LET US GO AFIELD 



might, cleaning his rifle and shooting steadily. One, 

 two, ten, twenty his belt was empty at last and the 

 ground in front of him was black. 



One is almost tempted to be thankful that the 

 Indians sometimes got him before he got back to 

 camp. Yet he was living according to his lights and 

 according to his environment. Sometimes he went 

 to the legislature or to Congress afterward. There 

 are very many good men in the West, leading men, 

 who were skin-hunters in their time. 



Sometimes a skinner was paid so much a hide for 

 his work, or sometimes he was hired on a time basis, 

 or sometimes all the men were equal partners. Fifty 

 cents a hide was occasionally paid. The camp-cook, 

 after he heard the rifle begin its work a mile or two 

 away, would throw a sheaf of worn I. Wilson 

 butcher-knives before the skinners who grumblingly 

 made ready to go at their work. It was monoto- 

 nous, skinning some millions of buffalo over a thou- 

 sand miles of country. One genius invented a time- 

 saving device a long iron picket-pin, which was 

 driven through the jaws of the dead buffalo, fasten- 

 ing the carcass firmly to the ground. Then he loos- 

 ened the hide around the neck, cut it down the belly, 

 and attached his team of horses to the free edge of 

 the tough neck-skin. Starting up his team, he ripped 

 the entire hide from the body sometimes. 



138 



