The Prairie Detective — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ad ~~ THE PRAIRIE DETECTIVE. 9 to arrive, and when the last hunter had come in from his long summer of labor, the place was full of life. Kach winter was a round of merry-making, from one’ day to another, and the traders, dealing liber- ally with the hunters, kept business in that state only described by the occidental phrase ‘‘booming.’”’ When the sun again grew warm, and the snow began to melt away, the peltry buyers started for their homes, and the hunters began again to clean their weapons, put their traps in order, and prepare for another campaign. Thus the order of affairs went on with almost v un- interrupted sway for three or four years. Fort Hays was large and strong enough to easily resist any at- tacks from the Indians or marauders, and so life there was not troubled by the fears which rendered existence at other frontier posts miserable. | It was about the middle of April, 1859. The ice had floated out of the streams, the snow was melting in the hollows, and the warm days were approaching. Everything about the settlement was in a Stir, which foretold the coming evacuation. Saddle-bags were filled with ammunition, revolv- ers, bright from recent scrubbing, lay in their hol- sters, and traps, with long shining teeth, hung upon the cabin walls, lending rude ornamentation. Old ‘horses were exchanged for fresh ones; kegs of whisky and sides of bacon, bags of flour, and pack- ages of pepper—everything needful for a long jour- ney, out of the reach of stores, was purchased. The single street was full of life and energy. In one of the cabins at the outskirts of the town, an aged man sat upon a flour-barrel, cleaning an old fashioned Mississippi rifle. His hair, which was long and gray, hung upon his shoulders. He was of Eomicbooks €O