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lining out West I00 Years Ago
It was all very different one hundred
years ago. and earlier. ‘, '
When people went West then, it was not
in palace cars or on limited expresses;
there were no line hotels, no big cities for
Westerners to brag about, but the great
lakes were there, and the broad prairies
and forests were there, and the pioneer
saw that with the richest of land and
abundance of water, the days'of civiliza-
Lion and plenty were bound to come.
But there wassoxnethlng else out West
In those days besides lakes, forests and
prairies. Indians were scattered about in
every direction. The lakes and forests
were theirs, and by hunting and fishing
they lived-theyhad no other way of liv-
Is it any wonder then that they objected
when the white people began to pour into
their country and appropriate not only
the land,‘but ‘everything else they could
lay their handsupon for themselves?
In the terse lanvuagc of the present day
the Indians kicked andpkicked hard. '
The result was perpetual skirlnishing,
constant war. It took a bolrl man to go
West one hundred years ago, and one
bolder still to stay. , ' ' ‘
West in those days meant anywhere be-
yond the'Allegheny Mountains. The great
country beyond the Mississippi was wholly
unknown. ’‘ " . " ' V
People generally went in parties or col-
, , dozen- families perhaps
would club together, lead their house-
hold goods tutu those big wagons which
. are still known’as “prairie scbeoners," and
just jog along until they found a place
to suit them, settle down, wholly,regard-
less of the fact that the land belonged to
the unfortunate Indians, and there found
their town. Most of the big cities of the
West were founded in this way, and by
for the greater portion of the town.
The nrst thing to do was to build a fort.
or “blocl(house," as they were then called,
to protect themselves from the Indians.
Among our pictures you will nnd one of
It is made of rough boards,
but usually they were simply made of logs‘,
for to obtain boards necessitated a saw
mill. Another of our pictures shows the
old time log cabin of the West. Usually
the bloclthouses were built after the
shape shown in the picture, but, as we
Just said, of logs instead of boards.
The log cabin was a very primitives!-
Trees were felled and then notched
at the ends. The trunks were cut to the
desired length and laid one upon the
other, spaces were cut for doors and win-
dows, n rude roof was constructed, nnd.a
big chimney built of stones on the outside,
and the leg but was done. . >
‘ these old border troubles without perceiv-
’HAPPY
it in case of an attack by the Indians. butl
often there were bolder spirits among
them who disregarded this precaution and
built at a distance. Such people often paid ,
for their rashness with their lives.
Many are the tales which could be told
of the midnight attacks upon these early;
Western setfernents. The Indians would
fall suddenly upon the cabin of the unsus-
pecting settler, sometimes killing and
scalplng all found within; sometimes;
carrying off the women and children pris-
oners; nlways burning the house and taking
possession of whatever valuables it con-
tained.
Then in revenge the settlers would form
themselves into parties, fall suddenly upon
the Indian villages, and commit similar
outrages. ,
Indeed, we.cannot read the history of
ing at a glance that the whites almost al-
ways begun the attack. ’
When the very first, settlers Went West
they were kindly received by the Indians,
who clothed and fed them, and gave up
their land freely, in return for which they
were,robbed and murdered. No wonder
that the Indians attemptedto turn the
tables on their white foes.
It is generally supposed that all the In-
their time wandering
them. This, however, is not altogether so.
- In later days the Indians did just this.
They had‘ to. The whites kept driving
them from place to’ place, and they could
do nothing else. , ' , w .. . r v “
Orlginallytmany, Qfthe Indians lived in’
permanent‘ settlements and large
cabins of wood, covered over with dome-
shaped roofs of skins. We picture one of
these villages, the picture representing the
progress of one of the native festivals.
Games are going on, and the people have
crowded on the cabin roofs to see what is
taking place below. Indians were very
fond of games in those days, and used to
indulge in feasts of strength and trials of
skill. > "
The houses of theiwandering tribes were
called lodges. These lodges were con-
structed by driving a few poles into the
ground and bending skins over them. 7
But it must not be supposed from what
we have said that the Indians were mild
and gent‘e beings. Far from
were savage, cruel and bloodthirsty, and
lived only to revenge their wrongs on the
whites; p
Olten they.would not kill their prisoners
outright, but reserve them for torture,
beating them terribly, tormenting them
in various ways, and often burning them
a:
‘<
lve. ,
We picture such a scene of torture. The
prisoner is fastened to a stake, bound in
such a way as to render him perfectly help-
less, while the Indians are dancing, sing-
‘DAYS;
stoned him and threw blazing fire-brands
at him. After awhile, perceiving that he
could endure the torture no longer, the
savages built a tire about the stake and
burned him to death.
Things got so bad in the West at last
that? many of the settlements were entirely
broken up, and it began to look as though
the Indians were going to get the best of
the never-ending conflict.
Then larger forts were built and troops
stationed In them, and the war of exter-
mination hegan. The Indians were hunted
like wild beasts, and shot down whenever
found. People took courage and flocked
West in greater numbers, until at length
they grew strong enough to defend them-
selves at certain points, but woe betide any
unfortunate white man who allowed him-
self to be caught alone between the forts.
Once the Indians captured him his doom
was scaled. '
To avoid this danger many emigrants
traveled in houseboats upon the rivers. It
was customary to advertise all over the
East that on a certain day an emigrant
party would start for Kentucky. Ohio, In-
diana or Illinois.
A famous starting point was Pittslmrg.
P . The people would collect there and
build the great houseboats, which were
really nothing more than rafts with log
cabins placed upon them, and then, when
spring opened, they would go iloating down
the Ohio River until a favorable spot for
the settlement was found.
"So numerous was the crowd of adven-
turers in those days (i'l8D)," says an old
writer, “that in two days after I reached
Pitisburg sixty-three boats were ready to
‘sail in company: Some were occupied by
families, some by young men whose object
W explore the country; others were
filled with cattle.‘ In our party were a
thousand persons all told." '
When the start was made the boats
were arranged in 3 sort of battle array.
The pilot boat went in advance, the family
boat next, after which came the cattle
boats, while the boats armed and guarded
by the young men brought up the rear and
skirted ‘along the sides of this strange pro-
cession.
All moved onward with great caution
until they came abreast of some good graz-
ing ground on the river bank. Then they
would land. turn the cattle loose, and let
them eat their Ell. the young men keeping
a sharp lookout for savages all the while.
When the cattle had eaten as much as
they could they,were driven on board the
boats again, and the procession moved on
until it became necessary to feed the beasts
again.
Of cohrsc, the lndians objected to such
an invasion as this. How could any one
expect them to do otherwise? Sometimes
great bands of them would follow the
boats for days, waiting for a, favorable
moment to begin the attack.
“On the i2th of April. 1780, at 10 dclock
in the morning," says the same writer, “the
ing and yelling around him, stopping occa-
sionally to kick and beat him with the
tornahawks or clubs.
The prisoner represented in this picture
is a real person. He was beaten for three
mortal hours with clubs and green brlar
bushes. while between times the boys
pilot boats in front made signals that the
Indians were drawn up in battle array on
the northern shore of the river. The boats
immediately landed half a mile above the
same side. and it was an
ranged that half the lighting men on board
should be ready to jump on shore the mo-
ment the boats touched the bank, and
march down on the Ind
"The latter were encamped on the very
spot where Front street Joins Broadway in
the city of Cincinnati. Here a nerce com-
bat took place, but, thank heavens, we sno-
cccdcd in driving the savages off, and, re-
tuining to our is, moved on miles
further down the river and formed our set-
tlement, little dreaming that we had left
the site of a future city behind us where
every foot of the ground over which we
fought would become worth its weight in
g .
In building the town for this company
the cabins were all arranged in the form
of a hollow square, with the doors facing
inward, and a strong blockbouse in each
corner. Iietwcen the houses high fences
were built, with round holes bored at in-
tcrvals through which the settlers could
fire at the Indians in (3.36 of attack. In
each side was a large gateway, which was
d and guazdcd at night.
Such was the way in which most of our
Western towns and cities were originally
built.
The traveler of today, rolling West at
forty miles an hour in his comfortable
Pullman car, can scarcely realize the dif-
dculties and dangers of such 'a. journey
one hundred years use
Then to go West meant to stay, and the
traveler did not talk of “dropping over”
The West then
is true, but for the most part simply prairie
and forest, the home of a. fierce and savage
race, and one such journey in a man‘s life-
time was about as much as he would-care
to undertake. '
But, of course, the Indians could not
long stand up against such a tide of emi-
gration as began to set in the West a.fter
the close of the Revolutionary war.
By the early part of this century the
savages were pretty well cxterxninated, and
such as remained were glad to accept the
government’s terms and remove to the In-
dian Territory. But even there the whites
have followed them. and no longer than a
few years ago, in the case of Oklahoma, 3
large tract of their lands was taken away
and given to settlers for homesteads. '
Such were the trials of those who went
“out West" one hundred years ago.
.:m.m..m.j.
Out To-day Out ‘lb-day
"PLUCK AND LUCK" No. 86i
--rr oosnrne-
YOUNG JACK DASHAWAY
Or. Something Doing on the Road
Price. 5 cents
-V T.
A man in South Dakota writes that in
his part of the country the automobile has
been found a great success as n prairie dog
exterminator. A piece of hose slipped onto
the exhaust conducts the gases into the
dog hole for a‘few minutes, when the hole
is covered with‘ earth. That is enough for
the dog. Of course some automobiles are
more edlcient in this sort of work than
others, and the machine with an exhaust
that will kill a dog might find favor in
‘some other parts of the country as well as
on the prairies.
