Lippincotts Magazine of Popular Literature and Science | Page 9

to Indian treachery,
cannot be expected to hold any ultra-humanitarian views upon the
subject. He has not been brought in contact with the several
partially-civilized tribes, in whose advancement many see possibilities
for the whole race. He cannot understand why the government allows
the Indians to roam over enormous tracts of land, rich in minerals they
will never extract and containing agricultural possibilities they will
never seek to realize. His plan would be to have only the same
governmental care exercised over the red man as is now enjoyed by the
white, and then look to the law of the survival of the fittest to furnish a
solution of the problem. The case seems so clear and the arguments so
potent that he looks for some outside reasons for their failure, and very
naturally thinks he discovers them in governmental quarters. "There's
too many people living off this Indian business for it to be wound up
yet a while." Thus does a representative man at the outposts express the
sentiment of no inconsiderable class.
Next to the Indian himself, the frontiersman holds in slight esteem the
soldiers who are sent for the protection of the border. The objects of his
supreme hatred still often merit his good opinion for their bravery and
fighting qualities, but upon raw Eastern recruits and West-Point
fledglings he looks with mild disdain. Having learned the Indian
methods by many hard knocks, he doubtless fails to exercise proper
charity toward those whose experiences have been less extended; and
added to this may be a lurking jealousy--which, however, would be
stoutly disclaimed--because the blue uniform is gaining honors and
experience more easily and under conditions more favorable than were
possible with him in the early days. "They be about the greenest set!"
said an old Indian-fighter to whom this subject was broached, "and the
sight of an Injun jest about scares 'em to death at first. I never saw any
of 'em I was afraid of if I only had any sort of a show. Why, back in '59
I undertook to take a young man back to the States, and we started off
in a buggy--a buggy, do you mind. When we got down the Arkansas a
piece we heard the red-skins was pretty thick, but we went right on,
except keeping more of a lookout, you know. But along in the
afternoon we saw fifteen or twenty coming for us, and we got ready to
give 'em a reception. We had a hard chase, but at last they got pretty

sick of the way I handled my rifle, and concluded to let us alone for a
while. They kept watch of us, though, and meant to get square with us
that night. Well, we travelled till dark, stopped just long enough to
build a big fire, and then lit out. When those Injuns came for us that
night we were some other place, and they lost their grip on that little
scalping-bee. They didn't trouble us any more, that's sure. And when
we got to the next post there were nigh a hundred teams, six stages and
two companies of soldiers, all shivering for fear of the Injuns. It rather
took the wind out of 'em to see us come in with that buggy, and they
didn't want to believe we had come through. But, like the man's
mother-in-law, we were there, and they couldn't get out of it. And, sir,
maybe you won't believe me, but those soldiers offered me
_seventy-five dollars_ to go back with them! That's the sort of an outfit
the government sends to protect us!"
[Illustration: SANTA FÉ AVENUE, PUEBLO, COLORADO.]
We have had frequent occasion since our frontier experiences began to
ponder the untrammelled opulence of this Western word, outfit. From
the Mississippi to the Pacific its expansive possibilities are
momentarily being tested. There is nothing that lives, breathes or grows,
nothing known to the arts or investigated by the sciences--nothing, in
short, coming within the range of the Western perception--that cannot
with more or less appropriateness be termed an "outfit." A dismal
broncho turned adrift in mid-winter to browse on the short stubble of
the Plains is an "outfit," and so likewise is the dashing equipage that
includes a shining phaeton and richly-caparisoned span. Perhaps by no
single method can so comprehensive an idea of the term in question be
obtained in a short time, and the proper qualifying adjectives correctly
determined, as by simply preparing for a camping-expedition. The
horse-trader with whom you have negotiated for a pair of horses or
mules congratulates you upon the acquisition of a "boss outfit." When
your wagon has been purchased and the mules are duly harnessed in
place, you are further induced to believe that you have a "way-up
outfit," though,