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Tous les autres exempiaires originaux sont filmAs an commandant par la premiere page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration at en terminant par la derniAre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra suir !a darnidre image de cheque microfiche, seton le cas: la symbols — b" signifie "A SUIVRE ", le symbols V signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent «tre filmAs A des taux de reduction diffArents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul clich«, il est film* A partir de Tangle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ntcessaira. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 4 5 6 4 ,'«<, ^ii.^ -*^' u ii.liiTivJuiiiillii-i'iWMmnOM i i' i V ■T/--u-zA^ JXW^ J^-T^— --u^ ^■s^' THE STRUGGLES FOR LIFE AND HOME' IN TUK North -West. BY A PIONEER HOMEBUILDER. LIFE, 1865-1889. Gko. W. Kranck. ^•>- NEW YORK: I. GoLDMANN, Steam Printer, 7, 9 & i i New Chambers St. ®.j\ 1890. --^® 7 ik r& COPVRIOMT, 1890, B r GEO. W. FRANCE 'w ~ Cfg3 " ■^ 3 PREFACE. I do not claim for this book auy literary merit, except that borrowed or quoted from others, for, wlieu Cushiuf;; could mark 5000 mistakes iu Webster's Unabrid{^ed Dictionary (say- ing that for the size of the book it had as icw errors as could be expected), and when newspaper and otlier writers have to browse so largely from the genius an*' abor of ot1u>is, that editorials are frequently copied bodily as their own (so that it is *)ilc;n difficult to know who produced sorr ) ]nbce of intellect- ual work and the gems of ge.-.ius that they print), it would therefore be presumptuous for an unlettered homebuilder on the border, alone to attem})t anything very tine and glittering in l)uilding his book ; and though the most practical, valuable and »ixpeusive education in the world is that gotten by struggling hard and long against fiends and fate, for life, liberty and home, such a life permits of no leisure or condition of the mind for the culture of any of its latent literary genius. While the mere kid-gloved hired critic will smile over the stacks of humbug effusions of his professional brethren, he will sneer at this ill-favored thing ; and ring-black-legs will detest it, as they do truth itself and equality before the law. But when my case was so cruelly lied about and I was so persistently and corruptly held in a secret bastile to be tortured, looted and maligned, (as I found it to be the case with others also), and was always denied any hearing, or defense, or trial, I was left no alternative by the mongrel gang, but was forced to write my life, and theirs also —wherein it imperils the life, liberty and homes of the people. (8) :^r.r.R5 Pr:Cific N. W. Hi?.tory Dopt. PROViNCIAL- LIBRARY VICTORIA, B. C. 4 Preface. As to its truth, every point and assertion of mine is (in one place and another) shown to be so very evidently and jwsltively true, that none but brazen members or tools of the black con- spiracy will ever question it. In the language of Josephus : " Some apply themselves to this part of learning to show their great skill in composition, and that the}' may therein acquire a reputation for speaking finely ; others there are who of necessity and by force are driven to write history, because they were concerned in the facts, and so cannot excuse themselves from committing them to writing for the advantage of posterity. Nay, there are not a few who are induced to draw their historical facts out of darkness into light, and to produce them for the benefit of the public, on account of the great importance of the facts them- selves with which they have been concei*ned .... I was forced to give the history of it because I saw that others perverted the truth of those actions in their writings. However, I will not go to the other extreme out of opposition to those men who extol the oppressors, nor will I determine to raise the actions of my own too high ; but I will prosecute the actions of both parties with accuracy. Yet shall I suit my language to the passions I am under, as to the affairs I describe, and must be allowed to indulge in some lamentations upon the miseries undergone by my own "But if any one makes an unjust accusation against me when I speak so passionately about the tyrants, or the robbers, or sorely bewail the misfortune of our counti'y, let him indulge my aflfections herein .... Because it had come to pass, that we had arrived at a higher degree of felicity than others, and yet at last fell into the sorest calamities again .... But if any one be inflexible in his censures of me, let him attribute the facts themselves to the historical part, and the lamentations to the writer himself only .... And I have written it down for the sake a Preface. 5 of those that love truth, but not for those that please them- selves with fictitious relations." "Yes, I have lost the loved, the dear! Yes, I have wept the bitter tear ! Have passed misfortune's darkest hoiir — Have known and felt the Tempter's power — Have bowed to scorn, unloved, alone. Longing for Friendship's cheering tone ! Unhappiness ! I know thee, then — So can I help my fellow-men ! — Public Opinion. G, W. F. "If all the scoundrels who now bask in the smiles of San Francisco society were to receive tbcii* just deserts for tlieir iufjimous deeds, the accommodations at San Quentin and Folsom would be entirely too re- stricted. We have before taken occasion to define the ci'ime of ''personal jour- nalism." It is never perpetrated except against a r'ch scoundrel. A journal may with perfect safety hcild up to scorn tlie actions of water front bummers, or the despised hoodlum. Turn to youi paper any morning and evening and see how oftfn crime in low places is exposed and made odious in a hundred different ways. Does any one suppose that distinguished lawyers would l)e found to rail at the practice so long as it was confined within these limits? Bah! The inquiry excites a smile of derision. Any Tom, Dick or Harry in the city might be mentioned, and columns of contempt and derision hurled at them without a i)rote8t being raised. But, as we have said before, let a man with a million or two of money commit the most unpardonable outrages, ami be referred to ever so gently, and the pick start out in full cry yelping "personal journalism. " Without perso7ial journalism vice and roguery would be sure to get the ttpper hand in modern times. Personal journalism is the b Jwark reared against its encroachment. Personal journalism is only another term for the "rascal's scourge," It will be a sorry day for society if the assassin's pistol or tlie rich man's coin ever prove effective enough to stop the hand engaged in the work of making crime odious by jjointing out to the public their enemies. Crime cannot be checked with a parable. Its perpetrators mubt be held up to jjublic scorn." Snn FVancisco "Chronicle." 'lUJWPlwr .""S" n i i"JVALLA JFaLLA, JVasJn'mjton, i Nov. 2rjfh, 1880. TO WHO 31 IT MAY CONCERN:- "I have been personally acquainted ivifh 3Ir. Geo. W. France for many years, and knoiv his ymeral repuiation and standing in this State to be good, and xohile it is true that he loas at one time convicted of murder in the second degree, it is noio generally believed that he committed the homicide in necessary self-defence, and is innocent of any crime ivhalever. I take pleasure in bear- ing testimony to his uniform good character, both l^f ore and since this unfortunate occurrence, as an honest, ujwight, orderly and laiv-abiding citizen. THOS. H. BRENTS." [Representative in Congress for two terms from Washington Ten i:o,v • (r) H LIST OK ILLUSTRATIONS. Frontispiece. Author's Portrait Oil Works - - . . . View of Salt Lake City, Utah The Mormox Temple, Etc. - . . . . Pyramid Lake, Utah - - . . . Los Angeles, Cal., from the Hill Mexican Herder ...... Main Street from Temple Block, Los Angeles - Chinese Quarter, Interior op Chinese Temple (Josh House), Los Angeles Tropical Plants and Historical Buildings Pi-Ute Indian Camp, Nevada .... A Canyon ---.... Shoshore Falls, Snake River, Idaho, 2G0 Feet High "I Hauled Wood and Rails prom the Blue Mountains" Making Clapboards ..... Multnoma Falls, Columbia River, Oregon My First Outfit --.... My First House ...... Land Office Receipt ..... United States Land Patent .... An Indian Village - - - . . An Indian Massacre ..... Sc>'^c>OL T^ND Lease - . Sci-Ov>L I4AND Receipt - . . . . Defending My Life and Home - . . . The Seatco Bastile .... A Sick Prisoner ---... Prisoners at the Bastile Going to Work— Drunken Guard --.... Penalty for Exposing the Tortures of the Secret Bastile ...... City of Sitka, Alaska - - . . . (9 PAQE. 29 43 49 59 67 69 71 73 75 79 101 103 113 117 125 131 139 144 149 157 179 21G 217 249 271 277 283 459 f ifi^ CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Striking out from home when a boy. — My object. — Ho ! For the Oil Regions in Pennsylvania.— My Chum. — Great Excitement. —Oil City flooded.— "Coal Oil Johnny."— Tools, etc., used in bor- ing for oil. — All about finding oil. — And wha* the oil is. — My ex- perience for about a year. CHAPTER n. Leaving the Oil Regions for a good time "OiitWest." — A period of travel, etc., of four-and-a-half months to the ^lissouri River — Then crossing the plains to Salt Lake Avith wagon train in 60 days. — Our train, etc.; my team, etc.; first camp in a storm. — Fording the Platte river with its quicksand bottom ; big teams, etc. My first drink ; delusion in distance; game, etc. — Freighting; life and government on the plains. — A comprehensive account of the region from the Missoiu-i River to Salt Lake Valley. CHAPTER in. Salt Lake City and Valley. — Salt Lake ; climate and bathing. — Remained a month. — Then made a trip of a month on the i)lains. Caught in a blizzard. — Sixty-two frozen mules for breakfa.st, Oct. 14th. — A rough tramp in the snow, 180 miles back to Salt Lake. — Dreaming of home. — As to the hardships of trains snow-bound in the mountains. - Work for a Mormon dignitary. — The "Mighty Host of Zion." — How they whipped Johnson's U. S. Army in 18G1, etc., etc. — Mountain Meadow massacre, etc., etc. — Leave Salt Lake on horse-back for St. (fcorge, JJ.'jO miles south; takes a month. — Mormon farms and villages ; their system of settlement, etc. — Climate, soil, mountains, etc. — A month in St. George as "Dodge's Clerk." — On an Indian raid. — Made a trip to the extreme southern settlements. — What for?— Cotton country.— Mountain of rock salt.— A true, comprehensive descrij)tion of the Mormons; how they live and deal with each other and with Gentiles; their religion and government; as they really are in practice; their virtues, crimes and danger. (11) •>*■ ^m 12 Contents. CHAPTER IV. Travelers I met in Utah.— Leave Utah for the Los Angeles, Cal., country.— The company I travel with. — Danites.— The In- dians on the road. — A Mormon "miracle." — Indian dialect. — Sand storm. A mine in the desert.— The region from St. George to California. — Arizona. — San Bernai'dino, Los Angeles, and that country. — Climate, soil, people and business in 1867 and 1884. — Land, titles, etc. CHAPTER V. Leave Los Angeles for a new mining camp in Nevada.— The stock of a train captured by Indians.— "Death Valley." — Eighty- seven families, stock, etc., perish. — The surrounding region and its products. — How teamsters are revenged. — Comprehensive des- cription of the mining camp, etc. — Hun-ah ! Hurrah ! ! We have struck it, HuiTah! ! ! — A big Indian. — How Mining Go's, officials steal.— Indian and white man hung, etc. — The mode of govern- ment and trial; wages, living, business, etc. — The geological forinatiou of mineral lodes, veins, fissures, etc., and placer mines. Prospecting for and locating claims.— The right time to sell, etc. — Why mines are guarded with rifles. — How stock companies operate. — Why newspaper accounts of mines are not reliable. — The real prices paid for mines. - How stock, etc., is made to sell. — One-and-a-half year's experience. ^ CHAPTER VI. The mines, continued. — Exciting reports from a distant moun- tain. — I outfit one of a party to go. —What he wrote me. — " Ho ! for White Pine! " — The richest silver mine ever discovered. — The pure stuff. — I go, too. — Visit another camp on the way. —My horse and saddle " borrowed." - A big camp ablaze with excitement. — Belief that the stuff could be found anywhere by digging. — The many thousand "mines." — "Brilliant schemes." Blubbering in- vestors from the States. — Life : gambling, drinking, business and damnation. — Making big sales, etc.; the outcome. — Another year and a half of lively practical experience in the mines. — The many smaller camps in the surrounding region. — Virginia City and Gold Hill — The great Comstock lode. — The iionanza and other great stock gambling mines that we read of. Contents. 13 CHAPTER YII. Building the U. P. and Contral railroads. —A general rugged prosjieeting tour of seven months in Nevada, Idaho and Montana. — On to Washington Territory. - The country, eliniate, soil, scenery, fishing, hunting, incidents, etc., etc. — Finding the true source of the fine gold in the Snake and Columbia rivers. — The more famous of the Idaho Placer mines. CHAPTER VIII. A comprehensive desci'iption of the Walla Walla country; soil, climate and productions and the lay of the land. -Hire out on a farm for two months.— The secret of success and failure in government and coi-poration contracts. — Secret intrigue at military posts, etc. — Experience in work in the mountains. — Locate a land claim and get married — A year's experience. CHAPTER IX. Brief description of Eastern and Western Washington and of the various sections in each ; their industries and inducements, advantages and disadvantages. CHAPTER X. History of the settling of the Walla Walla country. — Report of government experts as to the soil. — Packing to the mines of Idaho, etc. — The market and opportunities. — The outlook in 1870 when I landed there. — The country grasped by its throat; the government prostituted. — 1000 miles of river na^^gation to the sea strangled, and the tribute that was levied. — The result. — The promised railroad, etc. — First land claim I located. — Life in the beginning of a home ; dangers and draw-backs. — My first outfit. — Sell my claim ; hunt for and locate another in a new wild section; description of it and the locality. — My Indian neighbors; how they treated the fii'st white men they ever saw.— A homebuildei''s land rights and what he must necessarily endure in carving a home in a wilderness. —Warned of the perplexities, conspiracnes and treason to be jilanted in the way. — How we started out to build a good and spacious home; our first house, etc. — Travelling, moving and camping in the west.— 25 miles to blacksmith's shop, r 14 CONTENIU etc. — Thf " Egypt" for supplies. — Land daims located about us and ab.uidoned, are re-located by others time and a<.jain. — My first crop; big, bhujk, hungry crickets, one hundred bushels to tlio acre. — So that we are left alone in the " Prance Settlement." — The section surveyed and I " file my claim."— Kaiso hogs; the result; also got a band of cattle; experience on the range. -Getting i-oads opened, etc. — First railroad in Eastern Washington. - Struggling for a livelihood ami home ; how I managed. — Other new S(;ttle- nients and people; how they done. — "Land hunters." — "Prove up"; pay for and get patent for pre-emption claim and take a homestead claim adjoining. — Copy of United States patent. — How we just loped along n dl ahead i '' the country. — It settles uj». — New county; towns, etc., built; settlers swindled; build school house, etc., etc. CHAPTER XL An Indian war. — Neighboring Indians go on the warpath ; the reason. - Description of their domain; their horses and cattle. — A job on Uncle Sam. — How they plead for their country. — "Earth governed by the sun," etc. — Whom they killed. — How they marched and fought. — Settlers either stampede or gather in fortresses. — Effort.- made by men to have other tribes break out. — For plunder. — What an Indian must do to become a citizen. — How Indian claims are jumped. — What the Indian was before the advent of the Whites. — Their government, pursuits, etc. — What fire-arms and whiskey done for tlieni. — How they started fire, lived and died ; their religion. — How to improve the Indian. — "A cry ot the soul." CHAPTER XII. —Joseph. — White Bird. — Looking glass Indiaus, continued. and Indians generally. — The White Bird fight. — These Indians in early days ; their flocks, herds and fine farms. — The result of the war to the Indians. — "Cold-blooded treachery." — How Chief Joseph treated white prisoners. — " The glory of the West." — Col. Steptoe's defeat. — "For God's sake, give me something to kill my- self with." — The others saved by other Indians. — An Ingrate. — Col. Wright's victory ; G20 horses butchered. — How Wright treated Indian prisoners. — "The Chief Moses outrage." — "Mystery." —$70,000,000 squandered by the gang. Contents. 15 CHAPTER XIII. Imliaus, concluded. — " Tho Waiilatpu massacre.— Tho thrilling story of oae who, as a girl, was an eye witness, and then taken away as a prisoner. — Forelxxlings (»f tho nnirderous outbreak. — Friendly warnings given. — Tho dying hours of Dr. and Jlrs. Whitman." — Mission life among tho Indians. — As the Indians were in 1852; and then in 1S56. — Death of Chief Kanaskat. — How Indians are preserved. — How "eivili/ation'' was introduced to tho natives of South and Central America. CHAPTER XIV. Homo biiilding narrative resumed, — Improve homestead claim as I had the other. — Tho nuvrket, etc.— My herds of cattle, horses, hogs, etc. — Great ])ro.sperity. — Railroads built from tide water; freights, etc. — Immigration.— Further enlargement (»f my homo and business by leasing, fencing and breaking a quarter section of school land. — Copy of tho lease and receipt for second year's pay- ment on the same. — Tho law and custom as to it. — Confirmed by Congress. — Servo as county road viewer and on first grand jury of Columbia County, and learn something. —Road supervisor of a twenty-milo aistrict.— A review, and what I have learned about farming, etc.— Tho best ec(mom3'while".serpents are at the udder." CHAPTER XV. Land jumping.— First serious case in the " France settlement." — Our graveyard started. — The " j)oor man's friend." — Street fight with a jumper. - "Hurrah for Whetstone Hollow." Publie senti- ment as to such cases.— When the courts and press stand in with the people, and when against them.— Land sharks. — How petty thieves are shot down with impunity. — Homo wreckers ; how my prosperity made me an object of envy and ravage. —A murderous conspiracy by gentlemen with great influence at court to jump my pre-emption and school land portions of my well-earned, improved and stocked home.— The lying pretexts that were invented and used as a blind ; jump all the water, etc., on my place. — ''If you want any water, dig for it !" — Wanted to get me into their courts. — How I repossessed my own. — "Will fix you by helping II.. jump your school land ! " — How I had befriended them. — "Damnecl be he who first cries hold : enough! " — Tries to drive me off w't'i a gun, etc. — How we get better acc^uainted; get friendly and e 16 CONTINTS. Ill: agrees to quit. — How I was i)t'rforining my homage against a lurking foe. — Ilia objeet. — Is set to resume the conflict. — " An out- rage for one mun to own all the land, and the water too." — "Will settle it with an ounce of lead," etc. — lioasts of his backing and influence. — ''We will make it hot as hell for you now." — " I have taken your school land, E — , your pre-emption, and by — d ! we will soon have a man on your homestead ! " — A man loans me his pistol for defen.se, and then eggs on the jumper. — The lying gang. — " But truth shall contpier at the last." — Jumper's nuuiy wicked threats. — Try to have him ])ound over to keej) the peace. — My instructions from the peacte otIl(!er. — " Be prepared to defend y<)ur- self and sow the ground." — He loans me seed for the ])urpose. — " There comes [Jumpt'rJ now Avith a gun!" — "Let us go out and see what he is going to do with it." — " I don't care a danm wlmt he does with it." — How he followed me around the field with a cocked carbine in l)oth hands. — Quits and has a secret conference with the man who did not care a damn what he done with his gun. — " I ask you as a friend and neighbor to quit sowing wheat and leave the field, for there is going to be trouble ! " — " Look out for him, now!" — Belches out at the end of a stream of profanity, "turn back! leave the field! and don't come back nary time!" — "I will fix you!" crack, baiv/f — "I will kill you!" crack, bang! — I return the fire in rapid succession, thus saving my life. — Poxitice, certain, inconlroverlihb' proof an to the name. — How he missed me by a scratch! — "There, France is shot!" — The lying gang. — "Where logic is invented and wrong is called right." — Am charged with nmrdet ! — The would-be assassin, home ravager and ravishir is shielded, venerated and revenged by his gang. — " If by this means we further our cause, the private assassin deserves our applause." — Am thr( wn into jail without a hearing. — Held in jail near ten months b( cging and demanding a trial; can never get either a trial or In 'iug. — " Virtue distressed " could get no protection here. — Am etrayed, sold and given away. — " His glories lost, his cause Betr ved ! " — Shanghaied to the gang's Bastile in double irons. — " 01 i 'twas too much, too dreadful to endure .'" — " He jests at scars that .ever felt a wound!" — "Is this then," thought the youth, " is this the way to free man's spirit from the deadening sway of worldly sloth ; to teach him while he hves to know no bliss but that which virtue gives f " — Examples of other cases, and what the law is. — My case as established, and the law, etc., as to the same. Contents. 17 CIIArTEH XVI. A i)iljrrinmfre throujrli hell! — Seven y. .irs' experience in the Seutco contract bnstile; tlie kind of a licll and swindle thi.'^was; how I Ava.s taken there; a tliree or four days journey hy wagon, l)oat and rail. — IIow I was judjjed by people on the road. — Syni- ])athy. — ''Either innocent of crime or a very Itad man." — The set (luestions asked by those who had sutTered likewi.^e. — Description of the bastilc. — How I was inii)rcssed. — The kind (»f jieople 1 found the prisoners to be, and t \e officials. — IIow they were employed. — What they had done and what they had not done; their com- jtlaints, etc. — Jumping away. — The crooked and rocky road to liberty. — Who got there and how. — The iiKjuisition of the mind. — How prisoners are driven to the frenzy ol» despair and death. — ^Vhat they earned and were worth to the gang. — What it cost the j(eo])le. — What they got t(t eat and wear. — How they were treated when well and when sick. — The punishments. — How I was engag- ed while in the midst of tlaming desolation. — Crazy jn'isoner.s. — The good and bad qualities and conduct of the officials. — The re- deeming feature of the institution. — The different nationalities and occupations represented and their experiences. — One of the Polaris' crew; six months on an ice floe. — The good, bad and mixed; the innocent, guilty and the victims of circumstances, \ 'hiskey and accidents. — Inequality of sentences and treatment. — Kobbing the cradle and the grave for seventy cents a day. — How they lived and died. — The censorship on coiTesi)ondence and the real object of the same. — A secret prison. — Shanghaied jtrisoners tr> to make their cases known to the public. — How the Governor stood in with the gang. — Letters smuggled l)y ministers, members of the Legislature, humane guards, etc. — Squelching letters of vital importance. — "Damn you, you Quii't pruvr it." — Like abuses in the insane asylum. — The remedy. — A 2)lea that any pri>ionei nhall ai least be accorded a public hearing, and let the PEOPLE judge. — The Avorst criminals not in prison, but in office ; their victims crushed. — A pet prisoner turned in with a bottle oi whis- key and a pistol in his pockets. — The visiting preachers; what they thought of the prisoners and of the officials. — One that was a thorough-bred; would fight the devil in any guise; what he done for reform and how he was bounced. — Can WTite to Iutu yourself, — Cruel deception. — False and cheating hopes. — "There is France, if he had not been so anxious about getting home, he would have been out long ago." — " Must keep still and not bee anybody." — I I 18 COXI ENTS. Hino the k/UI and mii'l langiasheil oml diiil! — ILav other ])ris()iiers Avere shaiig-hiiicd. — '•Iiad conduct. " — My conduct; strikes, etc — How officials are intei-ested a<:raiiist a prisoner's justice. — How "lieaven is sonietinies just and pays us back in measures tluit we mete." — How ])risoners ai"e rol>l)ed. — Women prisoners and liow tliey were treatcil. — Visits of the legislature, etc. — A ])risoner makes a great speech and his teeth are i)ulled out for the ti'<*ul)le it makes the officials. — "What the legishitunt said and what they did. — The pardoning power and how it Avas exercised. — Tlie lie. — Tliat "to hear prisoners talk they are all innocent." — Kcadiii'.': matter, etc. — How to control prisonei's. — How they get revenge. — How jirisoners should be treated. — "Where they should be kept. — How a prison sliould'be conducted to be .^elf-.supporting and to r«'t'oi'm those who need reforming. — How to enforce the sacred right of ])etitiou and the sober second thought of the i)eople. I 1-j CHAPTER XVII. Prison experience, continued. — My personal efforts and that of my friends for ^ny release from the Ba.stile, for some kind of a //•/a/, and for onl\ a respectful hearing. — Tlie result, etc. — "Truth wears no mask, bows at no human shrine, seeks neither ))lace nor applause, she only asks a hearing.'' — Lettei's of my wife; governors, judges, and various other persons, and corresi)ondence. — Petiticms, recommendations, etc., etc., and how they were treated, etc., etc. CHAPTER XA'III. Prison experience, continued — An epitome of my life, case and trouble addressed toGovernor and people.— The only argument and sununing up of myca.se that was ever made. — The frank but fruit- less wail for justice and liumanity by a victim ; shangliaied, ravaged and languishing in prison. — " Let tliy keen glance his life search through, and bring his actions in review, for actions speak the man." — "While love and peace and social joy were there. Oh, peace! oh, social joy ! Oh, heaven-born love! Were these j'our haunts, where murderous denu)us rove ? Distinction neat and nice, which lie between the poison'd chalice and the stab unseen." Contents. 19 ■I I'tc— -IIow lilt we (1 how •isoner rctuble it tllt'V f lie. — [eadinj.'; L'Hiie. — kept.— • and to sacrec ■ft CHAPTER XIX. Prison experience, condmhd. — Efforts to get my ease before the Supreme Court. — Copious extracts from my diary kept in pri.son. — "Con.sidering' my case.'' — "Seeing a'lout it," etc., etc. — ^fy appeals to Legislatures, the President. Congress, etc. — How changes in(T(»vernors, etc., are disscussed by pris(UU'rs. — Pi'isoners tliat Avere shanghaied and never convict' d. — How T established my good conduct against the lying gang. — The "good Judiciary." — Efforts of and for othei- prisoners, andresidts. — Kemoval to Walla "Walla. — Mv release, etc. CHAPTER XX. Tragedies. — Land juni})ing, etc. — Experience of o^^her mca. — More of real life and death in the Northwest. — What wastranspir ing with other people while and since I Avas langui.^hing in prison for defending my life and home against the gang. — All of these Avere either acquitted of any crime, or not cA'd indicted or troubled. — The glaring contrast. — "Uneasy settlers." — "A ja'o- tectiA-e association ;" "land jumping;" "])ut-up jobs ;" "homes im- perilled;'' "shooting affair;" "Vigilantes;" "mui'derous as.sault by a band of midnight assassins;" "high handed." — "With pride in their port, defiance in their eye, Ave see the secret lurking lords of hunuin kind ])ass by." — " Lynching;" "people arming;" "a danger- ous man ;" "l.md tioubles;" "a tramp boom ;'' "killed for rolibing sluice boxes ;" " laying in wait to kill ;" filled Avith shot j killiug^ three men for a fcAv dollars. CHAPTER XXL Laud troubles, etc., continual.—'' The Riparian fight.'' — On Puget Sound. — Shooting for the tide lands. — A Avoman defending her claim. — Dynamite. — Vigilantes by the tliousand. — Pig money for the Court gang. — LaAvyers instigating a fight. — Land jumjiing. — Coroner's inquests. — " Defective" land titles. — A trick of tho Court gang. — "I tell you again to stop jihnving.'' — Crack! Bang! - Why government lands are classified when they are all good for homes if good for anything. — The Court "bar" (gang) organizes trouble. " Re ready.''— " Parasites." — " Citizens arming." — Who gets 90 per cent, of all plunder. 1(1 1r 20 Contents. CHAPTER XXII. Sample tragedy cases in the Northwest, in brief, conchidi'd. — What members of the gang can do to others with impnnity. Vic- tims that were not venerated or sanctified by the gi'ng. — Abont land. — " Shot him dead." — Stabbed him to the heart. — Stabbed him in the head. — Shot down in cold blood. — Tlie Court burnt in effigy, and why. — "A dark scheme." — " This is not the first time I have had to face lead to protect my rights." — "Served the fiend right." — Shooting a man down in cold blood for a few dollars. — Killing a man for alleged threats to burn his house. — " The hero of the hour." Etc., etc. CHAPTER XXIII. The coui'ts and laws of Washington and Alaska. — Women as jurors, etc. — "The infamous decision," etc., etc. — "Complaiuis of Court." — "A novel ruling," etc. CHAPTER XXIV. The courts and laAvs of Oregon, Montana and British Colum- bia, etc, CHAPTER XXV. The courts and laws of California aud the States, etc. CHAPTER XXVI. Big land steals in Washington. — "80 percent, of the entries in one district fraudulent." — Ho\r this is accomplished, and who cau do it with impunity. CHAPTER XXVII. Big land steals in Oregon, California, etc. — How it is done there. — " In a valley, 30 miles long, ditches were dug from the stream, dams built, the land flooded, and then taken up by the gang as ' swamp land,' " etc. — This is why land is classified. — Brazen perjury, and nobody punished. — The reason. — Wagon road swindles, etc. — Sink artesian wells to irrigate " swamp land," eta — "Three-fourths vf the land t\1'es fraudulent." — Murdering home- builders. Contents. 21 CHAPTER XXVIII. Railroads, big grants, etc., in the Northwest, etc. — How they are worked. What they cost tlie gangs. — What they control. — A servile and pnrchased press. — Advice to settlers. — What a " terri- torii::! pioneer" says. — What the peojtle say. — "Awake! arise! or be forever fallen ! " CHAPTER XXIX. As to the martial law tronble in protecting highbinder China- men and white criminals on Paget Sound, when American citizens were pillaged, nuu'dercd and driven out with no troops to protect them. — Vigilance committee. — "Justice blinded Avith a vengeance." Judge Lynch, and how he judged. — Death from poverty, etc. etc. CHAPTER XXX. The Tartaric horde w. American Citizens. — "A crisis." — " To the thinking man," " even to those who do not think." — The Anti-Chinese Congress, etc., etc. CHAPTER XXXI. Anti-Chinese. — " A great demonstration at Seattle ; the larg- est ever seen in the territory." — Making fish of one set of citizens and fowl of another, etc., etc. CHAPTER XXXII. The Tacoma tronble and the Exodus. — Statement of promi- nent citizens. — "Truth and justice buried, and fraud and guile succeed," etc., etc. . CHAPTER XXXIII. Captain of the Queen's story as to the Seattle Exodus.— Ninety-seven Chinamen in court. — " The Goverument is strong and will protect" [secret highbinders Avith influence at court,] etc. CHAPTER XXXIV. " Home Gnards " fire into the crowd ; five men wounded ; one dies. — " Shot down in cold blood." — Charged with murder, etc. — 22 Contents. ;|l| iifl Tlie City of Seattle under martial law. — Drive out white citizens and protect Chinese highbinders. — " Military headquarters," etc. — Unmeasured gall. — Blackstone on martial law. — " Treason doth never i)rosi)er, Avhat's the reason? Why if it pi'osper, none dare call it treason." — "Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne." CHAPTER XXXV. Court Martial and a Military Commission vrith a Judge- Ad- vocate and Recorder now under eight indictments for forgery and robbery. — Crime made respectable, and to tell the truth is made a crime. — "An authentic account." — It is the weakest, not the worst, that goes to the wall. — United States troops, etc., etc. CHAPTER XXXVI. The judgment of the people and of the Supreme Court. — The martial law "mere lawless violence" ; but " the trail of the serpent is over them all," CHAPTER XXXVII. A brief, comprehensive and practical history of Masonry, Knight Templars of Malta, St. John, Hospitalers, etc. — The Crusades to possess the Holy Land; Egypt, etc. — How Jerusalem and Acre Vt'ere taken and re-taken. — Why the Holy Land was made a desert. — The i)ractical workings of the Masonry and kindred Orders of to-day. — Mostly the testimony of others, as taken from books and the press. CHAPTER I. striking out from homo Mlieu a boy. — My object. — Ho! For tho Oil Iteglous ill Puiiusylvania. — My Chum. — Groat Excitoment. — Oil City flooilod. — "Coal Oil Jdhnuy." — Tools, etc., UHed iu boring for oil.— All al)out finding oil. — And what the oil is. — My oxperieuee for about a yoar. In tlie winter of 1804-n5 I concluded to leave my home in New York for an indefinite time ; not exactly to hunt buffalo and kill Indians on the plains, for killinfj; was never sport to me, and I was not 'wild,' nor to seek my fortune ; for at that time this did not appear necessary, though I expected to earn by work my living and travelling expenses, and more, if I run on to any great opportunity to do so. My object was to see and know more of the living, bustling, wild and wide world, than what transpired in the drowsy orthodox range in which I was confined. My parents tried to dissuade and divert me from my pur- pose, but, as I had set my heart on it, they neither strenuously opposed me nor did they give anj' formal consent ; but left the field clear for my return as the prodigal son of old, which they prophesied I would soon do, for them to say "did I not tell you so, my boy," and to lessen the sting of adieu. Little did I then think I was never to see them any more in this world, or know the terrible pangs of grief I would suffer when we really kissed each other good bye, and that the thought of that sad event would haunt me, and make me sick at times, for many years to come. A young friend was to ramble with me, and we started March 13th, 1805. The oil regions in Pennsylvania was our first destination, as there were many fabulous stories alioat, and much excitement about oil at that time, to such an extent, that poor men at a distance were mortgaging their homes to buy stock in oil companies (or confidence games) then being worked and played to catch the unwary ; and wages and em- ployment there were reputed as high and abundant. At the end of the third dav we arrived by rail at the end of the track — then about a mile from Oil City. AVe jumped off 24 Striking Out From Home. 1 into the mud aua oil a foot or two deep, ami waded througli it iu the dark to town and to a hotel (could have ridden for two dollars). The next day it was raininj^; teams were stuck in the street, loaded with but a few hundred pounds. Teaming (hauling oil, coal, lumber, machinery, etc.,) was a great business in the oil regions at that time. The price of single teams and wagon with driver was twenty dollars per day or more, and they made forty dollars per day in handling flat boats iu and up Oil Creek. Drivers were rated at fifty dollars per month, and no one envied their pay or position. The vast amount of dead horses lying about or floating down the Creek, the number of broken wagons iu sight, together ^vith the high price of stable room, feed, etc., showed that it was not all profit. Yet there was big money in the business to those whom sxxch drawbacks were not «.txScouraging, but were taken as a matter of course. A scene on the road : — A team loaded with oil stuck in a mud hole full of big boulders and blocking the way for twenty teams behind :. the driver asks the nearest "what will you take to pull me out?" "Nothing for that, but two dollars and fifty cents for hitching on iu the mud." In time roads were made, feed, stab^ 3 room, etc., got cheap and handy, when, as there was nothing frightful in the business, everybody was will'ng to engage in it, and nobody made much in the business any more. Next came railroads, and then, in time, pipe-lines were added for conveying oil. Crowds of disgusted and home-sick men having failed to find employment, and short of money, told discouraging stories to us — they were discouraging to its then, to be sure, because of our inexperience in the wcvld, otherwise we would have critically gathered useful and encouraging information instead. However, my chum concluded during the day that he had rambled far enough from his good old home and that we were fibout lost, too, and having now been absent for several whole days and nights, and remembering that his pet mare was liable to have a colt with none to caress them, and corn planting time would soon be on hand with his vacant place to fill, he reluct* The Oil Regions. 25 antly left me to my self-willed fate and returned home to his mother — and he was about right. As neither of us had any trade, and common labor appeared very rugf^ed and abundantly supplied, and not having any money, letters of acquaintance, or other means by which we could engage in some one or another of the business opportun- ities, the outlook, indeed, was not brilliant or strewn with roses. But I had not expected it would be ; I had not counted on getting a berth as conductor as we travelled along, as clerk at a hotel wherever we happened to stop for a few days, or as con- fidential agent for some big concern, on sight and application; nor yet the gift of a team, flat-boat, brewery or oil-well, as an inducement to stop a few mouths when we got there. Leaving my cumbrous valise at the hotel I struck out among the oil-wells to see what I could see, learn and discover. The rain storm continued, resulting in a flood ; Oil Creek rose to a river and with the Alleghany inundated the town of Oil Citv to the extent that those living iu the business and lower portion had to move upstairs in the night, the street was over- flowed, and the public buildings, churches, etc., were occupied with those who were entirely drowned out. Bei.urning the following day, I found my valise in five or six :'eet of water — all being confusion and havoc, as water was king, and he was mad. Millions of dollars in oil, barrels, tanks, flat-boats, rafts of lumber, buildings, merchandise, etc., etc., were carried away, destroyed, or damaged. Wlien the water had subsided, I rolled oil barrels on the dock for a few days at sixty cents per hour, and then got a job with a surveyor as chain carrier at three dollars per day, which I held until I had tni.velled over much of that region. I remember seeing old Indian camping grounds and hear- ing the stories of how they iised to gather the "Seneca oil" with blankets on Oil Creek, and sell it for medical purposes to the pale-faced invaders. These were days of jubilee for the horny-handed farmers anywhere around here, as they could now sell their poor and rugged side-hill farms for five, ten and twenty thousand dollars to speculators and companies who were now minutely surveying m B r i irann ' j i a iii a i «¥ ii Tij i r Miiai>gw 26 Striking Out Fiioii Home. Ill \ m tr; them, with their springs and creeks to map and paint in glow- ing colors, to divide np and sell to strangers as oil lands rich< in prospects. Many tricks were invented and used to effect sales of "oil lands," such as burying barrels of oil, slightly tapped, near some spring, so the oil would run in and flow from it, and as carrying a hollow cane — with a valve in the end — filled with oil to show an investor, oil "most anywhere arounu here just by pushing a stick in the ground, you see." But it was at a distance, on pasteboard and paper, that "oil lands" and "town lots" for sale appeared the most enchant- ing, as bluffs and craggy hills appeared as level land then, and the streams and springs were often only in the mind and picture. However, in time it transpired that surface indications proved little or nothing anyway, as wells that were sunk in, or near real oil springs, seldom, if ever, produced in paying quantities, and the high lands — at first considered worthless — proved as good as any, except the inconvenience or inaccessi- bility in working it. And altogether only one well in perhaps a hundred pro- duced any oil, and it was more apt to yield but one barrel per day than two or three hundred ; very few outside investors who kept their stock or interests got their money back. Manv original owners of the land held on to it and allowed others to sink wells on it — the owner to receive one-third of what oil might be produced. This is what the widow McClintoc did, and which made "Coal Oil Johnny" — her adopted son — so rich for a time and notorious as a prodigal son of fortune. While he was scattering his wealth to the wild winds, he declared to his friends, who tried lo divert him from his down- ward course, that "he had driven a team on Oil Creek for a living and could do so again," and substantially this he after- wards had to do in other places. Though he spent much of his fortune in reckless dissipation and sport, he also gave away a great deal from a most noble impulse and kindly feeling. But perhaps more than either or both amounts was gotten from him by "real nice and respected" gentry, by chicanery of the i !l! The Oil Eegions. 27 most contemptible and villainous type, — such as setting up banks to ''fail" after catching his large deposits. He knows more of human and inhuman characters now ; Avhat a pity for him and his, that he had not learned it in his youth, either in his own efforts for a living, or it had been taught to him by the -wider and deeper exi)erience of others, educated by struggling with the real masked and bra/en wijrld. Much has been said and sung about the prodigality of "Johnny Coal Oil," but somehow we never hear of au}' great good flowing from those who got two barrels of oil, whenever John Steel got one. It was customary in the oil regions to keep a pail of petroleum in the house for making fires, and in this way Mrs. McClintoc was burned to death. I was at and over the place. Others lost their opportunity to gain a competency by thus allowing their places to be prospected or tested, instead of sell- ing on faith and hope, at a time when it was universal and strong. When the whole country had been prospected, it then transpired that the oil lands lay in narrow belts without regard to creeks, hills, or other surface formation, and in these, oil had not been always found. Crude petroleum is as thick or heavy as lard oil ; but the color is a deep green; it emits an odor like the petroleum axle grease sold throughout the country. I shipped a barrel of it home, as a curiosity and for lubricating machinery. It appears to be a sort of fish oil, the sand-stone in which it is confined being sometimes the bed of a sea, and by its up- heaval, turned off the water and gave the whale-like animals their death in the sand, this sand drifting or otherwise re^eiv- iug and holding from evaporation their carcasses and oil, when the sand hardens into a strata of sand-stone, retaining and confining the oil with the gases. My next employment was in running an engine for a pump- ing oil well at four dollars per day ; board being from six to eight dollars per week, (the Pennsylvania Dutch are exception- ally good livers); and then I worked as driller in boring other wells at the same wages ; and at one of these employments or the other — sometimes sharpening and repairing the tools being *"""" "" "-'"• Tf iiiii ' ■i Tl ii T a I ' M f i n \l 28 Striking Out From Home. iucluiled — I was engaged dnviug the most of my sojourn in the Oil Regions, which time Wiis nearly eleven months. I thus worked at different wells and localities. At one place (Franklin) I sunk a well, with one helper, from five hundred to about a thousand feet deep ; and as there was but the two of us (they generally run night and day, re- (juiriug four men) we put in as much time as we desired, which was sixteen hours per day and eighteen on Saturdays. This well was sunk four or five hundred feet deeper than others, as an experiment, but found no oil. A humbug oil "smeller" had traced several veins of oil to a junction at tlie very spot we bored through, he " could (and did) give the depth " also. The average oil well was five inches in diameter. The average boring tools consist of a bit, or drill, two and a half feet long, which is screwed into a round bar, twenty-two feet long ("angor stem "), which is screwed into one end of a pair of heavy links ("Jars") five feet long, the other end of the jars being screwed into a round bar ("sinker bar") eight feet long, which is screwed into the end of a rope socket, three feet long, all made of three inch round iron, and weigh eleven or twelve hundred pounds. The end of a one and a half inch rope is wrapped and riveted into the rope socket ; the other end of the rope is passed up over a pulley at the top of the derrick and down to and wound aroimd the shaft of a windlass-like wheel ("bull wheel"), -which is attached by a a rope belt to a ten horse power engine, and used to lower and raise the tools in the well whenever the bit is dulled or the sediment (drillings) needs to be pumped out, which is as often as every two and a half feet is gone down. The tools are now suspended just over the hole, which is about full of water. The rope belt having been thrown from the bull-wheel, the driller, with a brake on the wheel, lets the tools rim, or nearly drop, to the bottom of the hole (the engine being used in raising them out). Next the rope at a few feet above the mouth of the hole is clasped tightly to a screw arrangement ("temper screw"), the screw itself being two and a half feet long, the upper end of which is a swivel and hook, which is hooked under the end of a walking beam, say thirty feet long, the other end of it being attached to the engine with a ru iu the I thus B helper, as there 1 (hiy, re- ad, which ys. This others, as Her " had y spot we also. ter. The lud a half y-two feet \ of a pair of the jars feet long, i feet long, or twelve ch rope is end of the erriclc and •like wheel t to a ten Ihe tools in (drillings) ry two and i, which is irown from tel, lets the |(the engine a few feet lo a screw Ig two and and hook, thirty feet nne with a cc !''n (29) jT- 30 Stuikino Out Fuom Home. ^ pitincii; then slack is given the ropo iibovo l)y turning the bull- wlieol back, thus causing tiie tools to hang suspenclecl to the walking beam; when the engine is started, the tools being fsiniply raised and dropped two or three feet at ev(U"y turn of the walking beam, which is made to go slow or fast according to the depth of the iioh) and length of the rope; as can be imagined, the deeper the hole, the slower the stroke. The weight f)f the bit, the twenty-two feet "auger stem" and th(^ lower link, or half of t]u> "jars," being the downward or drilling force, or weight; while the wt'ight in the upper link, or half of the jars, with the eight feet "sinker bar," jars the bit loose as it jerks it up. Little or much "jar" being given, ac- cording to how much the bit sticks. If the hole be deep and no "jar" is given, the walking beam will i)lay on the stretch of the rope, witliout raising the tools from the bottom. If the hole be shallow (so that the rope is short) and the jar is allow- ed to run entirely out, then the bit, sticking much, stops the engine or breaks something ; while too much jar lessens the fall of the bit and lower part of the tools, making it drill slow in proportion. The driller, sitting on a stool, turns the screw and rope on the swivel above a little at each downward stroke, and as the drill works down, so the jar feels slight, indistinct, or, if the bit sticks, he unscrews the temper-screw, giving more rope and more jar. When he has thus unscrewed the length of the screw (two and a half feet), or the bit is sooner dulled, the tools are hoisted out and another tool ("rimmer") is substituted for the two and a half feet bit, which is to cut or rim the hole one inch larger thnn tlie bit (the ciit of the bit being but four inches) and b. 'U'le to keep the hole round. This done, the tools are again hoisted oxit, and a sharpened bit replaces the rimmer to make another two or two and a half feet. But before the tools are let down again, the sediment or drillings must be pumped, out with the "sand-pump." This tool is simply a zinc pipe, five feet long and three and a half or four inches in diameter, with a valve in one end and. a bail on the otlier ; to this bail is tied the end of a half-inch rope which is reeled on a wheel ; the pump is dropped into the hole, and when it reaches th^ bottom the driller works it up and down a The Oil Regions. 31 lew times hy the rope, thus working the mud or tlrilliiif^'s up \hrf)U<;h the valve into the pipe or ])UMip, then the en<,'ino reels ':t up very quickly when it is enintictl and the sanio siiaple process rejwfited three or four times, at the completion of every two or two luul iiiilf feet. Before (Iriliing is commenced on n well, heavy seven-inch iron pipe — in seven feet sections - is driven with a ram to the ])("d rock, or else an ordinary well is dug down to it and a ])lank 1)()X })ipo set up in it, the upper end IxMug at the surface and is the top of tlie well. Solid rock is desii-cd a)id generally had the rest of the Avay. The exceptions lieing in mud veins and cavities, which frecpiently cause trouble hy pieces of rock working out and falling on the tools, to the extent sometimes that tiie tools and hole are abandoned. Five or six feet per day of twelve hours -is alx it the average work in boring a OOl) fe(>t well. In the Oil Creek .section, three stratas of sand-stone are found and gone through, each thirty or forty feet thick, in Avhich the oil is. Little or none is fotind in the first strata (at about 225 feet), more is apt to be found in the second (at about •125 feet j, but never, I believe, in paying ([uautities, so that little notice is given to any prospects found here either ; but when the third strata is reached and gone through, which is at a depth of nearly GOO hundred feet, tluui the boring is finished ; as here in the third .sdiid-stoHc is where oil is expected to be found, if at all, and worked. The kind of rock between the stratas of sand-stone is mostly granite, slate or soap-stone, with thin stratas of a harder nature, sometimes Hint. In one well, in say a thousand, oil is struck which immedi- ately flows and spurts out ; but Avhether this be the case or not, the well is next piped to within a few feet of the bottom with a two and a half inch gas or water pipe, having a pump valve in the bottom section, and a leather bag the size of the well (five inches) and two feet long is tied at each end around the pipe or tubing, so it will be just above the third sand-stone ; this 'seed bag" having been filled with flax seed, Avhich, swellin;.'., shuts off all the water above it to the surface, thus allowing any pressure of oil and wat^r which may be below it in the lit 'I! i ■ii ' 1 i i i Ii 1 , ■■■!(! 32 Striking Out From Home. third sand-stone to flow up the tubing without incumbrance from the veins of water for 500 feet or more above. But unless a strong force of gas is tapped, neither oil nor water is apt to be very pressing to get up. In any such case, however, it generally flows or spurts out at intervals, spasmod- ically, with gas enough to run an engine and more. Usually no oil has yet appeared when "sucker rods," with a pump valve at the end of the first section, are let down into the tubing to the bottom, and the upper end attached to the walking beam, and pumping commenced and continued — night and day and Sundays— for about six weeks. When if nothing but water, or water and gas appears, the well is abandoned, which, of course, is generally the case. The water may be salt at the start, or get to be such after pumping a few days or weeks. Salt water is a favorable sign, it frequently being followed by oil, and oil is not found without it. I believe petroleum was first struck in boring for salt. The Indians of the oil regions had gone to their happy hunting grounds, or had been removed, or fables as to their supposed knowledge of oil springs, etc., might have been in- vented and they thus utilized by rings of men —with the aid of their press— and the oil excitement prolonged, as is done in other mining regions. Moreover, it was too accessible to the outside world, by rail and the Alleghany River, for, with slight expense, time and inconvenience, those who were furnishing the cash, for the operators to invest and steal, could see and leavn for them- selves the business and properties in which so many were wildly investing. This is the reason the Pacific railroads and Gen. Crook (who settled the Indians beyond question for a time in Arizona) were such a curse to the mining and tributary iutere>5ts in the far west, causing whole districts to be abandoned, and so they are yet. Many with money to invest then learned, in ad- vance of investment, not to expect returns from investments in ring companies on account of songs suug of a comparative few lucky strikes ; so times in the mining and oil camps became very hard. And as many of the games were being closed for a change of base and operations, away from lines of travel, many l Thk Oil Eegions. 33 of the common herd of men were swindled out of their wages, deposits or stivings, and with the outside investors were settled with in stocks of experience, in knowledge they should have gained in their youth. " For such is the temper of men tliat b /?fore they have had the trial of great afflictions, they do not understand what is for their advantage : but when they find themselves under such afflictions, txiey then change their minds, and what it had been better for them to have done before they had been at aU damaged, they choose to do, but not until after they have suffered such damage." JutfCjjh Uf!. A few months or years as a news-boy, or spent in sweeping, or doing errands in offices or dens of lawyers, ring companies or other gangs, so he hears the talk that goes on there, with j^ractical moral lessons at home, is for a boy the best bequest, the best endowment, the most wise foundation, stock in trade and security for fortune and favor, and to keep one "unspotted in the world" — though he may spot others. I was present at the dying scenes of those plays, so skill- fully painted in oil, and years afterwards at others, galvanized in silver and gold. I left the oil regions on February 11th, 1866, having earned nearly one thousand dollars ; had many enjoyable times and others not so pleasant ; had been at all the towns and sections from Franklin and below to Titusville, and from Oil Creek to Pit-hole. Had lost various sums in loaning and in simple con- fidence and folly, had disp. — Freighiing, etc. — Life and Government on the plains. — A comprt^hensivo account of the region from the Missouri river to Salt Lake Valley. vJTHEES have said before that a dollar's worth of pure pleasure is worth more than a dollar's worth of auythiiig elsf^ in the world — that working is not living, hut oidy the mear.-; b > which we win a living ; that money is good for nothing, except for what it brings of comfort and culture. Believing in this philosophy, I next starteil out to live and to enjoy the pleasure and culture I had wmi, devoting the ensuing four and a half months to travel by rail, water and stage (tramping was not much in vogue then), and in visiting relatives and others of my acquaintance, who had settled "out West," iu Ohio, Illinois Michigan and Nebraska. This was a season of enjo^'ment, unalloyed by cares, hard- »hips or perplexities of any kind, and to which my mind often reverts, and always with the utmost pleasure and satisfaction. Of the pleasant homes and happy families, of the genuine hos- pitality, affection, friendship and good times I enjoyeil on every hand, I should like to dwell on. And also of the cities and many places and objects of interest I saw to admire ; but as there was nothing rugged or strange blended in my experiences here, I must thus pass them over, Avhich brings me to the 20th of June, 1800, Avhen I found myself at Nebraska City in charge of a four mule team and wagon, loaded with improved rifles, and bound over the plains for Salt Lake City. "Joy bounds through every throbbing vein — Dear world? where love and pleasiice reign." None of the Pacific railroads had yet been built, but the U. P. and Central was commenced that summer ; consecpiently all the freight required to supply Denver, the Mines, Salt Lake, |31) I Life ox the Plains. 35 of travel, 1 ci'ossiug ir tnviu.— erwit' Hs ion ill <-^i"- ,t oil tlio o Missouri of pure ;liiug els( meai\i? by u