Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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A^A A^A A^. f T T T ?$ I THE n X Constructed of I-bea put in hot. The geai railway bridge. In tl I FIVE Y Stronger, more dural ' The wheels of st V rivpfprl into the tires. A , T * f T f y Y Lasts a Life Time Y T = x i See the ] a? ^ i c ? * v. i Telephone Ni , V ^ PASSING OF THK BUFFALO. There Were Once Millions of Them But Now Only a Few Thousand. ! The rescue of the buffalo, more properly called bison, from extinction is a romance of that fight for conservation that goes on in this country with ever-increasing vigor, relates "Winthrop Packard in Our Dumb Animals. Very many species of useful and beautiful wild life are today threatened with extinction through .no length and breadth of the land, yet comparatively few of our people ~ 1 - 1 * il-:" ^ orri U'illin (T realize uns anu icnci oit ?u>.?0 to make personal sacrifices to save this wonderful heritage to the children of the future. Scarcely a half century ago the buffalo roamed our western plains in , almost uncountable numbers, from Canada to Mexico. To the red men who then roamed the plains with them they were an unfailing source of supplies, food, clothing, housing and fuel. To the white men of the region they were all these and represented also the wonder and romance of the primitive open world and the historic past. Cortez and his band of Spanish conquistadors *vere the first white men to see one. They found him confined in the menagerie at Montezuma's capital as a rare and wonderful animal from the untrodden wilds to the north, for Mexico City is three hundred miles south of the natural range of the bison. "A wonderful composition of divers animals," says the Spanish chronicler who described the specimen, referring to it as "the Mexican bull." "It has crooked shoulders, with a KqaI: Hl'A o O TV) 01 tllD llUUCil Ull 110 nav.rv 111VV/ n mv flanks dry; its tail large and its neck covered with hair like a lion. It is cloven-footed, its head armed like that of a bull, which it resembles in fierceness and* has no less strength and agility." In 1612 Englishnient saw bison near what is now the city of Washington, D. C., and after that date they were more commonly sgen roving throughout various portions of what is now the United States, and occurring in some parts in immense herds. The open region of the Mississippi valley, where the land was unforested but well watered, was the true buffalo range. There the early explorers found the animals in such numbers, in herds of such size, that only superlatives could be used in attempting to describe them. "Teeming myriads," "countless herds." "incredible numbers," are favorite phrases, which can give only an in ? A A A t?t A A A A A A A A A rV V WV V VVVV > MODERN WAGON i l I 1 _ ms, cnanneis ana angles, r parts and wheels are b lie DAVENPORT you ha THOUSAND P >le and of lighter draft th eel, with strong, round sp do away with the resettin NO BREAK-D / 00 Without Removing V DAVENPORT I I. Fi umber 49 adequate idea of the extraordinary spectacle often presented. It has been estimated that on the plains. alone were forty million, on the prairies thirty million, a total of seventy-five million of these superb animals. a wonderful heritage, scattered over an area of some three million i square miles. Looked at from an economic point , of view here was a marvelous source ! of free food, fur. leather and other I products that might easily have been j conserved as an unfailing supply to | help lessen today's high cost of livj ing. The Indians of the earlier days I thus utilized the herds, their inroads upon them for meat and skins in no | wise equaling the natural increase. I Then came the white men, supplying , the wandering tribes first with ; horses and later with firearms, and | the decrease in the numbers of the i buffalo began. Yet even this did not ! presage extinction. But when the I railroads crossed the plains, giving ! the white hunters easy access to the i hitherto distant and inaccessible1 | places, and the vast rush to slaughter; for the hides alone began, the end - - - * *1 - i i ^ was in sight, it iook me uuiiaiu iuu | long to learn the meaning of a rifle shot and the danger of man's presence, and when they did learn it, in part at least, it was too late. ; A buffalo "robe" today is a curiosij ty, hardly to be obtained and worth, in good condition, perhaps a hundred dollars. Fifty years ago one or two ! were in every farmer's sleigh, and they could be bought for only a few i dollars. Yet no finer robe for warmth and comfort could be found. The i ruthless robe-hunters at the railI heads ^n the western plains were I slaughtering the great animals by the thousand, taking merely the pelts and leaving the carcasses to rot or feed the vultures where they fell. Thus the buffalo passed with amazing and disconcerting suddenness, and thus much of our wild life is passing today, unnoticed in its going by the thoughtless crowd. Even of those who knew, not many could believe that such amazing numbers fo/.o nf tllo rth roil HI pass 11UIXI liic lav c w1. v?.>- v. ? - -so rapidly. Now only a few scattered remnants remain, here and there. ; mainly on reservations where they 1 are carefully protected under govern| ment supervision. | That we have them at all is due to j a few large-hearted men who formed the American Bison society and gen; erously gave funds and valuable time I to the work of preservation. That j there are today in the world several t ; thousand bison, slowly increasing in number, is due entirely to the philani Construe! Fifty years aj Bridges were buil and maple. Now and use the strc I | good steel, and bi hfcl heaviest lifetime s I THE DAVENPOR 4 BEARING eolirtlv rivfttftd together 1 raced and trussed like t .ve a wagon of OUND CAPAC1 an any other wagon of e< \ okes, forged solidly into 1 g of tires, loose spokes, ai OWNS /heel No Repair I ROLLER BEAR *ank thropic and human? activities of these men. There were but a fe?w| hundred buffalo left when the work began, and it is rarely that a race has reached such small numbers and had the opportunity and the vitality | to survive and increase. For a race [ of wild creatures to fail almost ut-| terlv, passing in little more than a] century from seventy-five million to a few hundred, is extraordinary. That' there should be brought about an in- ' crease from the few hundred to sev-j eral thousand in little more than a decade, is still more unusual. J In our country twenty-seven states today have buffalo, ranging in number from a solitary specimen or two in a zoological park to a few score or a few hundred in a State reservation. Canada has nearly thirteen hundred in three large reservations and it is estimated that in far northern Athabasca are four or five hundred roam-, ing the wilderness unrestrained.j There may be altogether, 3,500 to 4,500. In the United States many of the: buffalo are closely confined, but most of the large herds roam the ranges as free and far more safe than their wild progenitors, always owing their I i safety, of course, to the watchful care of the same human race that came so ! near exterminating them. The world changes for the better, and in no wise j ; are these changes more marked than j tVick font that man flip dpstrnvpr. is , 111 11AV 1UVI CAAW4.V Ww***, V..W V.v^ ~ . y ; i , steadily becoming man the conserva- j tor and protector of the wild life that I once he so ruthlessly destroyed. Might Have Been Worse. i One of the clerks at a weather bu-: i' ! reau took unto himself a wife, and it has been his erdeavor to interest her' in his work at the office. | The other evening on coming home : he said: "It Kvas a terrible storm that swept through Jersey. The wind blew sixty miles an hour for thirty j i minutes." "Well, dearie," said the wife, I anxious to dhow an intelligent interi est in the matter, "it's lucky, isn't ! thot it hlow nnlv half an hour?" I "Why?" i | "Well, thirty miles isn't nearly so ! bad."?Washington Post. George Sisler, the star of the St.! Louis Browns, after his marriage this month, expects to take a trip with, his bride to California and, according to reports of friends in that State, may winter there, though an' announcement made in St. Louis is that he will go into the automobile business in the Mound City. 1 ted Alike gK | \ jo, Wagons and ?" ?& *f t of oak, hickory M? t?Wf] S\. % we know better, A ingest shapes of ^Al^iW^wfi*C jild them for the glf ' | the hubs and hot X ,d cracked felloes. *JRfc | THE MODERN BRIDGE -^=^==== I tills to Pay Gears of Steel Built for AO Kinds of Weather ING before purchasing another wagon | / Bamberg f f Bamberg, South Carolina X A, A..A.A A, A^k A^A A^A Jfek A4A A^A A4A A^. A^A A^]| i JUST '|| B| I nnnnQ mo All I | UUUUJ l vi\ nuu BB |B II We have just received a Dig smpmeni _ I of dry goods, Ladies' and Children's I B Cloaks, Shoes and Hats. We especially I fl invite you to call in and see our line, as IE we feel that we can save you money. II v Remember also that flour is high, and I fj it stands us in to make all our foodstuffs I E I at home; therefore, buy your wheat seed I B ( now. We are expecting a big shipment I B at any time. I B | ^^B ! t v /m n/M * r I H H. u ruuv 11 Telephone 26-L Bamberg,^. C. 19 . N j v ; v..