The Ronan pioneer. [volume] (Ronan, Mont.) 1910-1970, 1917-03-23

count That Cost Paper $4,000; Ar
ticle Appearing simultaneously at
Helena Chronicled Indians Defeat.
One of the most thrilling news
paper stories that was ever flashed
before the readers of this country
came out of Montana the day after ~
great throng at the Centennial expo
sition at Philadelphia had been cele
brating the one hundredth anniver
sary of the independence of the Unit
ed States. In fact, at the very hour
that this assemblage, made up of
representatives of all the nations and
races of the earth, was listening to
the keynote GRAFTON of this memoir
able Fourth of July, the steamer Far
West, with SO wounded men aboard
from Reno's command, was making
the fastest run ever made on the
Missouri river to carry to the world
the account of this great tragedy in
the development of the west-the
story of how Custer and his COM
mand had been surprised and ami
Inflated by the Sioux and how Reno
had lost large part of his own
force in desperate resistance to the
enemy.
Makes Trip in 81 Hours.
1t was S o'clock on the afternoon
of July 8, 1876, that the steamer
started down the Yellowstone from
the confluence of that river with the
Big Horn, bound for Bismarck, 10
miles away She made the trip in
just Sd hours, at an average rate OF
10 IL miles an hour, a record un-
equaled by any boat that ever floated
on the Missouri or any of it's tribu-
taries from Fort Benton to st. Louis.
1t was late in the evening of the
9Th that the Far West reached Bis
marck Officers and men ran up the
streets to arouse the sleeping town.
Soon lights flashed at the windows
and men rushed from their houses
half dressed to learn the tidings OF
tragedy. G. A. Lounsberry, editor of
the Bismarck Tribune, who was also
the accredited correspondent of the
New York Herald, fastened to the
telegraph office in company with j
M. Carnahan. the telegraph operator
When Carnahan took his seat at the
key he continued to send messages
for % hours with scarcely stop.
First Message in Bulletin Form.
The first message sent out was the
following bulletin to the New York
Herald:
"Bismark, ID. r., July 5, 1876
General Custer attacked the Indians
June 25, and he, with every Officer
and man in five companies, wal
killed. Reno with seven companie
fought in intrenched position thre
; days. The Bismarck Tribune's spe
cial correspondent was with the eX
petition and was killed"
In a pouch beside the body of thi
Inflated correspondent, Mark Kel
logg, had been found full notes OF
the campaign up to the day of the
battle. These had been sent by Gen
eral Terry to the Bismarck paper in
the care of Captain Grant Marsh, the
pilot of the Far West, and they
formed part of the running story OF
over the wires to a waiting world
Brisben's Comment Put on Wire.
Two columns of comment and des.
cription were furnished by Major
Brsben. Then were sent out inter
views with DR.. Porter, the surgeon
who had been with Reno, and with
Captain Marsh and accounts of the
part played by Curley and of the
death of the scout, Charlie Reynolds
1t is reported that during lul
when Carnahan's key for moment
ceased to click, Lounsberry threw
him copy of the New Testament
exclaiming:
"Take this! Fire it in when you
run out of copy. Hold the wires
Tell 'em it's coming and to hold the
key"
The list of killed and wounded was
then sent and the story grew through
the day of the sixth until more than
900 words had been transmitted
1t cost the New York Herald $4,000
but it was the biggest cheat" in news
paper history up to that time. re
the widow and children of Mark Kel
logg, the Herald sent $4,000.
Like Thunderbolt.
The news of the humiliation OF
Clusters force fell on the outer WORLD
like a thunderbolt for no previous
news of a credible nature ha(
reached the country that such dis
aster had befallen.
The Helena Independent on the
morning of July 6 ran the following
account of the battle, which also ap
peared in Salt Lake paper:
"Advices just received from the
Diamond X. outfit with Gibbon re
port a terrible battle with the In
dams on the Little Big Horn. Gus
ter attacked a camp of 1000 Sou,
and after a desperate battle defeated
them. Three hundred soldiers an(
Is officers were killed and Custer
himself, as reported in another dis
patch, is slain. The battle-ground
is literally covered with slain. The
Indians retreated. Gibbon was sc
hours too late for the battle"
This garbled account was based or
a version of the fight brought tC