TheQm
aha; Sunday
PART FOUR
T T m A Tl T 1 -r
PART FOUR "O. ...
AM'USEMENTS'tS;
VOL. L NO. 11.
r " . : : r :
hundreds of Sokols Will Attend Annual
j . ..... r f a r lBfciM :S&L- an npN K-y
awnees, Recalls Days When Hoof Beats Resembled Thunder on Plains
JL
Bison Saved from Total Extinction Only by Interven
tion of United States and Canada Easterners
if 7 Made Wholesale Slaughters Indians Pursued
' Real Syrt for Food.
By H. R. HARRIS.
Herds of buffalo were once, so
tremendouS on the plains of Ne
braska that the earth shook be
neath their tread! and - in the
stampedes into which they some
times fell the sound of their hoof
beats was like heavy thunder.
Today there are' only 7,3o0 head
of buffalo on the rntire North Amer
ican continent. In 1889 there were
only 1,091 and it was onfy through
the intervention of the United States
and Canadian governments that the
jflimat wai saved from extinction.
As the thousands upon thousands
bison have ' jo:ned the phantom
Jsts. so have most ot those aviio
L'weniber them passed over . the
rOreat Divide.
One of Accepted Few.
Of those who took an act've part
in the buffalo hunts of the 50 years
or so ago, there are only a very few
in the entire stat?. One of the most
a re t i i
ita ot iscDrasKa unaio nuniers,
rtowever. John H. JL. Williams, is
iov living in Florence. Williams
va famed throughout the state as
marksman and he was one ot a
JOHN H. L. WILLIAMS. , ,
favored few who were allowed to'
take part in the great Buffalo hunts
of the Pawnee Indians among whom
he was accepted as a brother.
Judge Robert W. Patrick of the
municipal court recalls a boyhood
experience with his uncle, Algernon
Patrick at Trabing, Wyo.. when he
slept one evening on a great pile of
buffalo rugs. ,
Judge Patrick has shot buffalo, but
he ws never so great a hunter as his
Uncle Algernon.
Entertains Russ Noblemen.
Algernon Patrick at One time was
St of a famous party ot Russian
blemen headctl by the Grand Duke
exis. Hf initiated them into tne
n hunt in the Red River district
.In tiw western part of the state. .
Zach Ellis, constable ""Judge Pat
rick's court, tells of a huge herd
which the train on which he was rid
ing encountered at Ogalla in 1870.
"We saw buffalo sketching from
ie side of the train in a great swarm
hen we awoke that morning, he
"The train was traveling
4 eight or 10 miles an hour. We
- v out of the herd until
g C
3 or 4 o'clock that afternoon and we
traveled all the time.
"Little John Full of Pep."
"There must have been thousands
and thousands in that herd. I re
member the easterners on the train
fired their revolvers from the car
windows at the buffalo and the ani
mals would only scamper away. You
couldn't kill a buffalo with the kind
of firearms those fellows were carry
ing." Williams is perhaps the only
Omahan living today who went with
the Indians onHheir fall hunts.
Williams had a name among the
Indians which in present day
Americanized Indian slang would be
translated "Little John Full of Pep."
He earned . this title by his
many successful physical encounters,'
although a comparatively small man,
and by his remarkable accuracy with
the rifle.
Friendship Crows.
Williams met the Pawnee Indians
when his father, Enos Williams,
moved to the Pawnee Indian agency
at what is now Genoa in 1853. Later
young Williams ran. a sawmill at
the agency.
A strong friendship sprang up be
tween Williams and the Indians and
the red men invited him to one of
their hunts. It later became a reg
ular thing to join them at this time.
The Pawnees started on their fall
hunt after the first frost.
For Meat Only.
"The Pawnees killed only such
buffalo as they needed for meat Jo
last through the winter," said Wil
liams. "They deeply resented the
wholesale slaughter of the, animals
by white men. Most of the whole
sale killing was done by easterners."
The-hunts were conducted in the
territory along the Little Blue and
Republican rivers.
The squaws accompanied their
braves to the hunting camp. On the
day of the hunt the men would set
out on their ponies armed with bow
and arrow. They would approach
the buffalo herds and single' out the
more desiraHle animals. Then they
would cut these out arid, riding along
beside them, would discharge their
arrows into the buffalo, aiming for
the heart.
Squaws Prepare Meat.
Williams used a rifle and a sawed
off shotgun in his hunting.
After the Pawnees had killed
enough of the - buffalo for their
wants they would take the carcasses
to the hunting camp, skin them and
stretch the meat out on sticks to
dry for the winter supply. They
also killed antelope on these hunts
and dried the meat.
The. squaws did much of the work
of preparing the meat. '
The Pawnees used Hhe buffalo
robes for their own clothing and
bedding.
Mounted Means Safe.
In 1866 the Henry rifle, the first
high-powered gun used in the west,
was introduced in Nebraska. The
Indians called it "The Man Who
Spoke with Fire" and were much
awed by its deadliness.
Williams had a number cf narrow
escapes from death while, on buffalo
hunts.
As long as a hunter kept on-feis
horse he was comparatively sale
.mrrr -ucuMiTC . . nviAUA KATOLlCkA JED SOKAL
FCAHK KREJCl - REV. JHO.VRANEKsVACUVjMCUALi.TO
JOE f UXA.v JMO. VAMPOtAi
- jm . jun iiin-iTrrr:.rjjiiTiiniii m juilu ... hui df rmnm
in FwW &
around the buffalo. The animals
were used to the horse and were not
particularly aroused by the presence
of one. But the hunter who happened
to lose his mount was faced with al
most certain death.
Wounded Buffalo Charges.
On one hunt Williams shot a big
bull buffalo and as the animal sank
toy the ground he dismounted and
started toward it to cut its throat
to allow it to bleed.
The wounded buffalo drew itself
upon its legs as Williams approached
and the horse bolted.
Then the ,buffalo charged. Con
sidering their cumbersome size; buf
falo cover ground at an amazing
speed.
Williams ran as fast as he could,
but the buffalo was closing the dis
tance between them rapidly and was
blowing blood over the young hun
ter from its nostrils when "Little
John" escaped.
Fight for Leadership.
The buffalo in going to a watering
place nearby had worn ruts jn the
ground two -or three feet deep and
Williams ran crosswise over these.
The buffalo stumbled and was unable
to catch up with Williams and bul
lets from other hunters soon stopped
it
Williams said that the great herds
of buffalo used to travel with the
calves in the middle, the cows next
and the bulls on the outside.
The hardiest of the bulls used to
fight it out for K. 'eadershin of
the herd. .Whenever a old bull Yas
V
OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, AUGUST 29, 1920.
T
.t
defeated by a youthful and sturdier
rival, the old bull was forced to tkc
a place among the1 stragglers.
Wolves Get Stragglers.
"The big Loafer wolves used to
get the stragglers," said- Williams.
"We would find the old dethroned
bulls lying behind the herds with
iheir hamstrings cut and carcasses
eaten by the" wolves."
The herds used to repell attacks
from packs of wolves by huddling
together with the bulls outfide to
toss off the attackers with their
-horns. They used to meet the as
saults of the wolves with a bellow
ing roar which was terrible to hear,
Williams said. .
Williams learned the language, of
the Pawnees and Sioux. At one time
he had great quantities of buffalo
robes, but he has given many of
them away.
Pioneer Railroader.
Williams has been connected with
much of the pioneer railroad build
ing in this part of the country. He
later took up farming and then went
into the contracting business. He
retired four years ago.
"You would never have dreamed,
seeing those vast herds in the old
days that they would all be wiped
out." said Wiljiams rather sadly.
Omaha's "herd"' today numbers
only 10 while a fw years ago there
wereH.
Daddy of Them All.
One young one was gored to death
by a near-sighted mother and three
others have died of old age. As the
oldest at the park is now, only. 2Q
BOTTOM ROW UFT TOBlGUTKWS7t7WE$f
KNRAZErtllllBOftHJ
- A Hunt Rnffal
years of age. which is quite youth
ful from a bison's standpoint in th.it
they ordinarily live to be 50 or 55,
and as one calf appears regularly
every year, the situation is not so bad
as ft might appear. x
"Buck," a shaggy monster bull, is
the "daddy of them all" at Riverview.
He is literally, as there are only two
or three in the lot not sprung from
him.
Born a Year Ago.
The smallest of the outfit is
"Spick," a little fellow about the size
of a small horse who was born a
year ago. - -
A buffalo doesn't have the general
appearance of a particularly agile
creature, but M. W, Haley, the care
taker, says' that it is best never to
take any chances as you would be
surprised how fast a buffalo really
can run.
All of the western prairie lands
were filled with vast herds of buf
falo in the early days. Some of them
crossed the Rockies into Idaho, New
Mexico and Utah. Others wandered
far down into Texas
Ruthless Slaughter Begins.
Then the ruthless slaughter by
man began. The robes were worth
from $2 to $4 and this lure resulted
in the destruction of thousands. The
animals were impounded in pens.
Others were surrounded, decoyed
and driven.
In 1832 it was estimated that from
2,000.000 to 3,000,000 were being
slaughtered annually. .
.The killing, of . the animals was
1 D
creatlv auemcnted bv the buildinsr of
the Union Pacific in 866. Marketing-
tacuities were airoraea. ceiween
1871 and 1875 the great southern
herd,estimated at more than 3,00U,
000 head, was wiped out.
Death knell Sounded.
The opening of the Northern
Pacific in 1880 sounded the death
knell of the northern herd. The half
breeds of Manitoba, the Plains Crek
of Qu'Appelle and the Blackfoot
of south Saskatchewan practically
cleaned out a vast stretch of couutry
extending east and west through the
Rocky .nountains and Manitoba.
Only a few .straggling bands were
left.
In 1889 there were 256 buffalo in
captivity, 200 under protection in
Yellowstone park and 635 running
wild a total of 1,091.
Then the governments of the
United States and Canada stepped in.
Under protection the remnants of
the millions that formerly roamed
the plains have increased to a few
thousand.
Seek Huge Ranges.
As the protected herds have In
creased the question of providing
large enough ranges has arisen.
Additional reservations will be given
over to this purpose. Some of the
surplus buffalo will be donated to
municipalities, public organizations
and institutions.
Omaha's herd may in time be in
creased from the surplus government
animals.
It has also been suggested that
some of the surplus be sold to
farmers to be handled cattle. In
view of the high price of meat and
the value of the buffalo robes it
is said that this may be feasible.
It is contended that though the
problem of providing fences is a
hard one. it is not unsurmountable.
Hazardous Hunting.
Hunting buffalo on horseback was
the method originally employed by
the Indians, who would charge a
herd on their fleet 'ponies and kill
the animals with bows and arrows
as they rode beside them.
This was a hazardous game and
undertaken only at the risk of the
hunter's life.
Impounding of buffalo was em
ployed" by the Indians of the north
west. The pound was made of logs
and the gate was placed below a
ledge down which the animals could
jump but which was too high for
them to climb again.
Driven Into "Dead Men"."
A fan-shaped runway made of
bunches of branches and bushes,
known as "dead men," lined up 50
feet apart was extended from the
Kate several miles out into the
plains. The buffalo were then driv
en into the runway and kept in the
path by Indians hidden behind the
"dead men," who would jump, out
a:id frighten them when they started
to break away.
When the bison were gathered in
the pen they were slaughtered.
With the coming of the railroads
and the demand for buffalo robes
the "still hunt" was inaugurated.
The hunter approached within 100 to
250 yards of the herd and proceeded
with a high-powered rifle to shoot
dewn the animals one at a time,
without stampeding the herd. The
hunter first dispatched the leader,
usually the oldest cow, and then the
reft. Any animal that started to
lead the others away was cut down
by the hidden rifle.
Another method employed by the
Indian on the prairies where timber
ws scarce was the "surround." in
. Continued on Fat tO,
.
Convention
Remarkable World Order
Will Open 3-Day Meeting
In Omaha On September 3
; 7
Big Athletic Event at Creighton College Will Be One
Of Principal Features of Conference First
Chapter of Society in America Was Founded in
Omaha, July 18, 1893.
By H. R. HARRIS.
When the national convention of
the" Catholic Sokol society is as
sembled in Omaha, September 3, 4
and 5 there will be gathered in this
city one of the most remarkable or
ders in the world today, an order
founded along the lines of the old
Greek-doctrine that for a healthy
mind there should be a healthy body,
an order possessed of the purest
principles of democracy.
1 he coming convention is looked
forward to with particular interest
by both Omaha Sokols and those
from elsewhere, for the St. Wences
laus parish of this city founded the
sdciety of Catholic Sokols in the
United States, July 18, 1893.
.There are some 5,000 Catholic
Sokols, 3,000 men and 2,000 women,
in this -''country today and a large
number of them are expected to at
tend the Omaha convention. There
are also many non-Catholic Sokol
lodges.
"All bokols are equal," is a motto
of the society. Men, women and
children of all classes of society, in
simple dress, meet periodically in the
Sokol halls tor systematic training
in gymnastics. "Sokol" means "fal
con" in Bohemian and stands for
swiftness and sureness.
In the great drills in the interna
tional congress at Prague. Bohemia,
as" many as 50,000 men have taken
part at one time.
Some of the most famous gym
nasts in America will appear in the
exercises of the Omaha convention.
Dr. Miroslav Tyrs, professor of
aesthetics in the University of
Prague, at that time only 29 years
of age, organized the Bohemian
Sokols in 1862 at Prague, Bohemia.
He called the first general gym
nastic meeting of the society Feb
ruary 16, 1862.
Dr. Tyrs was a Bohemian patriot
of the highest ideals and he devoted
his life to the Sokol movement.
Advocate Morality.
Dr.'Jindrich Funger, father-in-law
of Dr. Tyrs, was elected president of
the first meeting of the Sokols at
Prague. The two doctors share
alike in the tribute of Bohemians
and all Sokols as founders of the
society.
Drs, Tyrs and Funger aimed to
makf .ien physically fit and inspire
them with patriotic resolve to make
the best of themselves. They sought
to set as a goal not mere prize win
ning, but to improve the morale of
the nation.
The' Sokol society was struck a
severe blow in 1865 by fhe death ot
Dr. Funger and on the heels of this
misfortune came the Austro-Gcr-man
war.
Dr. Tyrs drew up an elaborate
plan to utilize the Sokols for defense
of the inadequately protected Ger
man frontier. This was forwarded
to Vienna.
Much to the surprise of the doctor,
the proposal was met with the in
solent reply that this was a war
between Germans and the Sokols
should have no part in it.
Dr. Tyrs' plan, though impelled by
the highest patriotism, was looked
on with suspicion by the powers at
Vienna and in 1873 a period of active
suppression was started.
Th"e publication of the organiza
tion's magazine. The Sokol. was
stopped and other measures o
stamp out the organization were put
into effect. ,
In 1881, however, Dr. Tyrs started
up the society again and from this
time forward the growth of the or
ganization was remarkable.
In 1882 the Sixth congress of Bo
TEN CENTS
i
Here
hemian Solols was held at Prague.
There were 17,000 drilling and 20
years later mere were estimated io
be 50,000 in the exercises at the
grand congress in Prague.
At the congress in 1912 there were
Sokols from all parts of Bohemia,
from Moravia and Bohemian
from America, England and Ger
many. There were also Montenegrin,
Croatian, Russian, Polish, Servian
and Bulgarian Sokols, Every Slar
nation was represented in the Slav
Union of Sokolsj There were esti
mated to be 200,000 at that time and
today these numbers have greatly in
creased The Sokols have been anti-Germanic
in protest of one race against
absorption by another. Germany
steadfastly opposed the Sokols. Dur
ing the 1912 congress in Prague no 1
mention was made of the affair 5n
the German newspapers of that city.
The ideals of the Sokols, most
ably set forth by Frantisck Palacky,
great Bohemian historian and patri
ot, call for a noble, just democracy,
strife for the victory of truth and
right and for liberty and justice for
all; equal justice to individuals to
all classes of society and to all na
tions. Sokols, he said, must be truid-
Wa hy the desire to improve not only
me material condition but also the
moral, to get culture and to elilight
en and raise the whole nation.)',
Has Rapid Growth. 1
The first lodge of the Catholic
Sokol society was organized in Oma
ha, July 18, 1893. There were 28
charter members in the original St.1
Wenceslaus parish. In addition to
the athletic aims of the society it
was also formed to aid in the Amer
icanization of members of the Sokol
lodges and for religious purposes.
A year after the founding of the
Omaha parish the Conception parish
was organized in South Omaha. Re
cently St. Adelbelt's parish has also
been organized in Omaha.
Following the organization of the
Omaha parishes others were formed
,in Plattsniouth, Detroit, Baltimore,
etc.
In the St. Wenceslaus parish there
are classes of 50 girls, 25 small boys,
40 young ladies and 20 young men
who engage in drilling calisthenics
and gymnastics.
Over the entire organization of
Catholic Sokols in the United States
there is one head athletic instructor,
Joseph Simcilz of Chicago.
The president of the Catholic So-.
kols in the United States is Hynek
Dostol of St. Louis, editor of a Bo
hemian newspaper in that city. John
Straka of Chicago is vice president.
V. B. Havel of Chicago is secretary.
John S. Kramolish of South Omaha
is treasurer.
The society is divided into west
ern, eastern and southern divisions.
The Right Rev. Josef M. Koudelka
of Wisconsin is protector.
The Rev. John Vranek, pastor of
St. Wenceslaus, was one of the
founders of, the national organiza
tion. WJien Property Was Bought
The first tournament was held in
Omaha in October, 1894. Sixteen
Turners took part. Joseph Fuxa had
charge. His assistants were Vacla
Vachal and John Vampola.
In 1901 a beautiful silk banner"
wasmade iri Bohemia for the Oma
ha lNlge.
In 1908 alt of the Catholic lodges
were organized into the Catholic
Union of Sokols.
In 1915 the St. Wenceslaus parish
purchased the property at 124
Continued on Fait Ilk
y