144 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[pEt. ig, 189^. 
to their hiding place the3' would kill them with arrows, 
as the noise of firearms would discover them to the camp. 
Thej' killed one of the boys, but the other, although 
wounded, managed to escape. The Crows scalped the 
one killed and then made the best of their waj- back to 
where the main war party wa.s. On telling them of their 
adventure, it was determined to moA'e awaj^ as fast as 
possible, and to gain a rocky hill some distance toward 
the Yellowstone, as the Sioux would without doubt at 
once follow them. 
This place was they thought impregnable. On the top 
of a small hill there was an open space of quite an ex- 
tent, but entirely surrounded by rocks several feet in 
height. They believed that here they could stand off any 
number of Sioux that might be sent against them, and 
as they had plenty of ammunition they were not at all 
alarmed for the result. That night they reached this 
rocky fortress without being overtaken by the Sioux, 
- who, however, were hard on their trail, and before 
morning made themselves secure behind the rocky 
breasfworks. As soon as the wounded boy had told his 
story a verj' large war party of Sioux had started after 
the Crows. It consisted of several hundred warriors, 
but some time was consumed in finding the trail, so that 
the Sioux did not come within sight of the place the 
Crows occupied until the next morning, and on seeing 
the natural fortification the Crows occupied a council 
was held by the Sioux to determine what should be done. 
Many plans were .suggested for dislodging the Crows 
irom their stronghold, but none were found practicable, 
and at length the chiefs agreed that the place was too 
strong to take, and that it was better to leave the Crows 
alone, as a great loss of men must occur should they 
attack, and the result would be more than doubtful. It 
was therefore determined to return to camp and leave 
the Crows alone, and a large majority started on their 
return. 
On, seeing the Sioux begin to withdraw the Crows 
sprang on to the rocks, taunting, and making derisive 
and contemptuous gestures, such as waving their breech 
clouts and other mocking signs. 
Now among the Sioux was a chief named Little As- 
sinaboine, who all through the council had remained 
silent. He was a noted warrior, and very brave. When 
the main body of the Sioux had started to return to their 
camp he had not followed them, but with a few of his 
followers had remained watching the Crows. He now 
turned to one of his young men and said to him: "Fol- 
low the party who are returning, and tell them all to 
come back at once; that I say so." The messenger soon 
overtook the party, who, on receiving the message, at 
once returned. 
Now," said Little Assinaboine on their return, "these 
Crows have killed our young man; they taunt us with 
cowardice. Let us give them all the fight they want. 
"We will divide up into two parties; I will lead thirty 
men, and we will make a dash straight for their strong- 
hold. I know it well, and have been in it many times. 
If we can get riglit up to the rocks on the outside we 
will find many large cracks between them, and we can 
sec right into where the Crows are, and can push our 
guns through and kill them on the inside. 
"The main party will go round to the other side, and 
when we are right up to the rocks they can rush up and 
climb over. The Crows will not see them, as I shall 
keei) them occupied." 
This plan was at once adopted, and after singing their 
war song they commenced to put it into execution. 
Little Assinaboine with about thirty men strung out 
.'-.ome distance from each other made a rush for the wall 
of rocks; the Crov/s poured a murderous fire into them 
and no less than eleven men fell dead before they 
reached tlie outside of their hiding place, which, led by 
Little Assinaboine, they at last gained. When they 
reached the outside of the rocks they found, as he said, 
many cracks through which they could see the Crows 
inside, and through which also they could push their 
guns. This they did, and in this way slaughtered many 
Crows, being themselves safe from any fire frorn within. 
In the meantime as soon as they saw that Little As- 
sinaboine had gained the wall a hundred or more Sioux 
had rushed to the place from theother side, and a. slaughter 
grirn and grtat took place. It was not over until every 
. Crow— thirty-one in all — had been killed, together with 
one horse taken from the Sioux boy killed by the scout, 
and a dog. 
The Sioux lost many men, and Little Assinaboine was 
wounded. 
In commemoration of Little Assinaboine's brave rush 
for the rocks the Indians followed his footsteps in the 
snow, and in each footprint placed a flat rock, thus mark- 
ing his tiail from the place he started the charge. After 
this he was looked upon as one of their bravest warriors, 
• which he most undoubtedly was. The memory of 
their great loss remains with the Crows until this day. 
T visited the spot in 1878, and the long zigzag trail of 
flat stones where Little Assinaboine stepped was still 
plain to be seen. Within the rock inclosure I found 
many human bones, together with those of a horse and 
a dog. I therefore had .lo doubt of the truth of the 
story. 
The rocks on the outside showed dozens of bullet 
marks as fresh as if only fired the day before. This I 
consider as brave a charge as was ever made by Indians, 
or even whites, and Little Assinaboin^e deserved the 
name of the bravest warrior among the Sioux. 
W. Jackson. 
A Society Dog. 
St. Augtjstine, Fla.— Now don't laugh, for if Towser 
is not in society, who is? He calls on most of the cot- 
tagers pretty regularly and never misses an afternoon 
tea or any other social function, and while not actually 
.hitting the ball, is generally, although sometimes an ap- 
parently slightly bored observer of the game of golf. 
And this seems to be the way it has all come about: 
Some two years ago hig owner went North in the 
spring and Towser was as usual left behind. For some 
reason or other Towser came to the conclusion that 
if his master and mistress went away without consulting 
him and left him to loneliness and the servants and per- 
haps to shorter rations, his obligations as a faithful dog 
ceased, and he began to visit around among those he 
had known as friends of his master and mistress.. As 
he was never obtrusive and always pleasant, with never 
any suspicion of taking offense, he gradually extended 
the circle of his acquaintance until it has taken in almost 
all of the fashionable set. He has the way when meet- 
ing any one of his acquaintances of appearing to wish 
to impress upon them that he is his dearest friend. He 
•seems careful to show that no mere desire for cake im- 
pels him not to miss an afternoon tea, as I think he 
rarely indulges in cake on such occasions. He usually 
adopts some one household as his regular boarding 
place for a while, where he can take most of his meals, 
and varies it with an occasional visit of a day or two to 
some other especial friend. 
During the weeks of early winter, when the winter 
residents are returning, Towser spends a good part of 
the day near the post-ofiice greeting his old friends 
among the arrivals. 
Towser, or Rover, as he is sometimes called, is a cross 
between a collie and a setter. The most marked char- 
acteristic of Towser that distinguishes him from the or- 
dinai-y herd of dogs and links him closer to humanity 
is the fact of his very numerous friends and acquain- 
tances, both men and women, but of the ordinary dog- 
like attachment to none. 
Like human beings, he has warmer attachments to 
some than to others. He may think it wise to put ab- 
solute trust in noire, and his experience when his first 
family left him may in his doggish mind have taught 
him to have if possible more than one friend to rely 
upon. 
How he always gets wind of every particular social 
function I do not know, but he has learned that his 
presence is always agreeable, and so he very unobtru- 
sively makes himself at home, and if things to him some- 
times grow a little dull he seeks some quiet corner and 
takes a nap, but is fresh and alert as the guests are 
ready to depart. 
It may be that dogs, or at least some dogs, are in the 
line of the development of the end of the century. W. 
Taxidermy and Sculpture. 
As yet there are but few people that know that taxi- 
dermy and sculpture are arts closely akin. So near are 
they related that they might be called one, for now to 
be a taxidermist one must be a sculptor, and the better 
the sculptor the better the taxidermist. If he is no 
sculptor he must be nothing more than an old-time 
••stuffer," whose ambition was to see how much straw 
or excelsior he could ram into a skin. These old meth- 
ods are now passing away; an evolution is taking place 
in the art, and before the general public has had time 
to realize that any progress was being made, taxidermy 
has passed from the crude stuffing out a skin to the very 
highest art in modeling. 
It was only a few years ago that some of the most 
enlightened taxidermists and naturalists began to build 
a form of excelsior or straw, tightly bound into shape 
with thread— a manikin, as they called it. Then some 
one suggested the idea of covering that manikin with 
a thin coat of papier mache or wet clay to give it smooth- 
ness, and later some attempted to model a little, but up 
to that time the most progressive taxidermist of them 
all had only been looking at the art from the naturalist's 
standpoint; not one of them had studied the art of mod- 
eling. For this reason the very best of their specimens 
Avcre void of form save for a few outlines and for their 
attitudes, which were often correct. 
Although these men had pushed the art forward, they 
were yet far from the point which has now been reached. 
Their methods then were considered excellent, but time 
has proved them to be useless from the standpoint of 
art, for reasons that I will give. Up to five years ago, 
nothing better was known than to build a form of excel- 
sior and cover it with a coating of Avet clay, after which 
the skin was put over that manikin. Now the skin, be- 
ing exposed to the air, must necessarily dry before the 
clay that is under the skin, and therefore any modeling 
that might have been shown in the clay was spoiled by 
the tightening and warping of the hardening skin over 
the soft clay, and where the ambitious taxidermist had 
left a depression the skin in drying drew out and bridged 
it over, and where there was a protuberance the tight- 
ening skin often flattened itaout of shape. 
There is another great drawback to the use of wet clay 
manikins which has come under my observation in the 
last few years; that is, the bursting of the skin caused 
by the clay being next to the skin and continually ab- 
sorbing the animal matter out of the skin. After a while 
this dries and burns the skin to such an extent that I 
have seen some specimens that were burst in at least half 
a hundred different places and with the pieces of skin 
of what had been a perfect specimen hanging down on 
all sides. This trouble I remedied by putting a coat 
of a composition wax over the manikin, the wax being 
mixed to the consistency of soft butter. This composi- 
tion, being waterproof, served to prevent the moisture 
of the skin from penetrating the clay, and vice versa. 
Besides this, as it was very soft, it served to make the 
skin stick to the form, and then the skin could easily 
be slipped into place. These improvements, however, 
were not enough, for I have found that in drying clay 
loses about one-twentieth of its volume by shrinkage, 
and therefore is sure to spoil the modeling to a certain 
extent, as it never dries evenly. Some parts may have 
more water than others, and therefore shrink more, so 
that I have at last decided to discard the old method of 
mounting altogether. 
It was after taking a two years' study of art in Paris 
that it occurred to me that by making a hard model 
and doing all the modeling that I wanted in this, and 
then letting it thoroughly dry before putting thg" skin 
on it, I might get the best of tough skins. This has, 
indeed, brought me far better results than could be 
attained by the old method. 
I have now brought the art of taxidermy to the point 
where I have so longed to see it placed — on even terms 
with sculpture — for I now proceed to model an animal 
which is to have the natural skin over the model exactly 
as 1 would if I intended to produce it in bronze or 
marble. I first make all my necessary studies, then a 
small model; then I proceed to make my original model 
in solid clay or wax, and model it in the same way and 
with the same care as I would a human figure. With 
such a model, by using proper care, one can do just 
what he likes, and if he is any kind of a sculptor he 
ought to be able to produce a masterpiece of taxidermy. 
Now, whether I want to produce this model in bronze or 
taxidermy, it is quite the same thing, save as to the 
modeling of the hair.^ I then cast the perfectly modeled 
form in plaster, then it is a question of whether you want 
it in bronze or in some composition. 
Of course, it is understood that if this model is to have 
skin put over it, long hair should be omitted on the 
model, and a little allowance made for the skin — for in- 
stance, as in wrinkles, where each wrinkle touches an- 
other, the taxidermist must make allowance for the fold 
of the skin — but otherwise it is exactly the same. • One 
must give every muscle its proper form and relative 
value to each other muscle; he must make that form 
take life under his thumb; he must make it breathe. 
He must get his proper lights and shades, the tones and 
half tones to each form; must accentuate the form just 
enough to give it strength, and must let others see what 
he has seen; in fact, he must do all that a sculptor 
would do, except to show the texture of the skin and 
hair. 
Often I have wished I had no skin to put on, for one 
is greatly handicapped by a skin. Take a lion, for in- 
stance. No matter how much skill and art you may 
use in your modeling, if you have not a fine mane on 
the skin it is no lion at all. I had that experience some 
time ago in my roaring lion. We cannot make mane 
grow on a lion's skin, but a short time later I produced 
one in bronze that was the admiration of those who saw 
it. Now I was able to do what I wanted, and where 
the lion's skin had no mane, in the bronze I was able 
to make it grow to my ideal — a privilege that we have 
not in taxidermy, where we must take the skins as they 
are — and so many times I have wished I had no skin 
to put on the model, but could finish it in sculpture. 
I believe that the art of taxidermv is now raised to 
the highest point that it will ever attain, according to the 
ability of the sculptor who makes a model that may be 
cast in plaster and then in a composition that will take 
the perfect form of your molds, whether it be cast in 
bronze, zinc or lead, or any metal or composition that 
may be permanent. To this perfect form the skin must 
be applied, glued tight, every curve of the hair and 
every fold of the skin being in its proper place. When 
this has been done I do not think that more can be 
asked for, save the live animal itself. 
George H. StorE; 
"That reminds me." 
Mert Wilxiams was a printer, and he "held cases" on 
a morning paper. Al Walker was a machinist. The two 
were neighbors. When work was slack in the shop and 
Walker was laid off, he would take his hook and line and 
stroll along the river bank. When Williams put on a 
"sub," which he did one and two nights a week, he 
would devote his spare time to practicing shorthand. 
To-day he is court stenographer at the price of $3,000 a 
year, while Walker more than ever strolls along the 
river bank, for the machine has made sad havoc with 
the machinist. Williams's mouth would "water" for fish 
when Walker passed his way with a fine string. Walker 
suggested to Williams th9.t he try his luck, and to begin 
on suckers. 
"Easiest thing in the world," he said, "to catch suck- 
ers." And he explained how it was done. 
Williams could never have any luck fishing, but it 
appeared so easy to catch suckers he though he would try 
try it. "I'll play a trick on my wife," he said to Walker. 
"I'll slip quietly out of bed in the morning without dis- 
turbing her, and bring back a string for breakfast." 
So he harvested a can of angle worms. It was a raw, 
cold spring morning, with a drizzling rain, and the com- 
fortable bed nearly upset Williams's plans. When he 
arrived at the meeting place Walker was there with line 
set. The plan was to fasten a number of small hooks on 
short strings to the end of the main line, weight the 
whole thing and drop them into the river, the other end 
tied to a stick stuck into the earth. The sucker would 
come nosing along on the river bottom, suck in the 
bait, and all you had to do was to pull in the fish, for 
the sucker is a very docile creature. Walker stood with 
his hands in his pockets, watching the stick. "Easiest 
thing in the world," he remarked. "Sometimes I catch 
two or three at once." 
WilHams had an unpleasant task stringing the worms 
on the hook. His fingers got cold and numb, and the 
hooks would tangle up. He would whip his hands around 
his body, blow on them, press them between his legs, and 
then renew his task. In tossing the weight into the water 
one of the hooks caught in his clothes. Walker had 
• already pulled in a nice, fat sucker. "Easiest thing in 
the world," he remarked again. 
If Williams had been an experienced fisherman he 
would have heaved the weight into the water first and 
set the stick last. That was a serious error. The sinker, 
given a strong throw, fell well out into the water; the 
Hne came taut, pulling the stick out of the earth, and 
as it was going into the river Williams made a rush for 
it, barely missing it, when the soft bank went from under 
his feet, and he dropped into the Avater up to his neck. 
Walker fished him out. 
"Easiest thing in the world to catch suckers," he sput- 
tered, as he started on a run for home, E. P. M. 
The FoEEST AND Stream is put to press each weeh on 
Tuesday. Correspondence intended for publication 
snould reach us at the la.test hy Monday, and as much 
earlier as practicahle. 
