376 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 4, 1909. 
A Memento of Arizona. 
Delanson, N. Y., Aug. 28 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: In the middle eighties I had a friend 
in Arizona. His letters to me were always full 
of interest. I was just out of my teens, and 
about that time the lure of the far Southwest 
was almost irresistible. After reading J. W. 
Schultz’s “In Arizona,” recently published in 
Forest and Stream, I rummaged among my 
papers and brought to light a faded letter dated 
at Clifton, Ariz., Aug. 6, 1886. Folded therein 
was a small piece of an Apache’s scalp to which 
the hair still adhered. The hair is nearly twelve 
inches long and is still black and shiny. The 
letter in part reads: 
“We have had h- 1 around here! All of the 
Mexicans went on a strike a few days ago and 
closed the reduction works. The town looked 
as if it was going to a funeral. A compromise 
has been effected, however, and work resumed 
this evening. 
“One of my friends created a ripple of excite¬ 
ment recently by bringing into town the head 
of an Apache brave whom he slew in battle. It 
happened in this way: E. C. Montgomery was 
out hunting in the game country about forty 
miles north of us. One afternoon he saw signs 
of Indians on the trail and his dog growled at 
some unseen foe. Mr. Montgomery being a 
thorough backwoodsman, knew that it was 
neither bear nor lion that threatened, so he dis¬ 
mounted and hid his animals and started for 
high ground. He had gone up the mountain 
side about 200 yards when two Indians, skulk¬ 
ing behind the rocks above, opened fire on him. 
Twice their rifles cracked, but the bullets went 
wild. He turned to go back to his stock when 
another redskin, who had cut him off from his 
horses, raised up and fired at him, but missed. 
Mr. Montgomery returned the fire and the In¬ 
dian turned up his toes, and his j aws wrong side 
out, for he was down hill from Mr. Montgomery 
and was reloading. Having his head inclined, 
the ball entered above the eye, and breaking his 
jaws passed out and re-entered the body near 
the nipple. Mr. Montgomery ran to the fallen 
Indian and cut his head loose, except the verte¬ 
brae, which he gave a little jerk and off he’ took 
it and hid in the rocks nearby. 
“The other Indians were keeping out of sight, 
but when they saw their comrade’s head shaken 
at them, fired, disclosing their location. Mr. 
Montgomery in the meantime lying very close 
to terra firma, and looking for a chance to sali¬ 
vate another, got a second shot at one and saw 
him double up and drop his gun. We learned 
afterward that the second Indian died, as the 
third one, being a good Indian, of course, went 
back to the reservation and reported two bucks 
short. 
“Mr. Montgomery has killed the only Indian 
that we are sure of for nearly two years, and 
during that time these execrable wretches have 
murdered more than 150 settlers. • We donated 
$100 cash and I presume the lucky hunter will 
get $300 or $400 more in rewards, as each county 
offers a bonus. 
“I send you a little chip off the sca'p with 
some hair attached. I have a nice lock of the 
hair which I will send to my girl for a charm. 
You can count on the inclosure as genuine stuff 
off of a fighting Apache warrior’s head, heap 
brave and about twenty years old. 
“I suppose you don’t cafe much about com¬ 
ing out to this ungodly country. I am getting 
together a nice outfit for the winter campaign 
and have bought one horse and one fine little 
pack mule and will get another horse or mule. 
“How is the greensward by the old Bozenkill? 
We are now having the first rain of any account 
in two years. The whole country was in a con¬ 
dition to cremate with one little match.” 
This graphic letter and souvenir had much 
to do with my staying away from Arizona. 
Will W. Christman. 
[That the incidents cited in the letter quoted 
by Mr. Christman were unusual and not com¬ 
monly to be met with in the Southwest at the 
time mentioned is shown in the following com¬ 
ments furnished by a sportsman who lived, dur¬ 
ing 1886 and 1887, in the same region, but a 
little further east. He says: 
“When I went to New Mexico in the middle 
eighties I selected with great care, thinking they 
would be needed daily, two enormous six-shoot¬ 
ers, one .44-40 and the other .45 caliber. Be¬ 
sides these I had a powerful rifle. The ranch¬ 
man with whom I lived was what I termed a 
“crank,” for he, for years a stage driver, claimed 
that only those who went unarmed lived in peace. 
Despite his protests and his jibes, however, I 
struggled through life there ballasted by both 
or at least one of those heavy revolvers, and 
they furnished me with a vast amount of amuse¬ 
ment, for I have always been fond of target 
practice, and with the abundance of small game 
in that region, I had no lack of something to 
shoot at. 
“But although I rode about the country every 
day, and came into contact with all classes of 
people in New Mexico, Southwest Texas and 
Old Mexico, I never was actually in danger so 
far as man was concerned. As to game, I shot 
an antelope at a distance of about twenty paces 
with the .44-40 revolver, as I was returning to 
camp one night after a ride of forty miles—a 
fruitless search for tobacco; shot at a small 
black bear with the same arm on another night, 
and killed a number of coyotes and small fry 
with it. At another time when my invalid ranch¬ 
man friend was being badly mauled by a big 
cowpuncher, I helped him thrash the ruffian, but 
only after the latter had departed did it occur 
to me that I was armed; and although I was 
also armed when, on the range one day later, I 
came suddenly upon this puncher, we did not 
resume hostilities, as he told me he was in the 
wrong, but had lost his temper in a quarrel over 
some stock. 
“Then a negro ambulance driver arrived at the 
ranch one night with a lurid tale concerning the 
Jicarilla and Mescalero Apaches. He said they 
were all off their reservation and headed our 
way, killing ranchers and driving stock before 
them. When he left the post the whole garrison 
was making ready to follow them, he sa ; d, and 
he departed in all the haste he could instill into 
his four mules through the medium of a long 
• whip, headed away from the trouble he was 
certain was awaiting us at the isolated ranch. 
As for us, we placed rifles and ammunition 
where they could be found on short notice, and 
kept watch on a high hill overlooking the coun¬ 
try the Indians must traverse in coming in our 
direction. 
“I had never seen an Indian on the war path, 
for I was barely of age then, but I was on watch 
the second afternoon when I caught a fleeting 
glimpse of something red between the pinons on 
the mountainside, and after glancing hastily 
about, I dismounted and waited, rifle at shoul¬ 
der, for a better view. My heart beat violently, 
for at last I was about to kill an Indian. 
“Then Micky Finn came into view down the 
trail, mounted on the Hoky-Poky, his pony, and 
clad, as always, in his old reliable red flannel 
undershirt and blue overalls. Worse luck, he 
caught me in the act of aiming at him, and the 
honest opinion of me, which he expressed in 
his broadest brogue, is still keen in my memory. 
As for me, I never heard the end of it all. And 
the Indians—some twenty young bucks—were 
overtaken and captured without a shot by a de¬ 
tail of cavalrymen under an infantry lieutenant 
who now holds a high office in the regular army. 
“Horse thieves were all we had to fear in 
those days, though there were enough bad men 
at large. Neither did I know one of them when 
I saw him for the first time, and again I suf¬ 
fered the jibes of all hands. It happened that 
I was at the ranch house alone when the sheriff 
and a posse rode up at a gallop and asked if 
a certain outfit had passed by a half-hour pre¬ 
viously. ‘Why, yes,’ I replied, ‘they watered 
their horses and went on up the mountain.’ They 
were the thieves, and they were never caught. 
There were three of them, well groomed and 
equipped Mexicans, of the better class, I thought. 
Their outfits were new and the band of twenty- 
odd horses sleek though somewhat jaded. They 
had passed the time of day with me, and they 
went their way in peace. T<^ learn the truth 
from the gruff old sheriff, who had snuffed out 
the life of many a bad man ere the back of the 
lawless element had been broken, was quite a 
shock to me.”—E ditor.] 
Woman Catches Rattler. 
Mrs. Lydia Kimble, of Millbrook, N. J. was 
out berrying in the meadows a mile from her 
home recently, says the Times, when she en¬ 
countered a huge rattler with ten rattles. 
Mrs. Kimball was just reaching out over 
some low branches for a cluster of huckle¬ 
berries when she heard a whirring noise on her 
left. She glanced around and saw the rattle¬ 
snake, coiled and ready to strike. Without 
altering her position, Mrs. Kimble deftly turned 
the large milk pail she carried upside down and 
dropped it over the reptile. She then fashioned 
a noose out of a piece of twine she carried with 
her. Lifting the edge of the pail, she coolly 
waited for the snake to dart out its head. 
When it did, she dropped the noose over the 
protruding head, and, with a quick jerk, swung 
the long, squirming body from her. As Mrs. 
Kimball was after berries first and snakes sec¬ 
ond, she hung her prize to the branch of a near¬ 
by tree and continued picking berries. When 
she had finished she returned for the reptile and 
brought it home. 
All the game laws of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and nova in force, are 
given in the Game Lazvs in Brief. See adv . 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
any nezvsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
