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the spot and make it fairly representative of the time of the battle of the Washita.

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The Washita flows down from the West against a high cut-bank, which forms the break of the high prairie on the south as it descends suddenly to the level with the river valley, and then the stream northward and flows for about a thousand yards, then returning to the wall-like prairie embankment (the goose-neck spoken of above), and this tract, thus circumscribed by the river, was the place where the village was situated. Northwest of the village ran two ridges between which Custer led his troops, remaining quiescent and concealed until the Osages and scouts had made a more careful survey. They soon reported the undoubted presence of large numbers of Indians and a very large herd of ponies; this report being verified by Custer and his staff, who scrupulously inspected the village (from places of concealment) and its reasonably vulnerable points. Bitterly cold as was that night, the command rested as best they could on the snow; the while Custer formulated his plan of attack, after which the troops were quietly moved to the various points whence they were to attack the camp.

Captain Edward S. Meyer was assigned to the right to occupy the elevated ground south of the village and to cut off any possible retreat of the hostiles. He cautiously took up the position that he was to occupy, fording the stream close to where a small affluent from the south empties in and following up this tributary for several hundred yards to the higher plateau. Captain Louis M. Hamilton and Captain Albert Barnitz took their detachments into the heavy timber northwest from the Indian camp, while First Lieutenant William W. Cook's sharpshooters were located on the north side of the Washita, and on a level tract of land that is now a cotton field, half a mile north and west of the Indians. General Custer had five troops with him to charge the village at the early dawn, the signal for the charge being the tune of "Garry Owen," to be played by the Seventh Cavalry band, that always accompanied the regiment in its campaigns. Everything is prepared for the slaught, and the preliminary description

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may be imagined by the reader as the suspensory time before the fighting commences, when the hearts beat quicker, when the breath comes irregularly and the teeth have a custom of setting hard together. Just as the pearly dawn rifted the darkness, Custer gave the order for the attack, and the tense silence was broken by the crash of the opening bars of Custer's favorite martial tune whirling through the crisp air. The horses, that had been impatiently chafing under the restraint and the bitter cold, sprang forward exultantly, because they were in motion, and so impetuously that many of the musicians were carried into the thick of the melee. The men were also exhilarated at the termination of their frozen inactivity, and shouted jubilantly at the arrived opportunity of having a whack at the Indians. General Custer, as usual, was in the lead, riding a magnificent black stallion, and, clearing the trail crossing the ashita at one jump, was greeted by the Indians shouting "Tse mokh-e ve-yune He-yo-vi-e!" (The Big Chief, Yellow Hair); yellow hair being Custer's sobriquet derived from his flowing hair of that hue. By the side of Custer rode Ben Clark (*Red Neck-Mi-e, red; No-to-wah, neck; from the ruddy hue of his neck and breast, sunburned by exposure), and as the Indians recognized him they warned one another: "Tan-uttse-vome, Mi-e-no to-wah tah-hah-to-om," Look out for Red Neck, he's a dead shot. It has been the pleasure of the writer to meet many scouts and trailers, but assuredly one of the bravest, most competent and unassuming is Ben Clark, now Post Guide and Interpreter at Fort Reno, Oklahoma, and completing the fiftieth year of his service with the Government.

The unpreparedness of the Indians for the assault resulted in great confusion and slaughter among them, and as the troopers swirled hither and thither reaping the harvest of death, Custer also placed a few "good" Indians to his credit. After the primary recurrent charges he occupied a little knoll that commanded a view of the battle-field, and thence issued his orders. On that knoll, a brown sandstone monument, commemorative of the engagement, was erected some years ago by Major Hugh

L. Scott, formerly of the Seventh Cavalry.

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As the Indians fled from their village they tried to pass down the river to the camps below, that stretched for miles, and were met by the detachments commanded by Hamilton and Barnitz. The junction of the opponents was the occasion of heavy fighting, during which Hamilton was shot squarely between the eyes and instantly killed, and Barnitz was shot through the lungs, from which wound he never recovered and was retired on December 15, 1870, on account of wounds received while in the line of duty.

The loss to the Indians was their village captured and destroyed, one hundred and three warriors killed, and fifty-three women and children captured, and the pony herd taken and sent to the happy hunting grounds. The soldiers lost one officer and three men killed, and three officers and eleven men wounded.

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While this engagement was being prosecuted, the Indians for a distance of fifteen miles down the Washita comprehending Comanches, Kiowas and Cheyennes, assembled in force and attacked Custer, shouting the while: "Shiv-e nah-ho tse mokh-e ve-yun-a," try and kill the big chief; but the big chief turned the tables on them and drove them on the back trail some five miles down the river, until approaching darkness constrained the relinquishment of the chase. During the pursuit, Major Joel H. Elliott, Seventh Cavalry, seeing some young bucks escaping, followed them with the regimental sergeant-major, and fifteen men. bucks were recaptured, but Elliott and his party, on their way back, were surrounded by hostiles and killed. He had followed the young Indians (bucks, in Western parlance) taking a course due south and nearly at right angles to the Washita. After following this direction. for a mile and a half, a very small branch of the river was crossed and an open prairie reached: on this prairie the bucks were captured and were being brought back, when the party was attacked by some of the hostiles from down the river, supposedly numbering from one thousand to fifteen hundred warriors. They joyously yelled at seeing the little party, "Shiv-e-ie-yo-tsit tah-nah-ho!"

(Charge on them, kill them!) Elliott fought his way back toward the small creek-since named Sergeant-Major Creek until within rifle range of it, when he was blocked by Indians who had taken position in its bed, whence they leisurely picked off his men. The latter then formed a little circle, prepared to kill as many of the hostiles as possible ere being killed themselves (true soldier fashion), and around this circle their dead and horribly mutilated bodies were found. None of those back with the regiment knew of Elliott's party having followed the Indians; none heard the noise of their contest, and none knew of their precise fate until they were discovered subsequently and then cut and gashed almost beyond recognition.

Ben Clark thus epitomizes the fight from the time of the killing of Captain Louis McLane Hamilton, as it came under his immediate observation:

"In making its sharp bend around the village, the Washita river had cut into its north bank, until heavy portions of the bank fell away and made a natural breastwork in the river below. About twenty men, women and children (Tse-ot, warriors; Ha-a-yo, squaws; Is-sun, boys, and Ik-sun, girls) took refuge in this place, and hid from sight during the heaviest fighting. When a lull came, they were discovered, and, on their refusal to surrender, were all killed. I saw a Cheyenne (Tsis-tah) woman, the last survivor, kill her child with a butcher knife and then bury the blade in her own breast. Cheyenne babies are almost as fair as white children, hence several of the soldiers. thought she had murdered a white child, and one of them poked his carbine over the embankment and sent a bullet into her brain. Even General Custer shared the opinion that a white child had been killed, and so stated in his account of the battle.

"While standing on the knoll to which Custer had ridden, I saw a large number of women and children near two buttes on the prairie, south of the village, pursued by Meyer's men, who were killing them without mercy. General Custer immediately ordered me to instruct Meyer to stop the slaughter, and the remaining women and children were taken captive and placed in a big tepee under guard.

"Major Joe Elliott was standing on a large mound further east, and, looking down the river with a field-glass, discovered a number of Indian men and boys skulking in the timber. He called for men to go with him, and disappeared, never to return. Warriors were coming up the Washita to engage the troops. Sergeant-Major Creek and the Washita run parallel for nearly a quarter of a mile before they join, and the streams are almost within a stone's throw of each. other. A big band of these these Indians went from the Washita to the SergeantMajor and were in the timber when they saw Elliott and his men approaching. The Indians charged from the timber in overwhelming numbers, killed every man in the detachment and afterwards mutilated them at a war-dance. (This Red Neck learned afterwards.) In later years I was told by Indians that Chief Left Hand, an old Arapahoe chief, now living on the Canadian River, in Blaine County, was in command of this hostile band.

"The very flower of the hostile tribes massed themselves on the buttes north of the battleground in the afternoon. There were twelve or fifteen hundred warriors armed with guns (mi-i-tun), lances (wahu-ke-zi), bows (matsk) and arrows (mah-huts.) They wore a profusion of metal trinkets, wristlets and armlets which glistened in the sunlight. They taunted the soldiers and dared them to fight, but seldom approached within range. When the herd of nearly one thousand ponies was driven in and shot to death by the troopers, so as to set the Indians afoot, the warriors on the hills yelled with vehement rage, shouting one to the other relative to the soldiers: "Tahnow-oh, mi-e-mi-e ha-e-yuto, mop-ve-tsin,' (Kill them and let their blood run like water) only they didn't do it.

"In a forced march that night, General Custer met his wagon-train coming from the Antelope Hills to join him, and the danger of a greatly diminished supply of ammunition was obviated. He had not expected to find the Indians in such numbers; and returned to Camp Supply to outfit for a larger campaign, and came back a week later, accompanied by General

Sheridan. The Indians were subdued and compelled to return to their reservations," -to recuperate and prepare for more deviltry; while General Sheridan made hie celebrated killing of wild turkeys, wherefrom the locality acquired the name of Sheridan's Roost.

Lest the men under Meyer be too harshly criticised for the vengeance they were taking on the women and children, an extract from an official report is subjoined:

"The blow that Custer struck was a hard one, and fell on the guiltiest of all the bands, that of Black Kettle. It was this band, with others, that, without provocation, had massacred the settlers on the Saline and the Solomon, and perpetrated cruelties too fiendish for recital. In this camp were found numerous articles recognized as the property of the unfortunate victims of the butcheries above described; also a blank book with Indian illustrations of the various deviltries they hed perpetrated. They had spared neither age nor sex."

It can also be recited that cursory reports of Indian depredations during the latter half of the year 1868 state that one hundred and fifty-seven persons were killed (not including soldiers), fiftyseven wounded, including forty-one scalped, fourteen women outraged and murdered, one man, four women and twenty-three children taken into captivity; one thousand six hundred and twentyseven horses, mules and cattle stolen ; twenty-four ranches or settlements stroyed, eleven stage coaches attacked and four wagon trains annihilated. The Indian casualties during this carnage were eleven killed and one wounded.

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It is a common result of reprisal that it falls on the wrong persons; in this case the guilty were punished. It is often the case, also, that in the lust of bloodshed and fury of battle soldiers were not perhaps extremely affected with particularity of discrimination, and squaws could and did handle a Winchester with deadly effect.

*Red Neck is one of the most proficient of has Cheyenne scholars now living, and long been Government interpreter in that language of the once powerful nation.

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THE DIVINE PROGRAM

VI-ITS EPOCHS AND DISPENSATIONS

BY C. T. RUSSELL

PASTOR BROOKLYN TABERNACLE

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RDER IS heaven's first law, and whoever would understand the divine program must study it in an orderly manner. Irregular and disorderly minds are at a disadvantage in Bible study. On the other hand, orderly minds are disadvantaged by the misrepresentations of the Bible by many of its friends of disorderly minds. As a consequence, those lacking mental order are confused and misunderstand the Scriptures, while those of orderly minds, disgusted with the misrepresentations and inconsistencies, will not even examine the Bible Revelation.

Whoever opens his Bible expecting it to describe the ages and dispensations as we shall here attempt to portray them will be disappointed. The Lord declares His Plan to be shrouded in Mystery and understandable only from the one standpoint of consecration and illumination by the holy Spirit. This, of course, refers mainly to the "deep things of God." There are also surface truths of great value connected with the Divine Revelation. The extent of our ability to understand is dependent upon faith, obedience and the observance of order. In proportion as we have or have not this ability we may understand or misunderstand the Bible.

Three Worlds and Three Dispensations.

The English reader is somewhat disadvantaged by the fact that in our common version the word "world" does duty for three distinctly Greek words. Thus, for instance, when our Lord mentions the end of the age or dispensation our common version Bible renders it "the end of the

world." This, to the average reader, signifies a general collapse of the earth-its destruction, in fact, or, as a habitation for man. No such thought attaches to the Greek word, aeon, however. An aeon is an epoch or age. The Lord declared that the present aeon or age would end, ushering in a new age or "world to come." As a matter of fact, three different worlds brought to our attention in the Bibleand the Millennium will be in the beginning of the third. The Scriptural declaration is that "the earth abideth forever""seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, as long as the sun and moon endure."-Eccl. 1:4; Gen. 8:22.

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These three "worlds" or three dispensations noted in the Bible are so distinctly different and so accurately described that none need mistake them. The first dispensation or world lasted from Eden to the flood. It was marked as the period of the administration of the angels, and in it, as we have already seen, some of them fell from their first estate of loyalty and obedience, further corrupting the world of mankind. Following the flood a new dispensation began, marked by the fact that the fallen angels no longer were permitted of the Lord full liberty of association with men. Man was permitted to have control of the earth, and Divine providence worked little interference except to prevent sin from going to such extremes as would have defeated the Divine plans to be developed later. This period from the flood to the Second Coming of Christ is Scripturally designated "this present evil world"-not because there has been nothing meritorious during its forty-four hundred years, but because God has mitted evil to dominate the earth during this period. As we have already seen, God

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