The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1911-09-01
RESTORED
By ELLEN ToRBER1
Copyright by American Press Assoc
citation, 1911.

My parents were frontier people, and
during an uprising Of the Apache tribe
their house was burned. 1t so hap
pened that when the attack was made
my father had gone east and my
mother had left M asleep in my crib
to have a chat with a neighbor. The
Indians took me, a 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 be had, and she never heard
what had become Of me. There SEEM
ed to be no doubt, however, that I had
persisted either by a tomahawk or in
the burning building.
sAll this came to my knowledge long
afterward. Meanwhile j, was taken
care of by and wandered about with
the Indians. When l, grew older, not
liking the treatment I received from
them and having learned that l came
from a different race. l ran away from
them and appeared m evening at the
campfire Of some white men
I gained little IL any improvement in
my companionship. for I had struck a
gang Of men who lived by rascality,
principally horse stealing. They SUI
fered me to remain with them, and,
since I had not learned from the
Apaches that an Indian owed any in
diligence to the whites, it did not ap-
pear to me that these villains
very bad men. They asked me how
I came to be brought up by saw.
ages, but 1 was too young when cap
tured to remember much about 1t.
There was a faint glimmer Of mem
DRY Of a painted savage bending v
me and my being carried, kicking and
sQualling, from a warn bed out into
a cold night.
We are made by our environment,
especially u associates, and I became
a horse thief. 1 was about fifteen
when I Joined the gang, and since /
had learned many strategic methods
from the Indians they found me quite
a valuable addition to their band. 1
remained with them several months.
when we were attacked by a vigilance
committee. Some Of u were captured
and hanged, the rest escaping, I among
the number.
/ drifted after this. picking up the
best living I could. The first language
1. had learned was Apache, so l 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 l was
usually soon expelled from any settle
ment I entered. I soon forgot any re-
deeming traits that I had learned from
the Indians, and / had never gained
any such from my white associates.
When I was about eighteen I got to-
gether several young rascals about my
own age and organized them into a
band Of horse thieves. of which l APP
pointed myself the leader. We did
such a thriving business that at last 1t
became necessary for the settlers l;v-
ing In the region we infested to hunt
as down. A man we robbed got to-
gether a posse, armed with rifles. who
followed and attacked us, killing
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
Observation-Disclosures lot gave
me his horse and walked beside me.
He asked me a number Of questions
and wanted to know to what<nation-
atty I belonged; 1 told him my accent
came from the Apaches, by whom !
had been brought up, Then he wished
to know all about my capture, and L
told him all that / remembered, which
val a faint vision Of a paintedzIndian
looking at mssand carrying me in his
arms Ny NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. me with
q view to finding out what point I had
been taken from. but gained no salts.
faction in this respect.
When we reached the settlement my
q~uestioner brought his wife to see me,
and they both stood a short distance
from me, looking at MI and talking
about me, the woman evidently much
affected. They went away and after
awhile came back with a man to
where We were sitting under guard
and asked him to do something. He
looked at MS all, then, pointing to me.
said. III any Of them Is. that's the
ons."'
The woman began to take on, bccom.
ing h~ysterical. She looked wistfully
ut me and tried to come to me, but
they wouldn't permit her.
They made tests with a number Of
persons as they had with the first
man. and the majority said that I