110 
FOREST AND STREAM. ! 
[Feb. II, 1905. m 
An Aries Person of the Fire 
Triplicity. 
Syracuse, N. Y., Jan. 23. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Will you pardon a question? Mr. Raymond S. Spears' 
"Floating Down The Mississippi" for Dec. 17, ends 
with the following words: "For my host was an Aries 
Person of the Fire Triplicity." 
I feel certain that it is only an error of the types, 
but perhaps there is something more. At any rate, I 
should be glad to be made wise. 
An Interested Reader. 
■We perceive that in withholding the further particulars 
of the Fire Triplicity man we have been guilty of three- 
fold, offending, as tO' Mr. Spears by whom they were 
written, the man of whom they were written, and the 
public for whom they were written. Here, then, is some- 
thing which will resolve our correspondent's perplexity, 
and tell him and others what manner of individual one 
whose sign is of the Fire Triplicity may be. Here is the 
picture of him as painted by himself and transmitted by 
Mr. Spears : 
"Had ary supper? Shoo! I just had mine, and you 
set right thar, the coffee's hot, the biscuits hot, molasses 
and jelly and some of that bacon, and — just he'p yo'se'f. 
Hueh-h ! Just listen to that rain — let's see ! Where is it 
that roof leakes — there's one, and there's another one. 
I 'lowed to fix it, but plumb forgot. I'll just hang them 
buckets, though, and I can empty them when they gets 
full, 'lowing I don't forget. My name's J. P. Robertson ; 
yes, sir, Jedediah P. Robertson, born in Kentucky; but 
it's 'comie easy go easy, God send Sunday' down in these 
parts. Everybody's got lots of money — don't give a cuss. 
You see I try to lead a good, honest. Christian life, and 
don't swear much; and so long's the roof keeps most 
the rain out it's all right till we gets a better one. 
Hu-e-e-h ! but she's raining now. 
"Yessir, lots of money in these parts nowadays. You'd 
ought to have been here a month ago — tents up one side 
and down t'other of the river — pearlers. Fust they drug 
the stream with crowsfeet and then they tonged for 'em, 
and toward the last they got right in with hip boots and 
feed-forked 'em out. Sixty-two thousand dollars' worth 
of shells sold right here in the ten miles from L'Anquille 
to Madison. Willis Starkey — that man right over there — 
got $1,700 worth of pearls and shells himself— pearls and 
slugs_ and shells. I tell you it was a sight ! Enough 
scalding out going on to iiceep forty steamboats running. 
And money ! Everybody had it — everybody's got it in 
these parts. Finest country in the world — when you get 
used to it. Yessir, bestest, goodest natur'd, handsomest, 
cleverest you ever did meet. And they're all friends of 
mine, black and white. Go out here any time, and it's 
'Why, how de do, Mr. Robertson,' or 'Uncle Jim;' 
nothing like having friends and going to church. I goes 
every time there's preaching. 
"When they commences to dig pears here this spring 
I'm going to load this old boat of mine— 'taint so old, 
built it two years ago, and she'll hold thirty-two tons, 
and I'll pay $10 right here on the bank. I'll tow down 
if I don't have a gasolene in by that time. I used to own 
a steamboat myself — Tom Scott, belonged to the Big 
Sandy trade— but Ed. Smith chartered it to carry vege- 
tables down to the Creoles in the Laygoons of Louisiana. 
That was back in 1874. We went down there to the 
laygoons, and when we got to the head of the Chaflfelli 
(Atchafalaya) there was a mud bar clean across it, water 
falling,, and we just lathering there wanting to get that 
cargo into the Creole country. Well, Smith he said, 'I'll 
give you a hundred dollars if you'l go acrost it,' and I 
said, "All right, if you'll pay the damage to the boat if I 
don't get over.' 'AH right,' and he was getting reckless 
you see, and I didn't care in them days ; so I j ust backed 
Tom Scott clear 'crost Red River and had, the stern 
wheel just sprinkling the trees on the other side when we 
started, and the safety valve tied down, and the boat 
just shivering, and she jumped and we headed for that 
mud, and everybody ketched hold of something so's he 
wouldn't get knocked down. I didn't have to, because 
my legs was all right then. And we hit that mud and 
went right through, and like to have went clear to the 
Gulf of Mexico before we could stop the blamed old 
thmg, slicking through that way and onexpectedly in a 
hurry. But we stopped her, and Ed. Smith guv me the 
hundred and he sold the hull cargo and had a wad big 
as your hat, and three or four shot bags full of silver 
and some gold. And I got a good price for my work, too, 
you know, for I was born lucky. Yessir, born lucky. A 
gentleman out here by the name of Mr. Horton— he's 
postmaster— sent my name with the date of my birth 
and so on, and I never suspected nothing. Well, sir, that 
professor he sent it to just sent what I call a perfect pen 
picture of me— a fine diagnosis of my life, if I do say it 
It's around here somewhere— let's see. Here 'tis in that 
old pile of papers." 
He brought out an envelope and from this took a pink 
paper, on which was printed, among other thino-s ■ 
"Dear Friend— Your sign is Aries, The Ram This i« 
the sign of the Fire Triplicity. This is the most favor- 
able sign to be born under, as the Aries usually posses'^ 
extraordinary characters and are noted for their push 
energy and executive ability. As to earnestness they 
are unequalled— Aries do not recognize opposition and' 
gvvmg through l?fg QYcxMn^ all obstacles. -'^ ' ' ' ^ 
"They make excellent scholars, charming conversation- 
alists — brilliant, witty, charming. They have active 
minds — can change from one subject to another — and are 
of great intuitive powers, possessing electro-magnetic 
power by means of laying on hands. They can amass 
great wealth and achieve high distinction by paying strict 
attention to improving their higher nature and making 
it rule and dominate their lower nature. They love and 
adore beauty, like order, harmony and luxurious 
surroundings — " 
"Yessir," Robertson said, breaking in, "that's just me. 
I ain't old, no sir. I ain't married. My wife died in '92 
■ — good woman, too, and I've been alone ever since except 
when I've had a housekeeper. I expect to get one before 
long — just as soon as she can get a divorce, and she's a 
good girl. Yessir, twenty-six years old and good looking 
and graceful ; only when she was a little girl she fell 
down stairs and broke her back, and that left a hump, 
so she can't wear tight-fitting clothes. That's why her 
husband left her — all the reason in the world. She said 
so, and now I'm going to take care of her — dress her up 
and make a lady of her; that's me. 
"There never was anything narrow or mean about the 
Robertsons, no sir. My father was murdered in 1873 by 
old Jim Shelton, who heloed him build the Glade Spring 
church. They paid my father $2,000 for the work in cash, 
and he started for home with it, after paying the money 
he owed Shelton, Shelton passing the remark that he'd 
have more of that money. Well, when father was away 
from there a bit he passed the money over to mother, 
and when Shelton shot him in the back with a load of 
buckshot from the bresh, she just hiked out and got 
away, and Shelton didn't get ary cent of it. Just beat 
him clean out of it. She seen Shelton, and the sheriff's 
guard got him, but he escaped from it and started, an3 
then the boys and neighbors took after him, run him 
'cross Pike county into Lawrence county from Washing- 
ton county, and overtook him on Big Plain Creek, him 
and his wife; and they put fifty-seven bullets into him 
before he could turn round, and she went back to her 
relatives, the Troxal family. 
I've been engaged in the merchantile business lately, 
and it seems like the merchantile business just fits my 
internal disposition. I always was very good at a trade, 
and in merchantile transactions I have usually always, 
I might say, kept up my end of the lifting. Of late, 
however, I have been catching logs for the mill down 
here, and they do say my logs are the best in the market, 
for I always tell them if there are any spikes or iron in 
them, they can cut them out; so I always gets the highest 
market price for them. Before I got tangled up in the 
vines at the ferry and had my legs broke, I was a track 
walker on a great railroad system; but now I have to de- 
pend on my own resources for my living, and I run the 
ferry here at present, but I expect to put in a gasolene en- 
gine on this boat now. I have it ordered from the gaso- 
lene mortar company at Connecticut, and I believe I shall 
go down to Red River, engaging in the merchantile busi- 
ness when the weather opens up. 
"That cat feeding there is a pretty good one; but I 
used to have a large one here. One large as four of 
that one, and more smarter than any other I ever saw. 
He was a big one — I tell you he was a golly-whopper. 
He used to go out and catch rabbits and bring them in 
for me to cook when I wasn't so able to get out around 
as I am now on account of my legs. One of my neigh- 
bors up the river has him now, and positively refused to 
let me have it. 
"Did you ever engage in the detective business? I 
have been considering the advisability , of sending for a 
detective to look into matters fifteen miles above here. 
My neighbors are the finest people in the world, but fif- 
teen miles above here there have been some killings that 
ought to be looked into. Some men when they once gets 
to killing never know when to stop. Seems like they are 
mighty careless, and needs a lesson. There was John 
Luckett, a farmer, who came three years ago from Ohio; 
and_ Henry Spurgeon, who came in representing a de- 
tective agency, and married John Pattison's daughter; 
and then William Sackett, a medicine peddler, with his 
right hand cut off— all friends of mine, pussonel and 
clost— and they got killed on the St. Francis line at Sand 
Slough, fifteen miles above here. They found Luckett 
shot through twice, and off the back of his horse and 
robbed. And Sackett was found in a boat beat to death 
with an oar, and Henry Spurgeon just up and disap- 
peared, nobody knowed what did become of him ; and 
this was all right around John Mosely's house. Yessir, 
somebody's getting mighty keerless' bought killing folks ; 
and bein' a law-abiding citizen of these yer parts, I just 
can't stand it no longer, and I'm going to send for a 
detective to J 00k into these matters." 
And so 01, and so on — an endless variety of curious 
gossip. .. Raymond S. Spears. 
The Eagfle. 
He clasps the crag with hooked hands; 
Close to the sun in lonely lands, 
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands. 
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; 
He watches from his mountain walls; 
And like a thunderbolt he falls. 
A Buffalo Hunt with the Comanchesi 
(Continued from ^age 86.) 
The long evenings here were passed in the chiefs lodge 
holding "talks." I was teaching astronomy, geologj-. 
geography and theology now; the theology they lugged in:' 
themselves, though, or I should not have touched on it 
at all. 
When out with me the boys would take my compass and 
turn it around quickly to see the needle fly back, then ask 
why it did so. I tried to tell them. I might have given] 
them any fool answer and they would have believed it; 
but I wanted to give them the right one or none at all; 
and in order to do that I had to tell them that the world 
was round like a ball, and not flat as they supposed it 
was; and then tell them about the North Pole and whyj 
this needle always pointed to it. Then the boys would 
tell their fathers what I had told them, and every night; 
I would have as many men and boys as the lodge would 
hold asking questions about what the white man knew 
about this, that and the other. They called this holding 
talks. One night they would want to know about the 
creation of the world, how long this world had been here, 
and if there were any other worlds. Another night they 
wanted to know how many white men there were in all 
this country. 
"How many grains of sand are there on the bank of the 
river at the Salt Fork?" 1 asked. 
"We do not know, we could not count them, there are 
so many." 
"So it is with the Avhite men. I never could count 
them. No man can^they are so many. Their houses 
cover the land everywhere." 
"He tells you the truth now," the chief said, "they are 
many. I have seen them. Their houses stand close to- 
gether as far as you can see. There is hardly room to 
walk there ; the houses stand everywhere." 
Then the chief told us of a visit he had made to the Great 
Father; it was between 1856 and i860, as I found by 
questioning him, for the great father he had seen was 
President Buchanan. He told them of the big cities he 
had seen, of the railroads and the ships. He had seen 
the ships in Baltimore; at least his description of the big 
city fitted Baltimore. The ships opened up another 
branch of the subject, and now I had to tell them where 
the ships went to and what for. I had been all over the 
South Pacific in a steam whaler, and told them about 
those islands and their people. Then I told them that 
these ships which the chief had seen could go east, and by 
keeping on could come home from the west ; and that this 
was one way we had of telling that the world was round 
and not flat. 
At last early one morning the chief started on his way 
home. As usual, I left the camp in advance with the boys' 
and we had not gone three miles when we met the buffalo 
we had been waiting for, but they were coming from the 
east now, the Indians hunting east of us having driven 
them west. I sent a boy back on a fast pony to tell the 
chief, so that he could camp again before he had left the 
creek. Then getting behind the herd we drove them 
closer in and began killing them. In less than half an 
hour the chief and his men were out and at it. We shot 
them all this day, and the next we took at least 150 more. 
The greater part of the meat we had to leave here. We 
could not have carried it if we had stopped to cure it. I 
told the chief to keep on and shoot down these buffalo 
and skin them; that was what the white men were doing, 
and the buffalo belonged to the Indian. 
Only a few of us hunted on the second day, the rest 
of the men and all the boys skinned them, and at dark the 
prairie was dotted all over with buffalo that had not yet 
been skinned. We killed fewer of them the second day; 
there were not so many of them here now. At last the 
chief told us to stop. He had all the robes he could 
carry, and was in good humor about it. We had taken 
altogether this winter between 600 and 700 robes, besides 
a lot of skins from old bulls; these would be tanned on 
both sides to- make pack covers. The chief had 140 of 
these, the other families the rest. I must have shot over 
fifty buffalo myself. I never kept count of them. Part 
of these went to the chief, the rest to whoever skinned 
them. 
The larger boys skinned the buffalo I shot. Two of 
them would take off a hide almost as fast as his men " 
could. I could skin them myself for a robe. When I did 
any skinning my pet boy, the Antelope, who was always 
wherever I was, helped me. We opened them first just 
along the backbone, and not under the belly as a butcher 
would; that would spoil the skin for a robe. The choice 
parts of the buffalo were the tongue and tenderloin. I 
always took these, no matter how much else was left. 
Another part of the buffalo that these and all other In- 
dians ate was the unborn calf cut out of the mother cow 
that had been killed. I had eaten them with Tonkaway 
Indians, but did not care for them. 
After a few days we made another start and kept on 
this time, but went ahead very slowly. The grass was 
poor and our ponies were so heavily loaded that we only 
made about fifteen miles a day, and traveled only four or ' 
five days at a time; then lay over to rest our ponies. 
New Year's Day, 1876, found us camped on the Salt Fork, 
and now we would have to follow this river down to 
about wher^ I had sent the Arapaho chief on our way out. 
We could not follow the trail we had come in here on; ; 
it would be top far bet^^^een w?^ter, and the next place ' 
