MEYER & RAHM, 
 
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 And Paper Box Manufacturers. 
 23 >< Main St., Euansuille, Ind. 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
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 ®]|ap inpttritf^ "^s, 
 
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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
ADVENTURES 
 
 OF 
 
 \^' 
 
 CHRS. L YOUNGBLOOD 
 
 DUKINU 
 
 TEN YEARS ON THE PLAINS. 
 
 ■i-^^^ 
 
 (OMPir.ED FROM HIS OWJSf JOURNAL 
 
 
 
 BOONVILLE, IND:"^^^ 
 
 BOONYILLE STANDARD CO., PRINTERS. 
 
 1882. 
 

 copyright by 
 Charles L. Youngblood. 
 
 A. I).. IH^'2. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 In presenting this little volume to the public 
 I have no apology to offer nor any explanation 
 to make to the inception of the work, except 
 that it was written at the request ot^ many of 
 my friends^ who, knowing of my life in the 
 West, were anxious to have my adventures 
 written and pubHshed according to the tashion 
 of the day. 
 
 Concerning the work itself I have only this 
 to say: It is not fanciful description of imagi- 
 nary adventures, but a true recital of a few of 
 my hunts on the plains and such other occur- 
 rences as might be considered worthy o\ 
 mention. These are not altogether in the 
 order of their occurrence but as I call them to 
 mind, and in most instances dates are omitted 
 on account of incompleteness in m}^ data. 
 
 And now I leave it with you, necessarily 
 incomplete and imperfect as it is, and even if 
 it does not come up to your expectations from 
 
a romantic point of view, I can assure you 
 that I have kept within the bounds of truth, 
 which I hope will make up for all it may lack 
 as to romance. C. L. Y. 
 
 -c-^ 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 To my aged father whose paternal care and 
 affection has been so constantly manifested 
 toward me during my whole life this little 
 volume is affectionately dedicated by the 
 author. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter. Pi'^ge., 
 
 I. Introduction. 
 II. Speculation — Poultry raising in 
 
 the West — Killed by a bear, etc. 1 2 
 
 III. Out for a hunt — A missing over- 
 coat — Indians on a tramp — "Old 
 Poison Stinger." 20 
 
 IV. Bad Indians — Buffalo "'chips" — 
 A frightened hunter — Not quite 
 dead yet. 28 
 
 V. On Smoky River — ^The Indians 
 go through our cauip — A big 
 chase after them. ^6 
 
 VI. Good luck — More bad Indians — 
 Some of them suddenly die — 
 White women's scalps — How 
 the Indians hunt buffalo — Indian 
 squaws. 47 
 
 VII. A change — A night with the 
 wolves — Black tailed deer — Fe- 
 rocious animals — Back to the 
 plains. ■ 58 
 
 VIII. In Kansas again — Not a happy 
 family — A thief not in luck — 
 Emigrants on a hunt — More 
 Indians. 67 
 
 IX. The way soldiers chase Indians 
 — A greeny catches a buffalo calf 
 — "Help me let it go." 73 
 
X. Unsuccessful hunters — Dangers 
 
 of the plains — In Missouri again. 80 
 XI. On the plains — A gang ol badgers 
 Scared by Indians — The horse as 
 a picket guard — Snow bound. 84 
 XII. Plenty of game — In a bad fix — 
 
 Couldn't stand the Indians, etc. 95 
 
 XIII. Wild horse — Thirsty and hun- 
 gry — Bones on the plains — The 
 result of strong-headedness. 103 
 
 XIV. New Yorkers on a hunt — Not so 
 very dead — A regular chase 
 after wild horses. no 
 
 XV. Another wild horse chase — lud- 
 ians! — A big drive — Close brush 
 with the red skins. 121 
 
 XVI. Eno^lishmen on a lark — A man in 
 
 trouble — Dodging a detective. 143 
 XVII. A sudden rise. The beaver. 
 "No badger, thank you." Scared 
 New Yorkers. 160 
 
 XVIII. Hungry. Eating prairie dogs. A 
 
 hunter's relic. Killing antelope. 173 
 XIX. South of the Arkansas River. 
 
 Buffalo. Wolves. 178 
 
 XX. An editor tries it. Plenty of 
 
 game. Big haul. 181 
 
 XXI. Prairie on fire. Buffalo stam- 
 pede. Excited. Hungry. Snow 
 bound. Wild horses. 189 
 
 XXII. Conclusion. 198 
 
ADVENTURES 
 
 CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD 
 
 DURING 
 
 TEN YEARS ON THE PLAINS 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 I N T R O D U C 1 I O N . 
 
 The author of this sketch was bom in An- 
 derson township, Warrick county, Indiana, 
 April 9th, 1826. His father was a native of 
 South Carohna, and his mother hailed from 
 Virginia. The first forty years of his life was 
 spent in the place of his nativity, during which 
 time he was engaged in farming. His educa- 
 tion was just rudimentary, only such as could 
 be obtained in the primitive log school house 
 with its big open fire-place. The old-fashion- 
 ed schoolmaster armed with rod and ferule, 
 the roaring log fire and the blue-backed spell- 
 
 (2) 
 
lO THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 ing-book are among the many things of 
 childhood to which memory often reverts, and 
 the mind of the writer loves to look back upon 
 those early times when the log-rollings, the 
 quiltings, the wood-choppings, the camp- 
 meetings, and the thousand and one different 
 occasions of gatherings together of the people. 
 It does seem to me that people were less sel- 
 fish and careless of their neighbors' welfare; 
 they certainly were more kind and friendly 
 then than now. But times and things have 
 changed; the days of the husking-bee, the 
 camp-meeting and the old-fashioned speHing- 
 school have passed away, and everybodv is 
 now on a grand rush to get rich or great. 
 
 Perhaps it was because of the decay of 
 primitive customs, and the change in sur- 
 roundings, coupled with a kind of veneration 
 for things of ye olden times, that caused the 
 writer to grow tired of the new order of things 
 and turn his longing eyes to the West for a 
 repitition of the things of his boyhood. 
 
 Finally, in 1865, this yearning for the joys 
 of the rough and tumble life of the back- 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 
 
 II 
 
 woods became so strong, that, bidding adieu to 
 relations and friends, he took his wife and 
 children and turning his face westward, and 
 travelino^ across Illinois and Missouri, brousfht 
 up in Kansas City, which was then but a small 
 towm on the line between Missouri and Kan- 
 sas. 
 
 At this point his life and adventures in the 
 West, which it is. the purpose of the following 
 pages to relate, begin, and this little introduc- 
 tion is closed, hoping that the mind of the 
 reader is prepared to follow him through his 
 narrative, with at least an ordinary degree of 
 interest. 
 
12 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SPECULATION POULTRY RAISING A MAN 
 
 KILLED BY A BEAR, ETC. 
 
 When I arrived at Kansas City, in 1865, it 
 was such a little, unpromising looking place 
 that I conceived a dislike for it immediately. 
 I had money enough to have bought it almost 
 entire, and, in the light of recent develop- 
 ments, have regretted a thousand times that 
 I did not do so. The squalid village of a few 
 huts, has, in the sixteen intervening years, 
 grown to be a thriving, busy city of several 
 thousand inhabitants. Its situation upon one 
 of the main lines of travel and emigration, 
 makes it certain to become one of the princi- 
 pal western cities, but the prejudice I first 
 conceived against the place was so strong that 
 I tailed to discover any future for it, and pre- 
 vented my making any speculation on the 
 place. 
 
 I remained here but a short time, and then 
 pushed forward up into Kansas, but did not 
 like the country. It was so totally different 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. I3 
 
 to what I had been accustomed, that I could 
 not make up my mind to locate there. I had 
 been used to ten-acre fields, and the broad 
 unfenced prairie did not suit me. I was raised 
 in a country where there was plenty of timber, 
 and did not see how I could get along without 
 it. So despairing of suiting myself in such a 
 country, I turned back to Missouri. Here I 
 finally bought a large farm near the center of 
 the State, where I remained until 1872. 
 
 While living here I suffered considerably 
 from what is commonly called "bad luck," but 
 perhaps a better name for most instances of 
 this class would be mismanagement. But be 
 this as it may, I managed to sink several thou- 
 sand dollars in real estate. A railroad route 
 had been surveyed through the section, and a 
 tow^n laid out. As work was already begun 
 on the proposed railroad, I thought it would 
 be safe to invest on the strength of it. I ac- 
 cordingly purchased a good part of the town 
 at a big price. The railroad fell through, and 
 my town lots depreciated until I was com- 
 pelled to almost give them away. I missed 
 
14 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 it in not buying Kansas City, and also missed 
 it in buying an imaginary city. 
 
 Disheartened at my loss I determined to 
 "go west"' again, and accordingly started out 
 with about two hundred bushels of dried fruit 
 and a lot of butter, I did not try Kansas this 
 time, but went to Denver, Colorado. From 
 Denver I went to Golden City, thence to Black 
 Hawk City, Central City and Nevada City. 
 
 Here I sold my produce and began to cast 
 my eyes about to see what I should do. Every 
 thing and everybody seemed to be in a hurry; 
 even the mountains seemed to move, out of 
 pure sympathy with every thing about them. 
 
 Every man I could see seemed on a rush for 
 money, and that he was getting it. Men do 
 not all dig gold and silver here to make money. 
 I noticed many engaged in occupations that no 
 man in Warrick county would at all think of 
 engaging in. Among the other queer avoca- 
 tions that are followed out here, I noticed a 
 poultry ranche. It seeined to me, at first sight, 
 that this was about as nearly nothing as any 
 business I ever heard of, but I found upon in- 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOI). l^ 
 
 quirv that it was not so small after all. I'he 
 ranche was about five miles from the mines, 
 where thousands of miners were at work, and 
 in the neighborhood were several boardini;- 
 houses, some of which had as many as hfteen 
 hundred boarders, and the poultry man found 
 ready sale at high prices for the products of 
 his ranche. Besides this there were a great 
 deal of scraps, crumbs and the like about these 
 boarding houses that he got merely for taking 
 it out of the way, which made good food for 
 the poultry. This made the expense of the 
 ranche small, arid he received from hity 
 cents to one dollar a piece for chickens, and 
 about the same per dozen for eggs, of which 
 he was selling at that time about ninety dozen 
 a day. He had about two thousand hens be- 
 sides other poultry, and as the labor was light, 
 the expense small and the prices enormous, he 
 was making money rapidly in the poultry 
 business. 
 
 In this part of the country I received about 
 my first impressions of the animals of the 
 West. I happened one day to be passing a 
 
l6 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 house, where a man, who had just had a fight 
 with a cinnamon bear, had been placed. Of 
 course on hearing this I dropped in and heard 
 the fatally wounded man, as far as he was 
 able, relate the circumstances. He had shot 
 and badly w^ounded the bear, and was follow- 
 ing its trail, hoping to be able to kill it, through 
 a rough stony place, and as he was going along 
 as noiselessly as he could for the rocks, he sud- 
 denly came upon it and did not have time to 
 shoot before it sprang upon him and dashed 
 him to the ground. In his struggles to release 
 himself from the animal, both his legs were 
 broken, and he saw that his only chance was 
 in strategy, as he was match for the bear in 
 strength, and he lay perfectly still as if dead, 
 when the bear after eyeing him closely for a 
 moment or two started slowly away. As soon 
 as the bear was a few feet off he raised on his 
 hands and knees — his le2:s both beinor broken 
 below the knee — and started to crawl away. 
 This attracted the bear's attention and it 
 turned and pounced upon him with greater 
 fury than before, this time breaking one of his 
 
CHARLES L, YOUNGBLOOD. I 7 
 
 wrists. He resorted to the same stratagem as 
 before, but waited until the brute was out ol" 
 sight, when he again started to crawl toward 
 home, dragging himself through the snow 
 which was about four inches deep. A few 
 moments after the struggle, his brother hap- 
 pened to be passing that way and seeing the 
 the marks of the light, not knowing that it was 
 his brother w^ho had been torn nearly to pieces, 
 went on the trail of the bear, which, when over- 
 taken, was for another tight, but a repeating 
 rifle proved too much for it, and he soon had 
 it safely dead. He then started back to see who 
 the man was who had been in the clutches ot 
 the bear, and his feelings may be better imag- 
 ined than described, w^hen, after lollowirg It 
 about half a mile, he found it was his brother. 
 The wounded man had crawled that distance 
 with one wrist and both legs broken. The 
 poor fellow was in great agonv and lived but 
 a few hours. His father said he would have 
 the bear skinned and sleep on the hide as long- 
 as he lived. 
 
 A few days after this I fell in with some old 
 
1 8 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 hunters at Golden City, who were just on the 
 eve of starting out on a big buffalo hunt, and 
 I thought that here was a chance to have some 
 sport, and perhaps make some money. Some 
 of my readers are perhaps not aware that sport 
 is not by any means the w^hole object in buf- 
 falo hunting, but many men have almost made 
 fortunes in the business. The flesh is ex- 
 cellent and when properly cured is readily 
 sold at good figures, and the hides are no drag 
 on the hunter's hands. 
 
 While we were cleaning up our guns pre- 
 paratory to starting out on the hunt, I came 
 very near getting into a little difficulty. I 
 thoughtlessly put a charge in my gun and lired 
 it out of the door at random. Almost imme- 
 diately a policeman came running across the 
 street, and taking hold of my arm said, 
 
 ''Come along, sir." 
 
 I saw that I was in an aAvkward predica- 
 ment, and concluded, like a great many men 
 who are caught in uglier scrapes, to try the 
 insanity dodge, which I played so successfully 
 that he said he would let me ofl' this time, but 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. I9 
 
 warned me against repeating the otiense. It 
 is useless to add that I was very careful after 
 this not to tire any more random shots in 
 town. 
 
 After making all necessary preparations we 
 started out to get some buffaloes, and in the 
 next chapter my readers will find a full ac- 
 count of my lirst buffalo hunt. 
 
20 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OUT FOR A HUNT A MISSING OVERCOAT 
 
 MY FIRST BUFFALO INDIANS ON, THE 
 
 TRAMP "'OLD POISON SLINGER," ETC. 
 
 Three other men and myself left Golden 
 City to go about eighty miles in search of 
 buffalo. The tirst game we struck was a herd 
 of antelope, into which we lired, killing one. 
 We then went to a house about a mile off to 
 stay over night. We proposed to the man of 
 the house to furnish the meat and he furnish 
 the rest. He replied by saying that he would 
 do so. Of course we thought it was all right, 
 and our antelope went free, but the next 
 morning he charged us five dollars for his 
 hospitality. This seemed very mean, but the 
 boys contrived a way to get even with 
 him. He had been telling of a new overcoat, 
 for which he paid fourteen dollars the day be- 
 fore, and when we left the coat went too. He 
 had his live dollars, and we had his fourteen 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 21 
 
 dollar overcoat. As it was a partnership coat 
 we took turn about in wearing it. 
 
 We travelled on until we came to what 
 ought to have been ''good hunting," but as we 
 saw no buffalo we were at quite a loss to know 
 how to get them, as there was no timber in 
 which we could conceal ourselves, it being an 
 open prairie with not a tree for many miles. 
 While preparations for camping were being 
 made, I went about twenty miles from the 
 railroad and struck a herd of buffalo. I was 
 careful not to get too close to them for two 
 reasons: a herd of those animals, to a novice, 
 look simply frightful; and I was afraid they 
 would take fright and run away. When I 
 was within about five hundred yards of them 
 I aimed at the herd and fired, and had the 
 supreme satisfaction of seeing my first buffalo 
 fall. I was too much elated to try to get any 
 more just then, though I might easily have 
 done so, but went back to camp to relate what 
 I had done, and we were soon on our way 
 after my buffalo. While on the way w^e saw 
 a large one coming nearly toward us on the 
 
22 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 run. I left the others and got right in the 
 animal's course and lay down to conceal my- 
 self, and as soon as he was near enough I hred 
 and saw the wool fly ofl:'him, but he kept on 
 coming. I put in another cartridge and flred 
 again, when he dashed right at me, and I be- 
 gan to think that I had gotten into a rather 
 bad scrape, but when within a few steps of 
 me, to my infinite relief he fell dead. I after- 
 ward found out that I had not done anything 
 wonderful, but I thought at the time that I 
 knew all about killing buffalo. We resumed 
 our journey, and had gone but a short distance 
 when I noticed a large herd about a mile ofl'. 
 I started and went as close as I thought safe 
 and killed one, and immediately the others 
 rallied round it bellowing and tossing their 
 heads. I thought this a good chance, so I kept 
 blazing away until I got eight. I was certain 
 then that I was the champion buffalo killer of 
 the plains. We soon dressed them and started 
 back to camp. We had gone but a short dis- 
 tance w^hen we saw a large band of Indians 
 coming toward us, which caused us not a little 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 23 
 
 anxiety until we discovered that they were 
 friends. There were about fifteen hundred of 
 them and they had a permit from the Govern- 
 ment to hunt for thirty days. This was the 
 first large band of Indians I had seen, and it 
 was quite a sight to me. The warriors were 
 in front, followed by the squaws and luggage. 
 The papooses, or babies, were lashed on* 
 horses, w^hich were turned loose and driven in 
 a kind of herd. Besides the papooses, the 
 luggage was lashed on the pack horses and 
 w^ere driven by the squaws, while the men rode 
 on before at their ease. The weather was 
 very cold and it w^as snowing at the time, and 
 pelting the little papooses in the face and on 
 the hands, but they seemed to be tough enough 
 and were taking it easy, laughing and crowing 
 and their little black eyes shining like black 
 beads. 
 
 Buffalo meat was low and it did not pay 
 much to save it, and we went hunting just 
 for the hides, and in a few days had killed 
 over a hundred, which we skinned and left 
 the carcasses to rot on the prairie. 
 
24 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 As we were going into camp one day I saw 
 three buffalo lying down, and, having only live 
 cartridges, slipped up as close as I could get 
 and killed two and wounded the other. One 
 cartridge failed to fire, and I w^ent back to the 
 w^agon to take the cap off, but wiiile I was 
 picking it out it exploded, nearly tearing my 
 hand off. This laid me up for nearly two 
 weeks. 
 
 One day while my hand was sore and 1 
 could not use my gun, I was strolling along a 
 branch, I heard an unusual noise, and looking 
 up saw the ''tips" of some Indians, I could 
 not tell how many, just as they passed over a 
 ridge. As soon as I saw them I lav 
 flat down, and they passed on without 
 seeing me, and it was well for me 
 that they did not, for they were hostile 
 and, as I did not have my gun, would have 
 made short work of me. I met them often 
 after that, but was generally better prepared 
 for them, as I always had my "old poison 
 slinger" with me. 
 
 "Old poison slinger" is the name that the 
 men gave my gun. It was a Sharp's rifle, 50 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 25 
 
 calibre, made to load and shoot eight times a 
 minute. It would throw a ball to kill a dis- 
 tance of live miles. I have killed buffalo with 
 it at a mile, and have shot with it so far that I 
 had plenty of time to take my head from it 
 and see the ball strike. 
 
 Soon after I hurt my hand two of the men 
 went off, and there were only myself and an- 
 other man left, but he was a good shot and 
 we got along very well. We were out shoot- 
 ing one day back about 20 miles on Cold Hell 
 Creek, and, besides killing several buffalo, 
 we wounded one cow that lay down and my 
 partner went out to kill her. Before he got 
 very close to her, she sprang to her feet 
 and made a dash at him. The reader will 
 bear in mind that a buffalo, when badly 
 wounded, gets desperate, and will rush head- 
 long at its enemy with a force that makes it 
 very much safer to be out of the way. When 
 he saw what she meant he dropped on one 
 knee, and taking rest on the other, waited until 
 she was within twelve feet of him, when he 
 fired, hitting, her in the jaw, stunning her, and 
 
 (4) 
 
26 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 before she had time to recover shot her through 
 the heart. 
 
 A few days after this we went about twenty 
 miles east of Cold Hell Creek, on the bed of 
 the Republican river, where we remained and 
 hunted about two weeks. We were here two 
 or three days before we saw any buffalo, but 
 on getting up one morning and going out a 
 mile or two, we saw the largest herd that I ever 
 saw anywhere. I could not tell how far east 
 and west they extended. They came in a run 
 that shook the ground like an earthquake, and 
 frightened our horses and made them almost 
 unmanageable. They were all that day and 
 night in passing. We wondered what could 
 be the cause for such a large herd passing on 
 a run, but found out that the Cheyenne Indians 
 and the Utes had been fighting, and the Utes, 
 being driven back, fired the prairie to prevent 
 pursuit. This fire in the big tall grass of the 
 prairie drove the buffalo, antelope and wolves 
 out. We kept firing on them and killed one 
 hundred and three while they were passing:. 
 We could have killed as many more, but 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 27 
 
 stopped occasionally to skin what we had 
 killed. We were compelled to remain up all 
 night on account of our horses, and besides 
 we could not have slept for the noise. The 
 heavy, continual thunder of their tramp, and 
 their incessant bellowing, made so much noise 
 that sleep was out of the question, even though 
 circumstances were otherwise favorable. I 
 have seen a great many herds of buffalo but 
 never before, or since, have seen one equal to 
 this. 
 
28 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BAD INDIANS BUFFALO CHIPS A FRIGHT- 
 ENED HUNTER NOT QUITE DEAD YET, ETC, 
 
 It was not long before the Indians became 
 so bad that hunters were compelled to go in 
 squads of from eight to ten and upwards, and 
 then it was with more or less risk. Hunters 
 were killed almost every day, but the Indians 
 are general!}^ to cowardly to make an attack 
 with anything like equal numbers. Their 
 favorite plan is for a large band to surround 
 about three or four whites, and shoot them 
 down or put them to death by torture. I 
 will not stop here to describe any of their 
 methods of torture, but will do so in another 
 chapter. 
 
 I remember one time that I was one of a 
 squad of ten buffalo hunters when a band of 
 Ogallahs came over from their reservation on 
 a thirty days' permit from Uncle Sam to hunt 
 not far from us, and one day a squad of them 
 came over to our -camp and got to horse-racing 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 29 
 
 with some of our boys. Thev were runnintr 
 ''one horse for the other,'' and the Indians lost 
 their horses. They then put up their guns 
 and lost them. They did not seem to be much 
 chagrined over their loss, but shook hands 
 with us all around and were entirely too friend- 
 ly, so much so as to arouse our suspicions and 
 render us very uneasy. As soon as they left 
 we brought our horses up close, got our 
 supper as soon as we could, put out our camp- 
 tire, put our guns in fighting trim, and pre- 
 pared for the attack that w^e felt sure would 
 come. 
 
 About two hours after dark we discovered 
 them coming. Their object evidently w^as 
 to get their horses back and steal some of ours, 
 and, if they caught us off our guard, kill us. 
 We waited until they were as close as we 
 thought they ought to come, and then opened 
 fire on them with our repeating rifles. This 
 was wholly unexpected to them, as they had 
 depended on taking us by surprise, and all that 
 could run did so. Some of our men sprang on 
 their horses and pursued them a short distance, 
 
30 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 and helped them to hurry along to their camp. 
 We did not sleep much that night, and 
 did not leave camp at all the next day, know- 
 ing that we wonld have some kind of settle- 
 ment to make with them, and about lo o'clock 
 in the morning we noticed a large squad of 
 them coming toward us. The reader must not 
 forget that the Indian is Uncle Sam's pet, and 
 we did not dare do anything unless we were 
 attacked, but had gotten everything in read- 
 iness by the time they came up. The chief^ 
 
 who spoke fair English, said: ''You d — d 
 
 killed four of my men out there," 
 
 pointing to where four dead Ogallahs lay. 
 
 One of our men, Hank Miller, said "Paw- 
 nees," meaning that it was the Pawnees that 
 had killed them, but the old chief roared out 
 ''Pawnees, no Pawnees," and drawing his 
 finger around his head to indicate that had it 
 been the Pawnees that killed his men, they 
 would have scalped them, which, of course, 
 we did not do, expressed his utter disbelief 
 by saying '^Poo, poo, poo, no Pawnee." 
 
 They sat on their horses and bandied words 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 3 I 
 
 with US for some time, watching very closely 
 for apportunity to make a dash on us, but we 
 were in readiness for them. We had our 
 guns in our hands, with our thumbs on the 
 hammer and our fingers on the trigger. We 
 could have shot in a second, and dropped ten 
 Indians, and they knew it. Seeing that it 
 would not be at all easy to punish us, they soon 
 rode away muttering imprecations on us as 
 they went. They did not disturb us any more, 
 and we resumed our hunting as usual for 
 thirty days, averaging a hundred buffalo a day. 
 At the close ol this hunt I went back to 
 Missouri, and remained about six months, 
 when I again started west. I made arrange- 
 ments with A. Buckmaster and L. J. Shilder 
 at Warrensburg, Mo., to sell meat for me, and 
 took two men, Louis Allred and Silas Mc- 
 Ferrin, with me. After about fourteen days 
 travel we came to "good hunting." Buffaloes 
 were plentiful and I made an average of eight 
 a day. The hides and flesh of eight good 
 buffalo are worth about $50, so you see it 
 was paying me pretty well. 
 
32 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 We were camped on what is called Sappy 
 river, and were twenty miles from timber. 
 While here the snow fell about twelve inches 
 deep, and we were compelled to remain in our 
 tent three days without fuel, the snow storm 
 coming so suddenly as to prevent our laying 
 in a supply. We onh' had a small amount 
 gathered, and it consisted mostly of buffalo 
 chips, which is simply the sun-dried excrement 
 of the buffalo. It will probably seem to many 
 of my readers in the East, that it would make 
 very poor fuel, but in this section of the coun- 
 trv it is preferred over wood or coal for many 
 purposes. I have seen hotter fires made from 
 it than I ever saw from wood. Some of my 
 readers mio-ht have a little delicacv about 
 using such fuel, but here it is nothing to see 
 ladies gathering it in their aprons. In nearly 
 every house you can hnd a sack full of it 
 standing in the corner, and when the fire gets 
 low, the lady of the house takes a few chips 
 from the sack and puts them in the stove, and 
 nothing- more is thousfht of it than when vou 
 put a stick of wood on the fire, or a lump of 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 33 
 
 coal on the grate. We managed to get along 
 without getting frozen, and after the snow 
 went off we resumed our hunting. 
 
 The two men who were with me were no 
 hunters, and 1 had them employed to help me 
 take care of the buffaloes after they were 
 killed. One day when we were out I had 
 killed several very close together, and while 
 w^e were skinning them, we saw, about 'a mile 
 away, a big buffalo coming nearly toward us, 
 and Louis Allred said to me, '^CharHe, let me 
 shoot that one." "AH right," I rephed, "there 
 is the gun." "I just want to kill one," said 
 he, "to be able to say that I killed a buffalo." 
 I handed him the gun and the cartridge 
 belt, and he stalked off like an old soldier. 
 The buffalo was lost and was running as hard 
 as it could, looking for company, right toward 
 him. By the time he was two hundred yards 
 from us, the buffalo was pretty close to him 
 and still coming, and looking pretty scary. 
 He brought down the gun as if he were going 
 to shoot, but as the buffalo kept coming he 
 concluded to get out of the way, and started 
 (5) 
 
34 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 back toward us for dear life. As soon as the 
 buffalo saw him it turned and ran too, but he 
 supposed it was right after him and was ex- 
 pecting at every step to be caught, and made 
 his tracks as fast and as far apart as he could, 
 w^hile the buffalo was going as fast as it could 
 in an opposite direction. He looked a little 
 sheepish when he brought up and saw the 
 buffalo away off and running as fast as he 
 could in another direction, but he thought 
 he had run a frightful risk and was not at all 
 anxious after that to have it said that he 
 "killed a buffalo." 
 
 Another time he and I were out together 
 and were skinning several buffalo that we had 
 killed. We came to one that was not quite 
 dead, so I said that I would whet my knife 
 while it was dying. I laid down my gun, and 
 had hardly commenced sharpening my knife, 
 when Allred screamed "Look out ! Look 
 out ! " I raised my head and saw that it was 
 nearly on us. I had not time to pick up my 
 gun and had to run without it. The animal 
 stopped at the gun and began pawing it, and 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 
 
 35 
 
 horning my coat, which, in my haste, I had 
 left lying by the gun. As I had but the one 
 gun, we could only stand and wait, but in a 
 few moments it lay down right by the gun, 
 and in about two hours died. 
 
36 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 WE MOVE TO SMOKY RIVER THE INDIANS 
 
 GO THROUGH OUR CAMP. 
 
 We finally moved from Sappy river to 
 what is called Smoky river. This is only a 
 small stream, not being over a rod or so wide. 
 x\lono: the banks are a few willows, and oc- 
 casionally a cottonwood tree rises up into the 
 air. As this was a good place to stay awhile 
 we set to work killing buffalo, drying the fore 
 quarters and selling the hind quarters. From 
 this place I sent a large quantity to Buckmas- 
 ter and Shidler, my agents, in Missouri. 
 
 While here I took Allred and started to go 
 to a herd of buffalo that I had, with the aid 
 of my field glass, discovered about three 
 miles oft^, leaving McFerrin to load cartridges. 
 A short time after we left, a band of Indians, 
 who had doubtless been watching our camp, 
 came in si£:ht. McFerrin dodo-ed out of the 
 camp and ran into the bluffs on the river bank 
 and hid himself in the bushes where he could 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. . 37 
 
 watch them. They approached cautiously, 
 and, after firing several shots into the tent, 
 dashed up and took possession. After rifling 
 my camp of whatever they wanted, they 
 moved off about a quarter of a mile and hid 
 under a hill side, . on the road leading from 
 Wallace to the Republican river — a road much 
 frequented by hunters — and watched the road 
 until a man named Charles Brown, who was 
 driving a team and wagon, came along. 
 Brown, who was one of a squad of hunters, 
 was driving to Smoky river to build a fire and 
 prepare for camping; the others were a mile 
 or two behind skinning some buffaloes that 
 they had killed. When he was near enough 
 the red skins fired on him, and he jumped off 
 the wagon and started to run, but was soon 
 struck by a ball and fell, when one of the 
 Indians ran up to him and shot him through 
 the head. They then began going through the 
 wagon, but before they had secured their 
 plunder the rest of Brown's party came up. 
 and the red devils made themselves scarce. 
 As soon as the hunters saw the Indians they 
 
38 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 took the horses out of the harness and pursued, 
 but failed to overtake them. 
 
 While all this was transpiring I was about 
 three miles away, killing and skinning buffalo, 
 in bHssful ignorance of everything else. I had 
 just finished skinning and started after one 
 I had wounded. The ground was uneven and 
 as I was nearly at the top of a knoll I caught 
 a glimpse of something just going over a 
 hill, and remarked to Allred ''There is a herd, 
 now," and ran to the top of the hill to shoot. 
 It was getting late in the evening and fast 
 getting dark, and when I reached the top of 
 the hill I could see several objects coming in 
 sight about two hundred yards to my right, 
 which I soon discovered to be mounted men, 
 but could not tell whether they were red 
 skins or white men. As soon as they saw me 
 they dismounted and began to make signs to 
 me, but which I did not care about answer- 
 ing. I did not know just what to do, and 
 came near firing on them, but concluded to 
 await developments. At last one of them 
 mounted his horse and came toward us, when 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 39 
 
 Allred said '"It is an Indian; shoot him/' I 
 put my gun to my face and he called to us, 
 and we knew then that he was a white man. 
 When he was a little closer he said "Don't 
 shoot, Youngblood; I came very near shoot- 
 ing you. We were just after some Indians 
 and they passed over that ridge as you came 
 in sight. I am glad, now, that I didn't shoot. 
 They killed one of our boys up at the road 
 about three miles from here, and we want you 
 to go up there and put him on the wagon so 
 the wolves won't get him." We promised 
 him we would do so, and started toward camp. 
 We had gone but a short distance when we 
 found an empty powder can, which, on ex- 
 amination, proved to be mine. I knew by 
 this that the red devils had gone through my 
 camp, and had perhaps killed McFerrin and 
 stolen everything I had. 
 
 It was quite dark before we arrived at camp, 
 and when we got within a short distance 
 began to approach very cautiously, as we 
 thought that perhaps they had left a detach- 
 ment to take care of us when we came back. 
 
40 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 We pushed on to where they had killed 
 Brown, but, as it was too dark to find anything 
 but the wagon, we concluded to go to camp 
 and return when the moon rose, and put the 
 body away. When we were within about 
 two hundred yards of camp, I told Allred to 
 wait, while I went ahead and made a kind 
 of reconnoissance. As I was slipping along 
 I spied the bulk of an object standing on a 
 little rise. I thought it was a person, and, as 
 I was standing very still and watching it very 
 closely, I heard a very low voice saying: ''Is 
 that you, Charlie ? " I then knew that it 
 was McFerrin, and answered that it was me. 
 He then came to me and said: "There are 
 Indians here; they stole everything you had 
 that they wanted. They took your horses, 
 and shot at me, and I ran and hid in the 
 bluffs where they could not find me." He 
 said he was nearly frozen, and told me that 
 he had seen them kill a man just out on the 
 road. The moon soon came up, and we went 
 down to the road and found the poor fellow. 
 He was frozen stiff, and I put him on my 
 
CHARLES L, YOUNGBLOOD. 4I 
 
 shoulder and carried and laid him on the 
 wagon, so that the wolves could not get to 
 
 him. 
 
 We then went back to camp, when I found 
 that the Indians had cleaned me out entirely. 
 We remained in camp that night, and did not 
 dare to make much light as we were afraid 
 the red skins were still hovering about us. In 
 t'he morning I saw a squad of men about a 
 half a mile from camp and went to them. 
 They knew nothing of the raid, and I told 
 them all about it, then we went down to the 
 wagon where Brown lay dead and frozen 
 stiff. The sight of him raised their ire, and 
 vengeance was sworn against the red skins. 
 In a short time Brown's companions, who had 
 been chasing the Indians during the night, re- 
 turned, but without being able to come up 
 with them. 
 
 We all held a council of war, and it was 
 unanimously agreed to follow, and, if possible, 
 punish the Indians. We made up a company 
 of twenty-six men and started after them. 
 We were all armed with long range repeating 
 
 (6) 
 
42 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 rifles, and were supplied with from loo to 600 
 cartridsres each. We follow^ed the trail for 
 about seventy-tive miles, but without findin^^ 
 the foe. The trail led us through some very 
 dangerous places, several times through deep 
 gorges and ravines, where we might have 
 been ambushed and every one of us killed, 
 with perfect safety to the enemy. But we did 
 not stop to think of danger, and pressed steadily 
 on until checked by a severe snow storm. 
 The snow fell about eight inches deep, and as 
 we had been dependirg entirely upon the 
 grass for feed for our horses, this was a serious 
 impediment to our progress. We could get 
 along well enough ourselves by killing buffalo 
 and antelope for food, but we could not pro- 
 vide for our horses. We agreed in council to 
 go to Fort Wallace and get provender for our 
 horses, and then continue the chase. We in- 
 formed the commander of the fort of our 
 business, and requested him to furnish us with 
 sufficient feed for our horses during the 
 pursuit, but, instead of doing so, he sent a 
 dispatch to General Pope at Leavenworth 
 
CHARLES L. YOUXGBLOOD. 43 
 
 acquainting him with the tacts, and received 
 in reply orders to send hlty men and four 
 scouts to chastise the marauders. The four 
 scouts were Hank Campbell, Louis Allred, 
 Bill Peach and myself. 
 
 We took up the trail wdiere we had left it, 
 and had follow^ed it some miles, when one of 
 the soldiers said, ''Yonder is a herd of buffalo." 
 The captain examined the herd through his 
 tield glass a moment and then said, ''There 
 they are, boys ; if you want meat, here is a 
 chance for it. They are Indians, and well 
 armed." He ordered a halt, rolled out several 
 boxes of cartridges and told us to take all we 
 could carry. The Indians, meanwhile, Avere 
 collecting, and making preparations for an 
 attack. We were ordered to get into line. 
 The teams were left under guard, and we 
 moved on the enemy. The ground was level 
 for two miles, and we went at a gallop until 
 within a half a mile of them, when the chief 
 raised a flag of truce and came toward us 
 followed by four of his men. We stopped, 
 and w^hen they w^ere within a few hundred 
 
44 THK ADVENTURES OF 
 
 yards, the captain sent two of our men out to 
 parley with them. They met about a hun- 
 dred yards in front of us, but no sooner had 
 they done so than ^he red skins immediately 
 surrounded our men. Suspecting treachery, 
 we made a dash and surrounded the live 
 Indians. 
 
 The parley was not at all satisfactory, as 
 the Indians persisted in not understanding us. 
 While the parley was in progress one of the 
 Indians carelessly rode off a few steps and 
 entered a ravine. He rode into this until we 
 could only see him from the eyes up, and he 
 sat there watching our every movement. 
 
 Failing to get anything at all satisfactory 
 from the chief during the parley, the captain 
 ordered them disarmed. Eight of us covered 
 them with our guns while they were disarmed. 
 As soon as we seized them, the one in the 
 ravine dashed away down the ravine, keeping 
 himself out of danger as long as he could, 
 then he dashed over a hill into the band of 
 Indians. 
 
 The Indians greatly outnumbered us and 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 45 
 
 were as well armed as we were, and had the 
 advantage in position. Our commander did 
 not think it prudent to attack them where 
 they were, but endeavored by various artifices 
 to get them to change their position, but they 
 stood their ground. The captain would not 
 allow us to fire upon them where they were, as 
 they had with them two German girls, whom 
 they had taken alive the day before, after 
 murdering the rest of the family, and, at that 
 distance, we were as apt to kill them as In- 
 dians. After considerable maneuvering the 
 captain decided to return with his four pris- 
 oners to Fort Wallace, and report the situation 
 to the post commander. Accordingly the four 
 Indians were placed under a strong guard 
 behind the wagons, and we set out for the 
 fort. The power of endurance manifested by 
 these Indians during the journey to Fort 
 Wallace surprised me. The weather was 
 intensely cold, and a raw, bitter blast swept 
 over the prairie almost freezing us to death. 
 We had overcoats, overshoes and mittens, and 
 yet our feet, fingers, ears and noses were frost- 
 
46 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 bitten. The Indians did not seem to suffer at 
 all from the cold, although thev were nearly 
 naked. Besides, we could get off and walk 
 occasionally to stir our blood, but they were 
 compelled to ride all the way. The post 
 doctor said that they were all right, and not 
 at all injured by the cold, though they had 
 only moccasins on their feet and but little 
 clothing on their bodies. 
 
 On the way to the fort, one of our prisoners 
 made a dash to get away but was shot down; 
 the others were turned over to Colonel Han- 
 bright, and what became of them after that I 
 never learned. 
 
 I did not remain with the troops long 
 enough to know whether they made any fur- 
 ther attempt to punish the Indians or recapture 
 the German girls, but found a man named 
 Riley, who had a good team, which w^e hitched 
 to my wagon, and started out on another 
 hunt. 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 47 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 GOOD LUCK MORE INDIANS SOME OF THEM 
 
 DIE SUDDENLY WHITE WOMEN's SCALPS 
 
 HOW THE INDIANS HUNT BUFFALO THE 
 
 yOYS OF AN INDIAN SQUAW, ETC. 
 
 Riley and I hunted about four weeks, dur- 
 ing which time we killed and dried about one 
 hundred buffalo. The game soon left and 
 moved about one hundred miles east, near the 
 heads of several streams, viz.: Salim, Sappy, 
 Soloman, Prairie Dog, Beaver and Big Tim- 
 ber. We followed them and secured great 
 numbers. Here we fell in with three other 
 men, which increased our number to live. 
 We were hunting together, and one day left 
 one man at the camp to smoke meat while 
 the rest of us took the team and went out for 
 buffalo. As he was out gathering fuel on 
 that particular morning, he heard a racket in 
 the camp, and, supposing that we were driving 
 in, stepped back to see what we were coming 
 
48 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 in so early for. Instead is seeing us he saw 
 fourteen redskins going through the camp. 
 They had taken his gun, and as soon as they 
 saw him, fired on him. He took to his heels 
 and ran along a ravine, followed closely by 
 several of the Indians. We were not far from 
 camp, and as soon as the red skins saw us 
 they stopped and beat a retreat. They did 
 not go back to the camp, however, but joined 
 the rest of the band in a cane-brake on Sappy 
 Creek, where, the next day, thirty-seven of 
 them died very suddenly. Two white men 
 also died about the same time. One of the 
 Indians that was killed was a chief He had 
 a roll tied on his side, which one of the men 
 took off, saying, "What is this" and when he 
 had unrolled it, "What is it, sure enough ? " 
 We looked and saw that it was a dressed 
 buckskin cape, ornamented with white wo- 
 men's scalps. Yet there are those who say 
 "The poor Indian," and bestow upon them 
 any amount of misplaced pity, by my acquain- 
 tance with them does not develop any traits 
 in their character or disposition worth}^ 
 
CHARLES 1., YOUNGBLOOD, 49 
 
 respect. Of course the}^ are mistreated some- 
 times, but this does not make them any better. 
 By nature they are lazj^ cruel, vindictive, and 
 a perfect type of treachery, never acting in 
 good faith except they can gain a point by so 
 doing. Mercy is a virtue which an Indian 
 knows nothing about, and the truth never falls 
 from his lips if a lie can be made to answer. 
 They are in all respects, as nearly as I can 
 describe them, veritable demons, who spare 
 neither age nor sex, w^ho respect no law, and 
 w^hose chief delight is to murder, burn and 
 ravage. 
 
 The little occurrence mentioned above oc- 
 curred in April, '76, and I hunted there until 
 the fall without any further molestation from 
 the red devils. They remembered our long 
 range repeating rifles for a long time after- 
 ward. 
 
 While here a large band of Ute Indians 
 came into our neighborhood on a permit to 
 hunt thirty days, and for the benefit of my 
 readers, I will now describe, as well as I can, 
 their manner of hunting and killing buflalo. 
 
 (7) 
 
50 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 They first select their place for a camp, 
 generally near some stream convenient to fuel 
 and water. As soon as the place is chosen 
 the squaws set to work unpacking the goods 
 and chattels and putting up the tents — the 
 squaws do all the drudgery — and making things 
 comfortable. Besides the work mentioned 
 above they must care for the horses, get fuel 
 and water, in fact do all the drudgery, while 
 the men roll on the grass in the shade and 
 smoke their pipes at their ease. When the 
 camp is all in order one Indian is sent out to find 
 a herd of buffalo, and as soon as he discovers 
 one he returns to camp and reports. Then 
 the women get the horses, and the men and 
 boys mount their ponies and ride for the herd. 
 The women follow, driving the pack-horses, 
 and taking their knives to dress the game 
 that the men kill. 
 
 A band of Indians mounted and equipped 
 for a buffalo chase presents a verv unique ap- 
 pearance. Their ponies are scrawny looking 
 little things, and many are so small, and the 
 rider so large, that his feet nearly reaches the 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 5 I 
 
 o-rouiid. Notwithstanding his size and ap- 
 pearance, there is no discount on the pony ; 
 he makes up in grit and endurance what he 
 lacks in size, and will carry a rider or a heavy 
 pack farther in a day than an ordinary horse. 
 The Indian's saddle is a mechanical curiosity. 
 It is made with two forked sticks, one behind 
 and one before, held apart by two pieces of 
 board, one on either side, and have straps of 
 buckskin running lengthwise. The boards 
 which hold the forked sticks apart are on the 
 bottom, and rest on the horse's back, while the 
 buckskin straps are on top, and form a soft 
 seat for the rider. Though this saddle is easy 
 on the rider, it is frequently severe on the pony, 
 the boards frequently being left naked, and I 
 have seen ponies so lacerated by them that 
 the back-bone in places was left perfectly 
 bare. But an Indian has no mercy for his 
 horse any more than he has for his squaw, and 
 so long as he can ride along easily he cares 
 not w^hether his pony is suffering, and will 
 even beat him for flinching and ^'giving down" 
 under one of these barbarous saddles. They 
 
52 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 depend a great deal on ceremonies for 
 ''good luck" in killing game, and the 
 performance of these rites is almost as much 
 of a sight, to a person not accustomed to their 
 ways, as a good circus. As soon as they get 
 as- close to a herd as they dare, they dismount 
 and begin their ceremonies, which consist of 
 an immense amount of foolishness. The white 
 man, when he starts lor a herd goes right up 
 and commences killing, but the Indian must 
 stop and go through the rites that have been 
 handed down to him from time immemor- 
 ial. They get down on their knees 
 and repeat several ceremonies. They talk 
 to the buffalo and tell them not to 
 run away as they will give them some 
 tobacco, of which each Indian buries a small 
 piece in the ground ; they pull their horses' 
 tails, "whisper in their ears, and tie eagle 
 feathers in their tails to make them swift. 
 Frequently they kill a dog and eat it. All 
 this, and a great deal more that I have not time 
 or space to mention, is done that good luck 
 may attend their chase. The ceremonies con- 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD* 53 
 
 eluded, they mount their ponies and ride rap- 
 idly to the herd, which, if not disturbed by the 
 powow, is quietly grazing on the prairie. As 
 soon as the buffalo discover their foe they take 
 the alarm, and very frequently rush in a mass 
 directly toward them, but, when within a 
 short distance, they suddenly whirl and dash 
 bellowing in the opposite direction. 
 
 The turning ol the buffaloes is the signal 
 for the attack, and then the Indians, 
 with the wildest of yells imaginable, dash upon 
 them with their guns, spears, bows and arrows 
 and commence the slaughter. Those w^th 
 guns ride to one side of the fleeing herd, and, 
 keeping parallel to them, load and fire as fast 
 as they can, bringing down a buffalo at almost 
 every shot ; while those with spears, and other 
 weapons of a like sort, rush into the herd and 
 riding almost against one thrust the weapon 
 almost through it in the most vital part. The 
 Indians with bow^s and arrows ride into the 
 herd as do the spearmen, and leaving the pony 
 to take his way, use both hands shooting 
 arrows into first one and then another. Their 
 
54 I'HE ADVENTURES OF' 
 
 arrows are often tipped with pieces of sa\v- 
 blade, on the edges of which is cut a fine 
 beard, which causes them to work inw^ard as 
 the animal runs. They shoot three or four 
 arrows into one buffalo, and then single out 
 another, and, the arrows working in, they soon 
 fall and die. This slaughter is kept up until 
 quite frequently every one of the herd is killed. 
 In the hunt which I saw, they killed a hundred 
 and ten in less than fifteen minutes. 
 
 As soon as the killing is over the squawks 
 dress the meat and pack it on the horses, 
 while the men and boys take a rest and 
 a smoke, and laugh and talk of the ex- 
 ploits of each other during the chase. 
 When the game is dressed the men inount 
 their horses and ride joyfully toward camp, 
 while the squaws follow driving the pack 
 horses laden with the flesh and hides. 
 
 Though the Indians use the bearded tips on 
 their arrows in hunting, they use an entirely 
 entirely different one in lighting. They have 
 some way by which they poison them, so that 
 they cause almost certain death, or, at least, a 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 55 
 
 very Ugly sore. Just how they poison them 
 I am not able to say from actual knowledge, 
 but persons who have been much among them 
 tell me that to do it they take a piece of fresh 
 meat, and, making a rattlesnake angry, let it 
 bite the meat and inject its venom into it. 
 The meat is then left to putrefy, by which 
 time it is thoroughh' permeated with the 
 poison, and the arrows are then poiso;ied by 
 sticking them into the poisoned meat. These 
 poisoned arrows are carefulh^ kept separate 
 Irom those to be used in hunting. 
 
 They frequentl}- fight among themselves, 
 and more of them are killed in this way 
 than by white men. They exhibit terrible 
 ferocity and unrelenting cruelty in their wars 
 with each other, and those they take pris- 
 oners are always put to the torture. 
 
 A friend of mine named Van Meter related 
 to me the particulars of a torture which he 
 witnessed while among the Ogallah-Sioux 
 Indians. 
 
 A band of Ogallahs had been out one 
 day and had a little skirmish with a squad of 
 
56 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 the Crows, and came in with one prisoner. 
 He was a warrior about twenty, and arrange- 
 ments were soon made to put him to the 
 torture. He w^as stripped and tied firmly to 
 a wagon wheel. Next, a large pine plank 
 was shaved into splinters. Then one was 
 selected to apply the torture, and the rest 
 prepared to execute the war-dance around 
 him. The one selected to torture him took 
 a knife, and taking up a piece of his flesh 
 between his fingers plunged the knife through 
 it, then thrust into the wound a bunch of the 
 pine splinters, which were then set on fire and 
 allowed to burn out. As soon as one bunch 
 of splinters died out, another was inserted in 
 a fresh gash as before. The process was kept 
 up until the skin was crisped all over the body. 
 Notwithstanding the agony he must have suf- 
 fered, he never murmured nor gave any other 
 signs of pain, but appeared more unconcerned 
 than most people would to simply witness 
 such torture. During the whole time the 
 torture was going on the Indians danced 
 around their victim in the most wierd and un- 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGELOOD. 57 
 
 earthly manner, motioning as if they would 
 strike him with their tomahawks or spears, 
 and uttering the most fiendish yells and cries. 
 When his skin was burnt to a crisp all over 
 him, and he was nearly dead, he was toma- 
 hawked and scalped. This, though horrible, is 
 of frequent occurrence among the Indians. In 
 this respect they are even more cruel toward 
 each other than tow^ard the whites. 
 
 C^) 
 
58 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 A CHANGE A NIGHT WITH THE WOLVES 
 
 BLACK-TAILED DCER FEROCIOUS ANIMALS 
 
 BACK TO THE PLAINS. 
 
 Not long after the occurrences mentioned 
 in the preceeding chapter I moved about a 
 liundred miles south, on what is called Silver 
 Lake. I was compelled to leave on account ol^ 
 the Indians chasing all the buffalo out. They 
 chase them on horseback, and drive them 
 sometimes as far as two hundred miles. 
 
 Silver Lake is situated near the head of 
 Pawnee River,between this stream and '^ White 
 Woman" Creek, in a large cane-brake. The 
 reader may perhaps smile at some of the queer 
 names aoplied to streams and such other nat- 
 ural objects. A great many were named by 
 the Indians, who always name them from 
 some occurrence of the locality, or from some 
 other similar suggestion. 
 
 ''White Woman" Creek derives Its name 
 from a rather sad occurrence, which I will 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. • 59 
 
 relate. A widow named Harn was several 
 years ago taken captive by the Indians and 
 carried away prisoner. On their journey they 
 camped for the night on the bank of this creek, 
 and before they left the next morning they 
 drove a large stake through her body and left 
 her ; hence the name. By some it is called 
 ^'Suffering Woman." I notice that in a pub- 
 lished account of a fight, which Colonel Lewis 
 had with the Indians on this creek, three years 
 a^o, in which fiorht Lewis and five of his men 
 were killed, it is called "Spanish Woman," 
 but all frontiersmen call it "White Woman." 
 Between "White Woman" Creek and Paw- 
 nee River is a large tract of very low, flat 
 country, covered in many places by large 
 lakes and dense cane-brakes. The one on 
 which I camped was the Silver Lake, before 
 mentioned. When I came to this place, 
 brought no one with me, and consequently was 
 all alone in the midst of a broad lonely swamp, 
 my only company being buffalo and antelope 
 by day and wolves by night, and the latter, 
 especially, were more famiharthan agreeable. 
 
6o . THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 I remember tliat one day I went out and kille 
 a buffalo, and moved my wagon near it. As 
 it was late in the evening, and the way to camp 
 hard to find, I determined to stay out all 
 night. So I made my bed on the ground, and 
 spread the skin of the buffalo over me with the 
 wooly side down. I had hardly fallen asleep, 
 when the wolves, attracted by the smell of the 
 buffalo, began gathering from the thickets. 
 They soon devoured the buffalo, and began to 
 venture near enough to pull and tug at the 
 hide, which I was using for a quilt, and try to 
 take it away from me. My gun was in the 
 wagon, and I did not dare to get up to get it 
 for fear they might make a meal of me. I 
 managed to keep them frightened away until 
 finally they left. The wolves in this section 
 subsist chiefly on the carcasses of buffalo left 
 by hunters, who kill them for their hides, and 
 as no hunters had been in the locality for some- 
 time the wolves were very hungry, and would 
 sometimes even attack men or horses. 
 
 I remained in this place about a month, and 
 had fair success in killing buffalo, but had very 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 6 1 
 
 little market for the meat. I soon fell in with 
 a man by the name of Fred Armstrong, who 
 said he w^as a "regular world beater" at killing 
 butfalo and deer. He urged me to go into the 
 mountains with him to kill black-tailed deer. 
 He told me he had just come from there, and 
 that the mountains were covered with them. 
 It was about two hundred miles, but I tinally 
 consented, and one morning, bright and early, 
 we started. Our road lay through a strip of 
 country w^here game was very scarce, and, as 
 we started with only a small supply which 
 we soon exhausted, we got very hungry. 
 Finally, one day Armstrong said he was going 
 to shoot a calf, since cattle were so plentiful 
 and game so scarce, and took up his gun to 
 shoot a yearhng that happened to be separated 
 from the herd. Just then three cow-boys rode 
 up. This made Armstrong look a little v^^ild. 
 He said, '"Lord, God; I'm glad I didn't shoot, 
 for they would have been on us before the 
 calf could get done kicking." But the cow- 
 boys never knew his intentions, and it was 
 well for him that they did not. As it \Vas 
 
62 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 they rode along with us to a spring, near 
 which they said there was plenty ol deer. 
 
 We camped for the night by the spring, and 
 in the morning I took my gun and went out 
 to see if I could get some of them. Before I 
 had gone a quarter of a mile, I saw plenty of 
 tracks and began to keep a lookout for the 
 deer. I walked cautiously up a hill, and when 
 near the the top peered over and had the sat- 
 isfaction of seeing four walking single file along 
 a cow path. I aimed at the leader, which was 
 a fine doe, and at the crack of the gun she 
 sunk to the ground. Two more shots brought 
 down two more deer. The fourth was a large 
 buck and came running up to the bluff to near 
 where I stood, but I was ready for him too, 
 and wound up his career in a twinkling. I 
 then went in and got a horse, and, putting three 
 of the deer on him, led him along toward 
 camp. On the way I met Armstroug, who 
 looked a little surprised, and said, "Hello! If 
 that is the way you are going to do, I will have 
 to take back what I said about being a 'world 
 beater'" We hunted too^ether about two 
 
CHARLES L. YOirNGBLOOD. 63 
 
 months, and as I averaged killing about six 
 deer- to his one I ceased to look upon him as 
 a "world beater.'' After we had hunted there 
 a tew weeks a man came to our camp to sec 
 us. One day during his visit he was in con- 
 versation with Armstrong and asked him what 
 kind of a hunter I was. Armstrong said I was 
 a poor shot, but the luckiest killer he ever saw. 
 Shortly afterward he came to me and asked 
 me "what for a hunter" Armstrong was. I 
 told him that Armstrong was a very good 
 hunter but was just about the poorest killer I 
 ever was acquainted with. He broke out in 
 a hearty laugh, and then told me what Arm- 
 strong had said about me. 
 
 We had not been there long when we dis- 
 covered that there were animals in the locality 
 other than deer, especially mountain lions and 
 panthers. These animals will generally be 
 found in almost all places frequented by deer, 
 on which they chiefly subsist. They climb 
 a tree which has a limb extending over a path 
 used by the deer, or conceal themselves 
 behind something near the path, and as the 
 
6^ THE ADVENTVRES 0¥' 
 
 deer pass along under or near them, they 
 spring upon it and kill it. They are particu- 
 la;ly fond of the blood, and commonly tear the 
 throat ol their victim and drink it as it flows- 
 warm from the veins. They also eat the flesh 
 and can carry ofl* a full-grown deer. I was 
 killing deer one day and w^ounded one,, 
 but as I was following it I discovered a large 
 drove of them, and concluded to let the 
 wounded one go and get some of the drove, 
 intending to come back and get it later. I 
 did not get to come back until the next morn- 
 ing, and, taking up the trail where I had left 
 it ofl^ the day before, followed it but a short 
 distance, when I came to where the ground 
 gave unmistakable evidences of a struggle. 
 After an examination I w^as convinced that 
 the the wounded deer had been attacked and 
 carried oflf by some animal or other. Anxious 
 to know more of it I followed the trail, which 
 was not at all hard to trace, as the hair of the 
 deer had been rubbed ofl* on the stones and the 
 fresh stains of blood were easy to see. I had 
 followed the trail about a half a mile when I 
 
CHARLES L, VOUNGBLOOO-. 65 
 
 found the entrails of the deer lying on the 
 ground. The entrails were not torn to pieces, 
 but, on the the contrary, were entire, and 
 looked as though some skillful hunter had 
 taken them out with a knife. This greatly 
 surprised me and I began to look cau- 
 tiously around to see if I could discover what 
 it w^as, when, within about twenty paces of 
 where I stood, a mountain lion suddenly raised 
 up from the ground and, before I had time to 
 shoot, darted into a thick clump of bushes. 
 However I managed to lire just as it dis- 
 appeared, but must have missed it. I was 
 afraid to follow it into the thicket, and ran up 
 on a cliff near by to shoot it as it passed out on 
 the other side. But in this I was disappointed 
 as it did not show itself. I waited lor some 
 time hoping to be able to get a fair shot at 
 it, but its stomach was well filled off the 
 deer, and I suppose it lay down in the thicket 
 and went to sleep for the day, at any rate, I 
 never saw 't again. The panthers were 
 even more numerous aod more dangerous than 
 the mountain lions, and when we had fresh 
 
66 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 meat in the camp they would yell all around 
 us the whole night. Their yells make a per-, 
 son unused to it not a little uneasy, but one soon 
 gets accustomed to it, and in a few nights 
 pays no more attention to it, than the people 
 in Indiana do to the hooting of the night 
 owl. 
 
 I remained here hunting until the snow 
 began to melt in the mountains, when the deer 
 left me. The black-tailed deer lives in the 
 mountains, except when they are covered with 
 snow. Then they live on the prairie and in 
 the valleys at the foot of the mountains, and 
 *s I did not care to follow them into the moun- 
 tains, I concluded to go back on the plains, 
 and again try my luck on the buffalo. 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 67 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 m KANSAS AGAIN— NOT A HAPPY FAMILY 
 
 A THIEF NOT IN LUCK EMIGRANTS ON A 
 
 HUNT MORE INDIANS. 
 
 When I lelt off deer hunting, I went back 
 about two hundred miles east on the Arkansas 
 River, not far from the head of Pawnee River, 
 in BuAalo County, Kansas. Here I hired 
 three men to go with me to haul the meat to 
 market. I could kill all the buffalo I wished 
 to, but the trouble had been for'me to get it 
 to market. For this reason I hired these three 
 nien — one of whom had a good team — to go 
 with me. They were no hunters, but they 
 suited me all the better for that. 
 
 We to^k up our headquarters on Alkah 
 Lake, and we had been out but a short 
 time when it became evident that my men 
 were not destined to dwell together in peace 
 and harmony, and I soon saw unmistakable 
 symtoms of a disruption. Two seemed to 
 have some kind of pique at the other, and were 
 
68 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 continually imposing upon him, and w^ere tak- 
 ing advantage of every occasion to taunt and 
 insult him. However, a Lttle incident oc- 
 curred which prevented any shedding of blood,, 
 although the one so crowed over had several 
 times threatened to kill the other two, and had 
 even asked me to loan hiixk my gun, and had 
 suppHed himself with cartridges for the pur- 
 pose, and had not this little occurrence which I 
 ain about to relate transpired, I think he 
 would have attempted their destruction. 
 
 We were out one day and I struck a large 
 herd of buffalo, and fearing that as I was likely 
 to have to take some violent exercise, my 
 pocket-book might work out of my pocket 
 and get lost, I handed it to the teamster to 
 hold for me while I was killing buffalo. He 
 said he would do so — I have never seen him 
 or the pocket-book since — and I ^vent after the 
 herd. As soon as I was fairly out of sight he 
 jumped into his wagon and drove off. When 
 I returned to camp in the evening and found 
 him missing, I saw through the whole affair. 
 I told the two men left that the fellow had 
 
CHARLES L. YOUXGBLOOD. 69 
 
 robbed me and related the circumstance to 
 them, and they asked me to hitch my team to 
 the wagon and let them go after him. I 
 finally consented and took them to the nearest 
 railway station, and they, guessing the course 
 he was most likely to take, boarded the first 
 train and headed him off. They captured him 
 without difficulty and took him to Las Animas, 
 in Colorado. Here they took him before a 
 justice, and one of them made oath that he had 
 stolen the team from them— although it was 
 |-,ig own— and proved it by the other. The 
 magistrate remanded him to jail, and turned 
 his team and wagon and my pocket-book over 
 to his captors, which they brought back with 
 them. The would-be thief lay in jail until 
 court set, when he was released, there being 
 no one to appear against him. Nevertheless, 
 it must be allowed that he paid rather dear 
 for his venture. What the other two did with 
 the team I can not say, as I lost sight of them 
 almost immediately afterward. I remained 
 here a few days, and went in to Sherlock with 
 a load of meat. There were a great many 
 
'JO VHR ADVENTURES OF 
 
 emigrants there, most of them had good teams 
 and some were anxious to go out on a hunt. 
 I told them I would give them half the meat 
 for hauling it in, and there was no trouble in 
 finding persons ready to accept my offer. 
 They mustered up three teams and we started 
 out with ten men and three women, all inspired 
 with eager anticipation of something outside 
 of their usual line of life. ^We went out about 
 twenty-five miles and camped for the night. 
 While the men were preparing for the night 
 and the women getting supper I went and 
 killed a very large buffalo. They almost went 
 into ecstasies over it, and it was not long until 
 we had several nice slices of the tenderloin 
 fried and ready for distribution. 
 
 We moved on the next day, as the women 
 complained of the water, which was alkali, 
 and started to a good spring which was about 
 ten miles farther on. When we reached the 
 spring we discovered a band of Indians camped 
 near it. As soon as they saw us they picked 
 up and lek iVz'v meat roasting on the fire. 
 We moved on to the spring, but I could hardly 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 7 1 
 
 get my folks to stay long enough to get a drink, 
 they were so much afraid that the Indians 
 would return and kill and scalp us all. They 
 wheeled their teams about and started for 
 Sherlock in a sweeping trot, and looking back 
 every few minutes expecting to see an army of 
 painted demons after them thirsting for go^e 
 and hankering for scalps. "O! what will we 
 do if they do come?" the}' would say. 
 ^^Kill 'em," I replied laconically, for I was 
 vexed at their useless fright and did not exert 
 myself very much to pacify them. Howeve % 
 we reached Sherlock in safety, and terminated 
 the expedition without the loss of a single 
 man, or woman either. 
 
 A short time after this I took a man with 
 me went to my old hunting ground — the 
 source of the Pawnee River. One day 
 as we were driving along the bed of 
 the river where the bluffs rose moderately 
 high on either side, I looked down and saw a 
 group of something which I took to be a herd 
 of buffalo that had come in for water. I 
 jumped from the wagon and ran down the 
 
72 'J'HE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 draw toward them. I could only see the top ot 
 their humps, and I thought they were comirig 
 toward me. I ran on, and, all at once, I ran 
 into a gang of squaws taking care of their 
 horses. I then knew what my buffaloes w^ere. 
 The}^ were Indians crawling up a small ridge 
 which pointed down to the draw where I 
 was. I saw that I was in a close place and 
 got out as soon as I could. When I got back 
 to the wagon and told him that what I took 
 to be buffaloes were Indians, he looked 
 frio'htened and asked if I thouo^ht there was 
 an}^ danger of them coming after us. I re- 
 plied that if they did we could kill as many of 
 them as they could of us. This seemed to 
 be rather poor consolation to him, and he said 
 that he could not see how that would comfort 
 a dead man. While yet talking of the Indians 
 I saw a herd of buffalo come in sight. We 
 killed four and caught one calf We then 
 loaded our meat in the wagon and took it to 
 to Pierceville, the nearest station. Here we 
 found a company of soldiers looking for the 
 Indians I had seen the day before. 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 73 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE WAY SOLDIERS CHASE INDIANS DRESS 
 
 PARADE A GREENY CATCHES A BUFFALO 
 
 CALF ''HELP ME TO LET IT GO." 
 
 The soldiers mentioned in the preceding 
 chapter had received a dispatch that eighty 
 Indians had crossed the K. & P. railroad, near 
 Monument station, evidently bent on mischief, 
 and w^ere ordered to overhaul them. They 
 WGTG commanded by Captain Payne, who 
 asked me if I saw them. I answered that I 
 had. 
 
 ''When?" asked he. 
 "This morning." 
 "Where were they?" 
 "Out near the head of Pawnee River." 
 "Will you go with us to find them?" 
 "Do you w^ant to take them some blankets ? " 
 "No, by G — d ; we do not. We have some 
 pills lor them, and if you are a good hand to 
 prescribe them you can have a chonce. Can 
 vou go? " 
 
 (10) 
 
74 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 *'I can ; but I am tired of going after 
 Indians under officers that won't let us hurt 
 them, when we do go." 
 
 ''Just try me once." 
 
 "Well, if you will promise to take no pris- 
 oners I will go, but if you want to take 
 prisoners, count me out." 
 
 The Captain laughed and said ''all right." 
 He then ordered the men to mount. The 
 word was soon given and we started, and 
 within four hours were at the place where I 
 saw the red skins. They were gone, but their 
 camp bore evidence of having been deserted 
 only an hour or so before. The trail showed 
 that they had gone down the bed of the Paw- 
 nee River. The sun was then about two 
 hours high, and we might easily have made 
 ten or twelve more miles before dark, but the 
 captain after looking around a few moments 
 said, ''Well, we will camp here to-night," 
 which was equivalent to saying, ''Well, we 
 will give them a good chance to get away." 
 
 It was ten o'clock the next morning before 
 we were ready to start. Then the captain 
 
CHAKI.es L. YOUNGBLOOn. 75 
 
 brought his men out on dress parade, very 
 much in the same style as if he were prepar- 
 ing to move on Richmond. He had a train 
 of four six-horse teams, an ambulance and a 
 surgeon. The latter, however, he was not 
 likely to need, unless some of his men should 
 get hurt on dress p:arade. 
 
 We marched down the river a few miles 
 when we found it necessary to cross. Here 
 we wasted four hours in digging the banks ot 
 the river down so we could get the wagons 
 across. We had proceeded but a short dis- 
 tance after crossing the river when we struck 
 a place which the captain thought would make 
 a good place to camp. Here he ordered a 
 halt, and said we would lay over the rest of 
 the day as we might not find so good a place 
 to camp as this. The next morning we 
 came out on dress parade, and about ten 
 o'clock resumed our march. We went about 
 twenty miles down the river, and crossed back 
 at the mouth of what is called Buckner 
 Creek. On this creek we struck a beaver 
 dam, above which the water was about eight 
 
76 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 feet deep. One of the soldiers dismounted, 
 threw out a fi^h Hne and soon took a line fish. 
 This caused quite an excitement, and the 
 captain said we would have a mess of fish. 
 We turned our horses out and remained here 
 until noon the next day, when, after going 
 through the customary dress parade, we 
 started lor Fort Dodge, which we reached 
 Vv'ithout the loss of a man, and without finding 
 any use for the surgeon or the ambulance. 
 Here I received my discharge — I had put in 
 four days — and went back to PiercevUle. 
 This Indian chase is a fair sample of the man- 
 ner in which the government troops out here 
 hunt Indians. One old hunter is worth a 
 dozen soldiers in an Indian chase an}' time. 
 
 When I orot back to Pierceville one ol mv 
 horses had been snake bitten and was not lit 
 for use, but, as there were plenty of emigrants 
 passing through, I found one whom I hired to 
 take his team and go with me. He was about 
 fifty years old, and had never seen a buffalo. 
 Everything was new to him, and he saw 
 many wondrous sights. We camped the 
 
CHARLES 1.. YOUNGBLOOl). 77 
 
 first night on the head of Pawnee River, and 
 the next morning started north to what is 
 called Hackberry Creek, and in the evening 
 near sun-down my companion suddenly said, 
 "Laws! Look there." As he was a taller 
 man than I was, he had the advantage of me 
 in looking over the hill. I rose up in the 
 wagon, and was not a Httle surprised myself 
 to see a herd of about two thousand buffalo 
 just over the hill and within gun shot. They 
 were grazing quietly and had not discovered 
 us. Taking my gun I slipped to the to top of 
 the hill, and fired several times, killing two. 
 After dressing one I went to the other, which 
 was a cow, and lay about a hundred yards 
 from the first. Her calf had lain down near 
 her, and I told him to slip up behind the cow 
 and catch it. "All right," said he, "and when 
 I catch it, you must come up and help me." 
 I told him that I would do so, and he got 
 down on his hands and knees and crawled up 
 close to the dead cow, but the calf saw him 
 and getting up walked around the cow^ toward 
 him. By this time I could plainly see that 
 
78 'I'HE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 there was going to be some fun in that vicinity 
 in a short time, and patiently awaited develop- 
 ments. I did not have to wait long. As the 
 calf came around the cow he lay as flat on 
 the ground as he could, expecting to catch it 
 as soon as it came within reach, but, contrary 
 to his expectations, when within about eight 
 feet of him, it suddenly sprang upon him, and 
 began goring and trampling him in a lively 
 manner. As the calf was not large enough 
 to seriously injure him, I remained a spectator 
 and allowed them to flght it out unmolested, 
 and even if I had desired to help him, I could 
 not have done anything for laughing. After 
 a little struggle and a good deal of bellowing 
 for help, he managed to get on his teet and 
 run. The calf followed him about a dozen 
 feet, and then turned and again lay down by 
 the cow. As soon as I could get through 
 laughing, 1 went to work and we soon had 
 the calf secured. 
 
 The next morning we went on trail ol the 
 herd, and about ten o'clock we came up with 
 them going West toward Silver Lake, whicl- 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 70 
 
 was about twenty miles distant. We 
 followed them with the wagon until two 
 o'clock in the afternoon without being able to 
 overtake them. The man with me began to 
 despair and say '^ We won't get any of them." 
 I told him if he would allow me to get on a 
 good saddle horse he had with him, and let me 
 manage it to suit myself, we would get plenty 
 of them. He said he wanted us to get a good 
 load of meat, and told me to take him. I 
 mounted the horse and told him to follow 
 slowly, so as not to frighten the buffalo, and 
 galloped off toward the herd. I rode pretty 
 brisk until I got ahead of them and picketed 
 the horse, and, getting right in their course, 
 lay down and waited. I did not fire until 
 they were within thirty yards and opened on 
 them with good effect. -By the time my 
 partner drove up I had ten killed. ^^Well, 
 bless my life," said he, *'that beats anything 
 I ever did see." When we got them dressed 
 they made a good load, and we started for 
 Pierceville, reaching there about daylight, 
 having travelled all night. 
 
H) I'HE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 UNSUCCESSFUL HUNTERS DANGERS OF THE 
 
 PLAINS IN MISSOURI AGAIN. 
 
 At Pierce ville, I sold a large portion of 
 my meat to the emigrants, but some of them 
 would not buy, and said they were going out 
 and kill their own meat. They began to fix 
 up their guns preparator}/ to slaughtering all 
 the buffalo on the plains. I told them that it 
 looked very much as it I had just as well give 
 up hunting, as they seemed to be going to kill 
 all the game. They said for me just to wait 
 until they came in, and then I could joke if I 
 felt like it. I advised them to take teams 
 enough with them to bring in the meat and 
 not leave so much to rot on the plains. Four 
 of them, each w^ith a pack horse, started in 
 the direction from which I had come, but did 
 not succeed in finding any meat. About this 
 time they began to want water, but, not 
 knowing where to look for it, could not find 
 any. I had started out shortly after they did 
 
CHAKLIiS L. YOUNGBI.OOD. 8 1 
 
 and went to Alkali I.ake, fifteen miles from 
 the head of Pawnee River, and as I was 
 driving alonp- near Dry Lake, I looked in the 
 basin of the lake and saw a squad of men, 
 about a mile off. They saw me about the 
 same time and hoisted the signal of distress. 
 As I did not halt they came hurrying toward 
 me, waving their hats and calling to me to 
 stop. When they were near enough they 
 asked me if I had any water with me, as they 
 were almost dying from thirst, not having 
 seen a drop of water for three days. Several 
 of their horses had given out, and they had 
 been digging with their knives for water in 
 the bed of Dry Lake. J pointed to a hill 
 ubout a quarter of a mile off, and asked them 
 why they did not go to a spring at t^ e foot of 
 the hill and get all the water they wanted. 
 They wanted me to take them to the spring, 
 which I did, and it was not long before they 
 were swallowing cool, sparkling water by 
 the quantity. They were really nearly starved 
 to death, and I believe if I had not come alonc^ 
 
 and helped them out they would have died 
 
 (11) 
 
b2 i'HE ADVIiN'i'L'RES OF 
 
 within h;iU d mile of water. Men who are 
 unacquaiatecl v-ith the phiins hav^e no business 
 on them without a pilot. There are springs 
 that nev^er go chy, but a person who did n;)t 
 know their location might die within a few 
 steps oi one. There are many persons 
 Irom the East who go out on the plains with- 
 out a guide, and, not being acquainted with 
 the lay of the land, suffer exceedingly' for 
 want of water, and some times even die from 
 thirst. Besides this, mosc emigrants, and per 
 sons from the East, who go out (,n the plains 
 for butfalo, come armed with squirrel rifles 
 and shot-guns, and if thav were to find ever 
 SD many buflalo it would be almost impossible 
 t«) kill them. True they might occasional! v 
 get one with the squirrel gun, but it ^vould be 
 a rare occurrence, and a man might work 
 with a shot-gun a year and then not get a 
 buflalo. 
 
 It any of my readers ever conclude to take 
 a buflalo hunt on the plains, they need not 
 start out by themselves with a rusty shot-gun, 
 and I would advise they to employ a pilot. 
 
CHAI'JLICS L. VOrXGIil.OOl). St, 
 
 even if they have to pay him live dollars a 
 (lay. A good pilot is indispensible for several 
 reasons. In the first place, a novice, not 
 knowing where to look or how to hunt, might 
 wander over the plains tor weeks and never 
 see a buffalo, and even if he should find them, 
 the chances are, that il' left to himself, he would 
 not be able to kill any. Another reason is the 
 danger of suffering or even dying for water, 
 for, while there are springs here that afford a 
 barrel of water per minute, they are not so 
 numerous, nor so conspicuously located as to 
 make one at all liable to run into them. 
 
 When I returned to Pierceville I concluded 
 to go to Missouri and spend a few Aveeks 
 with niy lamily. I reache^d home on the 13th 
 day of June, 1876, and remained there until 
 October, *when, in company A\nth my oldest 
 son and a man nar_:ed Baker, I started in a 
 wagon for the plains again. 
 
84 'I'HE ADVENTURES OP' 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 ON THE PLAINS A GANG OF BADGARS 
 
 WOLVES SCARED BY INDIANS THE HORSE 
 
 AS A PICKCT GUARD SNOW BOUND, ETC. 
 
 When we left Missouri we struck for the 
 Pawnee River — my old haunt, as the reader 
 by this time has doubtless discovered — and 
 after fourteen day's driving, reached our des- 
 tination in safety. We concluded to take up 
 our headquarters on Clear Lake, and when 
 within a few miles of the lake I saw a solitary 
 buffalo helping himself to the grass. As soon 
 as he saw us he took fright and ran. I had a 
 pony along, which I had taken in a fight with 
 the Cheyennes. So I mounted him and went 
 in pursuit. The pony was used to it and soon 
 crowded the buffalo so close that he turned for 
 a fight, but I shot him down before he got 
 too close, and was dressing him when they 
 drove up with the wagon. It was quite a won- 
 der to them, being the first buffalo they had 
 ever seen. 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOI). 85 
 
 One evening when we had stopped near 
 Silver Lake, and camped in a small branch for 
 the night. Baker, who happened to walk out a 
 few steps from the camp, called me and said 
 *'Oh! look over there ; what a gang of bad- 
 gers/' I went to him to investigate the badger 
 business, and saw that it was a herd of buffalo 
 just over the hill, with the tips of their humps 
 just visible. I ran back and seized my gun 
 and, slipping to the top of the hill, succeeded in 
 killing twelve. These when dressed made us 
 a good load, which we took to Sherlock and 
 shipped. We then took up our abode on 
 Alkali Lake. I left Baker to make a dug-out 
 — a house dug in the bank of a branch or the 
 brink of a hill — and went out about lour miles 
 where I found a dead buffalo with a number 
 of wolves gathered about it. Wolf skins 
 were bringing lair prices, and I told my son 
 that we would put some strychnine in the 
 carcass and camp close by and see the result. 
 The next morning we went to see the effect 
 of the poison, and found thirteen dead wolves. 
 We skmned them and started to camp for the 
 
86 VllE Al)Vl<:X'iT RES OF 
 
 wagon. We had gone but a short distance 
 when we stuck a hirge herd of bulTalo coming 
 toward us on a run. I ran out and lay down 
 directly in their course, but held my lire until 
 they were within tw^enty paces when I opened 
 and lired about twenty shots while they were 
 passing, but only succeeded in killing six. 
 My boy w^as terribly frightened while they 
 were passing, as from where he stood it looked 
 as if they were running right over me, as he 
 could not see me lying in the grass, and it was 
 not until I began firing and the smoke raised, 
 that he was undeceived. We dressed the 
 butFalo I had killed and again started to camp. 
 As we were croing- alon •• mv son looked off to 
 the left and said, ''Yonder is, a man on horse- 
 back." He was coming toward us, and when 
 he was a little closer I saw that it was an 
 Indian. When I told my boy what it was 
 he began to cry and say he wished he hadn't 
 come, and so on. By this time several more 
 appeared insight, w^hich frightened him all the 
 more. I told him not to get scared, and. 
 bninmno: mv o-un from mv shoulder ordered 
 
(IfARLES I-. VOUNGBI.OOI). 87 
 
 the ibfLMiiost of tiicm t;) halt, which he did. 
 i asked him what tribe he belonged to and he 
 answered ''Oiiiaha/' I told him not to come 
 any closer, and he stood there naming over 
 several articles and jabbering generally. I 
 then asked him how many there were of them 
 and he said there were thirty, which was near 
 the truth, as I could see about that number. 
 He asked in turn how many there were of us 
 and I told him eight. Me was directly be- 
 tween us and our camp, and I did not want 
 It i 111 there, so [ told him to turn to the left as 
 some of the boys might want to shoot him if 
 they saw him. lie turned and went around, 
 carefully watching for ''the boys," but without 
 seeing them. I only wanted him out oi my 
 vvay, so we could get back to camp. 
 
 They pitched their teepes on a hill about a 
 mile from our camp, as though they were 
 going to stay all night. As it was earlier in 
 the day than usual to prepare for camping for 
 the night, and as the place they selected was 
 on a hill instead of near water, it aroused our 
 suspicions and we began preparations for de- 
 
88 rHK A I) VENTURES OF 
 
 fense. Their camping on the hill seemed 
 very much as if they wanted to watch our 
 camp. We expected that about day-break 
 they would make an attack on us. As a 
 precaution I picketed a horse on a knoll about 
 a hundreds yards from camp to warn us 
 before they were upon us, if they should 
 come. The horse is about the best guard 
 against surprise by Indians, being much su- 
 perior in that respect to a dog. A dog makes 
 too much noise entirely, while the horse only 
 snorts at most, besides the horse does not 
 sleep as much nor as soundly as the dog, and 
 seldom allows himself to be surprised. If 
 Indians are approaching no matter how slyly 
 he is sure to discover it, and lets you know it 
 by restlessness and uneasiness, loud sniffing 
 or snorting. 
 
 We passed the night without any visit from 
 the red skins. Our horse never showed any 
 signs of alarm, but we watched him very 
 closely until about nine o'clock in the morn- 
 ing. It was a very foggy morning and it was 
 about ten o'clock before the fog cleared up 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 89 
 
 SO we could see. As soon as I could see I 
 went out on a knoll and looked carefully in 
 every direction, but could discover no trace 
 ot any Indians. Going back to camp I got 
 my gun ;ind some amnunition, and myself and 
 my son went up on the hill, where the Indians 
 had pitched their teepee the day before, and 
 tound that they had left. I examined closely 
 to see which way they went, and soon dis- 
 covered their trail leading toward White 
 Woman Creek. I afterward learned that while 
 on their way they came very nearly getting 
 another fellow. He lived in a dugout, and 
 was getting his supper when he saw them 
 rushing toward him. He tried to make them 
 stop, but as they paid no attention, he slammed 
 the door shut and made it fast. The red skins 
 gathered around the door and bei^an to try to 
 burst it in. As the door was not exceedingly 
 strong, and the man inside thought he was 
 sure to be killed any way, he began tiring 
 through the door at the Indians and brought 
 several ot them down. They soon gave up 
 their plan of going through the door as a bad 
 
 (12) 
 
90 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 job, and some of them got on the tup ot the 
 house and began shooting down through, but 
 they were no more successful here than at 
 the door. The Indians will not fight if they 
 can not do so without losing men. I heard 
 the old chief of the Ogaliahs say that it did 
 not pay to give man for man, and that he 
 wouldn't do it. One resolute and experienced 
 man can hold fifty Indians at bay, if he has a 
 good position and manages it correctly. These 
 red skins, finding that they could not get their 
 man without considerable loss, finally moved 
 back about a half mile and stationed themselves 
 on a small hill to watch the dug-out, that he 
 might not escape before dark, when they would 
 make another attack, and take him in. But, 
 as soon as it began to get dark, he crept out 
 and made his escape, but ran a very narrow^ 
 risk. Although this poor fellow escaped from 
 the Indians, he was soon overtaken by a worse 
 fate, if a worse fate than falling into the hands 
 of the red devils is possible. He and his two 
 partners were out hunting and v/ere caught in 
 a snow storm and frozen to death, and their 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 9I 
 
 bodies nearly e iten up by wolv^es before they 
 were discovered. 
 
 A short time after this niyseh' and my son 
 went out one morning and got after two buf- 
 falo cows, and followed them about twelve 
 miles before we got them. We were then 
 within about six miles of Silver Lake, and 
 started for that point. It suddenl}' began to 
 turn fiercely cold, and I began to expect a 
 blizzard, so we hurried on toward the lake 
 and our camp, and when about a mile from our 
 halting place, and the sun almost down and 
 the cold increasing, I saw, about a mile and a 
 half to my left, a very large herd of buffalo. 
 I think there must have been two thousand of 
 .them, and 1 was anxious to get at them, but 
 as it was so frightfully cold and night was fast 
 coming on, I told my boy we would go down 
 to the spring and w^ait until morning, and then 
 we would try what we could do for them. 
 About the time we lay down for the night I 
 noticed a very black cloud hanging In the 
 north, but we made extensive speculations on 
 the number of buffalo we were to get the 
 
92 THE ADVEX'lUKES OF 
 
 next morning, but when we waked up we 
 found the snow fully a foot deep, and 
 the air piercing cold, and the snow still falling. 
 The air was bitterly cold and I proposed to lie 
 still until the storm was over, but my boy 
 soon became tired r.nd got up to kindle a hre. 
 In this he failed and soon commenced crying 
 because of the cold, and I was compelled ""o 
 get up and make a lire myself, which I suc- 
 ceeded in accomplishing after considerable 
 trouble. Our horses could not be found, as 
 they had gone off in search of shelter from the 
 storm, and Jimmy vvas crying to go to Sher- 
 lock, a distance of thirteen miles, so I was in 
 a rather queer position. I was almost afraid 
 to start to wade the snow to Sherlock, but 
 finally consented to try and make the trip. 
 When we got started we found it even colder 
 and more difficult traveling than we had ex- 
 pected. The snow was drifting everywhere 
 and the wind was blowing fiercely, driving 
 the snow through our clothing, and while the 
 heat from our bodies melted it, the piercing 
 cold froze our clothino- stiff, and besides, walk- 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGB LO()l>. 93 
 
 ins: throiisfh . the snow knee deep was very 
 tati "uinof and wearisome. It was several 
 hours before we succeeded in getting to the 
 station, and when we entered a hotel a women 
 met us at the door and asked if we were not 
 frozen. I told her that we were all right and 
 tor her to prepare us something to eat. After 
 we had eaten, she asked if I did not get very 
 cold. I told her that I was colder then than 
 I had been any time during the da}'. She 
 then pointed to a red hot stove and told me I 
 had better sit down near it and warm myself, 
 I was not slow to act on her suggestion and 
 soon had my feet almost against the glowing- 
 stove. I had not sat long until I discovered 
 that there was something wrong with my feet. 
 They hrst felt numb, but in a few moments 
 they began to ache, and in a short time pained 
 me so much that I could scarcely stand it. I 
 went to bed leaving my socks on, but suffered 
 so much with my feet that I could not sleep 
 any, and the next morning my feet were 
 almost perfectly blat'k and swelled frightfully, 
 and covered with blisters. There was no 
 
94 
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 longer any mistake about the matter ; ni}' ieet 
 were badl}^ *frozen, so mueh so that I eould 
 not walk for more than seven months. At 
 the end of twenty days my feet showed strong 
 symtoms of mortification, and I was put on a 
 train and taken to Fort Dodge, a distance of 
 sixty miles, for medical treatment. Here I 
 employed a physician to attend me for two 
 dollars a day. He burned otf the dead flesh 
 and scraped the buoe, and at the end of seven 
 months I was able to walk a little, but was 
 lame for a lonof time. 
 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBI.OOD. 95 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ON THE PLAINS ONCE MORE PLENTY OF GAME 
 
 LV A BAD FIX HE COULDN'T STAND THE 
 
 INDIANS NOR LIGHTNING EITHER. 
 
 As SOON as I was able I went to Sherlock 
 and again started to hunting. I was scarcely 
 able to walk, and would drive as near the herd 
 as I dared and then o-et out of the wa^^on and 
 crawl up within range. 
 
 Leaving Sherlock we (my son and myself) 
 went west about twenty miles and, crosssing 
 the Arkansas River, went south about thirty 
 miles to Cimarron Creek, and, after following 
 this stream about ten miles, I struck a big- 
 herd of buffalo. J succeeded in kliliug three, 
 and we thought we would go in with them. 
 
 We went about ten miles on the road to the 
 station and camped for the night. When we 
 got up in the morning m}^ boy went out after 
 the horses, and had gone but a short distance 
 when he whistled for me to look around, when 
 I did so and saw^ a laree herd of buffalo. 
 
()6 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 I took my gun, and, going out, lay clown in 
 their course, and when they were close enough 
 I tired and killed one. The others gathered 
 around it and kept bellowing, and I kept tiring 
 until I got nine. We dressed them and again 
 started on, but only made about iiv-e miles 
 that day, and again stopped for the night, and 
 the next morning, when we got up we found 
 one of the horses dead. I sent my son in after 
 a team, and he succeeded in finding one of my 
 old partners who was glad to help me out of 
 a scrape, and he came right out and hauled 
 my meat- in for me, 
 
 I bought another horse immediately and 
 was again after butialo, this time about forty 
 miles back on Cimarron Creek. We camped 
 the first night in the bed of a dry lake, and 
 slept in the wagon. In the morning when I 
 raised up I saw a herd of something about two 
 miles off, but could not tell whether they were 
 buffaloes or not, and asked my boy if he could 
 make them out. He began rubbing his eyes, 
 and, happening to turn his head in the opposite 
 direction, saw a herd of buffalo about a quarter 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 97 
 
 of a mile wide and lully a mile long, bearing 
 right toward us, and nearly upon us. He called 
 my attention to them as soon as possible, and 
 by the time I could get my gun they were 
 within twenty paces of us. We could- dis- 
 tinctly feel rhe ground tremble as they gal- 
 loped past, and during the time they were 
 passing I put in good time shooting, and when 
 they had gone by I had a good load, so we 
 dressed them and again went in. 
 
 My boy then went back to Missouri, and I 
 hired a man by the name of George Daniels 
 for thirty dollars a month to go with me, but 
 he only stayed three weeks, when the Indians 
 scared him out, and he could not be persuaded 
 to stay any longer. I sent him out one morn- 
 ing after the horses, and, when about a quar- 
 ter of a mile from camp, he discovered a 
 a couple of Indians making a charge on him. 
 He came almost flying toward camp, scream- 
 ing for help at every jump. I ran out to see 
 what could be the matter, and the reds were 
 right after him, but I persuaded them to stop, 
 and he came up breathless from frio^ht and 
 
 (13) 
 
98 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 violent exercise. He thought that such ad- 
 ventures were frightful, and said he wouldn't 
 stay for five hundred dollars a month. I told 
 him that such little brushes were nothing 
 when one got used to it. "But,'- he replied, 
 "I would never get used to such. Why, here 
 are snakes, lightning skunks, centipedes, tar- 
 antulas and Indians." I tried to console and 
 reassure him, by telling him that if he wasn't 
 born to be killed by an Indian he never would 
 be, and if he was he couldn't escape it anyhow. 
 But he said, "Born or not born, they would 
 have gotten me if it hadn't been for you." 
 I told him that unless it was God's will he 
 would not have allowed them to hurt him, but 
 he said he would rather depend upon me than 
 God when the Indians were after him. But 
 he was such a coward that I could not get any 
 satisfaction from him, and I verily believe that 
 his cowardice made his life a misery to him. 
 It would be hard to find anything that he was 
 not afraid of One day as we were driving 
 along we saw some antelopes near, and he 
 asked me to let him take my gun and kill one. 
 
CMARLi:S L. YOUNGBLOOD. 99 
 
 There were plent}^ of antelope but I seldom 
 tried to kill any, but he wanted to kill some- 
 thing, and I told him he could try. He was 
 slipping along toward them very slyly, when, 
 all at once, he turned and came running toward 
 the wao^on as hard as he could. When he 
 came up I asked him w^hat the matter was, 
 and he said, "Didn't you see it lightning? 1 
 don't want any steel in my hands when it is 
 lightning. Why, I have jerked many a knife 
 out of my pocket and thrown it away on that 
 account." I laughed and told him that if he 
 wasn't careful he would get killed before his 
 time yet. He didn't stay any longer, and as 
 we got in to the station he went east, and I hired 
 a fellow by the name of George Johnson,^jWho 
 was, if any difference, a bigger coward than 
 Daniels. He stayed with me about twenty 
 days, when he happened to an accident that 
 caused him to leave. It happened in this 
 wise : We had taken a load of meat in to the 
 station, and were selling it out to the emigrants, 
 of which there were a large number. Johnson 
 struck up an acquaintance with some of them 
 
lOO THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 and v/as showing out to some yoUng ladies, 
 boasting of killing butfalo, riding wild horses 
 and a great many things that he never did. 
 While he was telling them how well 
 he could ride, one of them said, ''La, 
 I wish you would ride one of Pa's horses. 
 He throws nearly everybody off that tries 
 to ride him." 
 
 Johnson said he could ride anything, he 
 didn't care what it was, and some of 
 the men saddled the horse and brought 
 him out to Johnson By the time things 
 were in readiness for the show to begin, quite 
 a crowd of folks of all ages, sizes and sexes 
 had assembled to watch developments and to 
 see the fun, and the wonderful feats of horse- 
 manship. Johnson climbed into the saddle 
 and told them to let the horse go. They did 
 so, and he began to rear and plunge in a fear- 
 ful manner, and after a few jumps changed to 
 the old trick of bucking and kicking. All at 
 once he jumped suddenly and stiffly on his 
 fore legs, threw his head down to the ground 
 and kicked as higfh as he could. This was too 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. lOI 
 
 much for the great horseman, and he went 
 over the horse's head, with his arms, legs and 
 lingers spread out for something to get hold 
 of. As he went over, the seat of his pants 
 caught on the horn of the saddle, and he left 
 it behind him. He struck the ground on 
 his all-fours, and, looking for the horse 
 to be right on him, scrambled off on 
 his hands and knees as fast as he could 
 with that part of him, which, in a beef, 
 is called the best steak, shining like a 
 porcelain door-knob. He crawled along in 
 this way for some distance, when finally he 
 ventured to look back, and, seeing that the 
 horse was not after him, he raised to his feet, 
 and, gathering the back part of his pants in 
 both hands, slunk away. It is hardly necessary 
 to state that he did not come back to see the 
 girls who saw him ride any more. He called 
 on me the next morning and asked for his pay, 
 and said he was going to leave the country, 
 as he would never here the last of his ride if 
 he stayed, and could never look into the faces 
 
02 
 
 rHK ADVENTURES OF 
 
 of the young ladies again. I told him not to 
 mind it as the horse had thrown everybody 
 that had tried to ride him. "But," he said, 
 ''they never had their breeches torn off as I 
 had mine. It's no use to talk ; I won't stay." 
 Being thoroughly convinced that I could not 
 prevail on him to remain any longer with me, I 
 paid him off and he went away, and I had to 
 look out for somebody to take his place. 
 
CHARLES L. YOUXGBLOOD. Iv\3 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 WILD HORSES THIRSTY AND HUNGRY 
 
 WATER AT LAST BONES ON THE PLALNS 
 
 THE RESULT OF STRONGHEADEDNESS. 
 
 After Johnson left me I ran across two 
 young men by the name of Stanfield and 
 formed a partnership with them. At that time 
 there were a great many wild horses in that 
 vicinity, and we concluded to try our luck 
 after them. So we started out and soon struck 
 a large drove, I think about seventy-five. 
 They were going west, and, ps we had had 
 no experience in that particular line of hunt- 
 ing, we did not have any idea how far they 
 were likely to go, but followed them as closely 
 as we could, intending to get back that night, 
 but instead followed them about one hundred 
 and forty miles. As we had not intended any 
 such chase, we had made no preparations 
 for it and did not take any provisions with us, 
 and were compelled to do entirely without 
 food. I tasted no water at all on the first and 
 
I04 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 second days, and on the third day I came to a 
 dry branch and got off my horse and began 
 scratching in the mud for water. While thus 
 engaged my horse jerked loose Irom me and 
 started off across the prairie. I started after 
 him, but he was soon out of my sight and I 
 was left afoot and alone, having gotten sep- 
 arated from the others the day before. I was 
 so thirsty that I tried chewing grass, and so 
 weak that I could hardly walk. I gave up 
 the chase and turned my whole attention to 
 trying to get out of the scrape, and was doing 
 my best to find water, but was so faint and 
 weak that I could only make a short distance 
 before having to stop and rest. I was drag- 
 ging myself along in this manner when 1 saw 
 a drove of wild horses ahead of me and com- 
 ing nearly toward me. They kept looking 
 back as if at something behind them, and I 
 soon saw two men following them, and I be- 
 gan to make very emphatic signs for them to 
 come to me. As soon as they saw me they 
 came up to me and asked me what was the 
 matter, but my tongue and throat were so 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 105 
 
 dry and parched that I could not speak. It 
 was one of the Stanlield boys and a man 
 named Reece. They had no water but gave 
 me some dried apples to chew, to create a 
 flow of saHva to moisten my mouth, but it did 
 no good. Stanfield then took me on the horse 
 behind him and hurried ofl" with me to a spring 
 about ten miles away. It took us over an hour 
 to get there, and I was very careful not to 
 drink too much at once, but took about a pint 
 and after waiting a few minutes, another, con- 
 tinuing in this manner until I knew there was 
 no danger. It took a prodigious quantity to 
 satisfy me, and it was two or three days before 
 I got over my thirst. The horse that broke 
 away from me died for want of water. 
 
 Many a man has gone out on the plains as 
 1 did, and died from thirst and hunger, or 
 cold, and it is no uncommon thing to find their 
 bones strewn over the ground where they 
 have so perished. I have found many myself 
 whose death doubtless came about in this way. 
 I found one skeleton, the owner of which, had 
 certainly frozen, as he had burned his wao^on 
 
 (14) 
 
Io6 1'HE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 ;ind even his gun stock. He had died but 
 recently, but the wolves had mangled his body 
 beyond all possibility of recognition. Another 
 A\ hose bones I discovered had a bullet hole in 
 his head, and, judging from the position of his 
 gun, had evidently shot himself to put an end 
 to his sutferings. Still another had his cloak 
 \vrapped about him, and had probably frozen 
 or died from hunger and cold together, as there 
 were no marks of violence on the body. 
 These are only a few of the many instances I 
 might mention, but of course a great many 
 of the skeletons were those of Indians, but I 
 could not distinguish them from those of 
 whites. It is enough to know that they per- 
 ished alone on the plains, and what their suf- 
 ferings were no one knows. 
 
 My readers will see that it is much the safer 
 plan, when persons are unacquainted, with the 
 plains go out on them, to emply a good guide, 
 and even then it will not do to take every one 
 that offers himself, as there are plenty who 
 profess to be acquainted with the country that 
 know nothing about it, and a person v/ould be 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. I(^'7 
 
 as well off without them. I have helped 
 several men out of bad scrapes that they had 
 Si-otten into by trusting poor pilots, and would 
 recommend everyone to be careful to get one 
 that understands his business. 
 
 I remember once when I was hunting neai- 
 Lakin Station, on the Atchison and Topekii 
 railroad, and while there a couple of men asked 
 me to pilot them across the country to the 
 south of the Arkansas River. We soon struck 
 a bargain and set out. I took a saddle horse 
 with me, and they had a good team of mules. 
 We traveled about twenty miles the first day, 
 and camped at night on a small lake where 
 there was plenty of water, and, when ready 
 to start the next morning, I told them that 
 they had better take some water along, as it 
 was nearly twenty-five miles to the next water 
 on our route. They had a barrel in the wagon, 
 and I wanted them to put some water in it, 
 but they said they. could stand it, and besides 
 the water would soon get warm and unfit to 
 drink anyway. So they contented themselves 
 with drinking as much as they could, and 
 
I08 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 announced themselves ready to start, doubt- 
 less under the impression that would not get 
 thirsty any more that day. But in this way 
 they were sadly mistaken, lor, as it was a 
 very hot day, and we were compelled to travel 
 in the broiling sun, about eleven o'clock they 
 began to want a drink, and would drive out 
 of the way to examine old dry lakes in the 
 hope of finding water. I told them that they 
 were only losing time and that the nearest 
 water was the lake I had spoken of, and that 
 we would get water sooner by driving directly 
 there, instead of wasting time in exploring 
 dry lake beds. They finally got angry and 
 told me that I did not know what I was doino- 
 and that they knew more about the country 
 than I did, and that there was no water within 
 forty miles of us. They got so incorrigible 
 that I told them that they might go to a 
 warmer country for all I cared and rode off 
 and left them. When I had gotten off a short 
 distance, I looked back to see if they were 
 following, but I saw that they had turned to 
 go back to Lakin. It was only about twenty 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. I09 
 
 miles in a direct line and about thirty-tive the 
 way we had come, but to go directly there 
 one must pass through a range of sand hills, 
 which it is almost impossible to cross. They 
 were in a hurry to get back, and thinking that 
 they knew all about the country, took the 
 direct line and ran straight into the sand hills, 
 and, after traveling all that night and the next 
 day, came out of the sand hills about thirty 
 miles from the place they intended to strike. 
 Here, however, they found water, but their 
 mules had given out before they got through 
 the hills, and they had left the wagon and 
 walked the rest of the way, leading their 
 mules, and when they had rested they gave a 
 pilot five dollars a day to go back with them 
 after the wagon, and all from thinking that 
 they knew more than their guide. 
 
no ihp: adventures of 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 NEW YORKERS ON A HUNT NOT SO VERY 
 
 DEAD NEW GAME A REGULAR CHASE 
 
 AFTER WILD HORSES. 
 
 About the liveliest buft>lo hunt that I ever 
 experienced happened in this way : A couple 
 of New Yorkers went out west on business, 
 and having a few days of spare time con- 
 cluded that they wanted to take a buffalo chase. 
 They had never seen a buffalo, but wanted to 
 very badly, and they thought they would like 
 to kill a few dozen too. So one day, after 
 they had been talking to the landlord about 
 wanting to go after buffalo, he said he would 
 see me, as he thought I would go with them. 
 He accordingly came to me and asked what 
 I would charge to go. I asked him how they 
 wanted to go, and told him if they proposed 
 to go on foot that I would rather be excused. 
 He said that if they went they would take a 
 two-horse carriage, and I agreed to go as 
 pilot for three dollars a day, and in a few 
 
CllARLKS L. YOUNGBLOOD. Ill 
 
 moments all arrangements were completed 
 and we were on our way, the landlord join- 
 ing us. 
 
 Crossnig the Arkansas River, we went 
 about thirty miles south that evening, and 
 camped for the night near the north fork of 
 Cimarron River, and the next day, after driv- 
 ing about twenty miles, we struck game. We 
 attacked a big herd and had a lively time with 
 them for a while, and when the buffalo left 
 the field we noticed four lying on the ground 
 dead, or supposed to be so. When w^e ap- 
 proached them, one was lying on his back, 
 and Potter, the landlord, remarked that we 
 had ''o-iven that one h — 1," but a little closer 
 examination show^ed no blood, and further, the 
 animal w^as breathing rather lively for a dead 
 buffalo, and I rightly conjectured that he had 
 been knocked into the ditch by the others and 
 had been unable to get out, and I took the 
 precaution to observe him from a point a few 
 ieet away, for I was expecting him to make a 
 mighty effort and come out in a way that 
 would make it unsafe to be too near him, and 
 
112 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 I was right. Scarce a minute had elapsad, 
 when, summoning all his strength he floun- 
 dered, plungged and finally gained his feet 
 and mad made quite a scatterment among his 
 captors, who, however, recovered from their 
 surprise in time to perforate him with bullets, 
 and make him safely dead. During the racket 
 the herd stampeded, and the horses becoming 
 frightened mixed with them, and ran about 
 three miles before they got clear and stopped. 
 When the horses were brought back. Potter 
 proposed ihat we make another dash on 
 them, but I objected, as we already had more 
 meat than we could take back with us 
 and I did not like to see it wasted. He said 
 he wanted to see one of the New Yorkers kill 
 one anyhow, and the two went again after the 
 herd, w^hich by this time had begun to get 
 together again, and in about for hours came 
 back with thirty-six buflfalo tongues. It an- 
 gered me to see such a useless waste of meat, 
 hut they were proud of their achievement and 
 didn't care for me. The two New Yorkers 
 were enjoyed, and one of them said that he 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOn. II3 
 
 wouldn't take a thousand dollars for his sport. 
 By they the time they returned I had the four 
 we had killed dressed, and we loaded up and 
 went back having been three days. 
 
 While out on this three days trip we saw a 
 great many wild horses, and happened to be 
 speaking of them to a bystander named Boslen, 
 who he began to get considerably interested, 
 and finally asked me what I would charge 
 to catch some for him. I answered by saying 
 that I did not have a sufficient number of 
 saddle horses for such a chase. He said that 
 he had plenty, and inquired how many I would 
 need, and proposed to furnish the saddle 
 horses and as many men as I wanted if I 
 would go, and offered me five dollars a day. 
 I told him that I did not wish to hire in that 
 way, for I might fail to catch any, and he 
 might perhaps think I did not try, but said if 
 he would be at all the expense and furnish me 
 six saddle horses and two good hands, and 
 give me five dollars a head for all I could 
 catch I would go, to which he readily agreed, 
 and we closed the bargain forthwith. I then 
 
 (15) 
 
r 
 
 114 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 chose six horses from his stable and we 
 made preparations for the chase, and were 
 soon on our way. We found several herds 
 before we struck one that suited us. The herd 
 we finally concluded to capture one that 1 had 
 seen a great many times when I was out after 
 buffalo, and I was well acquainted with their 
 range. We went as close them as we dared 
 and after carefully examining them by the aid 
 of field glasses, my employer, Boslen, said 
 that they would do. The next thing to do 
 was to fix the camp as near the centre of their 
 range as possible, as wild horses, when chased, 
 seldom or never leave their range, though this 
 may somtimes contain hundreds of square 
 miles, and it is necessary to know the range 
 and place the camp near the centre, in order 
 that fresh horses horses for the chasers may 
 be ready any time they happen to pass near 
 the camp. I told Boslen where to fix the 
 camp and announced my intention of starting 
 the herd early the next morning. The point 
 I selected for our base of operations was an 
 old and well-known camping place on Cimar- 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBT.OOD. II5 
 
 ron River, about thirty miles west of where 
 we then were. This I chose as the most 
 suitable place because it was near the centre 
 of the range of our game, and because there 
 was plenty of good water there, whereas in 
 most places the lakes had nearly gone dry 
 and what little water that was left was going. 
 So next morning Boslen and the two men 
 started to the camping place, and I started for 
 the wild horses. I was mounted on a good 
 horse and rode up to the herd. When I was 
 within about a half mile of them they saw me, 
 and while some would elevate their heads and 
 watch me very, while others would 
 stick their tails straight up into the air, and 
 taking a long, high trot would circle around 
 among the others and snort. But I rode on, 
 and the whole herd finally began to circle 
 around me snorting, and occasionally one 
 would stop to get a better look at me, and after 
 satisfying himself would snort loudly and move 
 on with the rest. I sat perfectly still on my 
 horse and waited for them to move off, which, 
 after makiug a half dozen circles, they did, 
 
Il6 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 going west toward the place where I had told 
 Boslen to fix our headquarters. When they 
 struck out I followed them as fast as I could, 
 but could only keep in sight and had a good 
 horse to ride too. Shortly after they started 
 they struck a wagon road called the Doby 
 Wall Trail, and following it passed close to 
 our headquarters, where I wanted to change 
 horses, but I knew that the others were not 
 there yet and I followed on. My plan was to 
 chase them down and capture the whole 
 herd. We might have chased them awhile 
 and then dashed into them and lassoed a few, 
 but I concluded to keep up the chase until 
 they were chased down. As the wild horse 
 gets tired he gets less wild, and by having 
 suitable headquarters so that one can change 
 his horse without giving them much rest, the 
 whole herd can be caught. 
 
 This herd passed near our proposed camp 
 and went on west to the line between Kansas 
 and Colorado, here they turned to the south 
 and kept this course until they struck the south 
 fork of Cimarron River, when they turned 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. II7 
 
 east, passinty our camp again again, this time 
 on the south. I took advantage of this oppor- 
 tunity to change horses, and was again alter 
 them with more vigor than before. They went 
 on east near the place where I started them. 
 Here I saw two men who had been lost two 
 days, and could not find their way out, as the 
 sky was cloudy, and they could not keep th^ir 
 course. They said they were nearly starved 
 and w^ould like something to eat. On the 
 frontier it is customary to divide, as long as you 
 have any thing to divide, and I gave them a 
 biscuit apiece, half of what I had, told them 
 which way to go, and went on after my horses 
 The herd did not seem disposed to go any 
 where near the camp, but played back and 
 forth across the country between Wild Horse 
 and White lakes. This did not suit me, as 
 my nag was getting fagged and I was afraid 
 I would have to go all the wa}^ to camp to 
 change. This I did not like to do, as it would 
 give them a chance to rest, and I would con- 
 sequently lose nearly, or quite, all I had accom- 
 plished in two days hard work. However, as 
 
Il8 VHE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 good luck would have it, I ran across a cow- 
 boy, and gave him five dollars to go to camp 
 and tell them to meet me with a fresh horse 
 on the old Santa Fe trail, and I was again in 
 pursuit of my horses. They were getting tired, 
 and almost directly after I left the cowboy 
 they struck out nearly toward camp, and I 
 stayed within ten miles of the camp that night, 
 and the next morning very early I started to 
 intercept the men who were to bring the horse, 
 and struck the Santa Fe trail just in the nick 
 of time. There I got a fresh horse and some 
 grub, and as soon as possible was chasing my 
 wild horses. I found them near the place 
 where I had left them, and most of them were 
 lying down. They have wonderful en- 
 durance, which the reader will perhaps under- 
 stand when I state that that night one of the 
 mares gave birth to a colt which traveled with 
 the rest all the next day, until about an hour 
 by sun in the evening, when I halted for the 
 night, knowing that the herd would stay there 
 with the colt. By this tin:ie I had them so 
 worried and cowed that they grazed all around 
 
CHARLES L. VOUNGBLOOD. II9 
 
 me in the night, and when I waked the next 
 morning, they were nearly all lying down, 
 stretched out like dead. When I started them 
 they moved off very slowly, being very stitl 
 and sore, in a westerly direction, and I fol- 
 lowed them again into Colorado, when the}' 
 took nearly the same route as before, turning 
 south and then east and coming back into 
 Kansas, and when I again stopped for the 
 night I was within about a half mile of camp, 
 but it was cloudy and so dark that I could not 
 see the camp, though I knew I was near it, 
 but was surprised when I waked up in the 
 morning to find myself so much nearer 
 than I expected. I found the boys all 
 asleep, but soon waked them up and got a 
 fresh horse and more grub and went back to 
 see about the herd. This time I took one of 
 the men with me to take care of the colt 
 when it should give down, which I knew 
 would not be long. 
 
 When I started the horses this morning 
 they were so tired and stiff, as to be nearly 
 docile and I was able to drive them nearly as 
 

 I20 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 I chose. So ] drove them about to suit my- 
 self that day, and at night had them back near 
 camp. We turned the colt out with them, 
 and I told Boslen that we would start tor 
 Lakin Station with them the next morning, 
 but when morning came I concluded to drive 
 them around before we undertook to drive 
 them in, and when we did start in with them 
 we took a direct line for the station, and 
 crossed the sand hills. We were two days v 
 
 crossing them, during which time the horses 
 got no water at all, but as soon as we were 
 over them we struck a lake and they drank to 
 repletion, from the effects of which eight of 
 them died, and I lost forty dollars. We then 
 drove them about twelve miles to a cow 
 corrall, where we corralled them, closed them 
 in, and drove them across the river to Lakin, 
 safely housing the twenty-lour head. 
 
 \ 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 121 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 AFTER WILD HORSES AGAIN INDIANS A 
 
 BIG DRIVE A CLOSE BRUSH WITH INDIAS. 
 
 My good luck in this chase inspired me to 
 try it again. I wrote to Missouri for my son 
 and son-in-law to come out and help me, and 
 in the meantime I allowed the saddle horses 
 to rest and recuperate. They arrived in a few 
 days and we started out, again south of the 
 Arkansas River. When we arrived in the 
 region of Wild Horse Lake, we found that it 
 had rained very heavily, and the lakes were 
 all full, so I told the boys to estabhsh the camp 
 about ten miles west of Wild Horse Lake, and 
 I started a drove of seventy-two horses. I 
 drove them twelve days, but at the end of that 
 time found that we were nearly out of pro- 
 visions, and told the boys that one of them must 
 go back to the station tor more. While he 
 was preparing to start I discovered a herd of 
 buffalo, and told them to put the horses to 
 
 (16) 
 
122 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 the wagon and I would get a load of meat for 
 them to take in with them. As we were 
 going out after the buffalo, I discovered a band 
 of Indians about three miles off* and coming 
 toward us. My son was just starting to get 
 a young antelope that he saw, and I beckoned 
 for him to come up, as I did not know whether 
 the Indians were friendly or not, and wanted 
 to be ready in case of an emergency. When 
 he came up I showed them the Indians, and 
 told them that it was possible that we might 
 have to light, and for them to keep cool and 
 not get excited. I told them to get all the 
 ammunition together and I would go out 
 toward them and find out how the land lay. 
 I went a few hundred yards toward them, and 
 took a position where I could watch their 
 movements. They came down into the creek 
 bottom, which was about a mile wide, and 
 were out of my sight for some time, and in 
 the interim I changed my position so that I 
 could see them as soon as they emerged from 
 the bottom. When they again came in sight 
 the}^ were about half a mile from me, and 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. I 23 
 
 seemed amazed at seeing us. They halted 
 and gathered in a close groop, and seemed to 
 be holding a consultation. I signalled to learn 
 what tribe they belonged to, but they paid 
 no attention to me. I then signalled to knov 
 if they were friendly and what they wanted, 
 but received no reply. I then went back to 
 the wagon and told the boys that they meant 
 no good, and ordered the ammunition placed 
 where it would be most convenient. By the 
 time we had things in readiness, the Indians 
 had formed and were ready to make a dash 
 on us. As soon as they started I lay dov, n 
 and levelled my gun to drop the foremost, but 
 he saw my intention, and, whirling his horse 
 about, dashed back. The next followed him, 
 and the next in like manner, until the whole 
 band were out of range, when they again 
 stopped and held another council. I stood up 
 on the wagon to watch them, and saw that 
 they were preparing to surround us. The hill 
 was in the shape of a half circle, and their plan 
 was to go around the back of it, where we 
 could not see them until they got around. So 
 
124 ^^^ ADVENTURES OF 
 
 I told the boys to get ready and get to the top 
 of the hill as fast as they could, as the Indians 
 meant to surround us, and we must get to the 
 top to intercept them. I sprang on the sad- 
 dle horse and left them to come up with the 
 wagon, and dashed to the top of the hill, 
 where I could see the whole game of the 
 Indians. They were coming around the hill 
 stationing one of their number about every 
 hundred yards, and would have been all 
 around us in a few moments. I sprang from 
 my horse and crawled up where I could see 
 over the crest of the hill and could have picked 
 one off every shot. But they saw me and 
 knew that they were beaten, and whirled sud- 
 denly around, and, lying flat on their horses, 
 beat a hasty retreat, and did not stop until 
 entirely out of sight. We did not leave that 
 night, but picketed our horses and remained 
 until morning, for I knew that they would not 
 attack us any mo.re that night, though the 
 boys thought sure that we would get our hair 
 lifted before daylight. The boys were afraid 
 to go in by themselves in the morning and I 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOU. 125 
 
 had to go in with them, and, after Laying in a 
 good supply of provisions, we started out again 
 to gee what had become of my wild horses. 
 We found them without any difficulty, and 1 
 again started them. Th's time I followed 
 them, with several little ups and downs, for 
 fifteen days, at the end of which time they 
 were docile enough that I could drive them 
 almost as I chose. 
 
 Thinking that they were about ready to 
 drive in, I drove them near the camp one even- 
 ing, and then next morning got one of the bovs 
 to help me and we started them toward the 
 station. I had had a long chase and mv 
 saddle horses were considerably jaded, and 
 when within about thirty-live miles of the 
 station, I found it necessary to o^o in and o-et 
 some fresh horses. So I left the boys to 
 manage as well as they could and mounted 
 the freshest horse, and procuring three fresh 
 horses, hastened back and found them just a 
 Httle nearer than when I had left them. We 
 had good luck until we attemped to corral 1 
 them, to get them across the river. They 
 
126 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 were afraid to go in the corrall and we could 
 not persuade them in any way to do so, and 
 we finally gave it up and swam them over the 
 river. I w^as a little afraid of the experiment, 
 but it worked all right, and I drove sixty-nine 
 head of horses into the station the next day. 
 This was a good haul, but catching wild horses 
 is not by any means desirable work, and does 
 not pay as well as one would suppose, as it is 
 a long, hard job to capture a herd, and they 
 are generally small and scrawny at that, and 
 sell at almost nothing. 
 
 This was my last wild horse chase for the 
 season, as it suited me much better to hunt 
 buffalo than run wild horses, and I got a con- 
 tract to furnish meat for the hotels and went 
 out after buffalo. 
 
 I hired a man by the name of Black to go 
 with me, but the Indians were so troublesome 
 that he only remained with me a few days, 
 and I hunted by myself. I established my 
 camp on the Pawnee River, right on the old 
 Indian trail, and went to work to get some 
 meat. The first night I stayed alone I began 
 
CHARLES I.. YOUNGBLOOD. I 27 
 
 to have fears of the Indians, and during the 
 night this fear grew upon me so much that it 
 was impossible for me to dismiss them from 
 my mind. I did not sleep at all that night, 
 and the next morning I was up bright and 
 early preparing to shift my quarters. I went 
 back from the river about three miles on the 
 flats, but still on the trail. I stopped here but 
 a short time, as I did not feel much safer than 
 where I was, and hitched up again and drove 
 to the top of a hill about a mile and a half 
 farther on. Here I halted and looked around 
 to see what I could see, and discovered some- 
 thing moving toward me a couple of miles to 
 the northeast. I at first thought they were 
 buffalo, but in a moment I saw that they did 
 not move like buffalo. While watching them 
 they went out of sight and soon reappeared 
 again, which satisfied me that they were not 
 buffalo. When they were nearer me I saw 
 that they were men, and mounted, and I then 
 knew that they were Indians moving right 
 toward me, and I began to make preparations 
 to give them a warm reception. 
 
128 THE AnVKNTURES OE 
 
 The most suitable spot for a light that I 
 could see was an elevated place about a quar- 
 ter of a mile to my left. Here I posted my- 
 self and commenced filling my empty car- 
 tridges. The Indians were fast getting nearer 
 and it seemed to me that I never made as 
 slow progress in filling cartridges before, and 
 yet I v^as working as lor dear life. However, 
 there were onl)^ six of the red skins, and I 
 knew that with anything like a fair show I 
 could take care of myself. When they were 
 about two hundred yards olf, I rose to my feet 
 and waved my frying pan toward them, and 
 no sooner did they see it than they raised the 
 yell and dashed toward me. I motioned to 
 them to stop, but they paid no heed and came 
 dashing on. I dropped on one knee and 
 resting my elbow on the other levelled my 
 gun at the foremost. At this they whirled 
 with their horses sideways to me and turned 
 their saddles on the farther side and kept 
 themselves where I could not see them at all. 
 As they hung on the farther side of their 
 horses they would occasionally peep over their 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 1 29 
 
 horse's withers to see what I was doing and 
 watching for a chance to rush upon me un- 
 awares. In this relative position we remained 
 lor some minutes, when they sHd off their 
 horses on the opposite side, taking care to 
 keep their bodies protected by their ponies, 
 but watching me intently all the while. Still 
 holding my gun in position to cover any one 
 of them in an instant, I asked them what tribe 
 they belonged to, but they only answered 
 '^Yah." I said '^Shriam," but they still an- 
 swered '*Yah." Again I asked, '^Are you 
 Ogallahs, Arrapahoes, Utes, or what ? " but 
 still they answered as before. I then took my 
 gun from my face, but still held it in a position 
 to do quick shooting, when they began to 
 separate and move to the right and left, evi- 
 dently intending to surround me. I motioned 
 to them with my gun, to stay together, when 
 they made signs to the effect that they wanted 
 something to eat. I was afraid that this was 
 only a trick to get me off my guard, but I 
 moved cautiously toward the wagon, at the 
 same time watching them very narrowly, to 
 
 (16) 
 
130 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 catch any suspicious movement on their part. 
 Scarcely had I started toward the wagon than 
 one of them made a rush toward me, but I was 
 watching him, and turning suddenly around 
 stopped him effectually. The last act of his 
 life was to cover his face with his hands and 
 cry out "ow, ow, ow." I then motioned for 
 the rest to come to him, so that I would have 
 them close together and could cover them 
 easily with my gun. They came forward, 
 leaving their guns hanging on their saddles, in 
 pretence of friendship. When within about 
 about fifteen paces I ordered them to halt, 
 which they did, but expressed a desire to shake 
 hands with me, and kept saying '^How, how, 
 how." I found it rather a delicate affair to 
 manage, as they could, if they chose, have 
 taken me in, but they were sure that some of 
 them would pay the penalty with their lives, 
 and they did not care to make an open 
 attack, and wanted to get me at a disadvan- 
 tage, and, while I could have readily shot 
 one or more of them down, I was afraid to do 
 so, because I did not know what effect it would 
 
CHARLES I.. YOUNGBLOOD. 131 
 
 have on the rest. It might so frighten them 
 
 as to make them leave in a hurry, but it might 
 
 exasperate them and cause them to rush right 
 
 upon me and overpower me, which they 
 
 could easily do should they take a notion to 
 
 do so. It was the most trying time I ever 
 
 experienced, and I held them in this manner 
 
 for more than an hour, when they gave up the 
 
 hope of getting to shake hands with me, and 
 
 began to try to steal back to their guns, but 
 
 when one would make a move toward his 
 
 horse I would instantly cover him and order 
 
 him back into the squad. My attention was 
 
 called to one who acted as if he did not know 
 
 I was anywhere near, and was doing his best 
 
 to assume a careless air, and seemed to be 
 
 carelessly twirling a lariot which he held in 
 
 his hand. After swinging it round a while, he 
 
 arrarently let it loose accidentally, and one end 
 
 of it fell almost at my feet. After letting it lie 
 
 for a moment he began winding it up, but 
 
 instead of drawing the rope toward him, he 
 
 was following it tow.vrd me as he wound •;r 
 
 v.py but I understood his plan, and stopped > -s 
 
132 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 game and his existence about the same time. 
 I then brought my gun to bear on the rest 
 who sprang on their horses and hurried away. 
 I watched them until they disappeared about 
 two miles off. 
 
 The same day that 1 had a brush with the 
 Indians, the same band ran across a man 
 named Matthews, and two men who were 
 driving a herd of cattle, and by appearing very 
 friendly succeeded in throwing the men off 
 their guard. They approached them in a 
 friendly manner, and, after shaking hands with 
 them, called for something to eat — an Indian 
 is always hungry — and partook liberally. But 
 they were only watching for an opportunity, 
 and no sooner did it appear than the}' shot two 
 of them down. Matthews sprang on his horse 
 and dashed away in time to save his life, but 
 was badly wounded in the shoulder by a shot 
 sent after him as he was fleeing for his life. 
 This will show my readers how treacherous 
 is the red man of the forest, and how little confi- 
 dence can be placed in his professions of sincere 
 friendship. I never saw one yet that it was 
 
CHAK1.es, L. YOT.JNGBLOOU, I33 
 
 safe to trust, and I believe that my suspicions 
 in this direction have several times saved my 
 life. I have seen but very few Indians that 
 were not dangerous and they were dead. 
 
 Immediately after this I went across to 
 Silver Lake to join an old hunter who was 
 camped there, as I did not like to be alone 
 while the Indians were so troublesome. Be- 
 sides, he was, as I have said, an old hunter, 
 and in a scrimmage with red skins his equal 
 was hard to find. Many an Indian had dropped 
 at the crack of his rifle and he was well known 
 among them, and was as universally feared as 
 he was known. With him, and ten minutes 
 notice, we could have made it warm for any 
 number of reds likely to attack us, but when 
 I came to his camp, I found that he had gone 
 in to the station and I was compelled to stay by 
 myself at last, with the Indians passing nearly 
 every day. However, I continued hunting 
 for sometime without molestation from them, 
 but succeeded in getting into some scrapes 
 not much more agreeable than an Indian 
 fight. 
 
134 '"'^^K ADVENTURES OF 
 
 One day when I was out huntinof the 
 weather became cloudy and a cold rain set in 
 which lasted two days and nights, completely 
 soaking my blankets and chilling me nearly to 
 death. Finally the clouds broke away and the 
 rain ceased, and I went out for game. After 
 going about four miles J saw two very large 
 buffalo, and, slipping as close as I dared, shot 
 one as it lay, and, while the other was exam- 
 ining it to see what ailed it, brought it down 
 too. The weather was still cold for October, 
 and it had clouded over again and was be- 
 ginning to snow. I turned out my team and 
 dressed the animals I had killed and, laying 
 them with their backs nearly together, spread 
 my blankets over them. I spread the green 
 hides over that with the hairy side down, and 
 then crawled in between the hides and blank- 
 ets and lay there until the snow storm was 
 over, Vv^hich was two days, only coming out 
 occasionally to get something to eat. While 
 \ying there the buffalo came all around me, 
 and w^hen it cleared away I got out and began 
 to scatter them. I killed two and after dvf -^ 
 
CHARJLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. I 33 
 
 ing them I put the four into the wagon. B\' 
 this time the snow was mehing rapidly and it 
 was late in the evening. I drove over to the 
 place where I had camped during the rain 
 storm. I discovered when I arrived that a 
 band of Indians had camped there during the 
 snow storm and had but recent)}^ left. It wavS. 
 a narrow^ escape, but as the old saying goes 
 '*• a miss is as good as a mile," and I did not 
 get frightened after the danger was all over. 
 This spring was a noted camping place, being- 
 right on a much used Indian trail, and Avas 
 used by white men as well as red skins. I 
 thought I might find some game farther on 
 and drove several on several miles, but, not 
 finding anything, concluded to drive in with 
 what I had. As I passed the spring on mv 
 return I saw a squad of red skins camped 
 there again, but, as I had no occasion to stop, 
 passed by, within half a mile of them. If 
 I had been as thirsty then as I have been 
 many times, I most certainly should have 
 stopped, but the snow was melting and I could 
 get all the water I wanted without fightino- 
 
136 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 tor it. When I was about a mile from their 
 camp, I saw three buffalo lying with :heir 
 backs toward me, but I did not know whether 
 to kill them or not, as I already had four, and 
 besides, the Indians had not yet seen me, aid 
 t'' e report of my gun might rouse them and 
 get them after me, but the tempt ition was too 
 strong, and driving as near as I dared I took 
 my gun and began to slip along toward them. 
 When I was about close enough I looked to 
 the left and saw three Indians stealing up on 
 the buffalo that I was. They had not dis- 
 covered me and I stopped and was watching 
 them, but in a short time they discovered me. 
 I straightened up and we stood for some 
 moments watching each other, but I soon got 
 tired of that, and again advanced on the 
 buffalo, keeping an eye on the Indians as I did 
 so. As soon as one of the buffalo sfot on his 
 feet, I nhot him down. The others sprang up 
 and seem surprised that the one I had shot 
 was lying down, but in less than a minute I 
 had them also. I then got my wagon, and 
 putting it between me and the red skins, whc 
 
CHARLES L» YOUNGBLOOD. I37 
 
 remained in the same place, proceeded to 
 dress them, but closely watching the Indians, 
 who, shortly after I began skinning my game, 
 sat down on the ground and looked at me 
 until I got through, when I loaded them on 
 the wr.gon and drove off. 
 
 When I got in to Sherlock station I found 
 a great excitement about the Indians, and the 
 people supposed that they had killed me as I 
 had been out so long. This was about the 
 time General Custer and his command were 
 killed by them. Uncle Sam had fed and 
 fattened the red devils until they were in good 
 lighting trim, and they went at it, and were 
 killing people every day. About fifty were 
 killed in the vicinity of where I was. They 
 surprised the people at different places, almost 
 before they were known to be axiy where near, 
 and shot them down like wild beasts. Some 
 were tortured and mutillated in the most 
 revolting manner, and scalped and left to die. 
 At one place a band of them surprised a school 
 that Avas taught by a lady teacher, and cap- 
 tured the whole school. Thev did not kill 
 
 (18) 
 
138 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 any of them, but satisfied themselves with 
 frightening them nearly to death. They 
 thumped and banged them about, and made 
 as if they would tomahawk them, and pulled 
 their hair and laughed when the frightened 
 girls begged for their lives. Three young 
 ladies of the school were stripped entirely 
 naked and told to go home in that condition. 
 After they had satisfied themselves with the 
 pupils they started off, but the people had risen, 
 and not half of those devils ever saw Sitting 
 Bull again. But they stole a great many 
 horses and cattle, and the cow-boys joined in 
 pnrsuit. The cow-boys were more than a 
 match for the reds, and took especial delight 
 in fighting them. The troops finally came to 
 the reHef ofthe people, but they nearly alA^ays 
 move too slow to catch Indians. 
 
 In this raid, however. Col. Lewis did good 
 work, but was killed with several of his men, 
 in an engagement on White Woman Creek. 
 When this happened I was hunting on th€ 
 same creek, but did not take much part in the 
 fighting, as I thought that if the government 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. I39 
 
 led and fattened the Indians for fighing, and 
 kept soldiers to kill them when they were 
 fattened, they might go ahead and do it. But 
 while I did not take an active part in the hos- 
 tilities, my occupation brought me in frequent 
 collision with the redskins, but all the fighting 
 I did was merely a pure matter of self defense, 
 and I made it a point not to get into any un- 
 necessary conflict with them. 
 
 One evening, a few days after the fight mi 
 White Woman's Creek, I saw a bunch of 
 something in a side draw of the creek, and 
 supposed it to be buffalo, but it was so smoky 
 that I could not distinguish what it was, and 
 went nearer. We were then within about a 
 half mile of them, and, on going closer, I 
 brought my field glass to bear on them and 
 found they were Indians. They were lying on 
 the ground holding their horses, which I re- 
 garded as rather suspicious, and was afraid 
 that they had scouts stationed between me 
 and them. I had with me at that time a man 
 by the name of Brank Howard, and I told 
 him that we would withdraw a few hundred 
 
140 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 yards to a ravine, or washout, to stay all night. 
 This was a good position and afforded us a 
 fair opportunity to repel any attack they should 
 make. We hurried our suppsr all we could 
 and as soon as possible put the fire out, so that 
 it would not betray our position, and put our- 
 selves in as good condition for defense as we 
 could, when we sat down to watch and wait. 
 Shortly after dark our dog began to bark and 
 run savagely down the w^ashout and then 
 back, keeping up an incessant growling and 
 barking, and we knew that the reds were 
 prying around our camp with no good intent. 
 Soon he grew more furious, and, after dashing 
 about fifty yards down the ravine, he would 
 come back with his tail between his legs as if 
 frightened. This is the way a dog acts when 
 Indians are aboi't, and we expected to be 
 attacked all the time, and kept ourselves in 
 readiness to go to work in a second's notice. 
 It was so dark and smoky that 1 never got to 
 see them once, and after about two hours 
 they went away, the dog became quiet, and 
 Howard and myself took turn about sleeping 
 
CHAl^l.ES L. YOUNGBLOOl). 141 
 
 and watching during the night. * 1 examined 
 the ground around our camping phice as soon 
 as I could see in the morning and found that 
 they had been within twenty paces of us. 
 These were a remnant of the band that had 
 the fight with Lewis a few days before, and I 
 suppose, perhaps, that the reason they did not 
 attack us was, that they were dodging the 
 sodiers and were in a hurry to get out of the 
 countr}'. 
 
 The whites were not the only ones that 
 suffered during the trouble, for the Indians 
 were compelled to undergo some rather se\'ere 
 privations. I remember the- case of an old 
 squaw and a papoose about seven years old. 
 When the Indians were scattered in the light 
 on White Woman, this squaw and child could 
 not get away, and, to avoid being taken by the 
 soldiers, hid themselves in a washout, and 
 when the soldiers left did not know which wsv 
 to go, as the tribe was scattered and broken 
 up, so they remained where they were. Thev 
 could get plenty of water, but nothing to eat, 
 except the carcasses of the animals that had 
 
142 
 
 THE ADVENT L RES OF 
 
 been slain in the fight, and so severe was their 
 hunger, and so long did they remain there, that 
 they had eaten one mule nearl}' up, the flesh 
 of which, w^hen they were found, was putrefied 
 and smelled horribly, and the squaw and child 
 smelled but little better. They were carried 
 prisoners to Ft. Dodge. 
 
CHARLES L. VOUNGBLOOD. 143 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ENGLIS1TME?5 ON*A LARK. 
 
 Not very long alter the occurrences men- 
 tioned in the preceding chapter, five Enp-lish- 
 men came to Lakin Station on a lark. They 
 were not peers of the realm, neither were they 
 dukes or baronets, but they were regular built, 
 right lordly Englishmen, of the pure blcod 
 and true type, and were on a sight-seeing tour 
 over this country. They had plenty of money 
 with them, and I should judge from tlie way 
 they scattered it right and left, that there was 
 plenty more where that came from. They 
 were seeing their fun and were paying for it 
 too. They arrived at Lakin fully resolved to 
 take a buffalo hunt on the plains. 
 
 They had the best of guns, each having a 
 good rifle and shotgun apiece. They asked 
 me what I would take to pilot them out on the 
 "^range" and I answered that if they were going 
 to do the shooting that I would go as a pilot 
 
144 '''HE ADVENTCRKS OF 
 
 \\)Y live dollars a day. They said the}' woivld 
 give it, and remarked that the price was cheap 
 enough. The next day they procured a two- 
 horse carriage, and, alter hiying in a full stock 
 of ammunition and provisions, we started. I 
 did not ride in the carriage, but took my 
 wjigon and team, so that I would be ready 
 when they got tired of paying five dollars a 
 day. When we left Lakin we started in a 
 northeasterly direction. When about twenty 
 miles out we ran across a large rattlesnake, 
 wdiich the}^ thought w^as wonderful. As thev 
 wished to see all about it, I ipade it sing for 
 them, and when I finally killed it, one of them 
 hf'.d me to ^^kin it to make him a hat band. 
 Then they all had to take a swig of beer, of 
 which they had brought a goodly quantity, 
 which emptied one bottle. They then made 
 a bet as to who could break the bottle while 
 flying in the air, and began tossing the bottle 
 up into the air and firing at it. Finally one of 
 them succeeded in hitting it, and they all got 
 into the carriage and we again started on. 
 We had <.rone but a short distance when one 
 
CHAULliiS I.. YOUNGBl.OOD. I45 
 
 oi them* who had his head sticking out ot' the 
 carriage, exchiimed ''Law, look there," and 
 called for the driver to stop the carriage. 1 
 thought he saw a buffalo or something of the 
 kind, and beg-^n to look around for it, but 
 failing to see any, I looked at him to see which 
 way he was looking, and saw that he was 
 almost going into hysterics over a large spec- 
 imen of terrapin. They all clambered out and 
 took a good look at it, turned it over with 
 their guns and shoved it about with their boots 
 until they were satisfied, then they drank 
 another bottle of beer, lYiade a bet as to who 
 could hit it in the air, and when it was finally 
 broken they got into the carriage and we 
 again drove on. 
 
 We had gone perhaps a mile when four 
 antelopes came dashing past us at full speed. 
 All five ' f them jumped out with their guns 
 and began firing at them as fast as they could. 
 They were about the most excited set ot 
 men I ever saw. They fired about fifty shots 
 and the poor antelopes ran for dear life, badly 
 
 scared but not seriously injured, and I sup- 
 (19) 
 
146 I'M EC ADVKMTL'HKS OK 
 
 pose not much more excited than the English- 
 1.1 en. The men were sadly disappointed at 
 the escape oi their game, bat consoled them- 
 selves by drinking anot' er bottle of beer and 
 breaking the bottle a before. We moved on 
 a couple of miles and camped for the night on 
 a small creek, and when we arose in the 
 mnrningwe could see antelope in every direc- 
 tion, but we hitched up and drove on. The 
 antelope seemed to be tolerably tame, and the 
 pleasure hunters kept up a continual tiring at 
 them as we passed along until after noon, but 
 without any other effect than to frighten the 
 animals. When we stopped for dinner one of 
 ihem suggested that they put ''the old man'- — 
 nieanin.: me — to shotting or we would starve 
 before we could get back to the station. 
 ''Because," said he, ''we have fired five 
 'undred shots to-day and kille " nothing, hand 
 if this thing is kept hup we will soon be out 
 of hammunition hand no game heither." They 
 then put it to a vote and it was unanimously 
 agreed that I should kill them an antelope. I 
 told them that it they would all stay in the 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. I47 
 
 carriage I would try, and I thought perhaps 
 that we might have antelope for supper. Long 
 before we got to our camping place I saw a 
 drove of antelope and got quietly out of the 
 wagon, slipped up as close to them as I could, 
 for I did not want to miss after poking so 
 much fun at the markmanship of the others, 
 and when close enough to shoot I lay down 
 in the grass and waited for "a good chance." 
 In a moment I got two in range and fired 
 bringing both of them down at the first shot. 
 At this the men leaped out of the carriage and 
 came running up to me, more excited, if possi- 
 ble, than when they fired the fifty shots at the 
 four scared antelope. After allowing them to 
 thoroughly examine the first dead antelopes 
 they had ever seen, I -took the entrails out, 
 threw the carcasses in the wagon and the 
 procession moved on. The Enghshmen still 
 kept firing at antelopes, badgers, hawks and 
 everything they saw. This was kept up until 
 we reached Clear Creek, where we camped 
 for the night. Here we found ducks almost 
 in swarms, and my friends got among them 
 
148 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 with their shotguns and killed several of hem, 
 and we had a regular feast of antelope and 
 duck for supper. 
 
 In the morning we harnessed up again and. 
 started in a northwesterly direction and trav- 
 eled until we came to Bear Creek, where we 
 once more camred for the night, and in the 
 morning moved on again. When we had 
 pfone about a mile we discovered fine butlalo. 
 These were the tinest we had seen on the trip 
 and the English gentlemen were very anxious 
 to kill them all, and jumped out of the car- 
 riage and str.rted boldly toward them, very 
 much as if they thought the buffalo w^ould be 
 glad to see them, but when they were within 
 about a quarter of a mile of them the buffalo 
 raised their heads, and, taking a short look, 
 galloped off, leaving the nabobs sadly disap- 
 pointed. When they complained of their bad 
 luck to me I told them that they had done 
 much better than I expected, as I thought they 
 would frighten them away before they got 
 half so near. They gave the buffalo up rather 
 reluctantly and kept up a continual firing at 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 149 
 
 antelopes and fowls as we traveled along until 
 night, but with their usual luck. We camped 
 for the night on a small creek called Rocky 
 Branch, and in the morning while eating break- 
 fast one of them said, *'Mr. Youngblood, how^ 
 much do we owe you ? " I told him that I 
 had been with them five days, and at five 
 dollars a day it would make twenty five 
 dollars. They paid me the money and said, 
 ^'We are done hunting, and want to see you 
 shoot a little." I told them that it was all 
 right, and if they would stay with me awhile 
 I would probably shoot something. We 
 moved about six miles to White Woman 
 Creek, where I struck a large herd of buffalo. 
 I killed one the first fire, and got a 
 ^'stand" on them and killed seven. We 
 dressed them, and moved on. As we passed 
 along I kill four antelopes. When we stopped 
 for night I cooked some of the buffalo humps, 
 and my English lords thought it the finest meat 
 they ever tasted. I had a good deal of fun out 
 of them on account of their shooting. I 
 told them that they had had me five days 
 
150 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 for twenty-five dollars and got nothing, and 
 in one day I had made twice that amount. 
 We drove back to the station, and there we 
 had some more of the humps cooked for dinner, 
 but my friends did not like them as v/ell as 
 they did my cooking out on the range. 
 
 The next day I bade my English friends 
 farewell, and with the man Howard, men- 
 tioned before, again struck out for the range. 
 At White Woman Creek I struck a large herd 
 of buffalo, standing in the creek drinking, but 
 before I could get close enough to shoot they 
 started out, and I tired on them at long range, 
 killing a large cow. She was just going up 
 the bank, and when I struck her she came 
 rolling down toward the water. She rolled 
 off the bluff bank, about twelve feet high, and 
 struck in thin mud and went most entirely 
 under. Howard and I worked some time 
 trying to get her out, but so deep was she in 
 the mud that we could not move her. So we 
 gave it up as a bad job and went on after the 
 rest of the herd. I fired several shots at them 
 but only breaking the shoulder of a calf about 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. I5I 
 
 six months old. It could not keep up, with 
 the rest and we followed it along up the bed 
 of a ^'side draw," until linally I saw that the 
 herd had stopped farther up the draw. The 
 calf had gotten tired by this time and very 
 gentle, and I could easily have shot it, but I 
 did not want to frighten the herd, so we 
 heided it off and began to try to catch it. I 
 coukKget tolerably close to it, but not close 
 enough to catch it. It was small and I thought 
 it could not hurt me much, and when I would 
 let it pass me it would make at me for a fight. 
 I supposed I could push it off when it got to 
 me and stood my ground, and it came bowing 
 and shaking its head,^ and when within a few 
 teet of me made a big dash rlghl: at me like 
 an old ram, and before I could do anything 
 knocked me down and began trampling me 
 into the ground. Finding that it did not mean 
 to let me up, I reached up and got it by the ears 
 and after quite a tussle got it down and fin- 
 ished it with my knife. As soon as we could 
 dress it we started on after the herd, but had 
 to follow them about twelve miles before I 
 
152 'THE ADVEXTVKES OF 
 
 could get a shot at them to suit me. Here I 
 : hot one and it ran on about three hundred 
 yards on a hit! and fell. This was on Beaver's 
 Creek, and the beavers had built a dam across 
 the creek, so that we could not across with the 
 team and wagon, and, as it Avas about sun- 
 down, I told Howard to turn the horses out 
 and 1 would go over and skin the buffalo. I 
 crossed the creek on a beaver dam, and had. 
 hardly began dressing my game when I 
 noticed three niea about three quarters ot a 
 mile off on horseback and coming toward us. 
 1 took them to be Indians and told Howard to 
 gather up the ammunition and get it handy iis 
 the I dians were coming, and I picked up my 
 gun and started back to the wagon. But it 
 was a lalse alarm, as the men were cow-boys 
 1 )oking up some lost cattle. 
 
 I had noticed tiiat Howard did not seem to 
 I e in an easy frame of mind, any of the time 
 he was with me, and I supposed that he had 
 gotten into trouble somewhere and was 
 dod.-ji'ig. I continually me': men of this clase 
 out there and soon learned to think but little 
 
CHARLES L YOUNGBLOOD. 1 53 
 
 of it, and let it pass without any remarks or 
 inquiries. I had not said a word to Howard, 
 but noticed that, as we prepared to start in 
 with our load, he grew more nervous and ill 
 at ease than ever, and seemed to be extremely 
 anxious and uneasy. In fact he was so much 
 so that I thought it would be right for me to 
 speak to him about it and give him a chance 
 to unload himself to me, as it would be likely 
 to relieve the strain upon his mind. So the 
 first opportunity that offered I asked him if 
 something was not troubling him, and if T 
 could do anything for him. He then said with 
 a sorrowful smile, "Do I act as if something 
 was bothering me?" "I have seen many a 
 man in your condition," answered I, "'and can 
 guess pretty well as to the cause ; and if you 
 are in a difficulty, and half way innocent, I 
 will try to help you in some way or other, and 
 if you are really guilty of some infernal crime 
 I will agree not to give you away, so spit it 
 out, and we will see what can be done. My 
 opinion is that you got away Avith some fellow 
 Avhere you came from, but whatever it is let's 
 
 (20) 
 
THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 have it;- He looked at nie for a moment as 
 if amazed, and finally said, -You have guess- 
 ed well. I am in trouble and in the way you 
 say, but I am net guilty of v/ilful murder, yet 
 I oread the consequences of being apprehended. 
 At Fort Scott, Mo., I traded horses with a 
 jockey, and the next day he came to me and 
 said f should trade back, as I had cheated him 
 by lying abouc my horse. I told him that I 
 •,iever traded back ; when I traded and found 
 .nvself che ted I had to stand to my bargain, 
 :mcl if I happened to make a good trade I 
 mean: to keep It. He then grew furious and 
 said he would make me trade back, but I told 
 :iim he would do nothing of the kind, when 
 ;ie new at me with his raw-hide whip and 
 ;>egan whipping me over the head and face 
 Avith it. This was more than I could stand, 
 :;nd, as he was a large bully, I drew my knife 
 :uid'used it with fatal effect. I fled imme- 
 diately, not because I was afraid of being 
 iianged, but 1 knew it would cause me a great 
 vleal of trouble and cost me a large amount ot 
 money to vindicate myself, as I had no friends 
 
CHARI.es I.. YOUNGBLOO!). I 55 
 
 with me at the time, and I kne x the few spec- 
 tators to be very reckless and predjiidiced 
 against me. I have sent for my family to 
 meet me at Lakin, and they will be there to- 
 morrow or the next day, and I have been 
 thinking that the otiicers may follow them and 
 trace me out in that way. Now, what I want 
 to know of you is this: Do you blame me 
 for using my knife on him, and w411 you do 
 anything against me? " 
 
 ''No," said I, '4 do not blame you at all, 
 if it is the way 3-ou say, and will be glad to 
 help you if I can. So if you have anything 
 you wish me to do, let me hear it." 
 
 ''I have nothing for you to do at present," 
 said he, "except that when we go in to the 
 Station, you go in first and find out if there are 
 any strangers in town, and if they are from 
 Ft. Scott, or that vicinity. If there are, I 
 want you to pry around and find out what 
 their business is, and report to me; if you find 
 my family already there you can tell them 
 how it is, and let me know as soon as 3'ou can 
 see how the land lays." 
 
156 THE ADVEKTLRES OF 
 
 I told him I would do so and in the morninLi- 
 started in without him. When I got in 1 
 noticed a stranger, but paid no attention to him 
 then, and began getting rid of my load ot" 
 meat, but soon the s^iranger came up to the 
 \vagon and began -looking at the meat, re- 
 marking that it was the tirst he had ever seen. 
 
 ''It is ; ■' said I in feigned astonishment. 
 ''Where did you come from.^" 
 
 "From Missouri, near Ft. Scott," was his 
 a- swer. 
 
 Then I knew he was a detective, hunting for 
 Howard, but thought him very stupid to tell 
 where he was from and give himself away so 
 easily. He took quite an in erest in me and fol- 
 lowed me about questioning me at every 
 opportunity. "Let's see, what is your name?'' 
 he asked. I told him my name. "Do you 
 hunt for a living." I replied in the affirmative. 
 
 "Do you hunt by yourself?" 
 
 "Sometimes I do." 
 
 "Have you any one with you now." 
 
 "Yes, but I do not know where he is." 
 
 "When are you going out again? " 
 
 I told him I could not tell, as it depended 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 157 
 
 entirely upon circumstances ; I might go out 
 the next day, and I might not go again for a 
 week or more. ''Well," saidhe/4f you go out 
 to-morrow I would like to go with you." I 
 told him I would see about it and left him. 
 When I went to the hotel I found Howard's 
 family there sure enough, but the stranger 
 watched me so closely that I could have no 
 conversation with thewo man. I was very 
 roughly dressed and my clothes were bloody, 
 and I suppose the vvoman at first took me for 
 a desperado, reeking with the blood of his vic- 
 tims. As soon, however, as she found out that 
 I was the "old hunter" that her husband was 
 with, she manifested a desire to speak to me, 
 but was watching the stranger as well as I and 
 would not speak to me in his presence, for she 
 had noticed him getting on and off the cars 
 every time that she did, and had pretty well 
 divined his purpose. The first chance I could 
 get I told her where her husband was, and she 
 begged me to help them to outwit the detective 
 and get away. I promised her that I would do 
 so, and about ten o'clock that night slipped out, 
 went to Howard and reported what I had 
 
158 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 seen and heard. I told him to keep still until 
 the next night and I would try to get him out 
 and away. I talked about the Station the 
 next day, and spent some time in the company 
 of the stranger from Ft. Scott, and in his 
 presence announced my intention of soon go- 
 ing on another hunt, and told him that if my 
 partner did not come back I would be pleased 
 to have him go with m.e. He was anxious to 
 do so and we parted fast friends, but when he 
 got up the next morning, the woman and chil- 
 dren that he had followed from Ft. Scott were 
 gone. As soon as ever^^thing was still that 
 night I harnessed up the team, and, taking 
 Howard's family with me, drove to where he 
 was concealed, and started themtoward Col- 
 orado, telling them to keep hidden during the 
 day and travel during the night, and they were 
 soon out of the reach of the detective. I got 
 back to the hotel in time to get up for break- 
 fast with the rest, but when the detective 
 missed Howard's family he looked sharply 
 at me, as if he thought that if I chose I could 
 tell how they got away. As good luck would 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 
 
 1 59 
 
 have it, seme one told him that a woman and 
 children got on a train that passed during the 
 night, and he boarded the tirst train and left 
 on a false track. This is the last I ever saw ot 
 either of the parties, but have since heard that 
 Howard was caught, taken back to Ft. Scott, 
 tried and acquitted. 
 
l6o THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 HUNTING ON THE ''RANGE," ETC. 
 
 The events detailed in the preceding chapter 
 resulted in leaving me without a hand, but I 
 soon struck a man by the name of Henderson. 
 He had a good team, and we were soon on 
 our way to the "range" with two teams. We 
 first went to White Woman Creek, and on 
 the way saw hundreds of antelopes, but we 
 were looking for buffalo, and did not disturb 
 them. Not finding any buffalo we crossed 
 the creek, where we camped for the night. 
 I killed an antelope for supper, and ihe next 
 day we moved on to Beaver Creek, and again 
 stopped tor the night, camping under the bluff 
 about twenty yards from the water. It was 
 cool, cloudy weather, and there was but little 
 water in the creek, but when we got up in the 
 morning we were surprised to find ourselves 
 surrounded by water, the more especially so, 
 because it had not rained at all during the 
 night. We could not understand it, as the 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. l6l 
 
 water had raised from four inches to six teet, 
 und evidently did not come from any freshet 
 above as the water was not at all muddy. 
 We managed to get out by wading and getting 
 uncomfortable wet. When breakfast was 
 over we proceeded down the creek to inves- 
 tigate as to the sudden rise. I knew that the 
 cause was some stoppage below, but could 
 not tell, though very anxious to find out what 
 it was. We had not gone far when we came 
 to a big beaver dam which the beavers were 
 hard at work repairing. Then the cause ot 
 the sudden rise in the creek flashed upon me. 
 The dam had lately broken and let the water 
 in the creek run out, and the beavers had filled 
 up the break the day that we camped at 
 niofht and the mvsterv of the night was ex- 
 plained. 
 
 As a Httle sketch of the habits of this sin- 
 gularly intelligent animal may prove of inter- 
 est to some of my readers, I will stop long 
 enough to give in brief words what I know 
 of the beaver: 
 
 This animal is about three times as large as 
 
 (2U 
 
I 
 
 162 THE ADV'ENTURES OF 
 
 the common coon, with which all are familiar, 
 and always about the water. They are par- 
 ticularly adapted to the water, having webbed 
 feet, and the power to stay under the water 
 for a long time. They have a broad, flat tail 
 which they use as a trowel, and strong, heavy 
 teeth with which they cut down large trees. 
 They build houses of sticks and mud in the 
 shape of a circular arch, with the entrance 
 under the water, and have the different lodges 
 connected by pass ways. In order that they 
 may always have water to play in, they fre- 
 quently build large dams across the stream. 
 These dams are built of mud, sticks, logs and 
 even large trees, the latter they cut down with 
 their teeth at some point in the creek above 
 the dam, and carried to the proper place by 
 floating it down the current. To one who 
 never before saw a beaver town and dam, the 
 sight is as much of a wonder to him as any- 
 thing you could show him. But as space 
 is limited I will give the beaver a rest and 
 pass on. 
 
 Leaving the beaver dam that had caused us 
 
CHARLliS L. VOUNGBLOOD. 163 
 
 Jso much astonishment, we passed down the 
 creek about twenty miles and then went 
 across to the Cold Train Lakes^, where we 
 found numerous antelope watering. I told 
 Henderson that we would stop right there and 
 kill a load of antelope. Henderson turned out 
 the horses and I went to work and before 
 night I had killed twenty-four. The next 
 morning a large buffalo came in to water and 
 I got him. This made our load and we pulled 
 in to Sherlock, whefe we sold out for $71*00, 
 one-third of which went to Henderson. 
 We only staid in Sherlock over night and 
 started out again, this time going on the bed 
 of the Pawnee River, as I supposed the buffalo 
 were there* But when we arrived We found 
 that the Indians had been there and had chased 
 them out of the country on horeback. It 
 frightens them badly to chase them on horse- 
 back, and when thus started do not soon stop* 
 Finding that we could get no buffalo there, I 
 set in and killed a load of antelope, and we 
 took them into Pierceville, the nearest station. 
 We then took another shoot, going in south ol 
 
164 'J^HE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 the Arkansas River. I had killed plenty of 
 buffalo there and supposed I could easily do so 
 again. We had only gotten about twenty 
 miles south when we came to where the 
 prairie had been recently burned. 
 We traveled tw^o more days that we 
 did not see anything at all but the 
 burned prairie. The w^orst of all was, that 
 we had taken but very l.ttle grub along 
 with us, of course, expecting to find plenty o^ 
 game, but in this we were disappointed, as all 
 the game had been chased out by the tire. I 
 had two dogs along and they soon began to 
 manifest decided symtoms of hunger, but as we 
 had but a very little for ourselves we did not 
 think it exactly prudent to divide with them. 
 At last I saw a badger lying near his hole 
 and shot him for my dogs, but they would not 
 taste it at all. I thought perhaps they might 
 get hungry enough to eat it beiore they got 
 anything else, so I threw it into the wagon and 
 took it along. When we camped that night 
 I again offered them some badger, but they 
 were not ready for it yet. I dressed it and 
 
CHARI.es I> YOUNGBLOOl). 1 65 
 
 roasted it nicely but they wouldn't hiive it 
 yet. I still left it before them and by morn- 
 ing they had it nearly devoured. The next 
 day, about 2 o'clock, we arrived on the north 
 fork of Cimarron Creek. About the time we 
 struck the creek, Henderson pointed to a hill 
 to the left of us and said, "There are four 
 buffalo heads ; some hunter has been here 
 not long ago." 
 
 I jumped upon the wagon to see them, 
 but as soon as I looked I told him to squat 
 down for those heads were fast to the buffalo 
 yet. T took my gun, and, getting as close to 
 them as I dared, saw that one of them was a 
 cow and the other three were young' ones. I 
 concluded to kill the cow first, and then I 
 would be pretty apt to get the whole lot. In 
 this I was right, for the old one never got up 
 after I shot her, and in two minutes I had 
 them all. It is useless to state that we had a 
 feast that night, dogs and all. 
 
 The next day we drove about ten miles, 
 
v66 THE ADVENTLRES OP 
 
 when we got out of the burnt district^ and t 
 got on a high hill, and* scanning the plains 
 with my held glass, I discovered a large herd 
 of buffalo about six miles ahead of us. We 
 drove as close as we could with the wagon* 
 and then I got out, and, shooting one down^ 
 ••got a stand" on them and killed all we could 
 haul in both wagons. As we were going in 
 We sav/ a large herd close to the road, and, 
 as we wished to pay them a visit when w^e 
 ^:ould take care of some of them, we waited 
 lOr them to move, not wishing to frighten 
 ihenij As soon as the buffalo moved out of 
 our w^ay w^e drove past, and, when we reached 
 Uie station, disposed of our meat as fast as 
 possible, and, hiring a hand to go v^ith us, 
 ^tarted back for the herd w^e had left. We 
 expected to find them on Bear Creek, as they 
 were heading that way, and, with that expec- 
 tation, we drove up the creek, looking for 
 them 4 After traveling about forty miles we 
 had a snow storm, which left us with about 
 MX inches of snow, and we were compelled to 
 lay over for tw^o days in the bed of Bear Creek. 
 
CHARLES I. YOUNGBLOOD. 1 67 
 
 On the morning of the third day as I was 
 making a fire I heard a fearful racket near, 
 and ran up the bank to see what it could be. 
 When I got up the bank I saw a buffalo and 
 four wolves fighting. The buffalo somehow 
 got hurt in the loins during the light and could 
 no lono^er run. As soon as the wolves saw 
 me they run off, leaving me in possession o\ 
 the prize. 
 
 Despairing of finding the buffalo as I had 
 expected, we turned south toward the north 
 fork of Cimarron Creek, and found a herd oi 
 fourteen and got eleven of them. This made 
 out our load and we again drove in. 
 
 When we got into the station (Lakin) there 
 were three men from New York who had 
 never seen a live buffalo. They examined my 
 load very closely, and finally asked me what 
 I would charge to take them with me the ne>.t 
 time I went out. They merely wanted to go 
 along to see what they could see. J tok: 
 them that I would let them go for a dollar 
 apiece per day, and the bargain was soon 
 closed. 
 
t68 the adventures of 
 
 As soon as we could sret ready we started 
 from Lakin zx\(\ w^ent south of the Arkansas 
 River to the head w^aters of North Fork 
 Creek, about thirt}/ miles back. We camped 
 for the night on the creek, and during the 
 night a snow fell about four inches deep. We 
 lay still until about lo o'clock, when the snow 
 began to melt, and we harnessed up and drove 
 about fifteen miles up the creek, when I 
 thought it was about time to strike som.e 
 buffalo, and getting on a hill, where I could 
 get a good view for miles, I took my field 
 .;lass and "viewed the landscape o'er." 1 saw 
 :xii immense number of horses and cattle in 
 Jitlerent directions, and, after looking some 
 ■ime, I espied a herd of buli'alo, about five 
 iailes off. 
 
 When J went to the wagon and told my 
 4-ompanions that I had found a herd of butfalo. 
 t le}^ were very much elated, and we drove on 
 )ward the herd. We soon got on lower 
 ■; round, and were out of sight of them for 
 s )me time, but kept our course, and when we 
 i'l lally came in sight of them they \vere not 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. I 69 
 
 not more than a half mile off*. We were then 
 as close as we dared drive. I usually crawl 
 on my hands and knees in the grass and get 
 as close to a herd as I wish, but this time the 
 ground was so cold and muddy that I did not 
 ieel like crawling, but just ran toward them 
 until they began to get alarmed, and then 
 began shooting. I had to fire at long range 
 and after several shots I finally broke the 
 shoulder of one, and he soon dropped out of the 
 herd, not being able to keep up. I waited 
 until the wagon came up and put the dogs on 
 the crippled one and let them kill him, and 
 we would camp here for the night. The crip- 
 pled buffalo made his way the best he could 
 after the herd, with the dogs laying him, until 
 he got on a rise in the ground, when the rest 
 of the herd, seeing the fight, turned and came 
 dashing back, and began to try to kill the dogs, 
 who, though laying at them all the time, kept 
 out of their way. They kept moving toward 
 us while they were fighting, and my New 
 York chaps began to get frightened and were 
 afraid they would come toward us, but I told 
 
 (22) 
 
170 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 them there was no danger, and if they would 
 come to me I would show th:m bow to kill 
 buffalo, but I could not get them any closer. 
 Finding it useless to waste time with them, 
 I went to within a hundred and fifty yards of 
 the buifalo and began firing. The herd was 
 paying no attention to anything but the dogs, 
 and at every shot I fired a buffalo dropped. 
 I kept up firing until there was but one left, 
 and he seemed to suddenly -become conscious 
 that he was alone and began to look for com- 
 pany, and started right toward the New 
 Yorkers. They thought sure that they were 
 gone and began darting here and there, but 
 when the buffalo was fifty yards of them it 
 stopped to see what they were, and I sent a 
 bullet through its heart, and it dropped dead. 
 The New Yorkers were greatly relieved when 
 they saw their enemy fall, and I suppose that 
 they believe to this day that I saved their 
 lives, though they were in no trouble at all. 
 I had then thirteen buffalo, with the sun only 
 about an hour high and all of them to dress 
 before I went to bed. My companions oftered 
 
CHARLES I. YOUNGBLOOI). Ijl 
 
 to help me and did the best they could, but 
 even that was not much, as they were banker's 
 and lawyer's clerks and had never seen a 
 buffalo before. With the exception of three 
 the buffalo lay in a radius of thirty feet, and 
 I built a fire near the center and by about 
 ,12 o'clock we had them in the wagons* 
 
 We talked the remainder of the night, and 
 the next morning we saw a herd of about 
 three hundred near us, I pitched into this 
 herd and got eight. This made all we could 
 haul, and we started in to Lakin. When we 
 arrived at the hotel the landlord asked me 
 why I did not bring some antelope. I told him 
 that I was out after buffalo and didn't look for 
 antelope. He then asked if I couldn't go out 
 the next day and get him some, and I replied 
 that I would try. 
 
 I took my old Indian pony and started, and 
 found a nice herd not far from the station, 
 and, slipping up as close as I could, I killed 
 three. I had with me a rope about twen"!^ 
 feet long that I used to picket my horse, and 
 tied mv horse to the neck of one of the ante- 
 
172 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 lopes, which was not deid yet, though 1 sup- 
 posed that it wr,s just about breathing its last, 
 and went on after the antelope. I started on 
 their trail, overtook them and killed six, and 
 when I got back to where I had left my horse, 
 he was missing, as was also the antelope I 
 hitched to him. 1 started out after chem and 
 tound the antelope leading the horse by the 
 picket rope. I soon dispatched it and started 
 round gathering up w^hat I had killed. I tied 
 their heads together, two and two, 2.nd threw 
 them across my horse until I got them all on, 
 then I went in driving my horse before me. 
 I must have presented an odd ^ippearance as 
 I entered die station in this manner, but, be 
 this as it may, I gave them a good supply ot 
 antelope and got my pay for them, too. 
 
CHARLES L YOUNGBl.OOD. 173 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 ALMOST STARVED EATING PRAIRIE DOGS 
 
 A GREEN hunter's RELIC HUNTING AN- 
 TELOPE, ETC. 
 
 I REMEMBER once I Started out on a hunt 
 to a range where I had been finding plenty of 
 game, but when I got there I found that the 
 lakes had dried up and the game had gone 
 elsewhere for water, and I drove three days 
 without killing anything, and I soon began to 
 get hungry and was compelled to go two days 
 entirely without food. At last I struck a 
 dog town, and by that time I was so hungry 
 that I struck it for something to eat. I had 
 never eaten a prairie dog and had not regarded 
 them as at all choice as an article of food, but 
 I turned my horses out and shot one of the 
 little varmints, fried him nicely and ate 
 him. He tasted so nicely that I tried 
 another, and another, and still another until 
 I had eaten six. Ordinarily a man could 
 
174 '^'^^^ ADvr:NTUREs of 
 
 not eat more than one, but I Avas so hungry 
 and had nothing to eat with them that I easily 
 got aw?y with six. I then hitched up and 
 drove about forty miles when I fell in with a 
 man named Edward Day, who had just killed 
 a buffalo and had the humps with him. I told 
 him that J was as hungry as a wolf and would 
 like to have something to eat, and we stopped, 
 built a lire and cooked a good mess. 
 
 After dinner 1 asked him where the game 
 had gone, and he replied tha he had seen a 
 large herd only about five miles from where 
 we were. This revived my spirits considerably 
 and I immediately started for them and killed 
 six. I camped there that night and the 
 next morning three men came to my camp in 
 a wagon. They had been out to kill buffalo, 
 but had failed, and started back with heavy 
 iiearts. After we had talked a while they said 
 the}^ would give me five dollars if I would 
 show them how to kill a buffalo. I told them 
 I would do so, and w^e were soon after the 
 game. The buffalo were very thick then and 
 we were not long in finding plenty. Bu: the 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. I 75 
 
 one who offered live dollars to teach him how 
 to kill them was so much afraid of them that 
 I could hardly get him near enough to do so ; 
 but I got him as close as I could and showed 
 him which one to kill and he fired away but 
 missed clear. I saw that 1 had a hard task 
 and must get him closer, so I shot and crippled 
 one and put him after it. It moved off slowly 
 and he fired some twenty shots at it without 
 any visible effect, and I moved him up within 
 fifty yards of it, but by this this time he was 
 so nervous that he shook as if he had an ague 
 fit, and missed again. The buffalo, seeing us 
 about to overtake it, turned for light, and I 
 had to shoot it down at last. I told him to 
 shoot it quick before it was dead, and he ran 
 ran up and put a ball in its ham, and turning 
 to me handed me the five dollars. He thanked 
 me very kindly, asked me to skin its head, 
 and said he was going to have it stuffed and 
 when he was an old man he would exhibit it 
 to his grandchildren as a relic of his exploits 
 as a great hunter. 
 
 We then camped there for the night, but as 
 
176 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 we had to build the fire of buffalo chips, my 
 friends were too extremely nice to touch them 
 and I had to gather all the fuel myself. I 
 often found men when they were on the plains 
 for the first time that were too dainty of taste 
 to eat anything cooked by a fire made of 
 this kind of fuel ; but they soon get over their 
 squeamishness and come to their senses. 
 
 About the onl)^ man I ever saw that took 
 kindly to buffalo chips at first dash was an old 
 fried of mine, with whom some ol my readers 
 are acquainted — he sometimes rolls pills — 
 who came out to Kansas to look at the coun- 
 try, and while out called to see me. We 
 went out after antelope, and stopping at the 
 head of a small branch we found a small hole 
 of water, at which I could see that the ante- 
 lope had been watering freely. I told m}^ 
 friend that we would stop and get some of 
 them. We unhitched the horse and got the 
 buggy down in a draw where it would be 
 out of sight of the game, and we sat down to 
 take a lunch. While we were eating an an- 
 telope stepped in sight within twenty paces of 
 
CHARI.es I. YOUXGBf.OOl). 1 77 
 
 US and I picked up my gun, which happened 
 to be within reach, and killed it. In a lew 
 moments two more came to the spot where 
 the dead one was lying and I saved both ot 
 them. I then told my friend to build a lire 
 and I w^ould skin the antelope, and we would 
 have some fresh meat. He said he w^ould do 
 so and asked me w^iere he would find some 
 wood. I pointed at some ^'chips'' and told 
 him there was plenty. Contrary to my ex- 
 pectations he jumped right into them and 
 began raking them up with his hands, and it 
 was but a few minutes until he had a chunk oi 
 bread in one hand and a lump of meat in the 
 other. 
 
 (23^ 
 
178 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A SHORT time after the occurrences detailed 
 in the last chapter, myself and a friend went 
 out on a hunt. We struck out south of the 
 Arkansas River until we came to the North 
 Fork, which was about thirty miles, then we 
 traveled up this stream tor nearly thirty miles, 
 when we went south near the Point of Rock, 
 on the South Fork of Cimarron River. Here 
 we struck a large herd of buffalo, which my 
 friend tackled while I remained with the team. 
 The buffalo were down in a hollow and when 
 he fired on them they dashed right toward 
 me. I did not want to shoot as we had a very 
 wild team and I did not care to be ran away 
 with, but they came so close that I picked up 
 my gun and blazed away. In my haste I 
 forgot to withdraw the gunstick, which I had 
 inserted with some oiled tow to prevent its 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. I 79 
 
 rusting, and strung two on the gunstick. I 
 creased them on the loins and brought them 
 both down, but the horses were about to be- 
 come unmanageable, and I had to stop my 
 shooting and give them my whole attention. 
 When my friend came up he was surprised to 
 see that I had killed two as he had heard me 
 shoot but once. 
 
 We soon got our load and started back, and 
 after driving fifteen miles we camped by a 
 big spring for the night. About 9 o'clock the 
 wolves, attracted by the smell of fresh meat, 
 began to howl around us. We had a dog 
 with us that would fight them, though he had 
 no business with a wolf, and they finally came 
 so near that they and the dog kept up a con- 
 tinual racket all night. He would rush out at 
 them and chase them a short distance, when 
 they would turn and drive him back to where 
 we were lying, then he would bay them until 
 he got them started, when he would 
 drive them back again. This proceeding was 
 repeated ever}^ few minutes during the whole 
 night, and, as you may well imagine we did 
 
l60 THE ADYK^TVUn^ (V 
 
 not sleep a wink. The wolves were nearly 
 starved and seemed determined to have some- 
 thing to eat. At one time during the night it 
 was really exciting and not at all pleasant. 
 At one time when they had chased the dog 
 right up to us, one of them attacked him and 
 they lought viciously over and upon us for 
 some time, but we pulled our buffalo robes 
 over us as soon as we could and did not get 
 injured at all, but we we were not at all com- 
 fortable until the fight was over, the dog fin- 
 ally driving the wolf ofl\ In the morning we 
 got up feeling worse than when we lay down, 
 l)ut got to sleep good the next night. 
 
 4 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. l8r 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 In a few days after this I started on another 
 hunt, taking with me an editor who wanted 
 to see a herd of buffalo. On the second night 
 we camped on Carter Draw on a large lake. 
 We had not stopped long before we dis- 
 covered that the antelope were coming- 
 in great numbers to the lake for water. The 
 next morning they began to come in before 
 sunrise, and I told the editor that if he would 
 get breakfast 1 would go out and try to kill 
 some of them, and after a run of about an 
 hour I got ten. As soon as breakfast was 
 over, I drove around and gathered up the 
 game, and then started in to Sycamore 
 Station, about, thirty miles distant, on 
 
1 82 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 the Atchinson and Sr„nta Fe Railroad, where 
 shipped the antelope to Fisher, the hotel 
 })roprietor at Lakin. 
 
 From Syracuse we drove about forty miles 
 north, near White Woman Creek, where we 
 ran on to a large herd of buffalo, but as it was 
 about sundown when we discovered them we 
 only took a good look at them, and concluded 
 to wait unttl morning before we disturbed 
 them. It was a very large herd and closely 
 covered a half a mile square, and we went to 
 bed speculating on the big load we would get 
 in the morning, but when w^e got up not a 
 single buffalo was to be seen. The editor was 
 considerably discouraged, but it was easy to 
 follow the trail, and as soon as we could get 
 ready we started on after them, and, after 
 about tifteen miles travel, came upon them 
 lying down. I slipped on them as close as I 
 could and killed four. We dressed them and 
 aofain drove on, and when we were near what 
 is called the State Line Trail, I concluded to 
 finish mv load with antelope, and began kill- 
 in<^ ih-em. When I had killed seven we ran 
 
CHARLES L YOUNGKLOOi:). 183 
 
 across a fellow with a team, and I hired him 
 to take my load in to Sargeant Station a :d 
 ship it to Lakin, and I drove on. We traveled 
 east a few miles and stopped on a small lake 
 where the buffalo and antelope were watering. 
 During the night several antelope came near 
 us to get water, and the editor shot one ot 
 them, his first, and, so lar as I know, his only 
 antelope. About lo o'clock the horse we had 
 picketed near us suddenly began to snort and 
 act very much frightened. I sprang to my 
 teet thinging that the Indians were on us, but 
 was surprised to see a large herd of buffalo 
 within fifty yards of us coming for water. 
 There were plenty of them within a few feet 
 us, and they surrounded the wagon and so 
 frightened one of our horses that he broke 
 loose. I could easily have killed several but 
 was afraid that it would frighten the horse 
 still more and make him leave us entirely, 
 and I could only stand and look at them. x\s 
 soon as they passed I went and got the horse 
 and we again lay down, but in a few minutes 
 a single buffalo came down for a drink and I 
 
184 I'HE advp:ntures of 
 
 shot him. We then put on our clothes and 
 dressed him and did not sleep any more that 
 night. In the morning we drove about live 
 miles, when we struck a large herd and got 
 six of them. This finished our load, and by 
 the time we had them dressed it was nearly 
 night, but 1 proposed to my partner that as 
 the moon would shine we might start in to 
 the station. 
 
 Shortly after we started the sky became 
 cloudy and the night grew dark and I lost my 
 bearing, and for fear ol getting still worse we 
 stopped for day. When we went to picket 
 our horses it was found that our tether had 
 been left where we camped the night before, 
 and were compelled to take it turn about 
 holding the horses until daylight. We soon 
 found where we were and pulled in to Aubery 
 Station, sold what I could and drove on to 
 Lakin. The editor published an accoant of 
 our hunt in his paper, and if you ever see it 
 vou can compare it w^ith this and see how they 
 tally. On this hunt I killed seventv-two ante- 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 185 
 
 lope and eleven buffalo, which, considering 
 the circumstances, did pretty well. 
 
 When I arrived at Lakin I found two 
 sportsmen from Connecticutt waiting for me. 
 They wanted me to go merely as a pilot and 
 they w^nnted to do all the shooting themselves. 
 They had an armory of six guns: two 
 breech-loading shot-guns, two breech-loading 
 rifles and two 1 8-inch rifles. They were to 
 give me three dollars a day as long as we were 
 out, and as soon as I was rested we started 
 south of the Arkansas River about twenty 
 miles. Their forte seemed to be the shot-gun, 
 and they wanted to go where there was plenty 
 of fowls. It was new to me to see men want to 
 get after ducks and snipes where they can 
 find plenty of antelope and buffalo, but they 
 wanted fowls and I found what they wanted. 
 I took them to a large lake that was alive 
 with ducks and kendricks. The kendrick is 
 about the size of the guinea fowl, and its flesh 
 is delicate and finely flavored. There was 
 also a kind of snipe about the size of a quail, 
 and its flesh is excellent. What with ken- 
 
I 86 TME ADVENTURES OJ" 
 
 dncks, snipe and the diflferent kinds of ducks 
 the lake seemed ahnost aHve, and my sports- 
 men had a gay old time. They were partic- 
 ularly interested in the kendricks, and reg rded 
 them as a great curiosity ; they have long- 
 legs for wading and an extremely long bill, 
 generally about seven inches in length. These 
 men would not shoot at a bird except on the 
 wing, and never fired on them when the}' 
 were in a bunch, but would make them fly up 
 and selecting one bring it down. 
 
 They kept up their sport until one of them 
 in firing at a duck on the wing happened to 
 shoot the other with bird shot, but as the shot 
 they were using was small it did not kill nor 
 seriously injure him, but it put an end to the 
 hunt, and we went back to Lakin. 
 
 Here I found two more men waiting for me 
 to pilot them out on a hunt. They were 
 doctors from Chicago and we soon came to 
 terms. We started the next morning and 
 going about twenty came to a lake and stopped 
 for the night. Here we found aritelope and 
 killed seven. The doctors had shot-guris and 
 
chart.es l. youngblood. 187 
 
 kept blazing avva}' at everything they saw. 
 The wolves seemed very hungry and came 
 howling around quite close to us and my doc- 
 tors killed several during^ the night with their 
 stot-guns. 
 
 They were well pleased with the sport and 
 in the morning wc harnessed up and started 
 to find some butfalo. But just at that time 
 nearly everybody was after buffalo and ante- 
 lope, and some days one could see as many as 
 lift}' wagons going in every direction tor meat, 
 and would not know what to do if they should 
 happen to stumble on a herd. They were 
 around with anything they could get hold of, 
 including knives, pistols, shot guns, etc. They 
 would ask me if the buffalo would fight, and 
 some seemed to imagine that they could ride 
 right up by the side of one and kill it with a 
 pistol or knife, and if they found a herd they 
 would rush right up as if they expected them 
 to stand still until they caught them by the 
 tails and cut their throats. In fact their crazy 
 rush and racket frightened the buffalo and 
 antelope out of the country and caused them 
 
1 88 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 to seek a refuge from the din and noise 
 farther west, and they ^vere so frightened that 
 they did not come back for six months. Most 
 of these fellows had been gulled into coming- 
 west by land agents to get cheap land and 
 had been bitten. At any rate they had driven 
 the buffalo off and we had to go back without 
 anv. 
 
CHAKJ.es I. YOUNGBLOOD. 1^9 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 ON ANOTHER BUFFALO HUNT PRAIRH^ ON 
 
 FIRE BUFFALO STAMPEDE AN EXCITBD 
 
 COMPANION NEARLY STARVED SNOW- 
 BOUND HUNTING WILD HORSES; ETC. 
 
 I WILL now call your attention to a buffalo 
 hunt that I took wnth a man by the name ot 
 Edward Riley. We started out from Wallace 
 Station on the K. R. Railroad. On the second 
 day we found a very large herd. They were 
 coming toward us, and as the prairie was on fire 
 behind them they were in a general stampede. 
 I left Riley with the team and killed five in a 
 very few moments, but was not long before 
 the fire was right on us and Riley became so 
 much frightened that I could not hardly do 
 anything with him, and while my attention was 
 directed to something else he turned and drove 
 off in a gallop to make his escape, leaving me 
 alone to do the best I could. After going a 
 
190 THE ADVIi:XTUKP:S OF 
 
 short distance be turned to come back, but b\- 
 this time the smoke was so dense that he 
 could net find me. I went on and dressed the 
 bultalo that I had killed, but Riley did not put 
 in pn appearance. By this time the danger 
 trom the fire was over and I waited 
 patiently until dark. Still Riley did not 
 appear. I began to cast about to see how I 
 was o-oino^ to keep from freezinjj^, as I had 
 left my coat on the wagon when I started 
 after the buffalo, and Riley had driven oti' 
 w' th it, leaving me in my shirt sleeves, and 
 the weather was very cold. I finally took the 
 hindes of two ol the buffalo that I had killed 
 and roiled myself up in them as close as 1 
 could, and it was not long until he\' froze and 
 become as solid as a holler log. Still I was 
 warm, but could not move at all. I lay thus 
 until the sun was an hour high in the morn- 
 ing, and by dint of hard squeezing I managed 
 to crawl out of my prison and look around, but 
 no Riley was to be seen. 
 
 I went to the top ot a high hill but could 
 not see him at all, though I could see for miles 
 
CHARLES I. YOUNGBLOOi:). I9I 
 
 in every direction. I did not see him until 
 late in the evenino- when he came in sigiit. 
 You can imagine how glad I was to see him 
 when I tell you that I had not had a bite to 
 eat since he had left me, over twenty-four 
 hours before, as I had no matches to start a 
 tire to cook it with. When he came up I got 
 a bite to eat, and we loaded up our m^eat and 
 started down Goose Creek. We had scared}' 
 started when it began to spit snow and indi- 
 cate a snow storm. We soon stopped and 
 camped in a draw and in the morning w^e 
 found that the snow had drifted around our 
 tent to the depth of about four feet, though on 
 the level it was only about six inches deep. 
 We got out and started, but it was so cold 
 and disagreeable that we had to stop again, 
 and we soon found ourselves snow-bound. 
 When it cleared off we began to make prep- 
 arations to move out, but found our wagon so 
 badly "snowed in'' that it took us some time 
 to shovel it out. After a hard tug w^e finall}' 
 got into Wallace, just two weeks from the 
 time we started. 
 
192 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 When we drove in the people came running 
 up to ask if we had seen or heard anything of 
 the Indians. They then told that there had 
 been a big fight in the vicinity of the station. 
 in which twenty-eight Indians had been killed. 
 They had given us up for gone, though we 
 had never seen an Indian or thought of dan- 
 ger. 
 
 I will now^ tell you of a wild horse chase 
 that I happened to get into a short time alter 
 my buffalo hunt. Three of us started out to 
 take three herds, one apiece. We took four 
 hands along with us. On the second day I 
 killed a load of buffalo and and sent a man in 
 to Lakin with it, and w^e went on until we 
 found wild horses, then we camped and pre- 
 pared lor business. 
 
 I selected for mine a herd of twenty-six — 
 twenty-five ba^^s and a roan — while the other 
 two took one a herd of twenty-two and the 
 other a herd of twenty-four, and we started 
 out to see who could do the best. The herds 
 started in the same general direction, going 
 northwest into Colorado about one hundred 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. I93 
 
 miles from where we started them. We 
 passed through a dry country but finally struck 
 a sec lion where there had been plenty of rain 
 and the grasswas good. Thehorses wanted to 
 stay here and began circling about. After 
 fifteen days' hard driving we drove into Lakin 
 with fifty-six head. 
 
 I had a corrall prepared for the purpose, 
 which was made of railroad ties set about 
 eighteen inches in the ground with wings 
 formed the same way leading into it. We got 
 them in the corrall after some difficulty, but 
 yet had a hard job on hand. They all had to 
 be broken or handled. To do this an exper- 
 ienced cow-boy throws a lasso over the head 
 of one and chokes him down, when he is 
 bitted and held by long ropes until he gives up 
 and consents to be led about. It is important 
 that they be handled as soon as they are driven 
 in before they have time to rest up. They 
 should also be handled every day until they 
 become perfectly docile. 
 
 In 1 88 1 I started out from Aubrey on a 
 buffalo hunt, and went north of the Arkansas 
 
 (25) 
 
194 J^'HE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 River. When I had gone about forty miles 
 I came to a small lake where I found signs 
 that buffalo had been there very recently. I 
 ascertained which direction they went and 
 started after them. When 1 had gone about 
 five miles I discovered a herd. I had two 
 teams and two men with me. I left the men 
 with the wagons and slipped up as close as I 
 could and wounded but one when they dashed 
 over a hill and out of sight, but I noticed that 
 they were bearing around the bill and ran 
 across to intercept them if I could do so. As 
 was running along I heard something behind 
 me, and, on looking around, saw a buffalo call 
 which had evidently been asleep when the rest 
 dashed oti and when it awakened it took right 
 after me. It was a small one and came right 
 to me. I seized it and held it until my men 
 came up with the wagons when we tied it and 
 put it in a wagon. When I got to the other 
 side of the hill I saw that the wounded one 
 had dropped close by the road side, but when 
 I got up to it I saw that one of its hams was 
 entirely gone. I was very much surprised, 
 
CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. I95 
 
 but on looking up the road I saw a wagon 
 with three men in it driving rapidly off. Ly- 
 ing the ground near the buffalo was a fine 
 iield glass, w^hich the fellows who stole my 
 buffalo ham had dropped in their haste. After 
 I had examined it I considered myself well 
 paid tor my ham and appropriated it. We 
 camped only about a mile off, and when we 
 got up in the morning saw two of the fellows 
 riding back and forth looking, as I naturally 
 supposed, for a held glass, but T doubt if they 
 found it. We drove a few miles that morning 
 aid found five buffalo but only got one, when 
 it began to rain and we had to go into camp. 
 We laid up till the rain was over and started 
 in. My calf died on the journey, but I killed 
 enough antelope to make out a good load. 
 
 For the information of any person East who 
 may chance to read this little book, I will 
 devote part of this chapter to a brief description 
 of Western Kansas generally, and the rivers 
 and river valleys in particular. 
 
 Begrinnino^ at the northwester corner of the 
 State and coming south the first river is the 
 
196 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 Republican River, which heads in Colorado 
 near, the foot of the mountains, and when it 
 comes into Kansas is about sixty yards wide 
 and is fed by springs. The Republican River 
 has several southern tributaries, many ol 
 which are supplied with waier and skirted 
 with some timber, though not enough to make 
 it a good location for saw mills. The next 
 stream of note as you go south is Solomon 
 River, which in the extreme western part of 
 the State is a small stream and has no watc, 
 but lower down it receives the waters of many 
 large springs and becomes quite a stream. 
 This stream is skirted in places with some 
 small timber and there are some good loca- 
 tions for ranches in this valley. South of 
 Solomon River is Cold Goose Creek, which is 
 fed by springs, and has some timber. There is 
 good mowing in many places and it has a fine 
 valley for ranches. The next stream south is 
 South Smoky River. This has plenty of 
 
 water and some timber. It is a good stream 
 
 « 
 for ranches, but is nearly all taken up. 
 
 South of the Arkansas River are many 
 
CHAl^LES L YOUNGHLOOJ:). I97 
 
 streams, some ha\e plenty of water and others 
 have not. There are many iine phices for 
 ranches on them. , 
 
 All this is in the valley of the Arkansas 
 River, and with its streams ol water and good 
 gr^Lzing is the best buffalo region on the 
 globe. 
 
 My buffalo hunting has not been confined 
 at all to Kansas, but I have frequently >'^i 
 into Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Indian 
 Territory and Texas, in fact, there is hardly a 
 square mile of western Kansas and the con- 
 tiguous territory that I have not explored. I 
 think perhaps that I am better acquainted with 
 it than any other living man. There is not a 
 creek that I cannot describe, not a skirt of 
 timber it I have not seen or a range of hills 
 that! lot lam ar with. 
 
198 THl:. ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 And now dear reader as the space allotted 
 to this little book is taken I will say a lew 
 words by wMy of conclusion and bid you 
 adieu. I wish only to say in conclusion that 
 in this little book is no attempt at fancitul 
 destriptions of imaginary adventures or flow- 
 ery style of narration, but it has been my aim 
 to state only facts and these in the briefest 
 manner practicable, and if you do not consider 
 it sufficiently romantic and exciting please re- 
 member that it is not a dime novel, but, 
 so far as it goes, a true history of my life on 
 the plains. Ple.';se remember, also, that it 
 was hurriedly written while on a visit to my 
 old home and my aged father in Warrick Co., 
 Indiana, after an absence of sixteen years, and 
 that but few of my adventures are related, 
 though enough, I hope, to give you an idea of 
 the wild life I have led on the plains. 
 
CHAl^I.ES L YOUNGIJLOOI). 1 99 
 
 Should any oi my old acquaintances in old 
 Hoosierdom ever visit Western Kansas, they 
 will find me on a ranch near Granada, Col- 
 orado, where I will be glad to entertain them, 
 show them the country, or, if they wish, take 
 them out on a buffalo hunt. 
 
 But as the time allotted to this visit has 
 drawn to a close, and as I must return to my 
 ranch and my family, this volume must 
 close. 
 
 THE END.