Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-12-03

But perhaps the most slngu-
Lar Of the casual population are
the mountaineers, who, after
several seasons spent in trap
ping, and with good store of
dollars, arrive from the scene
of their adventures, wild as
savages, determined to enjoy
themselves, for a time, in all
the gaiety and dissipation of
the western city. In one of the
back streets of the town is a
tavern we'll known as the
Rocky Mountain House; and
hither the trappers resort,
drinking and fighting as long
as their money lasts, which, as
they are generous and lavish as
Jack Tars, is for a few days
only. Such scenes, both tragic
and comic, as are enacted in the
Rocky Mountain House, are be-
yond the powers of pen to de-
scribe; and when a fandango is
in progress, to which congre-
gate the coquettish bellies from
Vida Poche,' as the French
portion of the suburb is nick
named, the grotesque endeav-
ors of the bear-like mountain
GERS to sport a figure on the
light fantastic toe, and their
insertions into the dance of the
mystic jumps of the Terpsicho-
rean Indians when engaged in
the medicine dances in honor
Of bear, of buffalo, or ravished
scalp, are such startling limo
vations on the choreographic
art as would make the shade Of
Gallini quake and gibber in his
pumps.
Passing the open doors and
windows of the Mountain
House, the stranger stops short
as the sounds Of violin and ban
10 twang upon his ears, accom-
panied by extraordinary noises
sounding unearthly to the
g%reenhorn listener, but recog-
nized by the initiated as an IN
dian song roared out of the
stentorian lungs Of a noun
taineer, who, patting his stom-
ach with open hands to improve
the necessary shake, choruses
the well-known Indian chant:
Hi-Hi-Hi-Hi
Hi-i-Hi-i-Hi-i-Hi-i
Hi-ya-hiya-hi-hi
&c, &c, &c.
and polishes off the high notes
with a whoop which makes the
old wooden house shake again,
as it rattles and echoes down
the street.
Here, over fiery 'monagha-
Jean Batiste, the salloW
half-breed voyageur from the
north-and who, deserving the
service of the Northeast has
come down the Mississippi,
from the Falls to try the
and liberty of free
trapping-hobnobs with a stall
wart leather-clad boy just re-
turned from trapping on the
waters Of Grand river, on the
western side Of the mountains, |
who interlards his mountain
jargon with Spanish words
picked up in Taos and Califor-
MIA. In one corner a trapper,
lean and gaunt from the starv-
regions of the Yellowstone,
has just recognized an old cam
with whom he hunted
years before in the perilous
country of the Blackfeet.
Zone from Arkansas stalks
into the center Of the room,
with a pack of cards in his hand
and a handful of dollars in his
hat. Squatting cross-legged
on a buffalo-robe, he smacks
down the money and cries out,
'Ho, boys! hyar's a deck, and
hyar's the beaver (rattling the
.oin) who dar set his hoss?
Wagh!'
Tough are the yarns of Won
hunts and Indian perils,
Of hairbreadth 'scapes and Curl
Gus fixes Transcendent are
the qualities of sundry rifles
which call these hunters mas
ters; plum is the center each
Wanted barrel shoots; suffic-
for a hundred wigs is the
hair each hunter has lifted
from Indians scalps; multitu-
dinous the *coups' he has
struck AS they drink SO do
LL,,, L.,~ fI.c4 &C Ali