Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1913-12-25
Vic Smith Has Been Driven
From the Plains by
"Icnderfeet'
Goes East Second Time Ii
80 Years.; VIII Live at
Minneapolis

Rocky Mountain" Vic Smith, scou
under Custer and guide to Theodore
Roosevelt and slayer of many a but
falo, is going to sell his western
ranch and settle in Minneapolis. Ten
derfoot times have descended on thu
west of frontier days and the cal
Of the Wild no longer cOaxes. He II
readylto shake the dust of prairie ani
Of mountain trail from his boots and
tread the Gflaggings. and asphalt Of the
city. He is here now on the second
visit he has taken east of the Rocky
Mountains in thirty years.
Out of skirmish, stampede and way.
side escapade, the frontiersman has
emerged with but one wound, and
that of Eastern make-a trifing mat.
ter of a buckshotsrent in his left leg,
rendered when he was a lad by a Mis-
souri, farmer, who found him up a
tree at night and mistOok him for big
game. He has trophies enough to fur
nish a log cabin, including a drum
with a human skull frame, sold to him
by Sitting Bull, the Sioux chief, and a
bone watch fob, bestowed by Cole
Younger, the former outlaw.
Like many OF the m%odern.day tour
lists, over whose absurd costume and
armament he has a quiet laugh, Vic
Smith was born in the effete east, but.
unlike them, he didn't wait until the
west got roped and broken before ven
turing into it's precincts. Born in
Bugalo, N. Y, he needed the Horace
Greeley Injunction when he was Ia
years old. He went to Missouri.
There he lived for two years with the
same Missouri farmer who plucked
him of a tree limb, where he had
taken refuge from a pack of dogs.
There wasn't any doctor there
abouts in those days and the farmer
attended to my wounds" said the
scout. He put chewing tobacco on
my leg, wrapped it up and let it heal.
Then he started making a westerner
of me. l had shot ducks and small
game back home, but I learned the
first tricks of big game hunting from
him. At the end of a couple of years
l left him. / took a steamer up the
Mississippi to St. Paul and went from
there to st. Cloud. I drove a herd Of
cattle from St. Cloud over to Fort
Abercrombie, Dakota, and STAYED
there for awhile"
Escaped Custer Massacre.
When Indian troubles started he
moved over to the territory Of tur.
MOL, scouting became his occupation.
when Custer set out from Fort Blu.
ford, l went along with the comm and.'
he explained. 1--WE went up tile Vel.
lowstone river and then 'branched off
On the Rosebud, took Tollock's fork
beyond the Big Horn, and had nearly
reached the Little Big Horn, where
the massacre occurred, when I was
sent back to Fort Buford with dis.
patches. This was on the night of
June "a, 1876, less than "a hours be-
fore Clusters entire band was wiped
out by the Indians. I got back to
the fort without m1shap, though | had
to keep a sharp lookout, on the trip,
for Indians were securing the entire
country.
THE first news of the killing was
brought to us by soldiers on a light
draught boat, the Far West, which
had come up the Yellowstone River
and pushed a 1assage about forty
miles up the Big Horn.
Although criticism has been passed
since the fight upon Maj. Reno, who
not many miles removed from
Custer, because he didn't 70 to the
bands relief, the scout declares that
such a move would merely have meant
providing more men for the massa.
ere.
Custer was the idol of his men
n THE favorite Of every one living
In that. part of the country" he de-
clares. "The news of the annihilation
Of his command was broken by a.Crow
Indian in probably one Of the most
laeonic messages on record. This rec
man, who couldn't talk English drew
a finger across his throat and then
wiped one palm over the other"
After the Indians got quieted down
by the process Of rifleshot pacifca.
ton, Vic Smith took a government
contract carrying mail from Miles City
to Fort Buford. Indians bobbed up
along lonesome stretches many times,
but never molested him.
Slew 5000 Buffalos in Year,
Buffalo hides were then command
Ing the tempting price of $2.75 apiece
and hesforsook government service to
become a commercial hunter. In one
year he killed 5000 animals.
It was while at this pursuit that he
met Theodore Roosevelt. He vas
,camped one day Jon Cannon Bail
Creek, about Is miles from Medora,
when the future president burst i'm.
.petuously upon the scene primed for
business. The friendship that sprang
ZIP between them during the chase
has been sustained since. Among the
scouts MOST cherished possessions
Is q letter which Theodore Roosevelt
wrote him from South Africa while
the faunal naturalist was stalking safar
IN game fields there. He has another
epistle from the -ex:president written
this year, u acF vledging the r..
ceipt Of . set Of ~ nse horns.
The only 1pard" Vic Smith ever had