Certain communities where a large number of fearless men were assembled (such as Dodge City, Kansas,) became headquarters for the hunters, but the ranging of hunting parties throughout the entire West was restricted. This delayed the destruction of the buffalo. As I have stated, the coming of the railroad, and the subsequent building of other railroads, and steamboat navigation upon the Missouri, brought about curtailment of Indian activities and the ultimate destruction of the buffalo. I present a drawing from Wright’s book in which are exhibited upwards of 40,000 buffalo hides stacked up in the corral at Dodge City.[56] This was in 1876. So many hides were shipped to the eastern market that the price fell to a dollar. Unnumbered thousands were sold at $1.25. I entered a furrier’s store in Boston last winter and saw three buffalo robes offered for sale. The ordinary one was $75, another one was $100, and an extra fine robe was priced at $150. A few live buffalo were recently sold and the price was, I have been told, $1,000 each. The hide-hunters killed the animal for the robe, as the name implies, and left the carcass to rot. Sometimes men took neither the hides nor the tongues, but killed for the mere pleasure of slaughtering. It is not at all difficult for us to reconstruct the “good old buffalo days” among any of the tribes, from the Comanches of Texas to the Sioux of Minnesota. Many of the Indian bands followed the buffalo in its annual migration north or south, killing such of the animals as were needed for use and permitting the greater number to escape. There is no authentic account of early Indians slaughtering to satisfy a craving for blood. Indians sometimes killed enemies for the sheer love of slaughter, but the buffalo was not an enemy. Having obtained sufficient meat or hides, they simply quit, for they had not become “civilized”. Let us imagine some village of the period between 1850 and 1865. There are numerous accounts of such, and we need read few of them to form an accurate, though composite picture. The camp is located in some favorite spot. Young men, out upon a scout, observe the approach of a great herd, and, lashing their ponies, speed back home with the welcome news. All is excitement in the village some twenty miles to the east. Immediately the village crier gallops from one end of the encampment to the other announcing that a buffalo dance is to be held that night. Everybody prepares for the festive occasion; the shamans make their medicine; the buffalo dance paraphernalia is brought out, and until early morning hours the dance continues.