THE RED MAN OF TO-DA Y.

997

Colonel Dodge tells a good story in his recent work on " Our Wild Indians." A band of Comanehes encamped near Fort Chadbourne, Texas. Some of the officers in the fort owned fast horses, the speed of which was well known, and bantered the Indians for a race. After two or three days of chaffering, the Indians agreed to match one of their ponies against the third best horse in the garrison, distance four hundred yards.

" The Indians bet robes and plunder of various kinds to the value of sixty or seventy dollars against money, flour, sugar, etc., to a like amount. At the appointed time all the Indians and most of the garrison were assembled at the track. The Indians " showed " a miserable sheep of a pony with legs like churns. A three-inch coat of rough hair stuck out all over the body, and a general expression of neglect, helplessness, and patient suffering struck pity into the hearts of all beholders. The rider was a stalwart buck of one hundred and seventy pounds, looking big and strong enough to carry the poor beast on his shoulders. He was armed with a huge club, with which, after the word was given, he belabored the miserable animal from start to finish. To the astonishment of all the whites, the Indian won by a neck.

"Another race was proposed by the officers, and, after much i dickering,' accepted by the Indians against the next best horse of the garrison. The bets were doubled; and in less than an hour the second race was run by the same pony, with the same apparent exertion and with exactly the same result. The officers, thoroughly disgusted, proposed a third race, and brought to the ground a magnificent Kentucky mare, of the true Lexington blood, and known to beat the best of the others at least forty yards in four hundred. The Indians accepted the*race, and not only doubled bets as before, but piled up every thing they could raise, seemingly almost crazed with the excitement of their previous success. The riders mounted; the word was given. Throwing away his club, the Indian rider gave a whoop at which the sheep-like pony pricked up his ears and went away