1879.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
51 
Editorial Correspondence From the 
Far West. 
Protection for Border Settlers. 
The people in the far Western States and Terri¬ 
tories take a vital interest in the question now 
pending at Washington as to the disposition and 
management of the Indians. So far as my obser¬ 
vations extend, the opinion is all but unanimous 
among them, that the War Department should be 
vested with the control of the Indians. While it 
is difficult to know how many grains of truth there 
are in the declarations put forth on both sides, I am 
thoroughly satisfied that several tribes on the reser¬ 
vations have been treated in the most shameful man¬ 
ner by agents and contractors. There is little or no 
doubt of this. At the same time, while the Indians 
may have received bad treatment at the hands 
of the Government agents, and been fully warranted 
in breaking away from the reservations, there is no 
justification or shadow of excuse for the horrible 
excesses which the Cheyennes perpetrated during 
their recent flight from the Indian Territory through 
Kansas and Nebraska. I have passed over a con¬ 
siderable portion of their trail, and language fails 
to describe the outrages of which they were guilty. 
With the present small number of troops scattered 
through the western country, there is no guarantee 
against a repetition of these Indian raids ; and there 
is now a feeling of insecurity in Western Kansas 
and Nebraska, and Eastern Colorado and Wyoming, 
lest the redskins may at any time break forth 
afresh from their reservations and start northward, 
or wherever their inclination may lead them. Con¬ 
gress owes it to these pioneer settlers to immedi¬ 
ately afford them the needed protection and securi¬ 
ty, by furnishing a sufficient number of men to 
guard the country. It is idle to talk about ample 
protection being afforded with the few hundred 
soldiers which are now quartered at the different 
posts remote from one another. With so few 
troops, and no better management of them, there 
is no reason why another band of discontented In¬ 
dians should not decamp from the Indian Territory 
and suddenly sweep down on the frontier settle¬ 
ments. In the month of October I met in Kansas 
a most estimable Christian gentleman from Pough¬ 
keepsie, N. Y., who was on his way to the Indian 
Territory to ascertain for himself whether it was 
true or not true that the Indians were being poorly 
fed and otherwise very badly cared for. I have now 
met him again returning home, and he assures me 
that the stories of wrong-doing, on the part of the 
Indian agents have not been at all exaggerated. 
Among the Modocs and other tribes which he visit¬ 
ed, he found that wretched flour had been palmed 
off on the Indians; that there was a scarcity of good 
food, and a considerable mortality therefrom, and 
that the Indians are very much discontented be¬ 
cause of their ill treatment generally. Several in¬ 
stances were narrated to him of actual starvation, 
and he proposes making them known to the Gov¬ 
ernment and the public. The stock growers in 
Western and Southern Kansas, and Eastern Colora¬ 
do and Nebraska, are well aware of this condition 
of things on the reservations, and they justly de¬ 
mand that the Government provide them with suf¬ 
ficient troops as a safeguard against the evil results 
which may follow from this mismanagement. They 
furthermore demand that the different operations 
of officers who had charge of affairs during the 
recent raid of the Cheyennes be investigated. 
Military Mismanagement. 
I was in the vicinity of Ogalalla, Neb., when the 
red warriors crossed the Platte River, at that point. 
I was also there a few hours later when Thornburg’s 
command from Sidney joined in the pursuit. The 
whole management of the troops was characterized 
by a succession of blunders, and all the civilians in 
this region of country are wondering that a court- 
martial has not been held before this time to fix the 
responsibility for the mismanagement,and to punish 
the offenders. It was no thanks to the officers 
that all the stock-growers, together with their 
families, cattle, and sheep were not killed or driven 
out of the country. As it was, many of them 
suffered death, and others sought safety in flight 
leaving their cattle to be butchered by the Indians. 
Congress will certainly commit a great wrong if it 
does not take immediate steps to protect this west¬ 
ern region from any fresh Indian incursions. 
West from Sidney, as far as Utah Territory, there 
is a feeling of security along the line of the Union 
Pacific Railroad against Indian forays, inasmuch as 
there is an almost continuous chain of forts, stock¬ 
ades and ranches through the country to the north. 
Hostile Indians could not approach the road with¬ 
out first striking these outposts, when an alarm 
would be sounded along the entire line. 
Desperadoes in Wyoming: Territory. 
More troops however are required through this 
region of country, because, owing to the hard times 
and other causes, there are more desperadoes at the 
present time in Wyoming than ever before. I have 
at one time or another during my tour, seen several 
of these outlaws who had been captured, and I 
must say that they are the most desperate looking 
men to be met with. The majority of them are 
principally from Missouri and adjoining States; 
some come from the Eastern States. One was 
formerly a preacher in New Jersey, who, after shoot¬ 
ing the unworthy lover of his sister, fled from jus¬ 
tice to Wyoming, and eventually became a high¬ 
wayman. These robbers generally live together in 
bands of fifteen or twenty, and have a rendezvous 
in the foot-hills north or south of the railroad. 
From their hiding-places they saunter out in bands 
of five, ten, or fifteen, according to the work on 
hand, to attack the Black Hill’s lines of coaches, 
plunder the ranches and post stores, run off horses, 
or to ditch a railway train, and rob the passengers. 
Ditching- Railway Trains. 
During the month of September, a band of these 
deperadoes, having their lair in Elk Mountain, 
not far from Rock Creek, planned the destruction 
of a train on the Union Pacific and the capture of 
the specie en route from California. The success at¬ 
tending the Big Spring robbery last year, near Oga¬ 
lalla, apparently led to this and similar attempts. I 
was on the road when this last plot to ditch a 
train was defeated by a good stroke of fortune. A 
freight-train preceded the express, and of course 
was thrown from the track by the displaced rail. 
Two sheriffs from Green River, who soon after 
followed the trail of the train wreckers to Elk Moun¬ 
tain, were ambuscaded by the latter and riddled 
with bullets. A little later, the camp of these 
higwaymen was discovered, and I was invited to 
join a considerable troop of soldiers and civilians 
who had planned a surprise of the camp. It was 
the intention to shoot down the whole of them and 
not to take a single prisoner. Unfortunately, how¬ 
ever, a few hours before the designated time for 
starting, one of the civilians while under the 
effects of liquor talked too freely at Rock Creek, 
regarding the intended expedition, and a confeder¬ 
ate of the robbers who overheard the remarks, qui¬ 
etly slipped away, procured a horse, and rapidly 
riding to their camp, apprised the robbers in ad¬ 
vance of their danger. The banditti therefore es¬ 
caped for the time being, going northward toward 
the Wind River country. Now, as I write, comes a 
despatch from Cheyenne to this effect : “A party of 
road agents named Harrington, Manuse, Ruby, 
Howard, Oleson, and ‘The Kid,’ have been cap¬ 
tured near Rock Creek. They had in their posses¬ 
sion, among other things, the saddle on which sher¬ 
iff Widdowfield, of Green River, rode when killed 
last summer.” This is a portion of the gang which 
were to have been surrounded in October, and the 
work was undoubtedly accomplished by Mr. M. F. 
Leech, who has bfeen after the robbers for months. 
A Noted Scout. 
While spending a few days at Laramie I saw con¬ 
siderable of this noted scout, whose successful oper¬ 
ations in either capturing or frustrating train robbers 
or highwaymen have given him a reputation all over 
the Western States. Mr. Leech is a small wiry 
man, hails from Pennsylvania, and is an old sub¬ 
scriber to the American Agriculturist. He is un¬ 
questionably one of the most courageous and dar¬ 
ing fellows in all this western country, and could 
he be prevailed upon to publish an account of his 
experiences and adventures, they would make a 
most interesting and exciting narrative. This, 
however, he has repeatedly refused to do, being 
unwilling, like all really brave men, to commemo¬ 
rate his own achievements. The officers of the 
Union Pacific Road tell me that he has been worth 
a small army of troops to them during the past year 
in frustrating the schemes of the stage robbers and 
road agents for wrecking the trains during the 
months of October and November. The authori¬ 
ties of the road have used every precaution against 
an attack of the robbers. Night after night 
squads of soldiers came aboard the train. The 
brakesmen placed their double-barrelled shot-guns, 
loaded with buckshot, in the end of the cars, within 
easy reaching distance, and other preparations, 
strongly recalled war times. The country most 
infested with these robbers lies between Laramie 
and the Green River, and when going through 
this region, the trains move very slowly; most 
of the passengers carry revolvers or other weapons, 
and unless the robbers should ditch a train in 
such a manner as to disable those on board, they 
would certainly encounter a very warm reception. 
“Wind Storms.” 
Frequently the winds sweep over the plains with 
so much force as to materially impede locomotion, 
and compel government and emigrant trains to 
come to a dead halt. Sometimes the railway trains 
also experience great difficulty in making headway 
against the winds, and are hours behind time in 
consequence. In traveling one day from Sidney to 
Laramie, the wind blew so furiously that the ex¬ 
press was fairly compelled to force its way west¬ 
ward over the track. The sand and dust which 
fill the air at such times, and are so blinding to the 
eyes, seriously interfere with one’s pleasure on the 
plains, and cause him to seek the mountain regions. 
Antagonism Between Sheep-Raisers and 
Cattle-Growers. 
There is an almost natural antagonism between 
sheep-raisers and cattle-growers in the Western 
States and Territories; an antagonism which dis¬ 
plays itself on all times and occasions, and in all 
manner of ways. Many fatal encounters and many 
miniature battles have resulted from this hostility. 
H, for example, a sheep-raiser and a cattle-man 
should suddenly be drawn into a quarrel in a pub¬ 
lic place, other sheep-raisers and cattle-men would, 
without stopping to inquire the cause of the diffi¬ 
culty, arrange themselves on either side of the con¬ 
testants with as much celerity as if they belonged 
to different nations. The cause of this feeling is 
due to the fact that cattle-men maintain that 
sheep destroy the ranges and force the cattle to 
leave, because they will not eat the grass after the 
6heep have roamed over the plains. Furthermore, 
the sheep pastures cut up the large cattle ranges, 
which are often more than fifty miles long, and the 
sheep-raisers are naturally regarded as intruders 
by the cattle-men. The latter generally argue that 
Colorado, for example, is not adapted for sheep¬ 
raising, because there is no security against sudden 
storms. Naturally they would like to have the 
sheep-growers push down into New Mexico and 
Texas, which regions they maintain are specially de¬ 
signed for successful and profitable sheep-raising. 
Where Game is found in the Far West. 
While buffalo have almost wholly disappeared 
from the regions traversed by the great public 
thoroughfares, and other kinds of game have per¬ 
ceptibly diminished in some quarters, there is no 
immediate danger of their becoming extinct, as has 
been argued by some writers. There will be good 
hunting for twenty-five years to come in many lo¬ 
calities in the yet unoccupied regions of Western 
Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Mon¬ 
tana, and Dakota. You can leave New York,.and 
in about a week’s time reach the hunting centers 
where one who has a passion for the rod or gun 
can be fully gratified. Within six years’ time, buf¬ 
falo were seen in droves from the cars of the pass¬ 
ing railway trains in Kansas, Nebraska, and Colo¬ 
rado. Now they have disappeared from Middle 
and Southern Kansas, and the present range of 
what is known as the “ southern herd ” of buffalo, 
I lies in the region of country south of the Arkansas 
