The Stanford World (Stanford, Mont.) 1909-1920, August 01, 1918, Image 3

. - .4•4416•60,4110....• THE STANFORD WORLD. if 4 FOCHT= TO SAVE THEIMISHIING REMNANTS OF VAST HERDS OF BUFFALO THAT WERE MIGHTY FACTOR IIN WOWING THE WEST In the southwestern part of the Flathead Indian reservation, at the junction of the Pend d'Oreille and Jocko rivers, is the National Bison park, the smallest of Montana's na- tional parks, but of peculiar intereat in connection with the history of the state and of vital importance in the . Bght being made by a few thinking people to preserve and build up for posterity a herd of these former r monarchs of the plains. Upon the beautiful uplands of the Flathead, where the buffalo once roamed in countless thousands, the government purchased 18,000 acres of land and designated it as a na- tional park and game preserve for the propagation of native bison, and a herd of nearly 200 head of buffalo now inhabits the tract. The climax to the rolling, upland country is the continental divide. A high hill, \Quilseeh the Selish word for Rod Sleep, yisee to an imposing height' about thb center of the park and thence the land slopes downward in every direction. To the south it extends to the Jocko river; to the west to the Pend d'Oreille river; to the north to Mission creek, and east - Ward to the Mission valley. From these uplands One may Bee the beau- tiful and historic Jocko valley billow- ing away in gentle swells toward the horizon which is barred by the Mis- sion mountains, a castelated range glowing royal blue in the rarified air, until, rising upward, its ultimate peaks are transfigured by chasten- ing snow. A Montana Paradise The general altitude of the Bison park is high and the contour uneven, its surface being cloven by deep ra- vines. A perpetual water supply is furnished by perennial springs and streams. The ravines are well wood- ed with yellow pine, tamarack and Douglas fir, and within their depths, which hold the moisture, grass grows as high as the waist of a man and MONTANA MAN HAS HIGH DECORATION WON CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR IN THE WAR AGAINST THE PHILIPPINE REBELS Saved Comrade From Drowning Un- der Fire; Act Witnessed by Gener- al Lawton, Who Awarded Medal Just Before Bullet Came Which Ended His Life. The only man in Montana who is entitled to wear the congressional E. P. Gibson, Montana Man Who Won Highest Army Decoration. medal of honor is E. F. Gibson of Butte; This medal is the highest de- coration the United States makes its soldiers. It is presented in the name of congress for distinguished gallan- try in battle, for extraordinary hero- ism, not manifested in the regular line of duty. It corresponds in rank and exclusiveness to the Victoria Cross of Great Britain. Gibson, who is a traveling sales- man, won the medal by an act of herolam in saving a comrade from drownSig, while under fire, during the Philippine war. Gibson's exploit had a most dramatic setting. When , he had brought his man in safety to the bank, Gen. Lawton, who wit- nessed the act, turned to his aide and said: \This fa a brave deed. Let it be, recorded that I award this man the congressional medal of honor.\ When Lawton Was Hilltd An instant later -General Lawton received a Philippine bullet through his heart, and one of the most gal- lant soldiers of the insular war was no more. Gibson's story of the incident is as follows: \I was in the Philippines in 1898 at San Mateo, a first sergeant in Lawton's command. We were shoot- ing across the river at the Filipinos and they were shooting back at us. It was on December, 19, the rainy season, and the river was swollen all out of its banks. It happened that I was only a few yards away from General Lawton when one of our boys was shot and fellover the bank into the river. I mit a pretty good swimmer and I jumped in after him. The current sucked me under, but finally I got hold of and the darned fool nearly drowned me. I had to wallop him several times un- til he was unable to cling to me. Boy, that was some river. The current swept us down stream in an awful hurry, and the Filipinos began to spatter bullets all around us. \Our fellows ran down the bank trying to cover the two of us with a rifle barrage, and the enemy ran down the other bank trying to shoot so much lead into me and my man that we would sink. I was nicked a couple of times, but not seriously. This merry little party continued for a half mile down stream, for I could not make a landing on the friendly side; I couldn't get out of mid -stream and, personally, I Midget t' -ink I ever would land except on the bottom of the river. Every few seconds a bullet would hit the water and splash in my face. I had gotten rid of most of my clothing and was almost naked when I struck ground.. I landed with my lad in a big patch of briars and they scratched me in about a million places. When I finally made the shore I was a mass of blood, not from wounds so much as from the briar scratches.\ Waited Five Years \The chap I saved was a French- man; he is still alive and I meet him at times in New York where he is in business. At times I was in com- pany M, 27th U. S. infantry. \On account of Lawton's death, and possibly on account of the red tape, it was five years before the medal was presented to me. After I pass the age of 60 the government will giVe me $120 a year as long as I' live.\ As Gibson is still a young man, about 60, he Is not much interested in the monetary feature of the honor. There is a very severe penalty for anyone, not the owner, wearing or claiming this decoration, according to military authorities, Montana Postmasters Postmasters have been appointed to take charge of Montana offices as follows: M. 0. Lamm, Bloomfield; J. H. Beck, Buford; Nets H. Ander- son, Elk Park; Edna M. Parsons, Mona; Anthony M. Meson, Piper, and W. H. Greene, Sula. A century ago there were from twenty to thirty million buf- falo in the western portion of the American continent. • Today there are less than 1,500 in the United States, 500 of which are in Montana. The building of the Union Pacific and other of the earlier transcontinental lines was made possible only because of the great available supply of buffalo meat. The slaughter of the buffalo was the most rapid and terrible 'story of extinction of a great species of the animal kingdom in the history of the world. Today in the federal bison reserve in Montana and in the Yel- lowstone National Park an effort is being made to breed suffi- cient of the former monarchs of the plains to leave a handful for posterity to gaze upon. knee high upon the slopes, while springtime weaves into the green warp the gay and multi -colored pat- tern of wild flowers. The gulches are not only a grazing ground, but In winter, when blizzards drive their white hosts of snow across mountain range and valley, faetening the earth in an armor of ice, which takes away at once the footing and the food of animals, the buffalo may find pro- tection in the sheltered recesses. This counfry, too, is rich in ro- mance and history. Here tho Flat- head Indians have dwelt until en- croaching civilization has beaten them back. Every gulch and ridge bears a name preserving a fragment of fading tradition in a tongue which reaches our ears in lessening whis- pers. Thus a ridge and gulch are known as \Inskaltesshin or \A Dead Dragon:\ another ' ridge is - \Wheewheetichaye or \Many Grizz- ly Dear.\ named for a chief of the Pend d'Oreille Indians; and so on through the catalog of landmarks. The Indians feel a warm and lov- ing interest in the buffalo. Indeed the history and fate of both are strangely akin. Both in their pecu- liar domain were rulers of the inland ontinent; both were driven back abd conquered by the white man, and both are now existing by the mercy and what too many white men would call \charity\ of their old time foe. The Famous Pabro Herd One of the greatest mistakes the government has made in recent years was the passive allowing of the sale of the great Pablo herd of buffalo on the Flathead reservation to the Canadian government, when 400 fine buffalo were shipped across the line to the Canadian buffalo reserve. The sale of the Pablo herd was forced up- on its owner, whose ranges were on the Flathead Indian reservation, by the lands being thrown open to set- tlement. Pablo and his partner, Al- lard, tried In vain to dispose of the animals to the United States, but tailing, with the loss of his range merely a matter of time and financial ruin threatening him, the animals were sold at last to Canada. However, it was the sale of the Pablo herd which aroused the peo- ple of the United States, through a consciousness of a great loss, and brought about the agitation for a national bison park. The Pablo herd was estimated to number 625 buffalo. All but ten were purchased by Canada, but ow- ing to their extreme wildness and the consequent difficulty of bring- ing them from reniote and inacces- sible fastnesses where they had rang- ed for years, only 400 were delivered in the original shipment which took place in the autumn of 1907. At the same season during the next year the most skilled cowboys of the Flat- head country assembled to partici- pate in an event which proved to be one of the most spectacular of late years in the west—the roundup of the buffalo \outlaws.\ Buffalo Are Frenzied Miles of fence were built to corral and thus capture the animals, but the frenzied beasts, as though con- scious that they were being driven from their native soil, stampeded and the greater number escaped. Once more, in 1909, the most expert horse- manship and roping by the finest cowboys of the state failed to round up the last, lingering renegades of the famous band. They had earned their freedom. The scattered rem- nant of what was our greatest herd still roams the untrodden wilds of the range of the Little Bitter Root. Pablo started his herd in 1880 with about 30 buffalo saved from the ravages of slaughter on Wild Horse Island in Flathead lake. The tragic history of the buffalo Is an interesting one. These beasts were found roaming the western wil- derness as early as 1686 by Coron- ado; they were seen by the first set- tlers in the Carolinas, and toward the end of the 18th century they lived in a wild state in Kentucky. They were encountered by the mil- lion by Lewis and Clark and by all other explorers who blazed the western trails. The number of buf- falo in the great west less than a century ago was estimated at from 20,000,000 to 30,000,000. Through the 60's, and 70's enor- mous herds numbering hundreds of thousands were seen by the gold seekers crossing the plains. From days so remote -that no record exists the Indiana had hunted buffalo for meat without depleting their num- bers, but with the coming of the white men their doom was sealed. Vast as were these primeval herds, they were forced to yield to a greed which could not be sated. Large numbers were killed merely for their tongues, which were considered a great delicacy, and their hides. One house in St. Louis bought 260,000 skins in 1871. From 187/ to 1874 MONTANA PIONEERS TO MEET SEPTEMBER 5, 6, 7 The Society of Montana Pioneers will meet in Anaconda on September 6, 6 and 1. Within a week a pro- gram of entertainment will be ar- ranged, the Rotary, du) of Anaconda to take an active \ part in its pre- paration. The Sons and Daughter of Pioneers meet at the same time. These dates were selected in view of the fact that the state fair opens on September 9. By this arrange- ment the pioneers, while enjoying the hospitality of the people of Ana- conda, may be on their way to the fair, making their autumn outing of double significance and pleasure. General Warren has promised to round up all the old-timers in Silver Bow county and head them this way. Montana will be well represented. Undoubtedly a most satisfactory 'pro- gram of entertainment will be ar- ranged. German Barred on Telephones The South, Dakota council of de- fense has issued an order prohibit- ing the speaking of the Gorman lan- guage over telefones in South Da- kota. The order also prohibits this language being spoken anywhere, in public or private, in a conversation In which more than three persona are engaged. millions of buffalo wore killed. Some wore slaughtered for food, some for commercial purposes, hundreds of thousands in the sheer wanton lust to kill. Railroads Spell Their Doom The building of the first transcon- tinental railroads caused the alangh- ter of at least 260,000 buffalo for the food supply of the working crews. Many authorities have stated that the construction of the Union Pacific and Northern Pacific was made possible only through the then seemingly inexhaustible supply of buffalo moat. Not only did the flesh of the animals sustain life, but their hides protected work,ers and travelers from tile keen whit& blasts and fur- nished coats and Owes impervious to the deadening cold. wheq trains traversed the wilderness, the tracks were lined with blenching bones. The great barren wastes, - haunted by spectral coyote and wheeling vulture, were one vast graveyard of unburied dead. And still commerce was not done. Even these bones, the last poor rem - multi; of the former undisputed kings of the prairies, were shipped east by trainloads for carbon. It was esti- mated that the bones shipped east would have filled enough care to make one continuous train more than 7,000 miles long—enough to more than fill two tracks (rem Now York to San Francisco. Some idea of the terrible swiftness of the decline of the buffalo may be gained by taking the statistics of the Kansas, Pacific and Santa Fe roads, which tell us that in the year 1874, more than ten million Pounds of these bones, more titan a million and a quarter ponnda of buffalo hides and over eix hundred thousand pounds of buffalo meat v..ere trans- ported to the eastern market. Today there are less than 1,500 buffalo in the United States, some 600 of which are in Montana. a showing thrt caused professionals NE FIGHTER 'VHO to sit up and take notice. It took the \Kill\ thirteen rounds to prove HAS MAN A HOME SIXTEEN YEARS ACO NtoSI: LA PONTINE WAS THE IDOL OF BUTTE FIGHT FANS Some of Ills Famous Battles; Joe Walcott Stopped Him; Put John- son Out at Billings; Fought AUS. tralian Tommy Tracy 20 Bounds to a Draw; Now a Miner. Mose La Fontiso, sixteen years ago one of the idols of the fight faos, works every day in the Emma mine, and at night goes home to a little cot- tage on the Flat where a boy and a girl, just large enough to go to school, await him. La Fonds° went to Butte from St. Paul, when a very young man. lie Mose La Fontlso, Fortner Pugilist, Who Works in the Mines liked hard work and he never shirk- ed it: but he also liked the fight game and whenever he got the chance he was there ready for a go. He made his first big bow to the pub- lic in Anaconda, where he met one Hendricks, another ambitious young fellow, and put him out of business in two rounds. Butte sports then began to realize that Mose had some- thing in him. He was pitted against Billy Newell at Union hall in East Butte. Newell Mated seven. rounds. Tackled Joe Walcott Then Mose got ambitious and went after some of the big ones, th#3 fel- lows with reputations. , He tackled Joe Walcott. That was a big job. The negro stopped him in three rounds. With the Dixie Kid he made himself the better man. It was at Billings, against Charley Johnson that Mose made his big kill- ing. It took him 21 rounds to do It, but he did it and put Johnson out of business. This fight was for a thousand a side and it is estimated that ten thousand changed hands on the result. A Tough Battle Mose has always contended, how- ever, that the toughest battle ho ever had was with Australian Tommy Tracy. This was about seventeen years ago, at.the old saucer track on the east side, It went twenty rounds to a draw, and they were twenty pretty tough rounds. Other encounters he has had are too numerous to mention. MOTORISTS ASKED TO GIVE SOLDIERS:RIDES The State University of Montana has established a \Give 'Em a Lift\ club, so that drivers of automobile!, may give soldier and sailor pedes- trians a ride whenever there is a vacant seat in the car. President Sisson of the university was the first to place a placard on the windshield of 1113 automobile in- viting men in khaki and blue to ride. The obverse side, facing the pedes- trian, roads: \Give 'Em a Lift Club. Any Man In Uniform Is Welcome to a Seat in This Car. Hold Up Your Hand.\ On the reverae side, facing the uniformed man after he is seated in the automobile, the card reads: \Tell Me Where You Want to Go and I Will Stop as Near There as My Trip Takes Me.\ The university has had a large number of these cards printed and will distribute them to automobile drivers upon request. Captain James H. Donner, United States engineers, and a member Of the university faculty, brought the idea to Missoula. Do Not Climb rower Poles Boys should not climb power line poles. Samuel Brooks, of Great Falls, 12 years old, climbed a pole because his playmates said he could not do it. When he got to the top he took hold of two live wires and had both hands burned off. Great Falls Brick & Tile Co. GREAT FAIL,q4ONTANA Mftnntseturerm it ',TORT, HUFF AND HAIM VACII BRICK, FIRM 13/1103L DUILDINO TILE, HOLLOW lit °cm!. FIKK PROOFING, DWAIN TILII ottlest 44I1 Ist National Bank linildltag 1 if •