Year: 1878

ll.


no matter whether they are butfaloes OF
bronchos-say and do mysterious thlngS
in their natural condition that they can
never say or do when,they have been
subjected to mans rule. Whenever a
fellow undertakes to tell some OF his eX'
periences with animals in the forest OF
desert. nobody will believe him, and l
appeal to Starkweather if what | say is
not true"


We all looked at Stark. He woke up
suddenly from brown study, and said,
TO our astonishment, that he endorsed
every word his friend had said, land then,
adding that it was pretty late, got up'
and so broke up the party. :,


This conversation, and great deal
more, took place in 1851, at Delmonico's
old restaurant. To understand the IN
credible circumstance which happened
Immediately afterward, it must be un-
derstood that Stark had been abroad for
five wears, spending most of his time in
Algeria and Zanzibar in the employ OF
the English Government. lie had only
been home three months, and we had
made quite a lion of him. He was
stopping at my fathers house, IN 2lth
Street, for a few days, and when this
little party at Delmonico'S broke up, we
got into coach to 60 up there, and
we're accompanied by a young gentle
man-an intimate friend of mine-who
was at that time employed on one Of the
mo fning newspapers. believe the
house on 9th Street is standing yet. If
you 90 up the Sd Avenue to that street,
an / turn east, you will notice on the
no th side, midway in the block,
bri Ok church and a public school-house
sids by side. Not 20 feet from that
church stood the house in which | lived,
but at that time Rose Hill, as it was
called, was not so thickly settled as at
present. There were large gaps in the
rows of dwellings, and all the way down
from our house to the Sd Avenue there
extended high board fence, inclosing
what at some previous time had been
the spacious stage stables of Murphy
G. Co.


The night of which speak was one
of those uncomfortably' hot ones Of
which we usually have three or four
during the season in this city. | re-
member, as we drove up the avenne,
how grateful the air that was caused by
the motion of the vehicle was, and, as
put my head out of the window once
or twice, noticed that full moon was
shining. When we reached the house
it was sultry to think DIGGING to bed,
and as we came in laughing and talk
ing about Bakers odd notions, | made
the remark that he had some curious
whimS for practical man, and | was
very much amazed to hear Stark coin
eide with them. We had passed into
a little back parlor whose windows
opened upon veranda, and looked
down some Is feet into an ordinary city
yard, ON one side of which the sheds Of
"Now, we are alone" said Stark,
"and it's too hot to sleep; if you'll sit
down here, light your cigars and allow
me to smoke pipe, III tell you what
occurred to me, and why l side with
Baker" "Agreed," I exclaimed.
" Throw yourself on that lounge, I'll
just open these door to get draught
and see if can find something to wet
your whistle"


"Iieut. Barbiere and myself" said
Stark, when we had all settled our
selves, "started two years ago from
Zanzibar to 90 up among the Gala
tribes in Zanguebar. Itwas a long and,
to me, excessively tedious expedition,
for was sick three weeks with the fe-
yer, and must have died if had it not
been for the kind nursing of the Lieu
tenant. By the way-it was during my
convalescence on that expedition that /,
for the only time in my life, ate serpent.
1t had always made me sick to see the
natives strip and eat boa, but on this
occasion we were out of provisions and
ammunition, and l could have
eaten hedgehog. The party
that had been sent to meet
us came up the Biwamba Creek,
and get aground on sand-bar. When
we encountered them we were out of
every thing. The first thing Barbiere
and | did when we got supply of car
tridges was to lay out days hunt. We
took tepee and two niggers, and start
ed off one morning from the camp ear
ly, These natives professed to know of
a place where a certain kind of spring
box and antelope frequented, and prom
ised us plenty OF sport. At nighlfall
we put up our tepee, and went to bed
without having had and luck worth
speaking of. l woke up the next morn
ing early, and calling Zimbobo, one of
the servants, we got our breakfast qui-
etly, and then started off on a hunt,
leaving our companions snoring sound
ly. l wish could give you an idea of
lot ho,