Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1892 — A THUNDER-MAKER. [ARTICLE]

A THUNDER-MAKER.

How a Band of Hlonx Indian* Were Snr. prliod. “1 have had a good many scrimmages with Indians of various tribes, but the wildest and woolliest of the whole copper-colored breed are th« Sioux,” said Major Dan Allen, one ol the original “pathfinders" of the trackless West. “Most Indians are born sneaks and cowards, who do their fighting from cover; but the Sioux fears nelthei God, man, nor the devil, and would fight Napoleon's Old Guard in an open field. A bluff won’t work on them worth a cent, and when thej tackle you you can just make uj your rulnd to do some killing or lost your scalp. I was out in the southwestern part of what is how South Dakota a few years ago, with a hunting party, when wo encountered a lot of bucks on the war-path. Thera were twenty of them, while my party only numbered half a dozen. But the redskins had the old-fashioned muzzle-loaders, while we were armed with Winchesters. “There wasn’t a rock or tree so; miles, and we had to just stand up tc the rack and take our fodder. Ona of the party was a mining engineer, who had been prospecting for pay rock and had with him several pounds of dynamite and an electric battery. Ho was a Yankee—ona of those quick-witted people that would find a way to get out of perdition though ill Milton’s terror! guarded the exit. He concealed tha explosive in the grass, attached hitwire, and we retreated 400 yard! and stopped. The redskins didn’t waste any time maneuvering; they camo and saw and expected to conquer in short order. On they came, straight as the crow flies, and we lay down in the grass with rifles cocked. I tell you, it was an interesting moment for us.

“It the battery failed to do its duty we were gone to a man. But It didn't. The ‘blue-belly’ had dropped his hat near the Vesuvius, so that he could tell just when to touch the button. When the foremost horse reached the hat he turned on the current. There was an explosion that made the very ground reel, and the air for forty rods was full of horse flesh and fragments ot noble red men, saddles and rifles, blankets and buckskin. ‘Now’s our time, boys,’ I called, and we ran forward and began pumping the lead Into the terrified savages as fast as we could pull a trigger. The remnant of the party took flight, and I am known among the Sioux to this day as the thunder maker. The title does not belong to me, but it Is mighty good capital In their country.”