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The Border and the Buffalo
AN UNTOLD STORY OF THE
SOUTHWEST PLAINS
The Bloody Border of Missouri and Kansas.
The Story of the Slaughter of the
Buffalo. Westward among
the Big Game and
Wild Tribes.
A STORY OF MOUNTAIN AND PLAIN
BY
JOHN R. COOK
MONOTYPED AND PRINTED
By CRANE & COMPANY
TOPEKA, KANSAS
1907
Copyrighted January, 1907,
By John R. Cook.
All rights reserved.
The Border and the Buffalo
BY
JOHN R. COOK
Especially dedicated to my crippled wife, whopatiently assisted and encouraged me to writethis book; and to Sol Rees, Mortimer N.Kress ("Wild Bill"); also, that noble band ofBuffalo hunters who stood shoulder to shoulderand fought Kiowas, Comanches, and StakedPlains Apaches, during the summer of 1877 onthe Llano Estacado, or the Staked Plains ofWestern Texas and Eastern New Mexico,whose memories will ever pleasantly abide with
The Author
INTRODUCTION.
In presenting these Reminiscences to the reader the authorwishes to say that they were written and compiledby an uneducated man, who is now 63 years of age, withno pretensions to literary attainments, having a verymeager knowledge of the common-school branches. Inplacing these recollections in book form there is an endeavorall along the line to state the facts as they occurredto me. The tragic deaths seen by the author in dance-halland saloon have been omitted, in this work. Butto that band of hardy, tireless hunters that helped, as allarmy officers declared, more to settle the vexed Indianquestion in the five years of the greatest destruction ofwild animals in the history of the world's hunting, the authorespecially devotes that portion of the book pertainingto the buffaloes. The incidents connected with thetragic death of Marshall Sewall will be appreciated, Itrust, by all lovers of fair play. Thomas Lumpkins met hisdeath in a manner that could be expected by all old plainsmen.There were so many tragic incidents that occurredduring the author's experience after leaving New Mexico,that it was difficult for him to segregate one event fromanother, in order to prepare a presentable book,—one