226 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



In coming to Fort Sill, I had inadvertently come 

 from one department into another, and the major 

 had no power to send men out of his department 

 without orders from General Sheridan, the com- 

 manding general of the Army. So I had to wait at 

 Fort Sill until the matter could be arranged. 



The southern cowboys, who hated the army blue 

 and the darky soldiers who were stationed at the 

 Fort, were doing all that they could to irritate the 

 officers. While the latter were at dinner and the 

 soldiers off duty, a squad of cowboys would ride into 

 the post across the well-kept grass on the parade 

 grounds up to the flagstaff, and fire at the Stars and 

 Stripes. Another of their tricks was to shoot off 

 the glass insulators from the government telegraph 

 lines which connect the Fort with the headquarters 

 at Leavenworth and with the Department of the 

 Gulf. They had just accomplished this piece of 

 mischief when I arrived at the Fort, and before the 

 major could communicate with General Pope, Com- 

 mander of the Department of the Missouri, in which 

 Fort Sill was situated, he had to send out the signal 

 sergeant to repair the line. 



At last, however, all was arranged, and by general 

 order, Corporal Bromfield, three privates, a six- 

 mule team, and a wagon with a white teamster, and 

 fifty days' rations, were detailed for my use. I 

 started out with this escort, elated by the knowledge 



