Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-07-09
CHAPTER XI.-(Continued.)

On many night, squatted arount
the big fireplace in his store that stood
At the northwest angle Of the parade
ground, have sat for hours among 6
group Of army Off GERS, trappers, scouts
guides, and Indians, listening to Bull
ocks yarns of incidents illustrative Of
what he was always contending was
the high character and admirable vir
tues OF the red race before they were
maddened by injustice and debauched
with civilized vices.
Il was on one of these nights, after
Bullock had wound up his yarn, that
an historic dispute, between two no
table characters, was resumed.
The disputants we're Jim Bridger and
Sergeant Schneider Bridger was a
famous trapper, scout, and guide, who
for years had made himself ter
ror to the plains tribes and to the hos
tile end Of Mormondom, the Destroy.
ing Angels.
Schneider was trapper through the
Rockies a good part Of generation
before, in 1S49, the Mounted Rifles,
commanded by Major Sanderson. es.
tablished Laramie as military post.
Later, when the game became scarce,
he enlisted in the service.
Over their cups in the post canteen,
the two grizzled old cronies were ever
quarreling about the question as to
which of them had first slept within
the shadow Of Laramie Peak, dis.
pute that often became so bitter that
worse than verbal hostilities were only
averted by the interference OF their
friends.
Forty miles west Of the post and, OF
course, in all but the stormiest weather
in plain sight of it, rose Laramie Peak,
the most lofty uplift of the northern
reach OF the Rockies, its snowy crest
towering 10000 feet above the sur
rounding plain and $4,000 feet above
sea level.
Scarcely had Bullock finished, when
Schneider opened truculently on his
crony:
"Chim Prijer! Would you answer
me Won quvestion? Chust Won, Chin?
Now would you?"
"sure old scout; why not?" an
swered Bridger.
"vell, now" continued Schneider,
would you pelieve me II I svore to you
vas dellin' you de druth?'
Liable to strain my system hor-
rible, but I'd make try" answered
Jim. little suspecting the test he was
inviting.
well. I -chust want to dell you dat
ven l, me- hrst koom to dis country
Laramie Peak. she want Offer five
hundret feet high! Would you pelieve
dot?"
Believe it! Sure! I'm bound to
believe It; in fact, know it must be
So Always felt sure you'd dropped
in around Laramie lately, ond now
you've done give yourself away proper.
''Why, Schneider, you Dutch tender
foot. when first drifted up into the
northern Rockies. up there, right where
Laramie Peak now sets, there was a
hole In the ground ten miles wide and
a mile deep! Reckon we can't count
you among the proper old timers, son.
And with a. "vat's de use drying do
aYgify With tam liar!' followed by a
chorus Of rumbling Dutch oaths, the
old sergeant passed out into the night.
No more was the crowd Gained Of
Its boisterous merriment over Schnei-
der's discontinue, than Mic Janisse,
after tossing a pine knot on the glow.
ing embers of the fireplace, took up the
vein Of thought of Bullocks story
A native Of the French colony Of st.
Charles, far away east down the Mis-
sissippi, bred to the red sash and moe
casins, the bold heart and gay spirit of
q courier du bois, to the plains Jantsse
had come as a voyageur.
But. more thrifty and ambitious
than most Of his kind for years he had
been q trader among the tribes, who
80 esteemed him, and among whom he
had such influence, that few were the
lodge nres to which he was not vel.
como.
"Mais Out, mes amis; c'est bien vrai,
10 bon Dieu le salt. Re good fren' ours,
M'sieu Bullock, hees know our peopf
for 70 good peopl', re kin peopr wi re
gran heart zey are. Hees spik you ze
straight tongue. know, me. Re
homes peopl' FAY are, aujourd' hui, for
all who spik zem 20 straight tongue.
'rYas, vas; M'sieu Bullock, hees tell
you trut': an me, could tell you de
otoree true toute la unit, vas, ev'r
night till de ice ees gone from ze
boomin Laramie; vas, storee prove
now luJuu ness SOOu " cucAy oS "
70 bes' fren' chacum should be, eef re
enemy ees distress.
"Ha! You give re laugh? ITEMS!
Quel gems maudites! Sapristi! Me,
tell you one instance, happen me.
"C'etait cette hiver maulit, re win
tair re snow come re day of st. Fran
co.'s Xavier; night an day re snow she
fall for thee days ovair all re plains.
Wen? Msieu Bullock an Jim Bird
ger, you remembair, non? More'n
fifteen wintair ago, non? Well, ze
snow she fall an fall widout no win,
till she covair all re Ian lax one beeg
robe blanche. Were re win, re gran
mort win? do know. me. Meb.
beso she tire, blow so many, many
year an she be take res, away up
mort were she have ze lodge Non?
"T'ree, mebbeso four feet deep she
lay, Eat snow. Not one beeg grass
hees show re tete petite. Ze grass hees
covaired; all covaired; all.
$50 she stay two, tree days, re air
30 still. an col, all! mon dep! so
coli! Zen one night re sleet she
come; nom de Dieu. quel sleet! an she
leave all re worl' glasee, une plache of
Ice! An zen, Sainte Verge, how