From
His Account He Was An Ungovernable Boy, Imperfectly Educated, And
Tyrannizing Over A Loving But Weak Mother.
When seventeen years
old he saw a young girl at church whose appearance he described
as being of angelic beauty, and fell in love with her with all
the intensity of an uncontrolled nature.
He saw her three times,
but scarcely spoke to her. On his mother opposing his wish and
treating it as a boyish folly, he took to drink "to spite her,"
and almost as soon as he was eighteen, maddened by the girl's
death, he ran away from home, entered the service of the Hudson's
Bay Company, and remained in it for several years, only leaving
it because he found even that lawless life too strict for him.
Then, being as I suppose about twenty-seven, he entered the
service of the United States Government, and became one of the
famous Indian scouts of the Plains, distinguishing himself by
some of the most daring deeds on record, and some of the
bloodiest crimes. Some of these tales I have heard before, but
never so terribly told. Years must have passed in that service,
till he became a character known through all the West, and much
dreaded for his readiness to take offence, and his equal
readiness with his revolver. Vain, even in his dark mood, he
told me that he was idolized by women, and that in his worst
hours he was always chivalrous to good women. He described
himself as riding through camps in his scout's dress with a red
scarf round his waist, and sixteen golden curls, eighteen inches
long, hanging over his shoulders.
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