the
| campfire of some white men.
gained little If any Improvement in
my companionship, for had struck
gang of men who lived by rascality,
| principally horse stealing. They suf-
f1"ed me to remain with them, and,
since l had not learned from the
.iHcches that an Indian owed any in
dulgencc to the whites, it did not ap-
FER TO me that these villains were
cry bal men. They asked me how
crH'e to be- brought up by saw
ngas. hut l was too young when cap
turcd 10 remember much about 1t.
There WAS a faint glimmer Of men,
ory Ct painted savage bending over
me and my being carried, kicking and
squalling, from a warm bed out into
a cold night.
We are made by our environment,
especially our associates, and I became
a horse thief. was about fifteen
when / joined the gang, and since l
had learned many strategic methods
from the Indians they found me quite
a valuable addition to their band. l
remained with them several months,
when we were attacked by vigilance
committee. Some Of us were captured
and hanged, the rest escaping, among
the number.
drifted after this, picking up the
best living could. The first language
| I had learned was Apache, so / spoke
broken English and was usually mis-
taken for a foreign born youth. My
antecedents did not conduce to my be-
ing considered trustworthy, and I was
usually soon expelled from any settle
ment entered. I soon forgot any re-
deeming traits that had learned from
the Indians, and had never gained
any such from my white associates.
When I was about eighteen / got to-
gether several young rascals about my
own age and organized them into a
band of horse thieves, Of which l ap-
pointed myself the leader. We did
such q thriving business that at last 1t
became necessary for the settlers liv-
ing in the region we infested to hunt
us down. A man we robbed got to-
gether q posse armed with rifles, who
followed and attacked us, killing one
of my men and wounding myself and
another
Our captors would have hanged those
of us they hadn't killed in the fight,
but they were 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 n number Of questions
and wanted to know to what nation
ality / belonged. told him my accent
came from the ApacheS, by whom L
had been brought up. Then he wished
to know all about my capture, and
told him all that | remembered, which
was q 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 l had
been taken from. but gained no satis-
faction in this respect.
When we reached the settlement my
ouestioner brought his wife to see me,
and they both stood short distance
from me, looking at me and talking