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He Shot With The Indians

He Shot With The Indians image
Parent Issue
Day
26
Month
November
Year
1886
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Capt. Boggs, a Virginian, who held a captain's license on the Mississippi river before he was of ayo, and who for fourteen years had the contract to supply the military posts in Utah, Colorado, Xew Mexico, and Arizona with fuel, tella tho following story: "I was down in the Ute reservation in Colorado and had strolled down the shores of a small lake while my mules and tcamsters were eating dinner, when I carne across a party of about a dozen Indians. They were armed with rifles and were shooting at a snag which stuck out of the water about two hundred yards distant. The stakes for which they were shooting were composed of a quarterof adollarfrom each m.m. I stood watching them for eome time and then decided to enter thecompetition. Each man had three shots and the man who hit the snag the most times won the pot. The misscs were told by the splash in the water; the hits by the absence of the splasii. After some parley with the redskins I got them to allow me to enter the match, though they compelled me to deposit half a dollar while they put in a quarter. I had a Henry repe;iter with me, that, fortunately for my purposo was then unloaded. I was accounted one of the best shots in that country, but knew that the Indians were not by any means slow. I slipped three cartridges into my rifle, and as I did so I broke the buil oiï, thus leaving a blank cartridge. Of course no splash followed any of my shots and the Indians thought I had hit the snag every time. 1 won that pot, but the next time I intentionally lost by not taking the balls off and by taking indifferent aim. "I then broke all the balls oíl until I had won $18. Then the Indians, who began to look at me with suspicion or awe, refused to shoot any more. J invitad them up to the store and 8pent the money on knick-knacks, which I divided aniont; them. I then took them back to the lake and showed them the trick. They were very niuch Burprieed, but took it in good part. "in returning that way a few days after I found the same Indians on the lake shore shooting a big match with a neighboring tribe, whom they were rapidly cleaning out of everything. I learned that they had 'skinned' every Indian in the country that they could get to shoot against them. I said nothing, but mused on the readiness of the savage to adopt the white man's

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Democrat