The chief business of Rushville seemed to be shipping bones.
We went over to the railroad to watch the process. There were
great piles of them about the station, and men were loading them
into freight-cars.
"What's done with them?" we asked of a man.
"Shipped East, and ground up for fertilizer," he answered.
"Where do they all come from?"
"Picked up about the country everywhere. Men make a business
of gathering them and bringing them in at so much a load. Supply
won't last many months longer, but it's good business now."
They were chiefly buffalo bones, though there were also those
of the deer, elk, and antelope. We saw some beautiful elk
antlers, and many broad white skulls of the buffalo, some of them
still with the thick black horns on them. As we were watching the
loading of the bones Ollie suddenly exclaimed:
"Oh, see the pretty little deer!"
We looked around, and saw, in the front yard of a house, a
young antelope, standing by the fence, and also watching the
bone-men as they worked.
"It is a beautiful creature, isn't it?" said Jack.
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