The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1934-08-17
made. MI. Bradley still carries the
knife, which he believes is at least $50
wears old

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knife, which he believes is at least $50
years old.
John Nelson told Mr.. Bradley an in
cident of the Billings country which
occurred many years before Billings
existed. His father, Nelson senior, had
taken a party of buffalo hunters from
Dakota into the vicinity Of what is now
Billings. Among them were some "pil-
grims." The hunters knew the country
was full of buffalo, and since they got
to the grounds late in the afternoon,
and the buffalo were feeding peace
fully, they decided not to do any shoot
ing to disturb them until morning. But
one of the pilgrims picked up a gun,
and circled the rimrock. Apparently
he decided to do something big, and
shoot a bull buffalo before the rest
began to hunt. He spotted a big fellow,
took aim, and creased him. The buf-
falo charged him. The pilgrim made
for a hole in the rimrock and got out
of the way. But when the buffalo
backed off ready for another charge,
the pilgrim came out Of the hole.
The boys could see what was going
on, from the wagon, but Nelson said,
Let the buffalo have his fun. What
did he want to go shooting for, this
time of day?" They knew that if the
pilgrim kept out of sight in the hole,
the buffalo would soon grow tired, and
trot back to the herd.
But the pilgrim kept popping out
from the hole, and the buffalo was
getting madden and madden, and back
ing up farther and farther for more
f,,,ie,,c nh At Loot tho ri1nrirr
took a chance and made a run for it.
He got to the wagon one jump ahead
of the buffalo. Nelson picked up a gun
and dropped him. why didn't you
keep out of sight-get in the hole and
stay there? The buffalo would have
gone on back to the herd long ago!"
Hole, hell" the pilgrim retorted.
There was a bear in the hole, bigger
n the buffalo,"
Mr.. Bradley was one OF the crew who
fenced range for Paul and John Nc
Cormack when the Custer Cattle COM
pany wa formed. They ran a fence
40 miles, parallel to the rimrock, 10
miles from it. The rimrock formed one
side of the enclosure, fenced only across
the coves where the rimrock line was
broken. The boys fenced in bands of
antelope, that ran with the cattle for
a long time.
Mr.. Bradley's first experience at sea
was when he went to India with a
party employed by P. T. Barnum to
bring back elephants. Jack has worked
for every big circus in the country, and
is an experienced handler Of elephants.
He was leading Badly" Ringling's big
elephant, when disaster happened to
the circus parade in Butte, years ago.
The story, as Mr.. Bradley tells it, is
this: Someone threw Granny" a piece
of tobacco. Some elephants like to-
bacco, and some it makes deathly sick.
Granny" who in spite of her name
was the baby" of the herd, and a
great favorite with all the elephants,
couldn't stand tobacco, and began to
trumpet. Immediately Badly" the
lead elephant, turned to 60 to her, and
though Bradley used the hook on
Baldy's big ear and used all his power,
he couldn't turn him. The rest of the
elephants followed Badly, and the
people on the street were thrown into
panic. The catastrophe was caused
solely by the people, not by anything
the elephants had done.