ytfty' ward off the greater warmth of the reception, which under ordinary circum- stances would have been expected, through a graphic description of the most remarkable "bee tree" of which there was as yet any record. In any event, I should no doubt have through nat- ural excitement, overlooked nothing in the line of magnitude, but coupled with an eagerness to 32 REMINISCENT RAMBLIXGS. render it a defense against punishment, by arousing an enthusiasm in my people which would cause them to entirely overlook the mat- ter of tardiness, I made the tree entirely too big; in fact, I don't recall ever since having heard of so large a tree. My father frowned, muttered something about a boy's lying to his own folks, got out his jack-knife and started over toward a big bunch of lilac bushes which grew in a corner of the dooryard fence ; and I knew he wasn't going after a bouquet for me, for I had watched him make the same trip before on similar occasions. Standing there trying to figure out about how big a "bee tree" really had to be to furnish a proper peace offering in a case of this kind, my mother interfered, and said "there might be something in it, and anyhow, I shouldn't be punished until it was proven there wasn't," and old Jase Winchell, who worked around the neighborhood when he wasn't hunting, or fish- ing, or drunk, and who had been hoeing potatoes for us that day, got up from the hen coop where he was sitting, and removing the quid of tobacco from his mouth preparatory to replacing it with a fresh one, said he "believed every dog-goned word of it, for he had lined mor'n a thousand bees down toward the swamp in the last two years, but somehow or 'nother couldn't seem to 'meet up' with the place where they went to," and my father finally closed the knife against his hip,, dropped it back in his trousers pocket, REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 33 reached down and broke off a timothy straw, meditatively picked his teeth with it, and re- marked somewhat skeptically, "Well, we'll see." The sun had sometime past set, and but a faint reflection of its light still lingered in the west, when father and Jase, in company with myself as guide, and provided with a sharp ax, a lantern and a wooden milk pail, together with several pairs of sheepskin mittens for the hands, and my mother's entire stock of veils for the protection of our heads and necks, single-filed down across the fields, with myself in the lead. A feeling of grave responsibility and dread uncertainty oppressed me, as I trudged forward leading the way, which was heightened by the plaintive and sympathetic notes of the "Whip- poor-will," who, from somewhere over in the darkness of the forest beyond, called at regular intervals in tones of sadness and distrust. It was now quite dark when we reached the swamp, and herein the shadows of its tall trees and tangle shut out the dim light which existed, and when, in crossing to the pine belt on the other side, my father in the darkness mistook a bunch of grass for a bog, and went down deep in the mire and water, it was certain from several remarks which escaped him as he floundered about, and later while he sat on the bank and pulled off his boots and emptied them, that there had to be a bee tree over there in the pines, and a big one, too. 34 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. When at last we reached it, both himself and Jase stopped for a time and looked admir- ingly upward along its towering trunk. All was silent, and the intense darkness was dis- turbed only by the little circle of light which surrounded the old tallow candle lantern. My father, taking the ax from Jase, and stepping over to the tree with the air of a man who knew just what to do first in the case, and just how to do it, hit the tree a sharp rap to ascertain if it were hollow ; then as he reached backward to de- liver another blow higher up, a bee stung him on the nose; and as he dropped the ax and grabbed the injured member with both hands, two others stung him on the neck. While he jumped about and howled with pain, I retreated to a safe point where I could sympathize with him, and incidentally gloat over the weight of evidence he was acquiring in support of my statements. It was something he had sternly de- manded, and surely he couldn't hope to find a bee tree without bees. Carefully arranging the sheepskin mittens and veils, and starting a smudge at the foot of the tree, the attack began. Jase wielded the ax, cautiously at first, slightly hesitating between each stroke to assure himself that his fortifica- tions were impregnable, as the bees swarmed downward in countless numbers to the defense of their home. Satisfied of his absolute secur- ity, he now utterly ignored the enemy, and slashed away vigorously. Suddenly the ax, in REMINISCENT RAM BUNGS. 35 descending, curved from its course, flew from his grasp and disappeared in the darkness, while Jase hopped wildly about on one foot, clinging tenaciously to the opposite leg with one hand, while with the other he made frantic grabs here and there, each grab accompanied by an excited expression unnecessary to repeat. A bee bewil- dered by the light and smoke had wandered from the ranks, and in groping about in search of his bearings, had strolled upward and along the inside of a leg of Jase's trousers, and Jase had at last "met up" with the bee tree he had been hunting. Finally the tree was felled, and sounding along its trunk a point was selected for an open- ing. Gradually the section was removed by making the cuts about two feet apart, and split- ting away the intervening material until there lay exposed a field of honey, filling the entire opening, and extending both upward and down- ward in the trunk indefinitely. The wildest excitement now prevailed; and my father's estimate of the volume of honey was even less conservative than mine had been in de- scribing the size of the tree, and hastily I was dispatched to the house for more receptacles. Returning, my mother accompanied me, each of us with an additional milk pail, while between us we toted a good-sized washtub. For the fol- lowing hour it simply rained honey in those woods, and when we reached home and had weighed up the entire cargo with the steelyards, 36 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. and then emptied the receptacles and weighed them, and I had, in less than an hour, figured the whole thing up on my slate, there appeared as a net result, one hundred and forty pounds of honey, and old Jase (who couldn't read or write a word) looked up with sudden amaze- ment when I announced the result, then came, and looking over my shoulder examined the fig- ures carefully, and said he "Guessed mebbe 'twas all right, but if he'd bin guessin' he'd sot it more'n that." CHAPTER II. The life and teachings of a boy raised on a farm in Northern Xew York as late at least as the third quarter of the nineteenth century, was not of a nature amongst other things that tended to cultivate in him any extravagant tastes or Jav- ish expenditures in the gratification of rapidly growing wants. A ten-cent straw hat, a cotton shirt and a pair of blue jean trousers did him nicely for summer wear, and the style never changed. The leather that covered his feet, though holes were punched in it at times (as in the case of every bare-footed boy), was of a na- ture that did its own repairing. The suit of sheep's gray, or other a full cloth" that did ser- vice upon dress occasions during the summer, had the new worn off, and was thoroughly sea- soned for active service during the following winter, accompanied by a pair of cow hide boots with red tops, and soles fastened on with wooden pegs. The cloth was secured in ex- change for stuff raised on the farm, and was cut and made up at home by an itinerant tailor- ess, who came and boarded and roomed at the house until the work was finished. She never took any measurements save heighth, and then allowed about six inches for growth during the existence of the suit. This had the effect of 38 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. compelling the sleeves of the coat, and the legs of the trousers to be worn rolled up until the suit was pretty well worn out. The trousers were lined all the way through with a coarse cotton cloth. The body of the coat was lined with a part of an old alpaca dress (which had been saved for the purpose) , with a layer of cot- ton batting between the lining and the cloth. The coat sleeves were lined with a Turkey red calico and the suit was complete. His stockings and mittens were made from the wool of the sheep raised on the farm. In the springtime they w r ere washed in a deep hole in the brook, then shorn and the wool carded and formed into little rolls of about two feet in length and a half inch in diameter. These were then spun into yarn upon the old spinning wheel with its wooden pulley of great diameter, belted with a cord to the spindle, which made rapid revolutions as the wheel was spasmodic- ally revolved with the right hand, while the left manipulated the roll. The yarn was then reeled into hanks, which were submerged for the proper time in a blue dye made of indigo. The hanks being first tied tightly at intervals of about two inches, which had the effect of pro- tecting these compressed sections from the dye, and producing small white spots at regular dis- tances along the thread, and gave to the mittens and stockings a speckled pattern. After dye- ing, the hanks of yarn were wound into balls, and were then ready for knitting. REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 39 No artfully draped show windows filled with seductive suits of various styles, no array of gaudily-painted sleds and highly-polished skates of skilled manufacture, no golf, lawn tennis, or ping pong sets; no frequently advanced models of bicycles, or alluring matinees of weekly occur- rence presented their temptations daily, and filled the mind with envy and longing. No stately soda fountains, with arctic decorations, produced frequent thirsts, each of which re- quired the expenditure of a nickel to quench. But in place of these highly colored, stale and expensive concoctions, he gathered the dande- lion, the burdock, and the bark of the birch tree, which was boiled and brewed into a whole- some drink. He gathered and ate the nuts of the hickory, the chestnut, and the butternut trees, and instead of squandering a dime for poisonous and sickening candies, quietly ex- tracted a hunk of maple sugar from the ample store. As he evolved to that stage of manhood that craved the use of tobacco, not through an actual taste of the weed, but wholly from a desire to appear manly and full-fledged, his first step was a cigar made from a section of the wild grape vine. From which he rapidly evolved to the clandestine use of his father's pipe. The cigarette was a stranger; and had it presented itself would have met with but little favor, through its expensiveness and effeminacy. 40 REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. Iii such manner passed the life of a boy of this time and locality, until finally he had been through all the books that were taught in the common schools round about, and perchance, in case of uncommon affluence and advanced ideas on the part of his parents, and some natural de- sire on his own part, was sent away to college, a school away off somewhere outside the county, as remote and fanciful in the minds of the rural masses as some temple of teaching in the in- terior of India might be to the fairly well in- formed of to-day. (Reference is made wholly to the boy in such case, as in that section, the idea of educating a girl along the higher, more useful and independent lines was then regarded as absurd.) Instances, however, of extravagant and os- tentatious display of learned taste were rare. About the only case that had ever occurred in the neighborhood was that of old Ebenezer Savage, who owned a farm over on the main road leading from the Corners to North Gran- ville, who some twenty-five years previous had sent his son Josiah "through college." As to the particular college he attended, evidence is lack- ing ; and it yet remains a question as to its ever having occurred to a single resident of the neigh- borhood that there was more than one. Never- theless it was the only great educational event that had occurred in all that section preceding the writer's departure therefrom, and was still being discussed at every fireside at regular in- REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 41 tervals and with breathless interest, particu- larly that portion of the affair relating to the thousand dollars, which the same had cost the "old man." Josiah had been clear through college, and returned home to the farm some ten or a dozen years before the writer was born ; up to which time the neighbors all agreed he had never done a stroke of work, and after which, the writer is willing to swear that to the best of his knowledge and belief, he never violated his principles in this respect. And it was right and proper he shouldn't, for "Cy" was too rare a specimen, and it wasn't a business proposition from any point of view to mar and soil and bedim this thousand-dollar job of polishing, by subjecting it to the rough and undignified service of dig- ging potatoes, building stone wall and chopping cord wood, and the whole community seemed to feel that way about it too, particularly so long as his father fed and clothed him, and it didn't cost them anything. They regarded him as a sort of a community pride, and openly boasted that the Corners had a man that had "better learnin' " than any man within nine miles of there. The standard of education he had ac- quired impressed the neighbors as extremely high. It also seemed entirely beyond the com- prehension of the most learned and constant readers of the New York Weekly Tribune to be found in their midst. It was the regular high- grade stock article that the college of that day 42 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. dealt out, a curriculum almost equal to that of the public high school of to-day. For twenty-fire years or more Josiah spent his time in "setting" on his father's front porch, lighting up the dense ignorance not only of his own home, but that of the whole neighborhood. A lone intellectual light-house, as it were, in the midst of the little sea of dark, deep, impene- trable primitive ideas by which he was sur- rounded. Then he would make a regular trip each day up to North Granville, and "set" on the counter in old Bob Dayton's store, and read a borrowed copy of the afore-mentioned New York Tribune, edited by Horace Greeley. Hor- ace was the product of a little town called Poult- ney, but a short distance over the line in Ver- mont, and the folks each side of the line were equally proud of him, and had grown to regard his doctrines as gospel truths, and no good, gen- uine dyed-in-the-wool "Black" Republican ever assumed to ask any further questions, and there weren't any followers of any other political creed around there, at least if there were they never voted. And so, when Cy had carefully noted all of Greeley's latest utterances, and in regular order engaged in a discussion of them, inter- spersed with occasional criticisms, and a shower of Latin quotations, the old farmers sat about on boxes and nail kegs and chewed "fine cut" and whittled, and considered the advisability of the dominance of higher education over old-time political faith. EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 43 The time finally came when the writer had mastered all the branches of learning dealt in at the old red school house at the Corners, and like Josiah Savage, was sent away to school. But, unlike in his case, came home each night and did the chores as usual, for the school was less than three miles distant ; it was the old Academy up at North Granville, a notable structure in its day, and its date of erection not far removed from that of the "regular meeting house" at Truthville, while its location was near the same. A year and more was spent tramping for- ward and back over the route, which led partly through a cow pasture, then through the great belt of woodland that crowned the summit of the hill, then down through a long lane and into the main street of the village below. Later the family residence became changed to the settlements, as it were, and to the sub- urbs of a little hamlet called Comstock's Land- ing, on the line of the Eensselaer and Saratoga Railway, and the Champlain Canal, some seven miles distant. It was a little settlement or land- ing on the banks of the canal, created away back in the forties by Peter Comstock, who, rising rapidly from the ranks, had acquired an estate at this point, at the same time bursting with stu- pefying effect upon the unprepared minds of the region as a Napoleon of transportation. He established on the canal, as part of a rapid transit system between New York and Montreal, a line of fast boats, drawn by mules 44 REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. and known as "Packets." To connect with these he placed on Lake Champlain a steamboat named "Saltus," a boat then possessed of reck- less speed and great splendor. His ambition was boundless ; and he became known all along the line between the cities aforementioned, and even so far off the line as at Truthville and the Corners. He had some time since laid down the reins of active business, and the rail- way had come and paralleled the canal, and the swift-going packets were in disuse, and other faster and grander steamboats on the lake had robbed the Saltus of her glory. Every boy about the Corners longed to view the scene of this intense civilization and excitement, past and present ; but it was far away, and only the older members of the community, who in the fall of the year had, hauled potatoes there to market, had ever seen it. And now the very thought of being permitted to actually reside there, and see the long trains of cars pass daily, and watch the huge canal boats plow their way through the deep, dark waters of the canal, pos- sessed one with a keen sense of the hopelessness and desolation that surrounded those being left behind. _i_ Farming was also the main industry about the Landing, and the boys here differed little from the boys about the Corner, save and except added hours of swimming and fishing, induced through vastly increased facilities and lack of watchfulness on the part of the household. REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 45 Their education also, amongst a chosen few only, reached its culminating point at the Old Academy at Xorth Granville. Then, as about the Corners, a post graduateship invariably and immediately followed at some calling which would cleanse the system of any idle or sluggish tendencies acquired meanwhile. The writer was under the mastery of an educator named Dona- ahue, a stone mason for the Railway Company, as his assistant in the construction of a line of piers for a foot bridge to reach the railway sta- tion. It was an unimportant service and con- sisted simply in shoveling and screening the sand and carrying the water and mixing the mortar and carrying it in a hod and dumping it on a platform and wheeling the stone and laying them down where they were handy for him to reach and helping him lift all the big ones and put them in place, while Donahue did all the balance of the work himself. Donahue was a man of huge proportions and possessed in a marked degree the typical charac- teristics of his countrymen, notably a blandish- ment of speech, coupled with certain manners and movements, such as the elevation of the trousers through a fore and aft tug at the waist- band, accompanied by an upward side glance at the sun, which, together with certain other man- oeuvres, indicated intense action but really ac- complished little. At first one was rather inclined to fear the man; his loud and constant exercise of voice in 46 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. giving orders, together with his apparent hurry and bustle, created terrifying visions of ceaseless toil. However, after a brief period of service, there Avas gained gradually and almost uncon- sciously a fairly accurate measure of him, so thajt in the very midst of his most violent volleys of rebuke, it became easy to maintain an indif- ferent and undisturbed demeanor, and in fact difficult to avoid cultivating a most peculiar fancy for the man and his ways that occupied one's mind almost to absent-mindedness. Many of his waj r s, in fact, his whole system, when analyzed, were not so wholly void of sense as the casual observer might infer. Little by little the fact was deduced that in the great struggle be- tween labor and capital, labor had in Donahue a mighty defense. ]STot that of incendiary speech or violent act, but the possession of a strategical and diplomatic system, so fathomless, subtle and concealed, as to carry the conviction of honesty of purpose well home to the heart of the most dissatisfied employer. Under Donahue's magni- ficently misleading system the railway manage- ment were induced to maintain an agreeable and thoroughly satisfied attitude relative to the ser- vice they were receiving during the progress of the work. In a boy of impressionable age, who was at all an apt student, there was at last, per- haps, as between the boy and Donahue, little to choose. -r- Mr. Baker was a great railway man. He was general manager of the road which ran EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 47 through the little hamlet of Comstocks where he lived, and also of another line known as "The Rutland and Washington/' extending from Eagle Bridge in New York to Rutland in Ver- mont, and which in its course followed closely the boundary between the two states, dodging repeatedly across the line, first into one state and then into the other, as though avoiding the sheriffs of the different counties through which it passed. It was a home institution, and built largely by the farmers and merchants along the line; while the trainmen were nearly all farm- ers' sons, at whose homes, located not too far dis- tant from the track, the trains frequently stopped, and all hands went over and feasted on doughnuts and pie, and slaked their thirst with buttermilk and hard cider. And ofttinies a neighboring farmer's daughter, the sweetheart of one of the boys in the cab of the engine, or far- ther back in the cars, would come down by the side of the track and wave a greeting to the loved one with her sunbonnet ; and the engineer would stop to make sure whether the signal meant danger to the whole train, or only to the individual. And now w r hen the piers were finished and Donahue had departed, I lounged at my head- quarters in the old covered bridge that spanned the canal, and viewed with discontent the now completed foot bridge that led across the marsh to the station, and watched the busy bustling 48 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. engines and the bright painted cars as they passed, and envied their attendants, who seemed never without an occupation ; and then in diver- sion and to break the train of unhappy thought, dropped a pebble through a crack in the floor upon the head of an unsuspecting boatman as, leaning lazily against the tiller, he passed slowly underneath, and chuckled as he raved at ran- dom; and relief possessed me for the time that I was not alone in the world, and that others had troubles beside myself. The regular passenger train from the South came rattling down through the rock cut and pulled up at the station. A single passenger dismounted, and started briskly across the new foot bridge, stopping suddenly above each pier and leaning far out over the rail, carefully and critically examining the work below. It was Mr. Baker; the job seemed to please him, and hurrying forward he entered the bridge. I quickly dropped the pine stick being whittled, slipped the knife in my trousers pocket, and as- sumed a serious, thoughtful air ; for I knew the man, and that in all his long, active career he had never found time to whittle; and while I managed to quite effectually cover the shavings with my feet, he stopped and said: "You and Donahue seem to have done a fine job over there ; suppose you could do as well at something else? There's a vacancy over on the Rutland and Washington as clerk and timekeeper of the shops at Salem; get ready to leave to-morrow REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 49 and come to the house for your letter of intro- duction to the master mechanic, Mr. Fred Keg- ler." The matter of calling for the letter was dis- tasteful. I much preferred he would leave it at some out-of-the-way place where I could find it. It was promptly prepared, however, and picking it up and retaining it for the time, he turned about in his chair and facing me commenced an address. We will not attempt to repeat it here. Few have grown to manhood or womanhood and failed to receive it at some time from some source. It was the one thing dreaded in going for the letter. It has always been a part of the programme. ~No boy ever yet escaped it under similar circumstances. Escaping to the grounds, Tim Harrigan, the stable man, lay in wait, and farther on old Ly- man Rich, the carpenter of the estate, and others, not a soul of whom shirked their duty in stock- ing me up with blessings and advice, until the impression long remained that if all boys were to grow great and good proportionately with these possessions, certainly I had gained a great han- dicap in the race over all others. It was late in the afternoon of the day fol- lowing when the little passenger train of two coaches and a baggage car (drawn by the "Hor- ace Clark," a wheezy, wood-burning locomotive, with a huge flaring smokestack, and with boiler and cylinders glistening with sheet brass, and 50 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. the tender gaudily painted with an ornate border around its sides forming a panel, and the stars and stripes in each corner and the name in huge letters in the center, and again on each side of the cab under the window in case the first might be overlooked), after stopping at the little ham- let of Rupert on the Vermont side, took water at the tank, then moved a little further down the track to a huge pile, where the conductor, brake- man, baggageman, station agent and many of the passengers, tossed wood aboard until the tender was piled high ; when the brakes were let loose, the wheel spun 'round as they released their hold, and the train rattled on down the grade and across the line into York State for the last time on the journey south, and finally brought up at the station of Salem. The conductor el- bowed his way through the crowd with a haughty privilege, as he sought the agent in sending a dispatch down the line to another train whereby to arrange a meeting place; for the conductor was a very important personage in those days and did his own train dispatching, and sat at the head of the table at the dinner stations (when the road was of sufficient length to require a dinner station, which was seldom). His rank protected him from all the little petty annoy- ances of the present-day conductor, and he treated the "spotter'' with absolute contempt and indifference while he made change and chatted pleasantly with the "cash fare," and frowned severelv at the holder of a ticket. REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 51 It was a great crowd of fifty or more people at the station this day when the train arrived, and marveling greatly at the demonstration, a faint suspicion finally presented itself that all this might possibly be clue to the expected arrival of the new timekeeper. CHAPTEK III. The train pulled away from the station, the loungers gradually dispersed, following down the main street in the wake of the old village postmaster and his mail bag. Timidly en- tering the waiting room, Mr. Kegler, the master mechanic, was located, and the letter tremblingly presented. Beside him stood the superintendent of the division, Mr. Z. V. K. Wilson, to whom (after reading the letter carefully and shoving it in a side pocket of his coat) an introduction followed. Mr. Wilson was the typical railway superintendent of that day, in which such lordly and responsible positions were intrusted only to men of ripe years, whose dignified inertness seemed indispensable and more to be relied upon than the activity, feverish anxiety, and unre- strained zealousness of one whose years yet lacked the number requisite to guarantee fixed habits and unswerving character. He was a somewhat pudgy, and rather elderly looking gentleman, with nose glasses, lengthy side whis- kers and a little Astrakhan cap, cylindrical in shape and with no fore-piece; and was unmis- takably a great man, for a locomotive named for him stood in the yard near by, and the long array of capital letters on tender and cab at- tracted the attention and impressed one with the REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 53 belief that he must certainly be of importance or they would not have employed so much alpha- bet in naming him, and later so much paint in placing it upon the locomotive. In critical examination Mr. Wilson adjusted his nose glasses carefully, and looking first en- tirely over the top of my head, finally got the range and lowered the line of sight gradually until it rested at the feet ; then raising it quickly to the starting point, where he permitted it to rest while he spoke, said, "Well, I guess he'll get along all right if he knows enough, and he looks like mebbe he does." The shops across the freight yard from the depot, with the black smoke pouring from the great stack, presented a formidable appearance and inclined one to the belief that Mr. Wilson's thorough inspection was not unwarranted. The main buildings, as was the custom in earlier rail- way operation, enclosed under one roof the round-house, machine shop and forging depart- ment. At the head or front of the structure stood the round-house for the storage of locomo- tives. "Not the modern crescent shaped affair of to-day, with turn-tables outside and switches leading to each stall, but a round house in the more strict sense of the word, or rather in this case a house in which the ground plan was that of a dodecagon, two of the faces being occupied by the track which passed through the figure and to the machine shop beyond, while each of those 54 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. remaining represented a stall with tracks lead- ing at regular angles from a central turn-table. This round-house portion was covered by a con- ical-shaped roof, from the apex of which rose a short tower or cupola. Attached to this and ex- tending rearward was a large hip-roofed annex, embracing not only machine shop and forging department as stated, but boiler and engine room also, from which source power was generated for the entire works. Near the boiler room was a small building called the rail shop, in which the battered ends of rails were cut off, that the rail might be relaid and form a more perfect joint. About one hundred feet from the machine shop was the car department, and still further on, the painting department. These, together with the lumber yard and a large building for the storage of seasoned lumber, embraced practically the whole establishment, but were enough, together with tracks, switches, cars, engines, etc., to thor- oughly confuse a verdant mind. When, however, one entered the great round- house, and a circle of locomotives stood frowning from all directions, with their attendants and wipers scurrying about ; and later still when the machine shop was reached, with its mass of ma- chinery and its network of whirling pulleys, shafts and belts, and their din of movement added to by the hammering and filing, together with the roar of the forges and the pounding of the great trip-hammer in the forge department beyond, it seemed that without going farther, REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 55 there already presented itself a mass of detail that forbade all hope of ever mastering. It was an appalling demonstration of complex and un- familiar operations, far too much so to ever hope mastering; and again arose the vision of Dona- hue and a longing to surrender all this for a life of service with him at building piers. The village hotel, which was to become the writer's home, and which stood facing the depot and close beside the railway track, differed little in architecture from that employed in country towns throughout this section during the preced- ing century, being a frame structure three stories in height, with the first and second floors each opening upon a piazza which extended along the entire front and across the end next the railway. Wooden shutters protected the windows of each floor, and when not thus employed, resolved themselves into stately and dignified sentries pinned against the wall on either side thereof, or swung to and fro with each passing breeze. The whole (sometime since) had been painted white, with the exception of the shutters, which, of course, were green. From near each end of the "hip" roof and from its very apex there arose a low chimney, while several large elm trees along the front pro- vided formidable hitching posts for the teams of country patrons, and cast their sheltering shade upon the whole. The place bore no sign, but was known far and near as "Howe's Hotel." 56 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. Approaching the steps, there emerged from the main hallway (with awkward and ungainly strides, to each otf which the head bowed as- sent) a tall, lank individual, in age past three score years. His shoulders were stooped, his legs bowed, his long arms dangled by his sides and his thin face was smoothly shaven, save a carefully pre- served fringe of beard, the ends of which ap- peared like a drought - suffer- ing hedge above the crest of the standing collar with which his throat and neck were fenced. In his hand he held a huge dinner bell, which upon reaching the porch he swirled about his head with a certain awkward grace, when EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 57 with sinuous curves it fell past his side, passing partially behind him, then returning, described a double loop or figure eight in front, thence back to the point of commence- ment in repetition of the act, the tones of the bell meanwhile marking accurate time, to which his lean, lank form swayed and bent in perfect unison. It was John Howe, the propri- etor, born and reared somewhere over in the Green Mountains of Vermont; he had long fol- lowed the keeping of hotels or taverns, and for many years ere the writer was born, had each meal-time wielded the dinner bell upon this same old porch. Finishing his unique exhibition of bell ringing he started to re-enter the hall, when, being confronted with a new applicant for board and lodging, he made shift of the bell to the left hand, and extending his bony right, said : "How de do, boy, jest go right in, supper's already waitin' fer ye." The dining room bore evidence of having un- dergone some change from the original design, through the removal of two partitions, and a con- sequent enlargement in somewhat irregular form. Here from the center of each of the three tables arranged about the room, an ornate silver- plated castor towered with the dignity of its period. At each plate and employed for each of the three meals was the indispensable little red napkin. Crowning all was an intricate mass of bright-colored paper, cut in fancy designs and suspended from the ceiling above each table, 58 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. forming a cosy retreat for the myriad of flies that also boarded here during the summer months. Seated at the writer's table were two lady school teachers, a livery stable keeper, a jeweler, a druggist, a store clerk and a journey- man tailor, representing every industry of the town except the saw mill and the village news- paper. The sleeping room allotted was on the up- per floor and at the extreme southeast end of the building. It had one window with seven- inch by nine-inch panes of glass, and opened out upon the stable yard below. An old green shade hung sullenly from a roller which would not roll ; its lower half had been whipped about by the zephyrs of many seasons, until its entire sur- face was an intricate mass of cracks and fissures of arborescent form. The room was a little more than eight feet square and the ceiling a little less than eight feet high ; the furniture con- sisted of a bed, chair and washstand. Upon the stand was a washbowl, pitcher and tallow candle, the latter supported in a bronzed tin candlestick. All were of the same renaissance as the room, untraceable in origin and indescribable in de- sign, save that they were antique; a combina- tion, however, then much employed, and evi- dently for a long time previous, in country tav- erns throughout this section. There was no closet for clothes, but numer- ous and various sized nails driven in the walls furnished ample facilities for the disposal of REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 59 garments, which, when tastefully arranged, gave to the room a sort of unique decorative effect. Retiring for the night slumber was soon en- grossed with such visions and fancies as would naturally possess a verdant, callow, country youth upon his first night in the hotel of a great town of a thousand or more people. It was early yet when, arising and descend- ing to the office, the only sounds which broke the silence that still hung about the establishment were occasional rattlings of stove lids and cook- ing utensils from the direction of the kitchen, while from the stable beyond came exclama- tions of command, mingled with the spiteful stamp of horses' feet in protest of too severe grooming. Soon afterward there was detected the sound of unlocking and opening the bar- room directly beneath ; while from the window could be seen three old residents of the town, who had been patiently waiting, file silently down the steps. These were followed by three others coming singly, when for a period of half an hour there was heard a desultory conversa- tion, interspersed with two or three brief periods of silence, each of w r hich were quickly followed by a chorus of slight coughing and clearing of the throat, when the line of discussion would be suddenly resumed, and each time with renewed interest and vigor. Finally there was a general adjournment and the six old residents filed -up the basement stairs and homeward to their break- fast, while John Howe, the proprietor, who had 60 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. completed the task of catering to his thirsty townsmen, locked the sliding door of the side- board behind the bar and resumed his round of early morning duties yet remaining. Salem was, upon the whole, a more than or- dinarily moral village, yet withal liberal. Hence in a spirit of fairness toward all, the village gov- ernment maintained a state of prohibition each alternate year. This was not a prohibition year, and the old residents who so regularly filed down the basement stairs during the early morning hours, it is perhaps needless to remark, were not prohibitionists, neither were they ever dis- gracefully or disorderly intemperate. True, they were men of limited means, especially dur- ing these alternate years of greater personal privilege ; for it was expensive traveling up and down those basement stairs, particularly to those who commenced the route at such an early hour. But they were liberty-loving and peaceful, and formed an array of talent, devoid of which the village would have largely lost its charm. Deacon Mathews, the weather prophet, and, incidentally, village blacksmith for many years, performed service for the community in fore- casting climatic changes with a degree of accu- racy in which the government department of meteorology have ever since failed. Steve Green, the inventor, was the pride of the village, and had either created anew or im- proved a device for every possible use; beside EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 61 working occasionally at other occupations, until at last he had exhausted the field and was now struggling fiercely with the time-honored yet elusive principle of perpetual motion. None of Steve's devices had ever found their way into general use, it was true, but Steve was a philosopher and thoroughly understood the difficulty of first converting the public mind to the acceptance of any great truth, and later their insane demands for the same, and so was con- tent, and grimly awaited the coming change in sentiment and rush of orders. These together with Brommie Lansing, Hen Clark, Hugh Smart and others, were old and well-known residents, whose loss at any time would have largely destroyed the village charm and worked an incalculable loss to John Howe. It was a severe undertaking for a youth of sixteen, fresh from the environment of the po- tato patch and cornfield, to enter a great machine shop, individualized not only in occupation, but somewhat in dress and manners, and run the gauntlet for the first time of a horde of facetious workmen and apprentices, and when the ordeal was practically ended and escape had been made in safety to a point half way up the stairs lead- ing to the office, only a few faint cries of "Low Bridge !" reached the ear ; for somehow they had already discovered the writer's identity with the Champlain Canal. 62 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. The office was a peculiar affair, situated in the machine shop, and built against the westerly Avail, facing the car shop. Underneath, and ris- ing from the machine shop floor were first built the tool room and pattern shop, while above and resting upon these was the office, the high ceil- ing of the machine shop providing ample eleva- tion, while the tall windows lighted all. It was a commodious apartment, severely plain in its furnishings. Against one wall stood a high desk, on the opposite side a table, near the en- trance a washstand with bowl and pitcher, and about the room a few office chairs of the simplest pattern. Upon the walls were a few photo- graphs of locomotives built at Taunton, Massa- chusetts, also a few others of lathes, drill presses, etc., manufactured at Fitchburg, in the same state. In each of the two corners of the room was built a closet, one for the storage of books and the hanging of coats, the other enclosed the shop's stock of files, neatly arranged in pigeon- holes and stored here from the fact that being an expensive class of material and extensively used, their consumption might be guarded and a check kept thereon. The control of this was still an- other duty of the clerk and time-keeper, and one which proved most annoying when later having lost the guardianship of his predecessor in office, and upon the request of some serious-looking yet facetious workman, found himself searching for a three-cornered rat-tail file. REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 63 Sometime in the life of every boy comes an ailment as certain and far more distressing than croup, whooping cough or measles, and that is the agonizing affliction homesickness. And now as the day neared its close and the sun went down behind the western hills, over and beyond which rested the home and dwelt the friends and associates of childhood, the heart sank with it in grief and longing ; till at last dis- appearing below the artificial horizon, the tears came thick and fast, while the mellow light of its reflection seemed to smile at my despair. Mr. Kegler, the master mechanic, came up into the office one afternoon, washed and wiped his hands, then taking a cigar from his vest pocket and seating himself in an arm chair, lighted it, and, as was his daily custom, began the dictation of some letters. Finishing, he tilted his chair back against the wall, elevated his feet, resting them upon a corner of the table, removed the cigar from his mouth and blew a dense cloud of smoke toward the ceiling, while with the other hand he shielded and gently caressed a de- cidedly bald spot upon the top of his head. Gaz- ing intently for a few seconds he at last said: "Well, boy, how ye makin' it?" Then without awaiting a reply, continued, "Now, don't ye think it's about time you was goin' over home and seein' the folks? If you don't, ye know, they'll begin to think mebbe yer gittin' wild. Then, agin, ye must be gettin' a little homesick by this time ; if ye ain't yer a mighty sight dif- 64 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. f erent boy than I was the first time I went away from home to stay." A thousand thoughts now crowded in upon the mind, all imaginative, but joyous. The cor- respondence was dashed off with reckless haste, copied up-side down and in all sorts of ways, then in absent-mindedness at first addressed it nearly all to Comstock's Landing over on the Champlain Canal. Amongst the business let- ters, however, was an order to Henry Ruggles, a foundryman of Poultney, Vermont, for a mis- cellaneous lot of iron castings. I had taken oc- casion to write still another letter to an old aunt up near Slyborough Corners, telling her what a great man I had already become, and filling the balance of the letter with prophecies of my future. This I enclosed in an envelope ad- dressed to Mr. Buggies, while the order for cast- ings was promptly forwarded by same mail to the aforementioned aunt. In due time a reply came from the appreci- ative old lady thanking me for my desire to patronize her, but wondering how on earth I got it into my head that she was running a foundry ; that she didn't have a thing in the world to sell the railroad company unless they could make use of some vegetables. Mr. Ruggles simply returned the letter to her, charitably refraining from any remark whatsoever. _i_ Railway occupation seemed the most allur- ing and of the greatest magnitude and import- REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 65 ance of all that occupied the field. There stood before the world that dazzling exhibition of princely attainment, Jay Gould. For it was upon this very Rutland and Washington Divi- sion, then an independent line, that he, a some- what unsophisticated country youth made his debut before the great and growing world of greed and gain. From his first appearance along the line in the guise of a wool and potato buyer, he suddenly developed into a full usurpation and control, while his younger brother, Abram Gould, occupied the position of clerk and time- keeper of these same shops. From the old files of the office the writer had unearthed many auto- graph letters of this now famed man, then reign- ing over the Erie Railway, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and in fact the laws of his land. These letters were studied carefully, their style adopted in correspondence, and through some evidence and much imagination, that of their author in other things, having fully determined upon entering the great field of transportation, the result of which at a period not long to be deferred would (it seemed un- questionable) terminate in the acquirement of a large interest, and elevation to the presidency of one or more great trans-continental lines. And now these limitless, boyish and already wild ambitions were to be heightened through sudden and incomprehensible distinction. A disastrous fire demonstrated fully the weakness of the village fire department, and 66 EEMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. steps were taken to reinforce it. Amongst other appliances which were added was the old Trojan hook and ladder truck of Troy, ST. Y., that city inaugurating a paid department. The railway company being a heavy taxpayer, and deeply interested in the strengthening of the depart- ment, it was decided to name the machine for the writer. The town constructed a building especially for its use with truck room on the first, or ground floor, and hall above. Deacon Mathews, Brommie Lansing and Steve Green each became honorary members. The deacon selected dates for parades and other out-door demonstrations, besides securing repre- sentation at all the church picnics. Brommie took charge of all parliamentary proceedings, while Steve Green acted as consult- ing engineer and general mechanical adviser, and in a remarkably short time introduced so many new improvements and attachments to the machine that the membership had to be enlarged in order to haul it about. None of the three in view of their years ranked particularly high in actual service, es- pecially on high buildings, though in basement work they still showed excellent form. When this establishment was completed and occupied, so dizzy a height of fame and honor had been reached it seemed that to climb higher would simply separate one from any existing realm of equality to be found in earthly associa- REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 67 tion. There were, however, it was determined, an extremely limited number of human beings in the world who enjoyed a like distinction ; but for this I should have dwelt alone, shrouded in the dense and dignified solitude of unequaled greatness. CHAPTER IV. When one considers the wild, ungovernable desire and the reckless attempts on the part of the vast multitudes of beings, of mature years and occupying all stations in life, to reach Cali- fornia and its so-called golden shores during the earlier days thereof, a limited degree of like fas- cination becomes pardonable in a youth scarce out of his teens, though twenty-five years have elapsed since those more irresistible influences which the early excitement exerted; and it is quite possible that few of the youths of to-day, who have listened to and read the graphic recitals of those gold-plated episodes and experiences of '49 and '50, but that has a soul so live as to per- mit the fires being rekindled from the smoulder- ing embers of a past generation's fancy. And now when it was arranged that the writer should go to that far-away alluring center San Fran- cisco and succeed the brother of that great man, Jay Gould, as purveyor of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, all heretofore seeming greatness in the little village of Salem sank into insignificance, and a locomotive on the Rutland and Washington Division, or even the fire-red hook and ladder truck in its palatial quarters over on a side street in the rear of the railway REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 69 freight house, seemed insignificant apparatus compared to a steamship. An ocean steamship, as near as could be de- termined, differed widely from a canal boat, most especially in its motive power; and as a canal boat was the limit of the writer's experi- ence with large vessels, the water route to Cali- fornia was chosen, that the corporation war then raging between the Pacific Mail and the Pan- ama Transit Company might meanwhile find an end, and incidentally to gain a thorough knowl- edge of steamships generally. The morning of May 2d, 1876, dawned bright and balmy. The steamship "Colon," of the Pacific Mail line, crowding its massive, tow- ering form close beside the wharf, seemed some silent, monstrous beast of burden, patiently waiting at the door of its master. Finally the signal was sounded, calling pas- sengers aboard and warning visitors to disem- bark. The gang plank was removed, the great hawsers were cast loose, while a blustering, wheezing, snorting little tug, away down below, skurried about the ship's sides, pushing here and pulling there, much with the same result it seemed that a minnow might attempt to crowd and shove a whale. Soon, however, the great mass moved, and, clearing the dock and having her nose pushed out into the stream, the officious little tug cast loose and turned homeward with an air of extreme and undisguised importance. 70 BEMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. At once the Colon was under her own steam and moving gently but swiftly down the bay. From a quiet nook aft upon the upper deck, there was little to disturb the reverie of a ver- dant youthful traveler, who, watching the great city fast becoming lost in the haze and distance, felt the dread sensation of a great gulf widening between himself and the only land of which he possessed any absolute knowledge ; while a sud- den, serious fancy filled the mind and rapidly entrenched itself, that possibly all this was a far more reckless undertaking than it appeared ; when the engines gradually ceased their move- ment, and sudden, though temporary, relief came from the hope that possibly they had for- gotten something and would have to return to shore, when, escaping, a safer route might be adopted. It was, however, but the disembarkment of the pilot. And while the little boat which con- veyed him tossed merrily away en route thereto, a sleepy, listless pilot boat nearby slowly and gently rose and fell and bowed its graceful form in dignified adieu. Again the engines were in motion and the Colon plunged sternly forward and out upon the broad Atlantic. Rapidly the coast line grew more and more dim, till finally the sky closed down upon the surface of the sea. The Colon was now indulg- ing in certain and decided movements that dif- fered widely from those of boats on the Cham- REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 71 plain canal, even in the worst storms. The up- per extremities of her masts like the points of great dividers, marked ever increasing segments of circles upon the sky, as, rolling from side to side, she rose majestically to the summit of a great swell, seemed to pause for an instant, then, slightly shuddering, sank away into its accom- panying trough. Occupying the same state room with the writer was one Tom Forrest, a miner and pros- pector, engaged in the search for gold somewhere up about "Dutch Flats/' in Placer County, Cal- ifornia. Forrest was a big fellow with a heavy, drooping moustache, a very loud shirt, and a fancy vest, across the front of which was sus- pended a massive watch chain formed of gold nuggets taken from the auriferous sands at Dutch Flats. Alluring tales of gold washing in California had long been read with feverish interest, and, later, the fabulous doings of the great "Corn- stock" in Nevada ; until mining for the precious metals had long filled the mind with what has since been proven the most romantic and falla- cious of ideas. Forrest was not long in detect- ing this, and not having the heart to blot and blur this mind picture through an application of truth, charitably intensified these visionary im- pressions, creating a joyous confirmation of pre- vious views, together with a stock of amusement for himself. 72 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. Upon a bench by the side of the rail, far aft on the upper deck and well removed from the ship's passengers, sat a lad of twenty years or less, poring intently over a volume which rested upon his knee, while wreaths of tobacco smoke from a huge Meerschaum pipe curled for a time lovingly about his head, then, caught by the light breeze, floated quickly away over the ship's stem. He was short in stature, of dark com- plexion, neat in appearance, and, as could be seen, rigidly methodical in manner; upon the whole a queer, old-fashioned-appearing lad, and apparently at home upon the sea. By his side upon the seat rested a large, home-made to- bacco pouch, from which at intervals (after knocking the ashes from the huge and elaborate Meerschaum, then fondling it lovingly, and viewing it in different lights admiringly, as he noted its progress in colorings) he would re- charge the same. In proportions and pretensions the pipe dif- fered so widely from the boy as to strikingly in- dividualize him; and in the gentle and loving guardianship he exercised over it his ruling weakness, if such existed, was apparent. It was a day in which the possession of a Meerschaum pipe was the rage ; and long before, up in Salem, entrancing tales were told of an "old countryman" who resided several miles away, just over the line in Vermont and well up in the Green Mountain range, and who was REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 73 reputed to be the possessor of a most wonder- fully colored Meerschaum. In time the writer became its owner, at no doubt many times its actual value. Its color- ing, however, had in no sense been overrated, though the, older and more knowing ones shook their heads, and inclined to the belief of its hav- ing been produced artificially; which, if true, of course, condemned it, as amongst the Meer- schaum-smoking tribe, the great value lay in the coloring having been produced through absolute use, and, better still, through the individual ef- fort of the owner. Armed with the alluring pipe, and design- edly sauntering along the upper deck and toward the point where the lad was sitting, sidewise with one elbow resting on the rail while he smoked and read, a match was requested for the sole purpose of attracting his attention. Turn- ing quickly and reaching in his pocket, he pro- duced instead a percussion pipe-lighting affair, which in itself was an evidence of the boy's in- dividuality. Everyone used matches they were quite too conventional for him. Present- ing it he raised his eyes for the first time, his attitude pleasant though quite unconcerned for the instant, until catching sight of the pipe, his face beamed beneath a veil of sudden surprise, while involuntarily he half rose from his seat in his eagerness to more closely view the object of his interest, which he examined long and crit- ically, occasionally casting glances of compari- 74 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. son at his own which lay upon the seat. With a lingering gaze he returned the pipe, and pick- ing up his own polished it gently and affection- ately with the palm of his hand, while he cast upon it a long, admiring look, as if in assurance that his admiration had not entirely gone forth to another. His name was Edward Coleman; he was the son of a manufacturer of ship chan- dlers' goods in Providence, Rhode Island. They dealt largely with San Francisco dealers, and Edward was journeying thence to visit their clients, most of whom they had never met, and, incidentally, undertake the collection of a few accounts, the payment of which had been too long deferred. Talking and smoking on the upper deck until late the second night out, the wind suddenly rose, the sea increased in roughness, and the ship rolling and pitching significantly, we knocked the ashes from the rival pipes and sought the seclusion of the staterooms below. Forrest had already retired and was sleep- ing soundly; when by the dim light from the passage a maiden attempt was engaged in of the difficult and undignified task of disrobing and retiring in the stateroom of a heavily rolling and plunging ship. Finally the feat was accom- plished, and a fairly good record as a beginner made; Forrest remained undisturbed, and no damage seemed to have been sustained save a REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 75 few bumps and bruises upon the person of the writer, which were wholly affairs of his own. Clinging tenaciously for a time to the berth as the ship rolled in the direction that tended to deposit one upon the floor, sleep finally pre- vailed. The first gray dawn of approaching day had spread itself over the turbulent and boundless waters, when awakening, there could be seen (each time the ship careened to the side from which the port gave a view) the great expanse of sea, as it heaved and tossed in endless and in- describable convulsion, while the hurried foot- steps of the seamen on the deck above, the howl- ing of the wind, and the spiteful fusilade of raindrops upon the glass, contrasted strongly with the soft, gentle atmosphere of the evening preceding. It was a storm off Cape Hatteras. At regular intervals a terrible rumbling, accom- panied by a shudder of the ship ensued, as plunging into the trough of the sea her propeller was raised from the water, and in its released condition, tore wildly about until meeting with resistance through immersion, it wrenched the old ship's vertebrae much like that of a scared mule when he suddenly reaches the length of his picket rope. Forrest now turned over upon his back, and yawning, stretched both arms above his head, then muttering a disapproval of the weather, settled himself for a morning nap. Then con- fiding to him the knowledge of a certain dis- 76 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. tressed feeling, lie opened his eyes for an in- stant, then closing them again, shrugged his shoulder, whereby to draw the covering more closely about his neck, and remarked disinter- estedly, "Oh, you're seasick, that's all the matter with you." This was sufficient, so far the thought had not occurred. The suggestion was simply awaited to fully develop the complaint. There w T as now no time to be spent in further consideration of the matter; arising and hur- riedly dressing preparatory to reaching the deck, the operation was scarce commenced, when the conclusion was reached to remain below. "No reference need be made to the scenes which fol- lowed during the succeeding two hours, other than that they were the busiest in the experience of any ocean traveler. Later the cabin boy en- tered, hurriedly diagnosed the case, and quickly returned with the invariable and stock article of diet, toast and tea. A teaspoonful of the tea was sipped gingerly, the toast sniffed daintily and the feast ended. Then lying back in the berth, with closed eyes, a rigid course of treatment was commenced in suggestive therapeutics ; repeated matches made of mind defense against physical attack, and every match lost, including all re- maining nourishment. Then arose and dressed with a view to reaching the upper deck, half hop- ing that some great, merciful, motherly old wave would lap me up and bear me away to final rest, EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 77 The storm raged fiercely until long past mid- day, when it slackened its fury, and as the shades of night fell, had fully ceased. Then the moon rose and peered out over the vast bosom of the Atlantic, which as though not yet recovered from the exhaustion of the struggle, rose and fell, heaving its mighty chest in linger- ing distress. Steadily the old ship bore on toward the glowing tropics and less troubled wa- ters, until at last, passing the "Antilles," en- tered the Caribbean Sea. The weather was now exceedingly warm. The sun, near the zenith, shed its fierce rays upon the mirrored surface of a listless lazy sea, whose only movement was the never-ending swell, which now rose so lan- guidly and sank away with such abandon as to each time seem incapable of again repeating the operation. Awnings were stretched above the upper deck by day, beneath whose friendly shelter from the sun's rays, lounged a seeming and sud- denly reconstructed race. The ambition, vivac- ity and chatter of these people of the North was gone, and in most negligee attire they sat about in quiet, surrendering themselves at frequent in- tervals, to the seductive influence of the "siesta" of a southern clime. It was only when the sun had sunk beneath the horizon, and darkness (which is here preceded by little twilight) had fallen over all, that any pretense of interest in anything save sleep and silence, was manifest amongst any, except the crew. Then a cooler 78 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. breeze seemed to fan them into consciousness, while a beautifully phosphorescent sea caught the eye and lured them into animated expres- sion. Such nights as these were enjoyed late upon the decks, smoking, talking and trapping the flying fish, with which the Caribbean swarms, which latter was accomplished by sus- pending an empty flour barrel with a cord at- tached to either end, at a point near as possible to the surface of the sea. Then the open end, which projected outward from the ship's side, was raised until the barrel formed a slight angle with the surface of the water. A light having first been placed in the bottom of the barrel, the curious little creatures are attracted by its bright rays so near them, and raising from the water, fly toward it, plunging headlong into the recep- tacle. Sailing on equatorward there at last ap- peared above the southern horizon, and now be- held for the first time by most on board, that bright constellation, the Southern Cross. For a moment possessed of the joy and in- terest born only of the discovery of some unfa- miliar work of God, there at last came the real- ization of being far from home. In fact, of having actually sailed out, and away from be- neath the celestial ceiling decorations of our own land, and under those of another. Each day dawned, and developed its usual heat, with possibly a few degrees added, until REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 79 far away the haze (or aqueous vapor generated through the intensity of the sun's rays upon the surface of these equatorial waters) obliterated the line of demarkation between sea and sky. It was near the noon hour of an especially heated day when the "lookout" in the "crow's nest" cried "Ship ahoy !" and ere long there was seen from the upper deck the dim outlines of a sail far away to "larboard." The steamer's course, though bearing in toward her slightly, would pass her at least three miles to "starboard." The sullen, oppressive stillness of a dead calm, made more oppressive by the intense heat, hung over all. She was a schooner-rigged craft of rather large proportions. Every stitch of sail was set, while the whole hung listless and drooping. And though she bore a signal of distress, a care- ful inspection with glasses determined nothing further than that she was helpless in a "dead calm," and that her crew, so far as detected, were tropical natives of the blackest type. The Colon changed her course, slackened speed, and bearing down upon her, came to a full stop something over half a mile distant. Meanwhile a boat put off from the sailer, which by the time the Colon had fully halted, came alongside. It contained six men and eight wa- ter barrels. As the boat's crew climbed up the ship's side, and one after another stepped on deck, the passengers now aroused from their in- ertness, crowded curiously about them. Aside from the morbid curiosity of a lay- 80 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. man, they were indeed subjects of deep interest to the naturalist and physiologist. Each of these beings were nude, save a piece of light cot- ton fabric wrapped about the loins. Their bodies and arms were long, their legs short, while the cranial and facial development was far more distorted than that of the purest type of African negro. The nasal organ scarce manifested itself, save in the nostrils, which when standing erect, presented the fullest view of the openings. The ship's surgeon standing near, and though less expressive of his interest and observations than others, was to the extent of his greater knowledge in such matters, far more observing ; amongst other things, calling attention to one of these creatures who stood nearest, presenting a side view. Through the limited folds of the light fabric drawn tightly about his loins, there was plainly visible a slight protuberance, located at the lowest extremity of the vertebrae, then more closely observing the balance, there was found in each to a greater or less degree, the same physiological phenomena. Through later and more convincing observa- tion the fact was determined that the vertebrse of these beings extended downward and slightly away from the body, so far past the point of ter- mination in examples of physical perfection as to render the occurrence plainly visible through the folds of their attire. REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 81 In the heretofore orthodox environment of the writer, the observations and theory of Charles Darwin regarding the evolution of spe- cies had for some time produced a sensation. He had cautiously read much of it. Cautiously it may be stated, as the exhibition of such taste tended rather to handicap one in the region roundabout. Extended discussions were fre- quent on the part of a misguided mass of "special creation" supporters, and always in rid- icule and condemnation of the preposterous, irrational teachings of this crazy blasphemous individual. Evolution having so far proceeded that the principle of bodily torture was no longer prac- ticed upon such as dared to manifest the slight- est degree of rational thought upon any subject adverse to Scripture (which properly inter- preted, seemed to pretty thoroughly cover the entire field of inquiry), Mr. Darwin lived, la- bored, observed and uttered his evidence at a period in which, fortunately, he escaped the stake, and through charity, became the recipi- ent of all manner of ridicule instead. His an- cestral anthropoid ape, and especially its tail, grew into a huge joke, though to the more de- vout, a somewhat ghastly one. Meeting in the Caribbean Sea these types of so peculiar a species, yet human, the mind thenceforth dwelt yet more seriously upon the teachings of Darwin; to the end, as the reader may have already deduced from the tenor of 82 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. foregoing speech, that the early impressions gained have not wholly failed in augmenting their fortification through unprejudiced in- quiry since indulged in. As they spoke no language understood by any on board, with the exception of a lim- ited amount of very imperfect Spanish, little information was obtained from the becalmed mariners save that they had for a long time been unable to make any headway on account of lack of wind, and that they were destitute of water. The Captain ordered their casks filled, which done, they pushed off from the ship's side, and the Colon was again under way, headed for As- pinwall. _._ bearing the eastern coast of the Isthmus of Panama (and ere the coast line was sighted), there came wafted upon a gentle breeze now blowing off shore, the faint, delightful odor of the tropical jungle of the Isthmus and its fruits. Later, the dim coast line became discernible, and shortly thereafter anchor was cast for the time being, a short way off the dock. Aspin- wall has little that may be called harbor, it be- ing practically open sea. Landing, and a couple of days being re- quired for transfer of cargo across the isthmus by that forty-seven miles of standard gauge rail- way of the Panama Transit Company (the earn- ings of which per mile, next to the Virginia and Truckee Railway of Nevada, were the greatest EEMINISCENT KAMBLUSTGS. 83 of any railway on earth), one was enabled to devote some considerable time to exploration. The slovenly, though somewhat interesting town, its streets filled with a semi-nude horde, com- prising both sexes, who lounged and strolled in all places, uninvited and uninterfered with, im- pressed one as a representation of democracy in its fullest form; or rather, the idleness and in- ertness that marks dethronement, and the await- ing of the end. Upon the principal street stood a well-modeled statue of Columbus, beneath whose extended and protecting arm crouched the representation of a pure type of the Isthmus native. For the moment one gazed upon the allegor- ical structure, and with poetic mind, embraced the sentiment it bore. Then looking away upon the great steamship crowding the pier, the rail- way with its locomotives snorting their assertion of privilege and the little land itself about to be rent in twain by the cutting of the Panama Canal, the veil lifted, the comedy appeared, and smiling thoughtfully at the monumental joke, passed to a side view of the figure, and raising the eyes to the summit of Christopher's towering form, smiled again, for there, plastered over the great area of his expansive cheek clung a huge quid of tobacco, hurled at him, no doubt, by another irreverent detector of the farce. Journeying inland from the town into the dense jungle of tropical vegetation, filled with the noisy life of bird and beast, was an experi- 84 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. ence never to be forgotten by the visitor from a colder clime. Probably in no section of the earth does vegetation nourish more luxuriantly or grow more rapidly than here. It is said that in making preparations for the survey and cross- sectioning of the canal, that a swath over one half mile in width was cut along the line and the ground laid bare. Much of the way the tangle of grass and vines were so dense that one was supported five feet from the ground in pass- ing over it, and that in less than two years fol- lowing the removal of this growth, the track was invisible, save from the cutting of the larger and slower growth of trees. The railway connecting Aspinwall and Pan- ama, though penetrating a wild land, was of the earliest construction, having been commenced in 1849 (Totten and Trautwine, engineers), and completed several years later, after the greatest difficulties and loss of life which ever attended the building of an equal length of line. Nu- merous nationalities were employed as work- men, and the mortality was so great that at its completion it was a saying, that the bodies of the dead were sufficient to "tie" the road over its entire length. The undertaking was prompted by the great gold discoveries in California, and the indescribable stampede to the golden shores of the Pacific. During the year 1ST 6 a French commission, consisting of Lieut. Wyse and others, was sent out to investigate the feasibility of constructing REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 85 a ship canal across the Isthmus, connecting the two oceans. Two years later the Columbian Government granted to "The Civil International Oceanic Canal Co." the exclusive privilege of constructing the canal, at the same time neu- tralizing both the canal and its ports. In 1879, or the year following the act, M. de Lesseps took the matter in hand, to the end that actual con- struction commenced two years later. This great undertaking was by no means as it may seem, a modern idea. A proposalto pierce the Isthmus of Darien was made in 1520 by Angel San Vedra. Cortez in 1550 caused a survey to be made across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec for a like purpose, while Antoine Galvao presented four different routes, one being over the iden- tical ground selected by the French Company, and which is practically that of the railway, as follows : Leaving Colon, it intercepts the Cha- gres, following its northern bank to Barbacous, where it crosses, following its southern bank for a distance, thence pursuing a tributary of the Obispo to the Culebra Col, from which it de- scends straight to Panama, while the canal in its location down the Pacific slope follows the valley of the Rio Grande. It has a length of fifty-four miles, or seven miles greater than the railway, owing to its necessity of more closely contouring the country. Here at the Pacific terminus of both railway and canal lies the quaint old city of Panama, the oldest European city upon this Continent, 86 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. and during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the most strongly fortified of any of South America. Originally founded in 1518 by Pe- dro Arias Davila, and built upon a site a short distance from the present one, it grew into a rich and prosperous town, abounding with luxurious dwellings and other evidences of wealth, when in 1617 it was raided by Morgan's Buccaneers, pillaged and burned, amidst revolting scenes of murder and rapine. Two years later a new city was founded upon the present site by Villa- courte. It is situated upon a coral reef which ex- tends far out into the bay, and reaches so near the surface of the water that at lowest tide large areas near the city front are exposed. The ver- tical height here measured by the two extremes of tide exceeds fifteen feet, or more than six times that of the Atlantic coast at Aspinwall. This matter of difference in tides caused much calculation in the design of the canal as to the best results to be obtained, from either ob- structing the canal with a "lock," or creating a grade and encountering the resultant current. CHAPTEE V. Late at night in the harbor of Panama, the chains rattled as the anchor was hoisted at the bow of the Grenada, the ship of the Pacific Mail line that was to convey us to San Fran- cisco, and her propeller began to churn the waters of a new sea as she poked her nose swiftly out inta the broad Pacific. Like some carrier pigeon as it soars upward to a dizzy height ere it shapes it course for the homeward route, so did the Grenada push so far out into the mag- nificent waste of waters, that when morning dawned and she had headed northward, the coast line of the Isthmus was lost to view. Over a magnificent sea, disturbed only by the long heavy swell, she sailed northward, passing the coasts of Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. Then heading shoreward, entered the beautiful harbor of that seemingly unworthy, uninviting little town Acupulco, on the western coast of Mexico. It was near the middle of a terriffically hot afternoon, when the Grenada dropped her anchor in the little land-locked bay, some distance from the shore. Occasionally a great shark rolled its side lazily to the surface, as a quantity of garbage was cast overboard from the kitchen, which, together with a score or more of REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. naked native boys who swam about the ship, eager to recover coins which the more curious and enthusiastic of the passengers might be in- duced to toss into the sea, seemed to constitute the ship's entire reception committee, and the only apparent life of the harbor and its sur- roundings. The little town lay listless and sleeping at the foot of the amphitheatre into which the bay extended. Its low adobe build- ings and huts of uniform style of architecture, from whence no sign of life proceeded, whose sunburned walls shimmered and glared from be- neath the fierce rays of the sun, as they rested like homes of the dead upon the shores of a glis- tening, simmering, silent sea. In the smoking room of the ship a thermometer registered 118 degrees Fahrenheit as a party started to row ashore. High up above the town and overlook- ing the bay, was perched an old fort, now chiefly used as a prison. A revolution was in progress in the district, as at all times somewhere in the republic, and especially on its frontier, the Pa- cific coast. For the controlling hand of Por- forio Diaz, that greatest of modern rulers, had not yet reduced the turbulent territory to its present peaceful, patriotic condition. About the town there was little of interest. Its streets were as empty as they appeared from the ship. Through open doorways people might be seen in scanty attire, engaged not in the attempt of, keeping cool, but in that of preventing them- selves from becoming cooked well done. Wait- REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 89 ing to be taken on board were a few passengers from the City of Mexico, who had journeyed overland with pack and saddle animals. At the fort on the hill, barefooted and half naked sen- tries paced dignifiedly about the court, when not sleeping in the shady recesses of its inner wall. Through low-grated windows, opening upon a level with the court pavement, one peered into the dungeons below. The sight was revolting and the odor sickening. Crowded into these dimly lighted, unventilated subterranean recep- tacles were masses of half starved, half naked, half suffocated, filth-begrimed and vermin-in- fested wretches, possessed of no sanitary con- veniences, were fed like swine from a common trough, and in sleeping upon the stone floor, owing to their numbers, each to some extent overlaid another. From a grated apartment opening into the court was seen the beckonings of a man whose face, despite its uncleanliness, gave unmistakable evidence of his Saxon in- heritance. His speech bore the unmistakable accent of an Englishman. He was clad in the shirt and trousers of a seaman, and from pro- tected portions it might be seen that they were of a flannel originally white. Reciting the story of his misfortune, he claimed to have been a seaman on board a British vessel, which put- ting into Acupulco and being at anchor for a few days, he came ashore one night, became in- toxicated, invaded the scene of a Mexican dance, got well beaten up, and awoke next morning in 90 REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. durance vile, where he had remained ever since. The ship sailed that very night, or early in the morning. Not understanding the language, he had been unable to gain any information, either as to the charge against him, or the length of time for which he was sentenced. He was pen- niless, and though his incarceration was distress- ing, his liberty under the circumstances, and for the time at least, would but add to the embar- rassment of his situation. Poking a contribution of small coins and smoking tobacco through the iron bars of his se- cure though undesirable apartment, he was left to a further and more exact determination of the enormity of his transgression as deduced from the particular degree of hardness of which his way was possessed. Putting out of the little harbor, the Gren- ada again headed northward, touching at Man- zanillo, thence on to Mazatlan, which, though the largest of Mexico's Pacific ports, has no harbor, but "lighters" its freight and passengers to and from large, vessels, at times a most exciting and hazardous undertaking. From here the course lies almost due west across the mouth of the Gulf of California, whereby to clear Cape San Lucas, the southern extremity of the peninsula of Lower California, after which, and with a temperature now sud- denly reduced some twenty degrees, she again shaped her course northward for a straightaway REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 91 run to San Francisco. Little occurred hence- forth to even arouse the enthusiasm of youthful and verdant travelers. It was felt that strange lands and unusual scenes were now passed. The Southern Cross had disappeared, while Polaris and the Great Dipper rose to their accustomed places in the north. Later one bright morning, after hugging the coast for some hours, a small rocky island was passed lying some distance to starboard, and so close to shore as to seem part of the mainland, and from which came the yelping of innumer- able seals, which, immediately afterward, the Grenada, slackening speed, rounded gracefully and pointed her prow toward a suddenly dis- closed and narrow opening in the coast line. It was the Golden Gate. How the writer strug- gled to embrace this opportunity, and more fully employ the seeming brief period for observation of that of which, through poetic tales of Califor- nia, he had viewed for so long in youthful vision, pictures so false and fanciful that now there was felt a tinge of disappointment, in that no gilded surfaces reflected back the bright rays of the morning sun, or in fancy swinging upon its massive hinges, an actual gate of the precious metal clasped within its golden embrace another Argonaut. Slowly steaming up the beautiful bay, then rounding "Telegraph Hill," the long water front of the city, fringed with a tangle of shipping, and bristling with the masts of a hun- dred vessels, stretched in front and far away, 92 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. until undefinable and lost in haze and distance. Stealthily the Grenada crept along the line, until reaching the opening awaiting her, she floated silently in, gave a few convulsive turns of the propeller, then ground her massive side against the creaking piles, her extremities were made fast, when listlessly and lovingly she at last nestled beside the golden shores of California. San Francisco's earthquakes possessed nat- urally a peculiar and exciting fascination for the youth who had read Mark Twain's account of one, occurring several years previous, and was really one of the experiences that was impa- tiently awaited. And now but a few days had elapsed when a shock occurred, which, though it seemed to have little effect on San Francisco or its buildings, absolutely shattered and destroyed an air castle which the writer had spent long days and nights in building. A decision had been reached whereby Pacific mail passed under the management of the Panama Transit Co. and Gould officials were no more. San Francisco had many years since emerged from that tornado of excitement occa- sioned by the deluge of gold derived from its placers, and was now submerged in another little less in its magnitude and uncontrollable frenzy. The great "Comstock" lode of Nevada, by far the greatest individual occurrence of pre- cious metal ores the world has yet ever seen, was then resting near the zenith of its fame and REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 93 production. The great ''Bonanza" was devel- oping a magnitude that baffled the most expert in their attempt to determine its limit. Indeed, the evidence was so great that the whole finan- cial world for the time stopped in its mad ca- reer, while over the silent glances of inquiry they cast one upon another, there hung the hush of palsied fright lest here might result a produc- tion so great as to destroy the function of both gold and silver as money metals. In the midst of all this the stocks of these holdings soared up- ward, faltering now and then and fluttering back toward earth again, then with redoubled strength darting to a greater height than hereto- fore, until the public, beguiled into a firm belief in the infinity of their upward movement, bought and sold and bought again, as the fraud- ulent information, and self opinionated judg- ment they possessed, taught them the proper changes were to make. Thus, the mad mass of mixed mankind tore and trampled each other in their frenzied attempt to get something for noth- ing thus madly rushed and grabbed and jos- tled, for judgment had lost its sway. Fortunes were made and, as since learned, lost daily. One heard only of those made. We seldom do. The making of a fortune through specula- tion in these stocks seemed to all a simple mat- ter. The mind dwelt lovingly upon the possi- bility of acquiring one of so great magnitude. A multitude of equally ridiculous theories and fancies filled the mind, and yet why so ridicu- 94 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. lous ? Had not (but the day preceding, so to speak) Flood and O'Brien been saloon keepers here in San Francisco, and John Mackey and Jim Fair but ordinary miners behind the pick and drill ? And had one met with the success that fancy painted (like in their case), would not the world have resounded with murmurs of admiration at the accomplishment? But fail- ure being the result, one had of course lost his money gambling in stocks the most senseless, inexcusable, depraved form of gambling. This same world said so, hence it must be true, irrec- oncilable as its two views of the matter may seem. Yet one may here ask, what title shall we apply to the entire competitive system of traffic as forever engaged in by the world at large ? But a brief season spent in the midst of this mad and motley throng was required to dis- courage the writer in further attempt at acquir- ing a sudden fortune on the Pacific Coast, and folding his tent and stealing silently out and away from this deadly yet infatuating atmos- phere of disaster and distress, he, one soft sum- mer evening not long thereafter, stepped from the train at Salem. The sun was just setting and seemed to mark not only the close of day, but of adventure also. The deep snows and chilling blasts of the following !New England winter brought new longings for the bright sunshine, magnificent distances, and free, unfettered existence of the EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 95 Far West; when, again influenced by exciting and fanciful tales, and the existence of gold and silver mining, which as ever possessed its charm, Colorado, then but recently admitted to the Union, and known as the Centennial State, had little competition from California in its influ- ence upon one whose experiences with the latter had been of the usual sort. The now beautiful city of Denver was at this time but a big, overgrown village, present- ing race, social types and customs, which though strange, were indeed interesting and attractive. Then, the great area embraced by the common- wealth was about equally divided in its occupa- tion and uses between the red man and the white man. Of the Indians there had been mainly two tribes in Colorado. The Utes, oc- cupying the entire mountainous portions, and the Arapahoes, who dwelt east of the front range and upon the great plains which stretched away to the Missouri River. These plain and mountain tribes had ever been at war with each other. The Arapahoes hav- ing a taste for the deer, grouse and fish of the mountainous Utes, and the Utes in turn having a longing for the antelope and buffalo, they were led to continuous poaching and incessant warfare. The Arapahoes upon the plains were in the direct pathway of the pioneer in his pilgrimage westward, and to vary his otherwise monotonous life, engaged zealously in "busting" Pike's Peak 96 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. expeditions, so zealously in fact, that, as a final result in the struggle for the survival of the fit- test as between the pioneer and the Arapahoe, the Arapahoe was at last wiped out, and that but a short time prior to the writer's arrival, through what was known as the "Sand Creek" massacre, conducted by one Col. Chivington, who divided his talents between services for the government in frontier warfare, and preaching the gospel to frontier wayfarers, and a familiar figure upon the streets of Denver for many years thereafter. The Utes, however, remained practically un- interfering and interfered with. Few in the search for gold or otherwise, had as yet at- tempted any considerable operations near the borders of their domain. Mining operations were chiefly confined to the counties of Clear Creek, Gilpin and Boulder, which lay near the border of the great plain. Denver had growTi to such exceeding proportions as compared with the outside settlements, mining camps, military posts, etc., that it became as attractive to the Indians as to the white man, to the end that as late as the writer's arrival early in the year 1877, bands of Utes, sometimes a hundred or more in number, might frequently have been seen riding through the streets of the town, while quite considerable was the trade they fur- nished in the purchase of guns, ammunition and gaudy trinkets. The Arapahoes no longer ap- peared in street scenes, for reasons hereinbefore REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 97 stated. But as his successor, came the ambi- tious and demonstrative little troops of gay and festive "cow punchers." For now, in the ab- sence of the Arapahoe and buffalo, the plains swarmed with herds of cattle, which with little expense for attention, and feasting and fatten- ing on the free food of a generous government, provided an easy and certain source of wealth that required no extremely high degree of exer- tion or genius to acquire. Again, the miner and prospector, coming down from their moun- tain fastnesses and subterranean abodes, were conspicuous by day about the streets, and at night in the front rows of the "Palace," and other variety theatres of Blake street. The Ute and cow puncher attraction, though still presented at rare intervals and upon special occasions only, are upon such homeopathic scale, and so domesticated as to appear scarce recog- nizable and exceedingly tame, while the miner, though greater in numbers than then, are not great enough to have maintained their position amongst the myriad of new features and attrac- tions, which have accompanied the rapid change from town to city. Denver, though the center of a vast region which surrounded it, was at the time a most diffi- cult place in which to secure employment. Its extremely arid and healthful climate rendered it such, being most conducive to the relief, if not the absolute cure, of pulmonary ailments. It called here great numbers of Eastern parties EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. thus afflicted, many of whom were not so far advanced as to in any great degree destroy their ability to labor ; and, either through necessity or a desire to be occupied, or both, sought every vacancy of whatsoever kind, to an extent which filled the field to overflowing. Colorado, though in 1877 enjoying its sec- ond year of statehood, its population was yet in fact far short of the legitimate requirements for such. The office of the U. S. Surveyor General, which governed all surveys (both land and min- eral) of the general government in Colorado, was located in Denver, and each spring con- tracts were let and parties sent into the moun- tains and out upon the plains in the establish- ment of standard lines, and the subdivision of the public lands. It was a wild, free, unfet- tered life in camp in the bracing atmosphere of this elevated arid region, with its days of activ- ity in an unceasing sunshine, and its nights of slumber undisturbed save by the call of a prowl- ing coyote, or the snorts of the camp mules as they stampeded about at the end of their picket ropes in the endeavor to free themselves from the presence of some bear who sought to share the camp's supply of food. It was an ideal occupa- tion for inexperienced and adventurous youth, free from competition on the part of invalids, and one in which the writer finally found him- self engaged far away up in the mountains that bordered the plains to the west of Greeley and REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 99 Fort Collins ; and here for a lengthy period and from early morn until the setting of the sun, scaled the mountain sides along arbitrary path- ways pointed out by the solar transit. CHAPTEE VI. The survey having finally completed its work, the outfit wended its way down out of the mountains in the early part of May, follow- ing the tempestuous waters of the Cache la Poudre, in their wild descent from the endless fields of now melting snows which gave them birth far up on the sun-lit summit of the Med- icine Bow Range to the west, on through the old French trading post and trappers' camp of La Porte, nestled by the river side, near where its waters, freed from their rocky barrier, cease their relentless battling, and with passion sud- denly subdued, glide peacefully forth with pleasant, joyous murmurings, far out yonder to the east, where, mingling with that of its com- panion, the Platte, they together journey har- moniously eastward across the boundless plain. On down the Cache la Poudre the little outfit wended its way, through the then struggling hamlet of Greeley ( a settlement then unfinished and featureless save in its already well estab- lished possession of prohibition and productive- ness) ; thence southwards the little band trailed slowly up the valley of the Platte to Denver. The Surveyor General waited upon the side- walk in front of the government office the ap- proach of the outfit as he saw it a block or more REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 101 away along Larimer street, moving slowly to- ward him. Beside him stood a man some forty years of age, in height about five feet nine inches, of strong build and active; possessing an evidently ideal constitution for combatting the hardships and exposures of a frontier camp life, with which his general appearance gave pretty conclusive evidence of extended experi- ence. His name was Isaac F. Evans, a pros- pector and miner for twenty years preceding; he had wandered through the gold and silver fields of California, Nevada, Idaho and Mon- tana, and was amongst the first to wash the au- riferous sands of California Gulch, and upon the immediate site of the present city of Lead- ville in Colorado. In fact the widely known Big and Little Evans gulches (forks of Califor- nia Gulch) were in those early days named for him. Early in the sixties he claimed to have crossed with pack and saddle animals, and in company with others from Salt Lake in Utah, to Denver, and upon a stream west of the main range of the Rockies to have discovered rich dig- gings; the Ute Indians of that region, then wholly unaccustomed to such encroachment, hurried them away from their rich find, to w r hich they, becoming scattered, had never yet attempted a return. It was now the ambition of the man to en- gage in the undertaking, but that affliction so common amongst prospectors possessed him, he 102 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. was "dead broke/' and must be staked to "grub" and an "outfit." It was the ideal proposition to excite and attract a young romantic "tenderfoot/ 7 and it did to the extent that but a few days later, and upon a bright morning in the early part of May, each with a saddle horse, and driving three pack horses before, Evans, accompanied by the writer, filed out of the town and shaped a course west- ward over the range and to the Pacific Slope, entering the foot hills at the mouth of Turkey Creek, fourteen miles south from Denver, and following up the stream and along a wagon road leading to South Park and over the Park Kange to the old placer camp of California Gulch, where Leadville is now located. The Park Range was crossed from South Park to the Valley of the Arkansas through what is known as Weston's Pass, now so ob- structed by washouts, fallen trees and remain- ing snow banks as to render it almost impass- able at numerous points even for the pack ani- mals. Reaching the summit of the pass, from which looking down into the great drain of the Arkansas River, and farther to the westward over a maze of mountain peaks, Evans, sitting upon his horse, looked about him, then down into the valley and far away up toward its head, past the mouth of old California Gulch, then described a semicircle with his arm and said: "Right here within fifteen miles of where we are standing is a section of country which if a REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 103 man will cast his lot with for fifteen years, and has half sense, he can go out of it a rich man." Little impression, save in a general way, did this remark at the time make upon the writer. He had been warned against the positiveness of old prospectors, founded upon the poetic dreams with which as a class they were afflicted. Nor did he but faintly, in all the fancifulness and romance of his youthful mind, outline that graphic scene of wealth, prosperity and excite- ment so soon to be enacted within the borders here described, and which to such an extent at- tracted the attention of the entire civilized world. Descending into the valley the trail led up the river to the little settlement of Malta, con- sisting of half a dozen or more rough board houses, and situate at the mouth of California Gulch. Here H. A. W. Tabor (soon thereafter millionaire, mine owner and United States Sen- ator from Colorado) was at the time established with a diminutive stock of general supplies. Camping for a couple of days to rest the stock, which had now undergone a continuous march of over one hundred and fifty miles, the time was passed in most interesting study of the evi- dences of earlier doings. Amongst the few remaining denizens of the gulch there was some considerable comment upon the discovery of a "carbonate of lead" ore, running more or less in silver, some of it ex- tremely high, which had been discovered in 104 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. place upon the adjacent hillsides, and about half way between the month of the gulch and Oro City, at its head. The first of these discov- eries was made by J. F. Bradshaw. Bradshaw's discovery Avas in the "Ore La Plata/' a claim whose northerly end line was near the gulch and which extended southerly therefrom. Ste- vens and Wood, who were engaged in placering in the gulch, also made a discovery upon the "Rock" claim, but a short distance below Brad- shaw's discovery. Each of these discoveries were made during the summer of 1874. And though much question has arisen since as to which is due the credit of the first discovery, Stevens and Wood having remained and grown wealthy, while Bradshaw after the manner of many itinerant prospectors, having parted with his interests for a mere trifle, left for other fields, until which time there certainly was no question raised regarding the matter, and none disputed Bradshaw as the original discoverer. However, until this time even, which was late in the spring of 1877, neither of these discov- eries amounted to much as compared with a dis- covery made but a few months previous, or late in 1876, by the Gallagher brothers, in what was known as the "Camp Bird." Mr. Wood, of Ste- vens and Wood, referred to, had in the course of his placer operations noted the existence of this "float," which clue to its high specific gravity collected in the "riffles" of his flume and gave some annoyance, but this was a commonplace REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 105 and familiar occurrence with the earlier placer miners here, who had long preceded him. The Camp Bird shaft sunk (irrational as it may seem) blindly in the vegetable mould of a then dense forest. When at a depth of less than ten feet (and penetrating nothing but loose earth and "wash"), a body of "soft 77 carbonates was encountered in such a state of incoherency that a pointed shovel might be sunk therein to the handle, and carrying so high a percentage of lead that not more than half a shovelful could be thrown to the surface. So profound an impression now forced itself upon the mind that, in resuming the journey westward, interest was found divided as between the uncertain placer gold that lay beyond, and the unquestionable silver and lead which was being left behind. Continuing the course up the valley of the Arkansas and crossing "Tennessee Park 77 (a simple widening of the valley), the ascent was commenced of that low and easy route known as Tennessee Pass, crossing the vertebrae of the American continent. Upon its exact summit rested a huge snow bank, which now melting divided its product about equally between the Atlantic Ocean on the east, and the Pacific on the west. Following the trickling western con- tribution along its sinuous course, it gradually augmented in volume until at last it had devel- oped into a formidable stream known as the 106 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. Eagle River. Down this the course continued, interrupted at intervals by projecting and im- passable rocky points, then fording the river to its opposite bank, only to become entangled there in a maze of fallen timber, for it will be under- stood that this territory was then as devoid of any evidence of the handiwork of man as in the earliest days of its creation. The great iron pathway of the Denver and Eio Grande railway had not yet been hewn along the walls of this in- tricate and almost impenetrable defile. No other life in its wanderings save that of the In- dian and the game marked the deep, dark vege- table mould of the silent forest, or trampled be- neath its feet the lovely Columbine as it reared its graceful form above the rich thick grasses, and its companions of brighter hue which luxu- riantly carpeted the surface of the mountain park. The startled deer would hasten from their concealment in the willows at the bank of the stream to some imaginary place of safety on the hillside, where with mingled curiosity and in- quisitiveness they would huddle together and stamp their feet in protest at the intrusion. Continuing down the stream to a point some- where between the present stations of Red Cliff and Minturn, and being now well down on the western slope of the Continental Divide, Evans calculated that sufficient distance in a northerly direction had been gained, and leaving the val- ley of the Eagle, turned southwesterly along the EEMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 107 western slope of the range to cross its many drains, and if possible find the tributary of the Grand River, which contained the golden sands sought. It was early summer and the melting snow higher up in the range created swollen streams difficult to ford. The ridges or divides be- tween these streams were not only steep and rough, but covered either with an almost impen- etrable growth of "jack pines," or a network of fallen timber. For several days combatting this condition, the conclusion was reached to drop further down the drainage, where the current of the streams was less swift, and the country to a greater de- gree free from fallen timber and rough ground. Later one morning, in turning the bend of the stream down which the course led, there sud- denly appeared an Indian camp not more than one hundred yards distant. In the belief of be- ing unobserved, an attempt was made to quietly retrace the course, then discovering the mistake, rode boldly into camp. But two or three In- dians were visible about the quiet, sleepy rendez- vous, yet the numerous smouldering camp fires, together with the herd of ponies on the hillside across the stream, bespoke additional numbers. Soon, however, they appeared from all sources and directions, crawling out of "tepees" and "lodges," out of the brush, from behind rocks, and seemingly rising out of the ground, until 108 REMINISCENT KAMBLISTGS. the place swarmed with them. Indulging in all sorts of humor, some joked and laughed, some looked grave and serious, while others frowned significantly. None spoke any English, but much comment and discussion was carried on in Ute. Finally three sullen looking committeemen approaching, made it quite clear that the best course to pursue was to return by the direct path we had come, and waste as litttle time as conven- ient in so doing. Astonished at the readiness with which (under the circumstances) we under- stood the Ute tongue, no time was lost in strict obedience. Meanwhile the pack animals, which had strolled on beyond the camp, were rounded up and returned, when with an entire change of plan, we trailed back up the valley. Journey- ing until nightfall, we camped and sat late about the camp fire, mapping a new course. Evans finally decided that it was now safe to renew the southern course with a fair degree of safety. Of course, the fact was realized that to be caught again in the attempt to steal past them would unquestionably prove disastrous, as these North- ern Utes, under the leadership of that very un- certain quantity, "Chief Colorow," were at this time not to be trifled with. Many a prospector, lured by the gold believed to exist upon this for- bidden ground, had wandered away into this same Ute Indian country, never to reappear. As a rule there were none in the country near REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 109 enough related or sufficiently interested to more than remark their absence. And were they, it was as hopeless a task to attempt to trace them as had they fallen off the earth and disappeared in space. Fully impressed with these facts, this camp became the point of a new departure south- erly. _^_ For days and weeks the way was fought across the rough precipitous drainage, through brush and fallen timber, stopping on each stream crossed and digging holes in its bars and banks, the dirt was panned so far up toward its head as possible and so far down stream as safety war- ranted. Venturing down a drain one day to find greater freedom from the fallen timber, a game trail was leisurely followed along the bank of a little rivulet bordered with huge bunches of willows, Evans as usual leading the way, when of a sudden his horse wheeled about, and rushing amongst the packs a stampede followed. The slopes on either side of the little stream were a mass of fallen timber through which they could make no headway, and into which they would not venture. Their only course lay up the stream. In a hundred yards or so they were checked, when Evans riding up explained that just as his horse wheeled he caught sight of an animal of a brownish or reddish color, which passed into the thicket and out of view. His im- pression was that it was a deer, but the fright of the horses inclined him to the belief that it must have been a mountain lion. 110 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. Evans was armed with an old style forty-five calibre cap and ball Colt's six-shooter, a very accurate and formidable weapon, though an- tique. He also carried an equally old-style thir- ty-two calibre rim-fire rifle. The writer's arms consisted of a double-barreled shot-gam, and a then up-to-date Smith & Wesson forty-five cal- ibre six-shooter of Russian model. In the council which followed, it was ar- ranged that using both six-shooters and the rifle, the writer should undertake to explore the am- bush. And now loaded down with guns, the creek was crossed to a point near the animal's hiding, where a huge boulder rose to a height of some five or six feet above the surrounding net- work of fallen timber. Scarcely had a position been secured upon the summit of the boulder when a huge and mag- nificent specimen of the mountain lion sprang from the thicket to the trunk of a fallen tree less than one hundred feet distant, and coolly march- ing out to about midway its length, with broad- side presented, halted and deliberately eyeing the trembling figure perched upon the rock, licked his jaws, while his tail swirled and curved in graceful indication of apathy and defiance. With haste and excitement the rifle was first dis- charged at the majestic target, which with an angry cry and gnashing teeth whirled and sprang toward his enemy across the network of fallen timber, while from the distance, and a knowledge of the animal's capability of prodig- REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. Ill ious leaps, it required but a brief calculation to determine that there was not long to wait. Drop- ping the rifle and grasping a six-shooter from the right hip, it was jerked from the holster with such violence as to slip from the grasp and be thrown far over the shoulder. At the same time, losing foothold, I slipped feet first down the face of the rock fronting the advancing lion, and became tightly wedged between the rock and the trunk of a large fallen tree, which raised some distance from the ground, its upper surface reached to a level with the arm pits. Now han- dicapped beyond any degree figured upon, in the loss of one gun, and being solidly fenced in from escape, it looked like a matter for serious controversy, with some considerable odds in fa- vor of the lion. Quickly snatching the remain- ing six-shooter, the old cap and ball Colts, an ob- ject of heretofore frequent ridicule, a rapid fire commenced at the bounding, snarling monster; one, two, three, four, five shots, and his hot breath was plainly felt. His forepaws had struck the log that pressed against my breast, and simultaneously a seeming third paw struck me near the shoulder, tearing the sleeve of my coat to shreds at the first blow. Artillery prac- tice was now over and the combat resolved itself into a single-round boxing match to a finish, in which the lion wore no gloves. Mercilessly I was slammed and bumped against the rock at my back as I fought wildly to protect my head in parrying the vicious swipes he made with 112 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. first one and then the other of his great paws. Taking heart, I fought desperately, for notwithstanding the intense excitement, and the extremely active employment, it was plain that he was now not a real live lion. His blows came less frequently and the steam pressure seemed to be lessening. Finally they ceased altogether, when, changing his tactics, and cling- ing to the log with both forepaws, he reached forward with extended jaws. Then ramming the old six-shooter, which had been tenaciously clung to through all the unpleasantness, into his open mouth, the one remaining shot was fired. Gradually he sank backward, while his receding claws cut deep furrows in the trunk of the fallen tree, until at last, letting go all hold, he lay prone upon the ground for an instant, then par- tially recovering, reared himself upon his haunches and turning a face filled with hatred full upon the foe, gasped, then snarling feebly, gasped again, and fell backward upon the ground dead. In length the exact measurement was eight feet eleven inches from point of nose to point of tail, as he lay stretched upon the ground. A very rare specimen, from the fact that they in- variably measure nine feet or over in the ac- counts that are given of them. But three shots out of the seven had taken effect. The rifle shot had struck him in the loin and passed close to the vertebrae. This ac- counted, most probably, for the writer's privilege REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 113 to recite the circumstance, as this fortunate shot destroyed largely his ability to employ those monstrous leaps referred to. Fortunately a sec- ond shot had struck him en route, hence his ar- rival in a still more weakened and crippled con- dition. The mountain lion of Colorado and else- where, notwithstanding this and other accounts of its ferocity, is by nature a most cowardly brute, and cannot be induced to fight unless cor- nered or wounded, or attack anything, either animal or human, in the open, where there is the slightest chance of getting the worst of it. Bruised, and bleeding from several cuts, with coat torn to fragments, and one shirt sleeve hanging in streamers, a return was made to the pack train, not with the proud tread of a con- quering hero, but the faltering, straggling, de- moralized gait of a deplorable wreck prospecting for a hospital. The horses gazed intently at the approach, snorted, looked at each other and seemed to smile, as did the writer, when at last the vision of the historic parrot rose before him ludicrous, yet with fellow feeling. The following morning the journey was re- sumed, with its attendant trials. Day after day was spent in wandering up and down the drain- age and fighting a way over the divides, through thickets and fallen timber. Evans had sometime previously related, amongst other experiences of his trip years be- 114 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. fore in coming from Utah, that of having lost a double-barrel shot-gun in attempting to force their way over the range by following out at the head of a drain or stream, and how, getting into a precipitous canon filled with young quaking aspens, they had cut a road for the pack animals, until discouraged and hemmed in by impassable ground, they abandoned further attempt and re- treated, he leaving behind this shot-gun. It was but a few days subsequent to the af- fair with the mountain lion that in working our way on foot up a small creek, prospecting the bed and banks, he suddenly remarked, "Do you know, this looks to me much like the gulch where I lost the gun." But a few steps further and a thicket of aspens was encountered, with the stumps of many which had been cut with an ax, and not by beavers as had frequently been found. After cutting they had been pitched down the bank and their butts sticking in the soft, moist earth, they had continued their growth. Doz- ens were found in this condition with their tops in full leaf. Trailing along over the rocks and through the thicket, with Evans ahead, there suddenly came from him an exclamation of joy and surprise, when approaching, there he stood, a veritable Kip Van Winkle (minus the gray hair and beard) with the rusty barrels of the lost gun in his hands, while at his feet lay the weath- er-beaten and decomposed stock. Whatever faint impressions may have been previously borne, during hardship and apparently aimless wander- REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 115 ings, that the man was romancing to some extent regarding the whole affair, were now fully dis- pelled, and the firmest belief filled the mind that rich diggings would follow next. For days these wanderings continued, camp- ing in each gulch, and upon each stream to search not only for placers, but to prospect the mountain sides for lodes that carried either gold or silver. Late one afternoon the bank of a large, rapid and turbulent stream was reached, already swollen by the melting snows, and now subject to a further rise from a heavy rainstorm which threatened to precipitate itself at any mo- ment. On the side approached was a narrow flat, from which rose the mountain side covered with burned and fallen timber, from the oppo- site bank rose a hillside, covered with a heavy growth of live pine and spruce. The river be- ing already a difficult ford, and the threatened storm which now began to descend, being sure to create a further rise which would render fording impossible perhaps for a day or more, it was de- termined to cross at once. In the attempt, the heaviest laden of the pack animals lost his foot- ing, was hurled to death against a huge rock in midstream when the cinch breaking, the animal was swept rapidly away, while the released and disordered pack scattered upon the breast of the turbulent stream, dancing merrily away in the wake of the dead horse. The balance of the ani- mals stemming the current, climbed the opposite bank and shaking the water from themselves, 116 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. cast lingering glances at the body of their dead companion, now fast disappearing in the dis- tance. The rain was now falling in torrents, it be- ing one of those violent precipitations peculiar to the western slope of the main range of the Rocky Mountains. Tying the stock, shelter was hurriedly sought, when suddenly there was heard a splash in the stream, for one of the pack animals (a mate of that drowned) had broken loose and was crossing to the opposite shore. Jumping upon one of the remaining horses, the writer quickly followed, and, after a long chase, caught the fugitive by running it into the fallen timber. Returning to the bank of the stream, the water had now risen to a point wherein any attempt to again cross was exceedingly danger- ous; and tying up the two animals, there was nothing to do but devote oneself to the unpleas- antness of the situation. Soon the storm be- came less violent and resolved itself into a steady downpour. Evans in the meantime had un- packed, and getting out the wagon sheet, had thrown it over the lower limb of a tree, under- neath which with the packs he found protection. Our apparent predicament was now further aug- mented from the fact that the pack of the drowned animal had contained all our ammuni- tion, and nearly the whole of our provision. We had eaten nothing since morning. Evans had what little remaining food there was with him REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 117 on the opposite side of the river. The storm was still so severe and everything so drenched and soaked with water, that building a fire whereby to cook was entirely out of the question. There were, however, a few fragments of bacon and baking powder biscuits left from the morn- ing meal. These Evans secured and divided, conveying to the writer his portion by tying small quantities to a stone and throwing it across the river. Thus he obtained a scanty supper and retired for the night retired to the shelter of a spruce tree, and hugged its trunk as closely as possible. The storm had now subsided into a gentle, steady rain, and seemed to have selected its pace for the night. All the night long it continued, and all the night long a hungry, drenched, and bedraggled prospector stood there or wandered about in search of another tree, which when found, proved to furnish even less protection than the one abandoned. Morning came at last and the storm cleared. After many attempts, Evans finally succeeded in starting a fire. A sack of beans and a sack of rice were the only two articles of food that re- mained to be cooked. He boiled some of each. The beans required much time at this elevation, and it was noon ere the repast was ready. The stream had not yet fallen to a point wherein crossing was other than hazardous, and beans and rice were inconvenient articles to be thrown across a river. Finally he solved the problem. 118 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. Emptying a sack of Durham tobacco, he filled the sack with beans, tied a stone thereto, and landed it safely within reach. Picking it up and emptying the sack, the stone was replaced and the sack returned, when by the same method he served a course of rice. Such were the occa- sional disarrangements of a prospector s house- keeping in this country and in those days. CHAPTER VII. The balance of the day was spent in drying clothes and blankets, inventorying remaining supplies, searching the river banks for a great distance below, in the hope to recover some por- tion of the lost pack, and in a final discussion of our condition and devising the best method of relief. One thing was certain, the loss was so great that any attempt at proceeding further upon the summer's campaign was quite out of the question. A new stock of supplies must be had, and to obtain which from the nearest pos- sible point involved a long, weary journey in re- tracing the route ; to shorten which it was agreed that the attempt should be made to force our way directly over the range. Acting upon this decision, we packed our remaining stock and the following morning started up the very stream upon which we were camped. A long, tiresome trail upon the headwaters of one of its tribu- taries, demonstrated it impassable for the ani- mals, and working south into the succeeding drain, we battled with it. Reaching a point far up toward its head and high above timber line, conditions appeared favorable ; the worst seemed overcome, and the apparent summit near. The only obstacle to success as it appeared was the possibility of being unable to make the descent 120 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. upon the opposite side. Suddenly a point was reached in which to ascend further it became necessary to round the head of a canon, whose walls were a mass of almost precipitous rocks. To accomplish this a crossing must be made over the face of a great slide or talus heap of finely comminuted shale, the toe of which reached the brink of the precipice. The mass was standing at so great an angle that the slightest disturb- ance caused it to resume its downward course. After carefully treading a shoulder over the creeping mass, the pack animals were conducted across in safety, and returning, a start was made with the saddle animals, Evans in the lead; when near the middle of the great slide, Evans' horse feeling the mass beneath his feet creep or move quietly downward, became terror-stricken, and whirling suddenly about upon the steep slope in the attempt to retrace his steps, fell backward and rolling with frightful rapidity down the smooth incline, shot over its brink and disappeared from view. Evans folded his hands in resignation, and inquired, "Reckon it's worth while going after the saddle ?" Passing to the opposite side of the great talus heap, and leaving the stock in a safe posi- tion, then climbing downward over its edge, and around the rocky point, there fifty feet or more below, upon a bench or shelf from which the walls again fell precipitously, stood the animal with head erect and gazing unconcernedly and interestedly at the panorama spread before him REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 121 far below. Reaching the shelf upon which he stood, he was found a mass of horrible cuts from which the blood trickled in little streams, yet not a leg broken, and the task was undertaken of constructing a trail whereby to recover him. The day was spent in toil, and darkness hung gloomily over the scene when finally the work was complete and the animal recovered. ~No further progress being possible, a dry camp was made, and clinging to the steep face of the moun- tain until morning, the struggle upward was re- sumed with the now weakened horse, when late in the day absolute barriers to further progress being met with, a weary and baffled outfit de- jectedly picked its way downward to timber line and into camp. Another day dawned, and another trial be- gan; day after day was spent in battling back and forth along the face of the impassable and forbidding range, seeking some escape. Day by day conditions changed for the worse as the scanty stock of beans and rice diminished, and finally disappeared altogether. The few car- tridges remaining had been wasted on deer, which invariably had escaped. For days "Killi- kinick" and other wild berries had furnished the only means of subsistence. Fish were plen- tiful in all the streams, but the fishing tackle had accompanied the drowned pack animal. And now an old grouse hen appeared with her brood of young, who quickly concealed them- 122 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. selves beneath the leaves and in the brush, while the mother in a heroic yet fatal attempt at their defense bristled and faced in battle array. Cruel and cowardly as the act may seem, she was slain. Hunger had pressed its wants so severely that sentiment and feeling were compelled to yield. It became a question of the survival of the fittest, and the difference of opinion as to this, existing between the old hen and her antagonists, was, as in most cases heretofore, settled in their favor simply through the superior physical force which they possessed. Had it been a good healthy bear, the decision would probably have gone to the bear. From the summit of a divide, and several miles distant and far below there appeared the following day the head of an open valley where several drains seemed to unite. With little re- gard for Indians, through a now half-starved condition, a course was shaped toward it, with the hope to find some trace of an Indian trail which would lead over the range. Entering the border of the valley at dark, it seemed a great amphitheatre from which numer- ous important drains led into the mountains. It was no other than the site later occupied by the great mining camp of Aspen. The morning following this arrival, each started out in exploration of the borders of the open country for some evidence of an outlet. Familiar with the customs of the Indians in scat- tering their footprints in the open country, such BEMIITISCENT EAMBLINGS. 123 as parks and valleys, and congregating again upon more impassable and unfrequented ground (especially when entering a mountain pass), the day was spent in circling about well up in the timber on the mountain sides, with no result. And now enroute toward a supperless camp, a cotton-tail rabbit sprang from beneath the horse's feet and sought safety in a nearby rock pile; digging it out, another feast was engaged in. Early in the forenoon of the following day's search, there suddenly presented itself a large, well-defined Indian trail. One could never for- get the impression its sudden appearance made after all these weary weeks of toiling over rocks and fallen timber, through impenetrable thick- ets, and much of the time crazed with hunger. Broadway, New York, with its array of tower- ing edifices, its throng of vehicles and beings, had never appeared as quit so easy and modern a thoroughfare as this, or had the choice viands which filled the windows of its cafes ever ap- pealed to the sense of taste as half so delicious and appetizing as did the cotton tail and grouse. Gathering up the outfit, and following the newly discovered trail, rapid ascent was made along the mountain side, and upward through the dense timber toward the summit of the range. The relaxation from the incessant and severe physical and mental strain which had so long preceded, filled both man and beast with a hope and buoyancy of spirit, restful and inspiring to 124 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. a degree, in which one seemed to fairly float up- ward and onward, out of, and beyond the wilder- ness of the past with its maze of intricacies and entanglements. Gradually, through the agree- able monotony arising from an easy and unin- terrupted passage, the first enthusiasm died away into the dreamy repose of sudden relief, when of a sudden the even tenor of the way was disturbed by Evans suddenly wheeling his horse crosswise of the trail, w r hile, as with one hand he quickly drew his six-shooter, with the other he frantically motioned the writer forward. Rushing past the pack animals, and shoving them from the trail and down the mountain side, his side was scarcely reached, when, some dis- tance up the mountain and along the line of the trail, there was to be seen through the timber numerous forms clad in bright colored blankets as they dodged hither and thither in their de- scent. Quickly they came into full view, when with guns drawn, Evans motioned them to halt. For a brief time each side remained awk- wardly awaiting some advance on the part of the other, when finally a venerable looking old In- dian, dressed in a battered plug hat and an old vest, with a blanket gathered about his waist, and a new Winchester rifle slung to the horn of his saddle, rode out a short distance in advance of the band, and halting beckoned us toward him. Meeting about midway of the trail, he dropped his bridle reins upon the horn of the saddle, and sitting majestically astride his horse, REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 125 there in the shadows of the deep forest, delved deeply into an inner pocket of the tattered vest he wore, and fished therefrom a well-worn envelope containing a letter, which he handed to Evans, who read it carefully and looking serious and dissatisfied at the old Indian, passed it to the writer. It appeared to be a permit from the Indian agent at Colorado Springs for this band of Indians to leave the reservation on a trading expedition, to visit Pueblo, Colorado Springs and Denver, good until a given date, which was now several weeks past. Evans was now gestic- ulating, frowning and muttering his displeasure at a rapid rate and in a most positive and force- ful manner, with the old Indian watching cau- tiously for an opening, into which he vainly at- tempted to interpolate some explanation and ex- cuse. Evans had embraced the opportunity, and assuming the role of an agent of the Indian Department, was concealing quite successfully his true position of an insignificant, trespassing prospector, and was now extremely busy imper- sonating one in authority under the great gov- ernment, who had caught them red-handed in the commitment of an offense which they readily un- derstood, and which he employed every method of explanation to magnify into the most mon- strous proportions, while steadfastly withhold- ing from the importuning old chief the forgive- ness which he sought. Meantime, the pack ani- mals left behind, being no longer urged forward, fed slowly along the trail, until finally they 126 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. joined the trio of horsemen in council, who were too fully engaged to note their appearance until a pow wow raised by the balance of the band, as they pressed forward and about laugh- ing, pointing and making evidently facetious re- marks, attracted attention to the fact that the ap- proach of the packs with shovels, picks and gold pans lashed thereto in plain sight was the cause. The mask had fallen, and through the mute evi- dence which had wandered into the council chamber there was no further support of the false position heretofore assumed. The cloud of perplexity which had overhung the face of the old Indian now gave way to a complacent smile, that deepened rapidly into an exultant grin ; while the whole band, numbering some 25 or 30, surrounded the pack animals, and while a portion of the band stripped the packs in the search for sugar, coffee and tobacco, the balance danced about derisively and drummed an accompaniment on the gold pans. Finding little of which they were in search, they cut the superfluous straps from the pack saddle cinches, and mounting their horses, rode on down the trail and disappeared in the forest below. Hunger had now produced a condition bor- dering insanity, and the agreement was fully reached to kill one of the horses that night for food. It was near nightfall when reaching the sum- mit of the range there could be seen below and REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 127" stretching far away to the south, a great open country, comparatively level, and bordered upon the east by another lofty range of mountain. Camp was established for the night here upon the summit, and in view of possibilities which might exist, the slaughter of the horse was post- poned until noon of the following day, for in this great open country below it was felt there might be found some trace of a white man. Daylight found the little outfit again un- der way, and soon the head of a stream was reached, down which it wended its way to the level country below. It was near noon, and sick and tired, camp was about to be made, when passing around a projecting point, there to the right, at the head of a little stretch of bottom land, stood grazing a horse and mule. Evans at once exclaimed, "See that mule! Injuns don't use mules, hardly ever. There's white men here somewhere." Scanning the sur- roundings eagerly, there was discovered for an instant what appeared to be a light thin column of smoke ascending from behind a second pro- jecting point a short distance ahead. Anxiously its recurrence was awaited. Soon it appeared again, there was no mistaking it this time, and striking the horses a sudden blow, they bounded forward. Rounding the point, what a joyous sight presented itself. There beneath the shade of a wide spreading pinion tree reclined two white men, who sprang to their feet and grabbed their guns as they were dashed suddenly upon 128 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. from behind the point. Before them smoul- dered a camp fire, and beside it lay a fry pan in which rested the fragment of a "flap jack/' or pancake. Bringing the horses to a sudden halt, un- mindful of the two men about the camp fire, and without indulging in the slightest ceremony, each sprang from the saddle and snatching the food from the pan devoured it ravenously. It was unleavened, simply flour and water mixed, for as the conversation which immediately fol- lowed explained, they too were practically out of provisions save flour. They proved to be two prospectors from Fairplay in South Park, and were about to start on the following day for Malta in the Arkansas Valley, at the mouth of California Gulch the nearest point at which supplies could be ob- tained, and some fifty or sixty miles distant, with a mountain range intervening. During the evening it was arranged that we should jointly prospect the section in which we were, together with that about Crested Butte and Washington Gulch, twenty-five miles farther to the west; and that the writer should, upon the following morning start upon the trip for a joint stock of supplies, taking a saddle horse and two pack animals. Malta was the point to which additional funds were to be forwarded, so where- in the strangers had money, it was regarded as useless to pack it on the trip, but to arrange the matter of their share upon the return. REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 129 Early in the morning and from the camp there was pointed out across the park, and far away to the southeast, a pass in the range where crossing could be made to the valley of the Ar- kansas. It was called the "Red Mountain Pass," and terminated on the valley side at the "Twin Lakes." Directions were further given to follow down the Taylor River (for the great open country which we had entered proved to be Taylor Park), a distance of twelve or fifteen miles, where would be found an Indian trail crossing, then taking this trail easterly it would lead into and over the pass. Finding the trail, camp was made for noon at timber line on the Western Slope. Picketing the stock, and crawling into a bunch of small quaking aspens by the side of the trail, lunch was commenced upon a supply of the unleavened flap jacks. It was scarce begun, however, when there was heard the patter of a horse's hoofs upon the trail above, and peer- ing out, an Indian rode up and grunted "How." Then spying one of the flap jacks lying upon the ground, dismounted and began to devour it with as little ceremony as the writer had done the day previous. Together the food was quickly devoured, each possessed of a silent unexpressed determination to get his share. The meal ended, the Indian sat silently for a few minutes, then said, "White man damn thief!" Full agree- ment being promptly extended, he continued, "Injun damn thief, too." Again his views were 130 REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. adopted, but not so heartily, hoping to curry favor through an apparent excess of confidence in favor of the Indian. Then he explained that Indians had stolen horses from the whites, and that they in retaliation had, amongst others, sto- len his horses. Then he relapsed again into sullen silence, while the writer employed the in- terval in championing the cause of the Indian, and in general condemnation of the white race. Finally he remarked, "Me heap big Injun." Haste was made in conveying to him full assur- ance of having already beecome convinced be- yond doubt of the fact from his general appear- ance and otherwise. After which he remarked, "Me Washington." I bowed, extended my hand and greeted him cordially, yet deferentially; still, with all the sweet, persuasive and carefully studied blandishments of speech bestowed upon him, success was in no degree apparent in the creation of a single rift in the dark, dense mantle of sullen gloom that hung about his face and persistently shadowed the whole proceeding. It had been presumed from the first that he was attended by other Indians who were ex- pected to ride up at any moment, and redress their wrongs through an appropriation of the writer's animals at least. We were alone to- gether upon a lonely trail; in case of trouble, wherein the Indians would unquestionably get the best of it, days would pass before the writer would be even thought of as not returning, and little evidence need ever be gained concerning REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 131 his disappearance. Other Indians not appear- ing, and having tarried a sufficient time to avoid any indication of undue haste, excuses were pre- sented for a departure. Each of us was heav- ily armed, and each bestowed upon the other the utmost watchfulness. The horses were but a few rods distant, and a peculiar manuvering was required in reaching them, and meanwhile face the Indian, who remained seated upon the ground. And now having secured them, the riding away became a serious problem, for of necessity the back must be turned toward him. Every thing in readiness, the two pack animals were edged over to the trail, each kicked and cuffed plentifully, and as they bounded away, hit with a stone. Then leaping upon the saddle animal with face toward his tail, he quickly followed them. Instantly a broad grin overspread the Indian's face, and lighted up the departure, as cover was hurriedly sought in a bunch of quak- ing aspens far up the trail. Over the summit and down the eastern slope of the Saguache Range we tore at a breakneck pace, along the shores of the Twin Lakes and up the Arkansas River, where a late camp was made upon the banks, well out of reach of other prowl- ing Utes. The sun had climbed to the summit of the Park Range to the east, and was pouring its bright light upon the clear dashing waters of the 132 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. Arkansas, as they swirled onward past the camp, gurgling and rippling and murmuring the same tones that had induced a slumber from which until now there had been no awakening. A hasty breakfast of the unleavened flap jacks, and then came further delay in the impatient dash farther up the river to California Gulch, where a long deferred repast was possible to be had. The trousers worn, had after weeks of toiling through fallen timber and underbrush, lost their lower extremities until they furnished little con- cealment to points far above the knee, and for the first time the pangs of hunger so gave way to the pride of personal appearance, that sitting there upon the river bank, several hours of the bright Sabbath morning were spent framing in a new pair of legs from a saddle blanket of such bright colors, that when finished a Ute chief would have leaped with joy at being their pos- sessor. Entering Malta, the stillness of a well-ob- served Sabbath pervaded the little straggling camp, and stretched far away up the gulch, min- gling with that of the ever-silent range above. !N'o sign of life was visible save two native dogs gnawing away at the carcass of a dead animal behind an old deserted log stable in the outskirts of the camp, and who, thinking they "smelled Injuns," quickly left their meal, and tearing along beside the saddle animal, barked and snarled and made frantic leaps at the bright col- ored trousers. REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 133 The postoffice of Malta, in a little rough board store of Byfield and Hippler, was ar- ranged on the end of the counter near the only window. It was a rough hoard affair, and the glass that covered the few receptacles for letters was so completely coated with dirt and dust, ac- cumulated and carefully preserved through the whole life of the sleepy camp, that the move- ments of the operator in distributing mail were thoroughly concealed, while no care was required on his part in depositing the letters in their re- ceptacles with the address and postmark down- ward. Byfield secured the general delivery bunch, and throwing them on the store counter for ex- amination, hastened to the room in the rear to evict an itinerant burro, who, encouraged through the stillness arising from lack of trade within, had boldly entered through a rear door and attacked the pile of bacon in the farthermost corner of the room. Meanwhile the greasy, worn letters were eagerly yet carefully sorted, many of which bore date of the camp's earliest settlement, and nearly all of which were marked "Important," or "In Haste," but none bore the name sought. This of itself, to say nothing of the trousers worn, together with other little im- perfections in personal appearance seemed somewhat against one, and for the moment there came a longing to be back again across the range ^in Taylor Park, and close beside that sole remain- ing sack of flour. But it was a long way, and 134 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. present hunger, together with the impossibility of returning without a limited supply of food forbade all hope, while perhaps it was as easy to obtain the full amount sought as this. And so after carefully preparing and rehearsing a tale that would stand any amount of cross-examina- tion on the part of a mining camp store keeper, it was poured forth with such result that the fol- lowing morning there rode back down the river a well-fed and joyous prospector, clad in a can- vas suit whose profusion of copper rivets flash- ing in the bright sunlight failed to arouse the dogs as the trousers had done, and driving be- fore him the two pack animals, who trudged la- boriously forward under their loads of flour, ham, bacon, sugar, coffee, and other delicacies so long a stranger to his camp. Various devices were resorted to whereby to insure the fact that it was not all a dream; then marveled long at the breadth and boldness of the credit system in Cal- ifornia Gulch. Meeting with but indifferent success in the Taylor Park and Washington Gulch expedition, a return was made to California Gulch, where the carbonate of lead ores rich with silver were creating a growing attention and here trailing along the wagon road, on either side of which was scattered a store or two and a few saloons, and along where Chestnut street in Leadville now lies, was found encamped with his little out- fit gathered about him a prospector of more than EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 135 ordinary note. His name was Joseph Watson, and familiarly referred to by the younger of his acquaintances as "Uncle Joe." Never with Joe Watson more than ordinary advantages, the later and greater portion of his life had been spent prowl- ing about in the silent fastnesses of the moun- 136 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. tain ranges in search of the precious metals, or in the crude mining camp, surrounded by the motley horde that followed. Yet the manner and speech of this man did honor to the influence and teachings of the leading colleges of the land. He had so far in his career made two fortunes in mining, each more than a quarter of a million dollars, every dollar of which was now lost, largely through other ventures. The mountain sides of California Gulch, as well as those neighboring (together with the very ground upon which Leadville now stands) and well down toward the beds of the drains, were at this time covered with a primeval forest of pine and spruce; its sudden devastation being but one of the footprints of avaricious man as he pursues the pathway of so called civilization and progress. Evans and Watson proved old acquaintances, and together it was arranged to establish a joint camp well up toward the head of Iowa Gulch, which paralleled California Gulch on the south, and engage in a systematic search for the coveted carbonate of lead ores so rich in silver. Here on the bank of a rippling stream that flowed down the gulch, and within the shelter of the heavy timber that grew to the water's edge, camp was established. High upon the mountain side to the south, an inspiration for untiring effort, was the fam- ous "Long and Derry" mine, already pouring REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 137 out great quantities of ore, the richest yet pro- duced. Breakfast being over, one bright morning in the early autumn, it was discovered that the camp's supply of provisions were low, and while Evans and "Uncle Joe" went into the hills upon their regular search for wealth, the writer, with saddle and pack animal, started for Malta to secure a fresh supply. Returning some time before the noon hour, there was found sitting beneath the shelter of a large spruce a stranger, who arose and ap- proached. He was rather a large man with a heavy drooping moustache, and hair which hung well down upon the collar of his coat. He was erect in stature, and courteous and unaffected in manner, somewhat past the prime of life, though apparently well preserved. While not bearing the marks of recent and every-day experience at toil and exposure, yet there was about him the ev- idence of ease and a certain familiarity with camp life. His appearance betokened no sur- prise, as it was a common occurrence at this time for a stranger to wander over the range from Fairplay or Alma on the opposite side, and pass- ing a prospector's camp at meal time, or when hungry, to enter, and in case of the absence of the occupants, to await their return or help him- self to such food as he required. Casting the lash rope loose from the pack, which consisted of two heavy "panniers," the stranger was called to 138 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. assist in removing the load from the animal's back. Turning the animals loose, the cargo was gathered up and placed in its proper position in the camp, preparatory to the arrangements for a meal. When turning to the stranger the writer remarked, "Now, partner, if you will rustle a little wood we will have something to eat." Seemingly delighted at the opportunity to serve, he entered the forest in search of dead limhs; returning shortly he deposited his load near the blazing camp fire and inquired if there was any further service he could perform. The sugges- tion was made that while he was thus engaged, it would possibly be well to bring another load. Without comment he departed, and returning He soon returned with a backload which he deposited near the camp fire. EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 139 with the second load, applied for further em- ployment. Casting about for some further ra- tional occupation whereby to humor the man's apparently inordinate ambition for work, two empty kettles sitting near suggested further oc- cupation. Giving them a little indicative kick, permission was extended for him to bring them filled with water from the creek. The final task ended, dinner was nearly ready; still the man craved work ; hence, it was now quite plain that he was a stranger in these parts, and from a long way off. Finally he was induced to sit down and make himself at home until the midday meal was complete. Fully entertained with the delights, and oc- cupied with the manifold duties of preparing a meal over a camp fire, little attention was paid the guest until duties were ended and the food ready to serve. Between the trunks of two large spruce trees, standing about six feet apart, had been fitted a board which served as a table. On either side of this, and resting upon stakes driven in the ground, was still another board which answered the purposes of a seat. The stranger seated himself at one side of the table, while the writer took the opposite side, when, the important and irritating duties of a cook being ended, he cast aside all reserve, and descending to a plane with ordinary mortals, at once engaged in desultory conversation. 140 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. It may be stated here that amongst other weaknesses the writer possessed, was one re- cently acquired of imparting to apparently unin- formed denizens of the hills a line of informa- tion, absolutely unrestricted and ofttimes of doubtful authority. This habit had largely been formed through an insane desire to escape as quickly as possible the tantalizing distinction of being a "tenderfoot." Cautious inquiry was first made into the stranger's occupation, and the attempt made to call forth any superior knowledge he might possess along any particular line, but so far as could be determined, he was not a spe- cialist in anything. Fortified with this belief, a volume of information directly concerning mines and mining was poured forth with little departures here and there, until finally it involved the affairs of the country gener- ally. He proved a most excellent listener, while his unconcealed interest and appreciation was of so flattering and encouraging a nature that it was felt proper contribution could not be made to so ardent and grateful a searcher after knowledge. Finally, as feared, the supply of information concerning matters which had oc- curred during the writer's lifetime became ex- hausted, and he was- forced to resort to more an- cient things, and to that end first took up for dis- cussion the matter of the war between the North and the South. Gallantly sailing along with the new subject, manufacturing history and scatter- REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. ing it by the wayside, until at last, pausing for an instant to sever a piece of bacon rind with his teeth, he was startled at the man's modestly ven- turing a correction to a portion of the mass of de- tail delivered. The writer was now not only startled at the radical departure, but simultane- ously there crept over him just the faintest sus- picion of being ambushed. Stopping short, a reconnoitre was com- menced, first inquiring if the stranger was in the army during the war. He replied that he was. "What state were you from?" "Illinois." "Were you a private or an officer ?" "An offi- cer." "How did you rank?" "Well, I ranked as a general at the close of the war." It was now evident there was trouble ahead, and pausing for a moment to look the field over for some avenue of escape, meekly asked, "What may I call your name?" "My name is Logan." Instantly the evidence in the case condensed itself in most convincing form. He was from Illinois, was a general at the close of the war. I glanced across the table at the dark, swarthy features of the man, the long hair, the drooping moustache and the high cheek bones. Unlooked- for as his presence was, there could be no mis- take. It was the man whose portrait had been so familiar since early boyhood. And now with a sickly smile of apology and resignation, the final question was falteringly asked, "John A. Logan ?'" Gazing intently at me, he pushed his tin plate to one side, fished a toothpick from his 142 EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. vest pocket, and resting his elbow on the table replied, "Yes, sir." The dinner dishes were washed and wiped in silence on the part of the writer, and for an hour or more we lounged about the camp fire and 'neath the tall spruces, smoking, while he (in the humane effort to be charitable) talked freely on various subjects, carefully avoiding, however, that of the war of the Kebellion. And thus the fact was developed that the General had been sitting at his own table and eating his own food, for it was he who was grubstaking "Uncle Joe." OHAPTEE VIII. Patiently and confidently, day after day, the mountain sides were searched for some evidence of the wealth so eagerly sought, sinking here and there a hole upon some indication of a treasure which lay beneath. Prospecting over the en- tire district was upon the whole blind work. The ore occurring not as fissure veins more or less vertical, whose apexes of less destructible mate- rial would at intervals present themselves, but contact deposits of considerable depth, and oc- curring more or less horizontally, they had little tendency to present themselves to the eye of the prospector who roamed upon the surface. Roughly, the geology of the district may be described, as successive sheets of sedimentary and igneous rocks, resting conformably upon the underlying granite. Both the sedimentaries and the igneous were of varying character. Com- monly there was found resting upon the granite a sheet of quartzite. Above this, a white lime, then sporadically occurred a parting quartzite largely overlaid by an intrusive porphyry. Fol- lowing this came two almost universal sheets, the first a blue lime, the second a white porhpyry, the whole blanketed by wash and ofttimes in ad- dition thereto by grits and lake beds, the com- bined formations having been uplifted, folded, 10 144 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. faulted and cut through by porphyry dikes to a marked degree. The entire formations overly- ing the granites in many localities presented a thickness of from two to thre thousand feet, while at other points the granite approached closely to the surface. The great deposits of these silver-lead ores were found occurring most generally at the con- tact between the white porphyry and the blue lime, in some instances wholly in the lime, but near the contact. On Fryer Hill it was largely in a sheet of blue lime, which was both under- laid and overlaid by white porphyry. The points easiest of attack were where the anticlines of the great folds reached nearest the surface, and that portion of the summit or crown involving the upper or covering sheets had been scoured away to a point exposing the ore, as in the case of the Little Chief, Little Pittsburg, and other great discoveries. Yet these were in- variably covered with some considerable depths of detritus. The greatest depths of these ore de- posits, however, scarce ever exceeded 250 feet. It may be readily seen how earlier prospectors searching upon the surface, and with no suspi- cion of the fact, tread repeatedly and ofttimes camped upon areas beneath which but a slight depth, and covered only by material easily re- moved by the simple use of pick and shovel, rested bodies of ore worth millions of dollars through the gold and silver they contained, while the unsuspecting, and impecunious prospector REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 145 camped above, cursed his luck, and the worthless- ness of the ground. During the summer of '77, the only discov- eries which were producing, or which in fact made any showing of great promise, were the Long and Derry, the Camp Bird, the Iron Sil- ver, and the Oro La Plata, the original discovery made by Bradshaw. The Long and Derry be- ing by far the most productive, shipping one single wagon load of ore that netted the owners five thousand dollars, and that after the most outrageous charges by the purchasers for reduc- tion, a custom most common in those early days. Yet notwithstanding this avalanche of wealth, the writer, some twenty years later, met Jake Long, the discoverer and one of the owners, trudg- ing along a dusty trail in the southern portion of the San Luis Valley, bare-footed, and driving before him a burro on whose back was borne the man's entire earthly possessions, while the burro remained far from being overloaded. He was now headed for the San Juan in search of an- other fortune. As will be noted from the description of the geology and ore occurrence of the camp, actual discoveries were difficult to make, and these only through blind work, into which the element of chance largely entered. However, before the occurrence of snow, which falls in mid-autumn at this elevation of over two miles above sea level, Evans had se- 146 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. lected and located several pieces of ground. Uncle Joe was more difficult to suit in the way of a location. He was a man far above the ordinary prospector in point of information and scientific attainment. He had certain ideas re- garding the fitness of things geologically. Through such reasoning he had figured out where ore should occur and where it should not, and insisted upon finding it only there. Upon the whole he was a most interesting man, intelli- gent, good natured, and filled with kind consid- eration, the writer soon found himself looking to the man for advice and encouragement rather than to his partner, who a single man, long re- tired from the associations of home life, and con- fined to the environment of camp and boarding house, had grown to a degree impatient with the annoyances of a so-called tenderfoot, while Uncle Joe had boys of his own. The man was at the time one of the most, if not the most, experienced mining men in the state, while his success hereinbefore referred to had been met with by few ; yet now he was, to use the term, "dead broke." The season for prospecting had nearly passed, the stern relentless winter of those high elevations was approaching, and he had made no discovery or location which he could conscien- tiously recommend for development during the winter. Down in the bottom of the ten-foot hole we were sinking jointly, the writer listened to his recital of the past and the fortune it had REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 147 brought him, his present condition, and gloomy picturing of the future, and his fixed conclusion in the final remark, "No, my boy, success of that sort hardly ever comes to a man the third time, and it ain't reasonable to expect it." Soon the storm clouds hovered, and the snow fell deep and shut off further prospecting, and Uncle Joe gathered up his tools, drifted de- jectedly up to a claim called the Morning Star, where for a "grub stake" and a one-fourth inter- est he stood all day in the swirling snow and the bleak winds, and windlassed and dumped the bucket. Day by day, and week by week he wound it to the surface filled with nothing but barren rock, until near the close of a day's work after months of toil and exposure and growing discouragement, his strength seemed to fail him as he started a bucket load from the bottom of the shaft, and while he heard the murmur of ex- cited voices far below, he interpreted it as fear that through his failing strength he would drop the mass of broken rock upon them ; concentrat- ing his energies, the heavy load toiled slowly upward at each revolution of the crank, until finally appearing at the collar of the shaft his eyes rested upon a scarce half filled bucket, for the material therein was one-half lead and con- tained hundreds of ounces of silver per ton. A few months later his interest in this prop- erty had netted him more than three hundred thousand dollars. 148 EEMINISCENT RAMBUNGS. The winter of '77 and '78 in California Gulch was one of deep snows and extreme cold, and comfortable winter quarters were not easy to obtain. When Uncle Joe left and went to work on the Morning Star, a return to the sole companionship of a "tenderfoot" was too retro- grading a nature for Evans, and he sought other society and a new home. John Thompson, an old-timer in the gulch in placer days, now spent his summers on a small ranch down the river, and his winters working his claims up there in the gulch, where he owned an uncommonly good log house. Another old-timer and character known as "Old Uncle Dave Fulton/ 7 left his own little log cabin in Oro, up at the head of the gulch each winter and came down and lived with Thompson and worked for him and others. And thus it- happened that through the innate hospitality that has ever been a feature of the denizens of early mining camps, the writer, together with another young man named Walter G. Middle-ton, found comfortable shelter for the winter. Middleton was a young man, well bred and accomplished. Amongst other little accomplish- ments, he played the guitar, and this aroused a spirit of rivalry in the landlord, John Thomp- son. Thompson himself was a character of no ordinary variety, though differing entirely in his make-up from Dave Fulton. Lean, lank, and ungainly in form, with straggling, unkempt locks, a bunch of faded and somewhat artificial REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 149 looking whiskers (with the under lip so shaven as to create the impression of their being fes- tooned from the corners of his month), covered the point of his chin and hanging mechanically John Thompson downward seemed at any time about to lose their scanty hold entirely. His speech was a combi- nation of Missouri and down-east dialect, while his habits and manners were equally droll, rural and kindly. An old violin, never of superior tone, but now, after years of service down on the 150 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. river and up here in the gulch, a most dilapi- dated and discordant affair, was Thompson's sole instrument of amusement, and in which was centered the sum total of his ambition along the line of accomplishments, and now when Middle- ton and the guitar found their way into the gulch and under the same roof, Thompson and the old violin had met with competitive encroachment never yet experienced, and realizing it, he played more frequently than ever before the only pieces he had ever known, "The Devil's Dream" and the "White Cockade." Dave Fulton was an even more original and striking character than John Thompson ; a man approaching three score years and ten, though well preserved, of herculean proportions, silent upon the whole, and gentle and soft-spoken in the limited speech he employed. The heavy gray beard and moustache he wore but imper- fectly concealed the strong lines of character with which his face was drawn, while from be- neath dense bushy brows there twinkled a pair of merry mirthful eyes, while a profusion of gray hair rested its curling locks upon the collar of his coat. He was the hermit of California Gulch. The Pike's Peak excitement had lured him from his little farm and family in Ohio, in the hope to make a stake whereby to erect a modern house in place of the primitive and weather- beaten old structure that had afforded them shel- ter so long, and own a little more pretentious EEMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 151 WAX .;;, 14ft 1 " I/ Uncle Dve Fulton vehicle than the old farm wagon, wherein his wife and children might each Sabbath journey over to the village church, while he with a con- science now at ease, might remain at home and read and re-read the teachings of Tom Paine, of whom Uncle Dave was an ardent admirer. And finally to send his children (when the time came) so far away to school that the payment of 152 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. board and room would be a necessity, and re- quire the expenditure of more money than the little farm declared in dividends each year. In pursuit of all which his pathway finally led him into California Gulch during the days of its placers. And here he toiled and washed the au- riferous sands and his own clothes and cooked his own food, through long weary months and even years, and recovered only just about enough to keep the clothes and food replaced, while ex- asperation and dogged determination in place of discouragement took possession of him as each month he saw others of his fellow workers make "cleanups" that alone would have gratified his ambition, and sent him rejoicing back over the long, weary pathway of the trackless plains to the home, and those for whom his efforts had been in behalf. And now each day through the influence of his own misfortunes, and the princely achieve- ments of those about him, his determination sim- ply strengthened, and he swore a solemn oath that he would never leave the gulch and its im- mediate vicinity until he had accomplished the purpose for which he came. And here we find him, after the snows of eighteen winters had in turn filled the gulch, and the icy blasts from the white sheeted and lofty range above had swept down as regularly, and locked in their icy em- brace the waters of the little stream with which he washed his dirt, and piled the snow deep in the pit wherein he dug and high about the little REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 153 log cabin nearby wherein he doggedly awaited the coming of another springtime ; while during all these eighteen years he had faithfully kept his vow and confined himself to the gulch and its surroundings, and when the day of weary, fruitless toil was ended, there in the little log shelter by the dim light of a candle, he with rigid regularity inscribed a message filled with hope and devotion to the loved ones who in all these years he had never seen. And now when the placers were nearly ex- tinct, came a new source of wealth in the gulch, the discovery of the carbonate ores, and forsak- ing the placers, Uncle Dave (joining the little group in John Thompson's cabin) cast a cheer upon the household, and his fortunes with those about him in digging for the new-found form of wealth. Notwithstanding his years of solitude, lone- liness and ill luck, Uncle Dave was fond of the society of those he liked and particularly young people. His great warm heart overflowed not only with kindness and generosity, but with the love of harmless fun beside. He was never known to laugh aloud, but the distortions of his hairy face, and the convulsions of his huge frame, gave evidence of his ungovernable mirth. He was a great practical joker, and seemed at all times quite as pleased at becoming the sub- ject himself. And so one cold night, after he had cooked and eaten his supper and carefully set his alarm clock for the following morning 154 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. (before going down to Tabor's store to spend the evening, as was his custom), Middleton in his ab- sence boldly removed the old clock from the wall behind his bunk, changed the alarm from where he had set it for six o'clock the following morn- ing to midnight of that night, and then, replac- ing it, retired to await the result. At the usual hour of ten p. m. Uncle Dave crept cautiously in, and as ever, considerate of others, noiselessly disrobed in the darkness and rolling into his bunk was soon sound asleep. Patiently awaiting the approach of mid- night, there finally burst forth and rent the still- ness, the whirr, buzz and discordant jingle of the old alarm clock. Uncle Dave stirred slightly, then yawning, turned slowly over on his back, stretched his arms above his head, gaped repeatedly, then re- lapsing for a time into silent consideration of the matter, terminating with a long drawn yawn, arose slowly and under protest, dressed and ap- proaching the stove in the far corner of the room, muttered his surprise at the condition of the fire, then seemingly assured that it was all right, set to work preparing his breakfast. The water in the kettle was now boiling, the biscuit in the oven nearly done, and the meat sizzling cheerily in the frying pan, when, lighting his pipe and seating himself before the fire with the coffee mill between his knees, his eyes rested upon the clock; a frightful imprecation escaped his lips, as at the same time the pipe fell to the floor. REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 155 Rising suddenly he strode across the room to obtain a closer view, which but confirmed the discovery. Then the old man's expressions of his estimation of that time-piece actually stopped it, and shook the very bunks in which the re- maining sleepers rested. Despite the terrors of the scene, a snicker es- caped which reached his ear; then two young "tenderfeet" were ruthlessly hauled from their beds, slammed about the room in their night clothes, and finally, through the persuasiveness of a lustily wielded pack saddle cinch, induced to finish cooking the breakfast, wait upon the facetious old lad while he ate, and finally wash the dishes. Thus passed the days and nights during the winter of '77 and '78 up in the lonely and prac- tically snow-bound gulch in company with such others of the old characters remaining from placer days as "Put" Crane, Bob Berry, Tom Starr, Tom and Joe Wells, and many more herein unmentioned who were nightly callers at the cabin of John Thompson. A small band it was, taken altogether, though the foundation was being laid for a camp that would soon startle the world, yet not one of those then living there even dreamed of the storm of success and excitement hovering over it, and which burst with such fury but a few months later. The entire gulch at the opening of winter contained a population of less than four hundred people, men, women and children. 156 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. Eighteen months later it was the home of from 30,000 to 40,000 souls, and Leadville had become the second city in the state, with miles of its streets lighted by gas and adorned with modern buildings, private and public. Schools, hospitals and churches abounded as in the oldest and most enterprising of Eastern towns. Reference to Leadville churches at this date pictures in the writer's mind the striking con- trast with the conditions existing during the fall of 1877 so briefly preceding, when Capt. Breece died. He, after whom was named the famed Breece Hill. In arranging for his funeral, it was proposed by Tom Wells, another old timer, to read a chapter from the Bible, that some small degree of formality, solemnity and respect might attend the old pioneer's departure. But when that part of the programme involving religious services was reached and a search was ended of the old man's shelves and cupboard, it was found that no such work existed there. Hastily mes- sengers were sent to neighboring cabins, which at last revealed the fact that no such article as a book containing the Word of God was to be found in the possession of anyone. Finally a skirmisher returned having unearthed an Epis- copal prayer book, from which, with most extra- ordinary dignified and reverent mien and with an expression of face and tone of voice first be- speaking a meek apology to the deceased at the delay, then congratulation at having departed from a gulch so poorly provided with material REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 157 for the preservation of the soul, Tom read page after page, until finally amongst those of the congregation who still remained, the only indi- vidual who had failed to murmur at the weari- ness and unrest was Breece himself. The winter with its alternating conditions of gloom and cheer wore gradually away. Very little was as yet being produced. Toward the close of winter the stock of pro- visions ran low; a long, tiresome journey on horseback through deep snows to Denver failed to arouse additional support in the undertaking. Slowly and sadly the writer wended his way back over the mountains, impecunious and for- lorn. Even the usual ambition of "Old Nig," the saddle horse, seemed blighted through the burden of gloom he bore upon his back. The trail appeared strewn with the wreck of castles, yachts and equipages^ which upon former trips had been scattered by the way as the spontaneous product of a romantic, joyous and fruitful imag- ination of final results in the carbonate camp, while fanciful figures, perched upon the now crumbling arches- and tottering turrets of dreamy creation, laughed in hollow mockery at one's distress. CHAPTEE IX. It required but little time to close up affairs in the gulch, when with animals packed, and accompanied by Middleton, we filed down the valley of the Arkansas past the mouth of Wes- ton's and on further south to Trout Creek Pass, simply to introduce new scenes and avoid a re- currence of sad reminiscences aroused through passing over the old route. Reaching Denver, the little outfit was stored and the animals turned loose upon the range. Denver and its vicinity in those days offered a far better field for an animal to obtain a living through its own efforts than for an individual. Bands of antelope then roamed freely over what is now the City Park and munched the rich dried "buffalo" grass, and rested at night upon the dry ground, in a dry atmosphere and beneath the clear blue sky and suffered little of the woes of the human being, who "dead broke," sought in vain to earn his table board and room rent, for the town was then but little else than a sanita- rium filled with victims of the "white plague," many of whom were only threatened, or slightly affected, and they, too, short of means and ambi- tious to do almost anything to help pay expenses, until there was little to be had that would prop- erly clothe and feed a hearty, husky, hungry REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 159 young prospector who was not receiving a cent from home. And so when it became quietly known that the "floor walker" in a certain dry goods store would probably soon be compelled to surrender his position, owing to ill health, no time was lost in applying for the position, for somehow the title sounded familiar after recent experiences; and now while awaiting the vacancy, strolls were taken past the store regularly each morning, and a glance inside to see if he was still there, and note any little change for the worse in his condi- tion which might have occurred during the night, but in some manner the man's health seemed to improve from the very date of applica- tion, until at last he reached a condition so dis- couraging that, abandoning further hope, ser- vice was engaged in at herding cattle for an old German named Captain Ochus, over near Mor- rison, at the foot hills of the range and about twelve miles from Denver. The Captain was a genial, diplomatic old Teuton, and conducted his negotiations with such subtleness as to place one in an absolutely defenceless position so far as the matter of pay was concerned. The impres- sion gained being that he had no particular ser- vice to perform worth mentioning, and did he have, of course thoroughly understood the bad form and discourteousness of approaching a party occupying the writer's station in life in the light of a wage earner. He was, in short, led to the proposition simply through the desire for 11 160 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. an association more congenial to his tastes, for truly the Captain was a cultivated old chap, edu- cated and possessed of varied accomplishments. To employ his own expression, he was "simply withering out there in the vulgar atmosphere of a cow camp through lack of association with some kindred soul." Notwithstanding all this, there was, it was true, some little service to per- form, which though scarcely sufficient to dispel the monotony of a continued life of idleness and ease, was nevertheless too great for the old gen- tleman to accept unless privileged to ease his sensitiveness through the payment of some little matter of form salary, say fifteen dollars per month. The writer was in addition, at perfect liberty to take along his saddle horse, as he might prove a satisfaction and convenience, while his keep at the ranch cut no figure whatever. When at last the Captain's proposition was all in, there remained no excuse for any counter proposition unless perhaps one chose to protest against accepting the fifteen dollars per month, or insisted upon at least paying for the keep of the horse, without exposure of actual condition, and absolute destruction of social and financial standing in the Captain's estimation. Considering the matter carefully, it seemed hard to rob the man of his innocent and sincere belief of the writer's affluence, for it had been a long time since he had enjoyed such an impres- sion on the part of anyone. REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 161 After a month at the ranch, it was easy to de- termine that, with sixteen hours each day in the saddle, beside a little batch of chores at the ranch night and morning, one was wholly unable to in- dulge the Captain along social lines to anywhere near the extent no doubt he had anticipated ; so with a keen sense of injustice and neglect, the writer remarked to him one night after coming in from the range, "Well, Captain, sorry to leave you, but actually I am becoming so attached to this sort of life that I fear its growing influence. The longer I remain, the more fascinated I find myself becoming with this indolent, Bohemian, butterfly existence, and the more difficult to for- sake it, while the fact is, my private interests demand an attention of which they have already been robbed to an alarming extent though an insane desire to devote myself to pleasure and re- creation of this sort." The Captain listened to this little valedictory with as great apparent credulity as his introduc- tory statements had been accepted on the day of engagement, though there was now plainly felt a dense atmosphere of mutual suspicion of each other's insincerity. The following morning the writer strolled leisurely along the trail to Denver, leading be- hind him the animated skeleton of what had been a saddle horse, and silently considering what sort of diet to invest the fifteen dollars in to most quickly and fully restore him. 162 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. Reaching Denver, Middleton was found a total wreck. He had but a short time previous formed the acquaintance of a gentleman of dash- ing and distinguished appearance, who had re- cently arrived in town, and from whose innocent and unassuming remarks let drop from time to time, a keen observer might easily detect a gen- tleman of unlimited means. He had traveled extensively, and all Europe seemed to remain as familiar to him as the cow camp experience does to the writer. Middleton had succeeded in get- ting very close to him, and had in fact been en- gaged by him to act as his private secretary, in which capacity he was to accompany him during the completion of his tour. Now, he was found alone, dejected, and his rich and aristocratic friend and employer missing. A most mysteri- ous proceeding, as the wealthy stranger had all the while confided in him closely, and like a true gentleman, whereby to remove from Middleton's sensitive nature any feeling of inequality or sub- ordination he might harbor due to the great dif- ference that existed in their worldly possessions, had dined with him at his modest eating place, the "Bon Ton" restaurant, to the extent that he had consumed his share of two five-dollar meal tickets, and meanwhile in a further spirit of ab- solute equality, had borrowed of him from time to time, small sums of money, all of which had been promptly repaid except the last, a ten-dollar note, which incidentally amounted to consider- REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 163 able more than all the balance of his previous loans combined. When everything else failed in this country at that time, there was one resource left, and one which was invariably resorted to. One could al- ways go out somewhere and take up a dry ranch, and not be trodden underfoot in a great stam- pede, for the supply of raw material was inex- haustible and reached to away down near the Missouri River on the east and from British Co- lumbia on the north to the "Panhandle" on the south, and, if the ranch was selected with rea- sonable judgment as to a locality where -jack rab- bits were fairly plentiful, one was assured of a moderately good living, free from any excessive drudgery other than packing what little water was required a distance of anywhere from one to ten miles, which of itself didn't amount to much, for a "dry rancher" never uses water for any purpose except what little cooking he is com- pelled to do. No other great degree of exertion was de- manded, unless perchance the rabbits became scarce or wild, or something of that sort. Viewed conservatively, the "dry ranch" presented many features that recommended it, especially to a person in the writer's condition. It was a safe business so far as losing money was concerned, although really at the time, it was unnecessary to give this feature much consideration. It moreover appealed to one most forcibly as a 164 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. peaceful, healthful resort under certain condi- tions, free from extravagant influences 'and the annoying inquiries of a landlady. Away out on the "breaks" of Coal Creek, about twelve miles east of Denver, a location was made that seemed as good as any. A rough board "claim shanty," about eight feet square, without any floor, answered every purpose so far as the claimant was concerned, as a neighboring cow camp over on Coal Creek furnished an agree- able rendezvous during the day, while the nights were most commonly spent upon the ground in the open air; for like Mark Twain's "Claim Shanty," it had a hundred and sixty acres of government land to hold, which was pretty much its full capacity. Dry ranching, like all extremely safe enter- prises, where the possibility of monetary loss is largely eliminated, declares small dividends. The element chance, however, embraces in its catalogue of risks, others than that of monetary loss, and in the dry ranch out on the drainage of Coal Creek, one of these was soon discovered, for wherein as a producer of food stuff it didn't amount to much, as a preparatory institution for the insane asylum, it was unexcelled. It was now mid springtime, when one morn- ing saddling the bronco, who had been a constant companion (and who himself at times upon be- ing saddled, showed signs of the mental disturb- ance his master had for some time feared acquir- REMINISCENT RAMBLITTOS. 165 ing) and leaving the estate and its stock of coy- otes, rattlesnakes and jack rabbits without a caretaker, the journey was made to Denver in search of a new undertaking. The U. S. Geological Surveys of the West under Hayden dealt almost exclusively with the territory which embraced the absolute frontier, and was better known as the "Hayden Survey." Armed with the dignity, privilege and credit of the general government, the expedition each summer and autumn traversed and explored in comparative safety and comfort hundreds of miles of the practically unexplored areas occu- pied almost exclusively by the various Indian tribes, and provided the safest consort to the sci- entist of the East, together with the sons of Sena- tors and Congressmen who, longing for the ad- venturous, romantic and educational experience of a season in the wilds, eagerly sought a place thereon. It, however, became the writer's for- tune (through the kindly efforts of Thomas M. Patterson, of Denver, then a member of Con- gress and later of the Senate) to secure an ap- pointment as an attache of the survey during the campaign of 1878. "Davis Ranch/' located about twelve miles from Cheyenne, Wyoming, was the home of one of the then existing large cattle companies, whose herds roamed at will from British Columbia to Texas. The work of the survey for the summer of 1878 being the exploration of comparatively un- 166 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. explored portions of Wyoming, Idaho and Mon- tana, this ranch was chosen as the point of con- centration for men, animals and supplies, where all arrangements would be made, divisions formed and plans of whatsoever nature outlined. Here now all was bustle, activity and excite- ment. Down on a little flat below the ranch buildings glistened a small army of tents. The ground about them was strewn with parapher- nalia of all sorts, while the members of the scien- tific departments busied themselves in its ar- rangement or passed about here and there, ex- tending their acquaintance with the new comers. Many were veterans upon the survey, having served for years preceding, while about an equal number were new recruits, obtained from widely separated localities, strangers to the regular force and to each other. A short distance away on the prairie was be- ing herded the bunch of mules which were to con- vey the members of the expedition and its sup- plies over the miles of desert and rugged moun- tain ranges during the lengthy campaign to fol- low. Busied with the herd were the packers, who were agreeing upon, and cutting out the an- imals each division was to employ, riding first one and then another to determine the very best saddlers for their own use, and the next best for the rank and file of the members ( for the packer of those days was an important personage, and the Hayden Survey engaged only those of the REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 167 highest rank), the balance of the herd being left for pack animals. Under a wagon sheet stretched over a pole lounged a little commissariat, consisting of four colored cooks, who with the business man of the outfit, reviewed finally the list, embracing cook- ing utensils and provisions, to see that nothing had been overlooked. Up at the ranch headquarters Dr. Hayden himself, surrounded by his staff of chiefs of top- ography, geology, mineralogy, paleontology, en- tomology and such, too numerous to mention, was arranging finally the lesser details of the cam- paign, and assigning to the different depart- ments the new comers and subordinates, of whom the writer was one, and who, upon final adjustment of matters, found himself assigned to duty as assistant to Major Fred A. Clark, chief topographer. The Major was a man now approaching mid- dle age and had spent many years upon the sur- vey under Hayden, Wheeler and Powell. He was rather slight in build, though decidedly erect. He wore a dark moustache and beard of medium length. The beard was parted in the middle, after the style of a German field mar- shal, and brushed so abruptly apart that each particular hair occupied a position at absolutely right angles to its line of natural growth. In fact, the Major was noticeably a la militaire in all his movements and appearance, and as it de- veloped later, in his system of operations also. 168 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. Approaching with a pleasant smile, one of those peculiar blendings of smile and manner, at- tended by few remarks (which arouses in one the suspicion that the combination is sort of a specific and not to be employed generally) while he accompanied the whole with cursory, wander- ing glances of inquiry ; not that he had met with anything particularly new, but more to deter- mine superficially in what particular, if any, the party differed from the multitude of similar subjects he had in former campaigns, and for like purposes, fallen heir to. Finally, introduc- ing Mr. Erastus St. John, the geologist of his party, he turned away, apparently having de- tected nothing of a nature to interest him further. Mr. St. John smoked a pipe continuously, save and except such time as he was either eating or sleeping ; if perchance he was at any other time found neglecting this indulgence of his habit, it was safely attributable to one of two causes, he was either out of health or out of tobacco. He was tall, angular, slightly stooped and wore leg- gins and glasses, as every well appointed geolo- gist should. He wore a moustache and heavy goatee, which, though his manner failed in that direction, imparted to his personal appearance a decidedly "Frenchy" contour, not of the social type, but that of the savant. His manner was genial, open, frank and unguarded, while he differed widely from the Major in that in the writer he seemed to have discovered something REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 169 really worthy the manifestation of some little undisguised interest, which no doubt arose largely from fellow feeling, for he, too, though a man of middle age and possessed of some expe- rience as a geologist, was also a stranger upon the survey. The mineralogist, Mr. Nelson Perry, con- cluded the list of scientists in our party. Perry was a young man, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, who had but recently completed his college course, and whose absolute inexperience in camp life, especially upon the frontier, placed him in pretty closely the same proportionate scale to the writer that he occupied in connection with the Major. And now having carefully noted the Major's air of experience, it was a pleasure to find amongst our number one upon whom an im- itation of his manner could be practiced without fear of detection. George and Mac, the packers, and Henry, the colored cook, alone remained to complete the members of our division. The fullest details having been arranged, the day finally came for the entire caravan to move. To save time in the long journey overland to reach the field of operation, the entire force and equipment was shipped westward from Chey- enne by rail, two of the divisions disembark- ing at Point of Rocks, while ours, together with the fourth or remaining one, continued on to Granger, now the junction of the Oregon Short Line Railway. Here unloading the mules and 170 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. equipment, camp was established a short dis- tance westerly from the station and on the stream known as "Ham's Fork." Only sufficient time was spent at this point to arrange the supplies and general belongings, into suitable and easily accessible packs, settle finally the selection of our respective saddle mules, and close up our corre- spondence for the summer. For years the pack trains of the Hayden Sur- vey had been regarded as the finest equipped and best operated of any in the United States. They were copied from the Spanish absolutely, even to the small Mexican mules bred especially for this service ; while no expense was spared in se- curing the best of everything pertaining to the equipment and its operation. The Spanish had no equals in this system of transportation, and through it were, in trav- ersing the unexplored and impenetrable landed areas of great portions of the earth, what Eng- land may at any time have been upon the sea ; hence a somewhat detailed description of the appointment and operation of one of these trains, may be of interest to the reader. For shelter there is provided a little "A" tent, which when set up occupies a space of about six by seven feet. They are intended for indi- vidual occupancy, but accommodate two persons with comfort. They are provided with end poles, jointed in the center, and held together with sockets of gas pipe. Each of these sections EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 171 are about three feet in length, and when united give the ridge of the tent an elevation of about six feet. A half inch rope sewn into and along this ridge with ends extending from each termi- nus a length of some ten or twelve feet serve as fore and aft guys, which with the facilities for staking around the borders of the tent, give the shelter when erected a fairly strong support, the object in joining the end poles being conven- ience in packing. When un jointed and rolled up inside the tent, and the whole lashed firmly with the two end guys referred to, the package or bundle thus formed becomes of most desirable size and shape for such purpose. To one inex- perienced it is quite astonishing the awkward and ill-shaped articles, which with proper con- veniences and skill on the part of the packer, may be conveyed over the roughest and most ir- regular ground on the back of an animal. And one of the greatest conveniences referred to is a sufficiency of desirable packages, such as blan- kets properly prepared, or the tents alluded to, that the less convenient articles may find proper seats or nests, and over all of which the "lash rope" may bind and cling tightly. The saddle used is what is known as the "Aparejo." This is simply a large leathern affair, somewhat re- sembling a pair of huge saddle bags, rectangular in shape when flattened out, having a width of about two feet, and a length of some four or five feet. On the inner side, and reaching from either end to within a few inches of the center 172 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. are two large pockets. Into these are first in- serted a framework of willow sticks cut to the proper length and placed vertically. This for the purpose of giving to that portion covered by the pocket a certain degree of stability, or stiff- ness, at the same time embodying flexibility. Then the space between the framework of willow and the inner side of the pocket may be packed or padded with hay or dried grasses of any sort convenient to obtain. This padding may at will, be removed at one point and added to at another as the occasion may demand, that the bearing points may be made to fit any beast of burden whatsoever to which it may be applied. When prepared it is thrown across the animal's back (over a proper arrangement of saddle blan- kets), the padded portions hanging down on either side. A broad "cinch" is then thrown over the whole, passed under the animal's body and tightened. As the tightening proceeds, the stiffened and padded pockets are pressed to the beast's sides, while the central or unpadded sec- tion, acting as a hinge, is forced upward, and so entirely clear of the spine that the arm may be passed freely along the vertebrae, and beneath the roof formed by the apex of the saddle ; thus as may be seen, the load in place of resting flat upon the back, is carried wholly upon the ani- mal's sides. A breast collar and breeching at- tached prevents movement either forward or backward. A "sling" rope is then thrown over the aparejo, the side packs placed in position, REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 173 and the ends of the rope fastened at a point which will carry the packs high or low, as may be desired. The side packs in place, the burden is broadened, and a platform or surface created, upon which the "top" packs may rest. These placed in their proper position, a "manta," which is simply a piece of hydraulic canvas of the proper size, is placed to cover the entire cargo. The "lash" rope is then thrown and drawn tight, binding the whole firmly. The animal may now be driven all day in a continu- ous rainstorm, and when camp is reached at night, the cargo will be found as free from mois- ture as though transported in a Pullman car. The matter of adjusting and fastening the lash rope differs materially from the familiar and commonplace method known as the "squaw hitch," and involves a scientific and ingenious principle. It is known as the "diamond hitch," and any packer ignorant of it, or in fact un- skilled in its application, could not hope for rec- ognition in the upper circles of packers. The conveniences of this hitch are as follows: First, like all lash ropes, this has attached to one end a cinch, in the end of which is a hook, commonly of iron, though amongst the more skillful and fastidious it is of wood, preferably the forks of a branch or root about one inch in diameter and of some tough, strong shrub. This hook of wood is preferred from the fact that it presents so great a bearing for the lash rope, with 174 EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. the least possible weight, and becoming polished, permits the rope to slip freely in taking up slack. In applying the hitch, the boss packer stands at the near side of the mule, and is commonly re- ferred to as the a near packer," the assistant packer, occupying a position on the opposite side of the animal, is referred to as the "off packer.'' With the lash rope coiled in his left hand (save a few feet of the end to which is attached the cinch), the "near packer" swings the cinch un- der the animal's body, when it is caught by the "off packer." He then further throws the coil diagonally across the top of the pack from the animal's left shoulder to the right hip, or the process may be reversed, and it be thrown from the left hip to the right shoulder. A loop is then passed over the top of the pack, which is received ly the "off packer," and caught into the cinch hook described. He then places his knee against the animal's side and cinches or draws the rope through the hook with all possible tightness, the slack being taken up by the "near packer," who then passes the slack rope around one end and underneath the side pack, when, stepping to the animal's hip, he places one foot against the end of the pack, and draws the rope tightly; then holding it in place the "off packer" draws it lightly from the opposite side, then passes it down around one end of the "off" side pack, and along underneath, where he again draws or cinches the rope, then up and over the other end, where it is cinched again, and finally by the EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 175 "near packer/' who then makes the end fast by simply and quickly drawing it underneath the binding ropes. The advantages of this hitch are, first, there is no tugging and straining to tuck the end of the rope under a portion already drawn and pressing tightly upon the pack, the rope being so placed upon the pack to commence that this is unnecessary. Next, in shifting, or tightening the pack, it is only necessary to let loose the proper amount of slack and re-cinch without displacing or disturbing anything. Again, when about to unpack, there is no untie- ing of knots or pulling or hauling of ropes. The slack is again simply let loose to an extent in which the "off packer" is enabled to remove the hook from the loop, when the whole network of lashing is made free, and lifted off without further operation, and with no entanglement of the ropes, save a single loose knot. As stated, the most desirable animal also for ps eking purposes is the Spanish mule, or a mule of like dimensions, weighing from 700 to 800 pounds. They are sure-footed, strong and good travelers. Many of them are also excellent sad- dlers, especially upon long journeys over rough and uneven ground. They are very intelligent, and after short service become extremely cun- ning in avoiding the duties required. An oper- ation most distasteful to them is that of cinching the saddle or aparejo, which occurs most com- monly of course in breaking camp in the morn- ing, and while their stomachs are filled from a 12 176 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. night of grazing. As the regular hour approaches for saddling up, many of them will steal away and hide behind some neighboring rock or chimp of bushes. As preparations are made for cinch- ing, they will watch cautiously, and simultane- ously with the first tug at the cinch will bcw their sides in the direction of the operator, at the same time inhaling to their fullest extent. An old mule who has become really scientific in this respect will keep an inexperienced packer busy cinching and re-cinching for two hours be- fore he is ready to start, and then only to find that the operation must be repeated in the first half mile after leaving camp. The only man- ner in which to thwart their purpose and prop- erly complete the task, is either to wait for a few moments until the mule is off guard, and then quickly gather in the slack, or through the "off packer," turning him suddenly to the left during which his attitude of resistance is de- stroyed. Each mule wears a halter, the stale of which is caught up in the ropes of the pack. Accompanying each train of mules is a horse of some description, color preferably white or gray, wearing a cow bell about the neck, and commonly called the "bell mare." The mules will follow this animal as a colt follows its mother, and in case of peril or distress on its part, will manifest the anguish of a child over its parent. When turned loose to graze, only the "bell mare" requires to be hobbled or picketed, thus giving the mules entire freedom in searching for REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 177 food, while to stampede them, or ride or drive one away, is next to impossible. The movements of a pack train, and especi- ally that of the Hayden Survey were as follows : The cook and packers were first to arise in the morning, the balance of the party may arise at any time, early enough, however, wherein to prepare their belongings in proper bundles for packing, that no delay may be occasioned, while later each saddles his own riding animal. While the cook proceeds with breakfast, the packers gather up the mules and bringing them into camp, a halter is placed on each, and they are hitehed in a row to a rope stretched upon the ground, and fastened at each end to a strong hub or stake, when operations are continued in plac- ing the aparejos upon their backs, and other- wise preparing them to receive their loads. This completed, breakfast is waiting, which finished, packing commences at a lively rate, the "kitch- en mule," or that one carrying the kitchen uten- sils, being left until the last, that the cook may have sufficient time in which to wash the dishes and otherwise prepare the outfit. The kitchen outfit is ingeniously and compactly arranged for packing in two boxes of the following dimen- sions, approximately: width, 14 inches; height, 18 inches, and length, 28 inches, forming ex- cellent side packs. Each of these boxes is pro- vided with a false top resting on cleats, also double covers or lids hinged together and to the 178 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. box. They may now be converted into a dining table seven feet in length, 28 inches in width and 18 inches in height, by simply placing the boxes a sufficient distance apart, in which the folding lids, when opened and extended horizontally, will just meet. The kitchen mule packed, all is in readiness and the march begins in the fol- lowing order: The "near packer" leads the way, unless per- haps the party may have a professional guide; next follows the cook, riding the bell mare, and followed closely by the train of pack mules in single file. Behind these rides the "off packer," whose duty it is to watch the line of packs and in case one is discovered as being loose, getting to one side, or for any reason not riding properly, to call the name of the mule to the packer in the lead, who riding to one side of the train, dismounts and upon the approach of the mule in question, leads it to one side and drops a leathern blind over its eyes. In the meantime the rear packer has galloped ahead to the spot, and dismounting, the pack is quickly adjusted, the lash rope re-tightened, when re- moving the blind from the mule's eyes, it starts rapidly forward and assumes a rear position in the train, while the packers remounting quickly resume their original places. During all this no delay has been occasioned, the movements of the train not having been disturbed in any man- ner. REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 179 The members of the party, aside from those mentioned, ride in such order as they choose. Upon going into camp the packers dismount, and without waiting to unsaddle, simply throw their bridle reins upon the ground (in which condition the animal will usually remain stand- ing), and now, first unpack the kitchen mule, that the cook may not be detained in preparing the meal. The loads are all finally removed, then in their turn the aparejos, when the riding animals being unsaddled, the whole are turned loose to graze under the guidance of their chap- eron, the bell mare. The packers now set to work with rigid dis- cipline in the adjustment of the packing para- phernalia. The aparejos are set up in line like little "A" tents minus their ends, under each of which is placed the lash and sling ropes neatly coiled together with the halter of the respective mule. The canvas mante is then turned over, all in which condition complete protection is furnished from storms. The cook meantime is busily engaged with the meal, while the balance of the party occupy their time in pitching their tents and spreading their blankets upon bushes to air. With the provisions described for journey- ing through an uninhabited land abounding with wood, water, grass, game and fish, no method has ever yet been devised which approaches it from the standpoint of independence, exhilara- tion and comfort. Even in case of sickness or 180 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. injury to a member of the party, the patient may be transported upon a stretcher carried between two well-disposed mules, with quite the gentle- ness and comfort of more modern methods. While the vision feasts upon no more pictur- esque or poetic panorama than that of a long line of sleek pack mules strung out in single file as they wend their way through park and wood- land, then upward and along the precipitous faces of rugged mountains, into deep shadows, and out again into bright flashes of sunlight, with brilliant reflections from the glossy coat of the animal, and the white mante which covers the burden so jauntily borne. While seen from a distance, and with some imagination, their long ears fixed at different angles, they appear like a line of giant jack rabbits, with white bodies and dark colored extremities. With well operated trains it is customary to make but one drive during the day, leaving camp ordinarily about eight in the morning, and traveling until about 2 :00 p. m., when camp is pitched and the day's march ended. By this sys- tem it has been demonstrated that the greatest service can be derived, and the greatest distance covered during a season, the continued practice of unpacking and repacking at noon exerting a far more damaging effect upon the stock than a rapid single drive of less hours, yet nearly equal distance. CHAPTER X. Everything in readiness at the camp on Ham's Fork, the long line of pack animals stretched out in single file, began their march toward the far distant and unfrequented lands of the North. Straight away over the bleak, barren hills their course was shaped about north- east to strike the valley of the Green River, whose nearest point was some twenty miles dis- tant, thence by easy stages up and along the val- ley of this stream during the first few days, from the fact that the loads were now heavy and the mules not yet hardened to the service after their long term of idleness upon the range following the close of the campaign of the year previous. The total eclipse of July 29, 1878, was near at hand, and the caravan was hastening to reach a point along the route, well within the line of totality. This would occur but a short dis- tance ahead, and in about longitude 33 degrees west, latitude 42 degrees and 30 minutes north. On the day of its occurrence camp was pitched at about 11 :00 a. m. on a small stream known as Piney Creek, a tributary of the Green River. A hasty dinner prepared and eaten, full arrange- ments were made for an observance of the plan- etary phenomenon to follow. Scarce had the last detail been arranged, when the bright sunshine 182 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. melted away into a sickly subdued light, which gradually increasing its intensity, assumed an orange hue, while lights and shadows with blendings of green and yellow settled upon the hilltops and spread far away down into the val- leys, clothing the entire landscape in a mantle of serpentine hues appalling to behold, and as start- ling to the senses as the skin of the Gila mon- ster. The mules grazing about the camp lifted their heads and gazed at each other with suspic- ion, and in mute inquiry. Then seemingly con- vinced that it was a manifestation in which no member of their band had any part, they scanned the horizon carefully, then drifted about the bell mare, where they huddled closely for pro- tection or further information. Gradually the bright hues of mottled light faded away and blended themselves into utter darkness. The mules slightly separated, and one after another laid down upon the ground, until nearly all were at rest. The darkness continued for some time, when the process which led up to its occurrence recommenced in reverse order, passing through all the changes, until finally the sun again burst forth in all its glory. The mules gradually arose, assumed their first glances of suspicion at each other, discovered nothing, then looked briefly elsewhere for some solution with like re- sult; the bell mare seeming wholly unable to explain the matter, they finally abandoned fur- ther investigation and resumed grazing. REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 183 The work of this division of the Survey was to commence in the immediate locality, while that of the division accompanying was laid in and about the Yellowstone National Park. Hence from here the paths led in different direc- tions; they, continuing the journey northward, while we moved westward up Piney Creek to its head in the southern extremity of the Wyoming mountains, and occupied Wyoming Peak as the first topographical station. It was wholly from such commanding elevations as this that the top- ographical work was done. The same stations having been previously occupied as triangula- tion stations through which a network of meas- urements had been accomplished covering the en- tire country, and connecting all prominent points. With this completed, the topographical work followed, and from these greater elevations first sketched the entire field as bounded by the horizon, showing the main drainage and water sheds, local divides and prominent features of whatsoever nature. Then to the heads and mouths of streams, to mountain peaks and points of ridges or divides, courses were read and re- corded. Again they were observed from other stations, when the coincidence of the lines lo- cated the features sought with accuracy. Ele- vations at all points desired were obtained by barometric measurement. Thus it may be seen how with comparatively little time and expense, the features of a great and unknown area may be set forth with a fair degree of accuracy, with- 184 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. out the use of either chain or steel tape in the measurement of distance or the engineer's level with which to determine elevations. In com- mencing the system of measurements by triangu- lation over any given area, a base line is first located with accuracy, and its length then meas- ured with still greater accuracy, for the error arising from its location is only constant, while that arising from an incorrect measurement of its length is augmentive. For operations covering great areas of many thousand square miles, a base of not less than ten miles in length is usually employed, the longer, of course, the more correct the results which emanate from it, in that the distant angle may not be rendered too small and indefinite. Coupled with this great length of line, must of necessity be a knowledge of the absolute correct- ness of that length. For as will be readily un- derstood, whatever error exists in this direction will be conveyed to the operations based upon it in such proportion as their distance is extended. The measurement of this line is usually made with compensating rods ; the expansion and con- traction of a steel tape being too great for the accuracy required. While the Major and his assistant were en- gaged at the different stations far up on the high- est peaks, Mr. St. John, the geologist, and Mr. Perry, the mineralogist, scoured the lower coun- try roundabout, in determination of the geolog- ical structure, and its evidence of mineral re- REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 185 source. Aside from the rock formations and the minerals embraced, they also in the absence of special talent observed the general interesting features and economic resources of the section, such as timber and other vegetation, soda, sul- phur, chalybeate and thermal springs ; the flow of important streams and the character of sur- rounding soils. Gradually working northward along the western slope of the Wyoming mountains to a point north of Mt. Lander and McDougal Gap, the Snake River presented itself some twenty- five or thirty miles distant, and at a point where, after a lengthy and sinuous pilgrimage of its waters, starting from far away up in the Yellow- stone Park as the overflow from Shoshone Lake, it flows due south for many miles through the wildest and most picturesque of lands, until at last freeing itself in a degree from its lateral barriers, it enters the northern extremity of that yet remote and unfrequented mountain park known as "Jackson's Hole," when as though ex- hausted from its struggle in battling for a path- way through the broken country traversed, it quiets down for a time to rest in the watery way station of Jackson's Lake, then resumes its course through the park to its southern extrem- ity, a distance of some thirty or forty miles, when at last frenzied over its continuous confine- ment, it turns sharply and attacking its moun- tain barrier on the right, rends it in twain, leav- ing what is now known as the Snake River 186 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. Range to the north and the Salt River and Wyo- ming Ranges to the south; then joyously and tumultuously rushes westward toward its parent, the Pacific. Far away to the west, across the valley of the "John Day" river and high up in the "Salt River range," towered a commanding peak which the Major determined to occupy. Late that night he made drainage sketches in the sand and ashes about the camp fire to fully inform the boss packer of his march upon the following day, and the exact point some fifteen miles distant where camp should be established and where it might be found at nightfall after a lengthy de- tour via of the distant peak across the valley to the west, and whose brow alone was the follow- ing morning illumined with a "Rembrandt light- ning" of the sun's rays when the Major and the writer, saddling our mules, with an extra blanket tied behind each saddle, a couple of bis- cuits each in our pockets, the gradientor slung to his back, and the "Cistern" barometer to my own, rode rapidly down the slope and out across the valley of the John Day. High up in the magnificent forest which clothed the mountain side, a noble buck crossed the pathway; then, in his inexperience, turned for a moment to watch our approach. The Major raised his rifle, fired and killed him. Dismount- ing, the carcass was dressed and the saddles slung to a convenient limb. REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 187 Near the close of work on the mountain top a feeling of illness possessed the writer v Hurrying down the mountain, the illness in- creased, until reaching the river, unable to sit in the saddle longer, a hasty camp was made upon its bank. The shades of night were gathering deep in the valley when the Major, abandoning his efforts as nurse and leaving both blankets for hospital use, hurried away with the mules in search of camp and further relief. Dragging the blankets and rifle into a dense portion of the thicket bordering the river bank, slumber soon ensued. Later, when startled into consciousness by the piercing howl of a timber wolf not a dozen paces distant, all was darkness, and no form was visible save the dark outline of the mountain range on either side of the valley as they appeared in profile against the sky. I staggered to my feet, but fell again. An intense illness seemed to possess every part, while a raging fever accompanied the whole; and, shuddering in helplessness as the purpose of the wolf in calling its companious was divined, sought to disabuse its mind of the belief formed through its natural instincts of inability for self-protection by raising the rifle and firing a shot in its direction. A rustling of the underbrush followed as he glided stealthily and rapidly away. Then from a distance he howled again, probably countermanding the first signal. Crawl- ing down to the edge of the stream, I drank, and 188 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. remaining for a time before returning to the brush, the great full harvest moon to the south appeared resting the lower portion of its rim upon the backbone of an outlying and naked spur of the range. Sitting there, bathed in its soft, soothing, mellow light, the sight fixed upon the monstrous glowing orb, there suddenly trot* ted down the ridge and into the field of its great circle of light, a noble elk, who, halting for an instant at the proper point, the distance being such his entire form, including the majestic antlers, appeared silhouetted upon the bright shining surface of the great golden disk. For an instant he stood there, tossed his head haughtily, and, passing on into the darkness which surrounded the outer rim on the one side, there suddenly emerged from the darkness which surrounded it on the other, and passed in panorama before the golden mirror (where he had recently paused to be admired) the entire band of which he was the leader. Now a violent crashing in the brush, but a short distance away, accompanied by snorts and grunts, made known the presence of a bear. Again too weak to raise the rifle, it was drawn across the knee, and pointing the muzzle in the direction of the sounds, fired again. Another snort, and a crashing of the brush through which his line of retreat was marked for some distance, until finally the sounds were lost, together with all further recollection. Passing into a stupor, disturbed by distressing dreams of fearful EEMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 189 sights and harrowing soiinds, there came at last a far-away plaintive cry, now approaching and becoming plainer, then receding until almost lost, to which all other fancies gave place, and which to an unconscious mind seemed to con- tinue for an endless time. Finally, a growing warmth, coupled with strangulation and violent contortions, brought partial consciousness, as, opening my eyes, I gazed about in the bright sunlight, and sought vainly for a time to identify the scene. There was a most vivid impression of being lifted and tugged about, associated with a faint recollection of the wolf and bear. Then voices about dispelled the thought; the faint outline of reality began to appear, and I gazed upward into the face of George, the packer, upon whose knee my head was resting. It was but an outline yet, and dim at that. The face was seen, it was familiar, but could not be re- called. His language was plain to be heard, but its meaning could not be gathered. Then another voice attracted attention, a hand inserted some- thing between the lips, and, as the strong Scotch whiskey trickled down the throat, a burst of strangulation brought further awakening, and I looked understandingly into the face of Mac, the remaining packer. Little by little con- sciousness returned, and their remarks became intelligible. It was now past noon; they had left camp in the morning, for the Major, lost in the darkness of the forest, had camped all night on the trail. 190 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. It was easy for them, experienced mountain- eers, with the instructions received and following back upon the trail of the two mules, to find the point at the river ; but another thing to locate in a forest of willows and underbrush covering hundreds of acres, an inanimate object for which they sought. For hours they rode through the tangle calling loudly, until finally, the mule of one, coming near, bolted and revealed the point of concealment. In addition to their saddle animals, they had brought an old ambulance mule who was a specialist in this class of work, and had seen service along this line over hundreds of miles of wild western frontier. He was getting old now, and a slight visual imperfection that had always possessed him had increased. Being lifted into the saddle upon his back, then securely fenced in with great rolls of blankets well up to the armpits, and the whole lashed tightly to the mule, George struck out, leading the way to camp, while Mac rode beside where the trail would permit and close in the rear when it would not, and hurried forward the old mule, who, through his distorted vision, mistook the trunks of trees six inches in diameter lying across the trail for obstacles six feet in height, and insisted upon jumping them, until piteous pleadings were made for relief in another camp by the trail. Then they each lied encouragingly about camp being just around the next point, not half a mile away, smiled sympathetically, gave REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 191 each other a knowing look, and Mac, striking the old mule an extra blow with his quirt, he trotted faster and jumped higher than ever. I swore and threatened, and plead with them alternately, then fainted; and returning to con- sciousness swore some more, while Mac plied the quirt with renewed vigor about the old mule's hindquarters and remarked to George in an undertone, "he'll make it all right; he's a heap better 'en he was." When, a few days later, the mountain sage for a half mile about camp had all been gathered and boiled and the writer alone had drank the entire product, the outfit pushed onward into Jackson's Hole, a section which had teemed with the wild life of hunter and trapper a half a century prior, and made historic through Washington Irving's "Adventures of Captain Bonneville." For it was here and in Pierre's Hole to the westward in Idaho that the great trading camps of the American Fur Company under Fontenelle, the Rocky Mountain Fur Com- pany under Capt. William Sublette and Robert Campbell, together with the two organizations headed by Nathaniel J. Wyeth of Boston, and Captain Bonneville formerly of the U. S. Army, respectively, made their main camps and dealt out gewgaws and whiskey to the Indians, and little advanced white hunters and trappers, at enormous profit and in exchange for the valuable skins of the fur-bearing animals they had caught. 13 192 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. What scenes were enacted here where now all is solitude ! When near the close of a season's trap- ping, the pack trains of the traders, after a long and adventurous pilgrimage from the Missouri River, finally came to a halt in these wild and remote mountain fastnesses, and unpacking their loads of bright and glittering baubles, there crowded about a complete gathering of these simple children of the forest, red and white, male and female, old and young, as visionary and simple in their judgment and as defence- less in their own protection against the wiles of trade as the group of children who to-day gather about the Christmas tree. And this finally intensified through the power of rum, which invariably formed a portion of the cargo. Here in the depths of this now uninhabited region our party came upon the decayed evi- dence of one of these winter camps where dwelt these beings during the long winter and ate and slept, and gamboled and frolicked, and cleaned their guns and traps, and prepared their bait for the beaver, while the pack trains wended their way back to the States laden with peltries, to return again the following season with their regular load of bait for them. It was here in this great depression, sur- rounded by towering peaks, that Joseph More, a young Bostonian of Wyeth's band, Alfred K. Stephens of St. Louis, a party named Fox, two grandsons of Daniel Boone, and two other parties, a total of seven, having tired of the REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 193 environment of Pierre's Hole, attempted to return to the States, and, in crossing Jackson's Hole, were set upon by a band of Blackfeet Indians and More, Fox and Stephens were killed, while the balance, after long wandering and much suffering, finally reached their start- ing point in Pierre's Hole. Sometime later, Bonneville, in crossing from his camp in Green Kiver Basin to Salmon River in Idaho, found the bones of the three unfortunates gnawed clean of flesh by wild beasts, bleached aand scat- tered amongst the rocks. Gathering them to- gether, he constructed three complete skeletons and caused them to be decently interred. Their resting place unkempt, indefinite, and remote, yet remains unfrequented and unknown by even the few adventurous spirits who in recent years at intervals invade this wild domain. The district assigned to this division of the survey embraced a superficial area of some four thousand square miles, and involved a most interesting drainage system covering portions of the water-sheds of each, the Missouri, the Colo- rado and the Columbia Rivers. The area tribu- tary to the two last mentioned streams was clad in dense coniferous forests abounding with game, while its waters teemed with fish. Leaving the John Day at some distance from its mouth, a crossing was made of the low divide on the east to the headquarters of a small parallel stream, down which our way was 194 REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. wended to the Snake at the point where it com- mences to canon. Across the river the hills arose abruptly in grand escarpments, which, in their vivid colors of red and brown, pre- sented not only a beautiful example of mountain sculpture, but a striking geological exposure of the Jurassic and Triassic formations. A short distance up the stream descended, and on the opposite side, were found the evidence of some adventurous spirits' attempts to possess themselves of that hypnotic element, gold, lured as men still are by these remote and apparently verdant fields. Long years had passed since their efforts ceased, while wind and storm and decay had meantime vandalized the works they had created until now there could barely be distinguished the grade line of a small canal, its channel filled, its banks wasted, and the whole overgrown with weeds and grass. Here beneath our feet lay the rotted remains of a few pieces of plank, which had been "whip sawed" from the trunk of a neighboring tree. There, half buried in the earth, and over which vegetation had long grown, flourished and decayed, was buried the blade of a shovel with a fragment of the handle still protruding to mark the spot. Other evidences still remaining indicated they had made little arrangement for departure, and, unquestionably, had either fled before the wrath of the aboriginal proprietors or suffered the results of capture. Journeying on up the Snake and along the REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 195 line of "red buds" which, towered across the river, a beautiful cascade fell in silvery spray from their summit, and to which was now given that not entirely uncommon name of "Bridal Veil Falls." Further appeared the mouth of a large stream which entered the Snake from the east and at the very southern extremity of Jackson's Hole. It was what is known as Hoback's river, a not only formidable but historic stream, for its shores were the great highway of the fur companies hereinbefore mentioned in entering and departing from the main camps in Pierre's and Jackson's Holes on their pilgrimages to and from the east. An extremely low divide and pass separated its head-waters from Green river basin. Along the borders of this stream there were still discernible here and there traces of these early trails or pathways. Some twenty-five miles or so to the north, and nearly parallel with this, coursed another important stream known as "Gross Yentre riv- er," while between the two lay a rugged, heavily timbered country, intricately sculptured in forming the tributaries of the two streams referred to. Through this wild area the outfit moved hither and thither in outlining its intri- cacies and determining its economic resources, while the pathway was literally obstructed by the dense flora which flourished upon the surface everywhere, and the varied and multitudinous fauna which subsisted upon and dwelt within its 196 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. shelter and protection. The wildness of the game was of a degree which rendered it tame in the presence of man, of whose murderous incli- nations the present generation appeared to pos- sess no knowledge. Probably few of them had ever heard a rifle shot, and fewer still had ever experienced or witnessed its results. The writer recalls an experience in the very heart of this impenetrable wild in which, in company with others of the party, in descend- ing from an elevation, the upper portions of which were free of timber and densely covered with luxuriant "bunch grass/' the sun still a half hour from its disappearance beneath the artificial horizon, its soft mellow rays mingling with the rich, dark mantle of the pine and spruce, and the lighter hued foliage of the aspen groves which fringed them, lighting up bright patches upon the exposed branches and casting in contrast deep shadows beneath, the whole forming a great field of green, bordering the grassy shores of a beautiful mountain park, that rested peacefully below. Riding downward, there came suddenly from the depths of an aspen thicket, which ran far down a drain that broke through the pine and spruce timber, the rich, melodious notes of the "bugling" of an elk. To one who has listened to the melody of these tones bursting forth from the stillness of the forest, no descrip- tion, or attempted imitation, is necessary. The first call was answered by another, and then REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 197 another, until the hills reverberated the multi- tude of voices in one unbroken sea of sound. The greatest gathering seemed to be in the depths of the gulch, and, separating, the balance of the party stole noiselessly toward its northern slopes, while the writer alone hurried to the line of contact between the heavy timber and the dense quaking aspens which clothed the southerly slope. Reaching a place of conceal- ment somewhat in advance of the party's on- slaught from the opposite side, and lying quietly and expectantly in hiding, there came at last the sharp crack of a rifle, quickly fol- lowed by another and another, when instantly the thicket far up and down was lashed into fury as though by a mighty tempest, the crash- ing of brush and trampling of hoofs adding to the confusion and excitement of the scene as hundreds of elk rushed headlong toward the ambush. Nearer and nearer approached the advance line of the host, the aspens being so dense that no view could be obtained of them at a greater distance than ten feet. Suddenly the brush parted, a magnificent bull plunged through, caught sight of the enemy, came for an instant to a sudden halt, then, determined upon his headlong course, leaped directly over the writer's body, as, attempting to dodge, he trip- ped and fell upon the ground and quietly yet nervously remained there amidst trampling hoofs, as hundreds of the noble creatures tore onward and finally plunged into the dark and 198 EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. sheltering depths of the evergreen forest which lay ahove. Such were the game conditions of all this portion of the Rock Mountain region even until so late as this. Working northward (with easterly and westerly elongations) to the waters of the Gross Ventre, thence easterly toward its headwaters and over the divide en route to "Camp Brown/' a frontier military post, now named Fort Wash- akie, situate on the east of the Wind River mountains, at the forks of Little Wind river and more than one hundred and fifty miles dis- tant by the trail, a descent was made into the head of Green River basin at a point where the nascent waters of the Green, starting far up in the fastnesses of the Wind River range and fed by the eternal snows of Fremont and other peaks, flows due north for a distance of some fifteen miles until intercepted by the divide crossed, when it turns abruptly to the south, which general direction it follows to the sea. To the left, rising from the very backbone of the Wind River range, near its northern extremity and about midway between Union and Fremont peaks, was yet another lofty eminence, gray, scarred and stern-visaged, which frowned down upon the little cavalcade like some ill- natured giant upon insects crawling at his feet. Determining that this was the most favorable approach obtainable, the Major decided to delay movements in the direction of Fort Washakie EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 199 and made the attack. Following up the Green from the bend toward the south, past two beau- tiful lakes formed by terminal moraine obstruc- tions and which, viewed from the surrounding heights, appeared Cyclopean emeralds resting in a mighty trough. On past these and to the mouth of a forbidding canon, whose walls rose perpendicularly until their apparent converg- ency rendered visible but a narrow ribbon of the pale blue sky overhead, its walls striated and polished in places like a mirror from glacial action, a turn was made to the east, and, climb- ing upward to the limit of grass and timber, camped for the night. Early the following morning the surest-footed mule in the herd was packed with food, blankets and the requisites of the trip, and, followed by the entire party save the cook, commenced the mighty climb. Forward and backward, upward and on- ward, toiled the little band of men and mule to a projecting point far above from which a stone might be hurled back into the camp departed from more than three hours previous. From here the only practical footing was along a northerly slope and across a talus heap or slide of finely comminuted rock, the toe of which rested upon the brink of a precipitous and un- fathomable chasm. Across this (as in the case of Evans and the writer the year previous) the party stole cautiously forward and backward, working a narrow shelf with the feet in the creeping, crawling mass that the mule might 200 EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. have a pathway. Then blindfolding him, he was started upon the perilous trip, with one packer in the lead and the other following. Midway, his keen instinct discovered a movement of the earth beneath him. He stopped short, crouched and trembled for an instant, then, with a snort of terror, whirled to retrace his steps. The turn was never completed. Half way around, he toppled backward and shot like a rotating rocket down the steep incline and over the cliff. By a circuitous route the packers reached a point where a view could be obtained for some distance below. There, upon a projecting shelf, was scattered portions of the pack, mingled with bloody fragments of the beast, whose greater weight carried him on downward into depths so apparently interminable as to suggest the possibility that he may not even yet have reached the bottom. Gathering such of the cargo as could be reached, it was distributed amongst the members of the party, who, carry- ing it upon their backs, resumed the journey. Late in the afternoon the borders were entered of a great field of snow, which rested practically upon the summit. Each of the party halted and looked carefully and curiously at the great sheet spread before them. Then, with a common impulse, each rubbed his eyes care- fully, worked the lids a few times in quick suc- cession to further clear the lenses and adjust the focus, and looked again, hesitating to raise the question, until, finally, Mac, the packer, REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 201 exclaimed: "Say, does that snow look white to you fellers?" And it did not; for it was a striking occurrence of those peculiar deposits of red and pink snow so often found at great elevations, particularly in the Alps, and due to the presence of minute animal or vegetable forms. Moving forward across the glacier (for it was in fact the remnant of such, which in earlier ages had reached far down into the valley, but which had now receded to this point), numerous crevasses were met, none more than two feet across at the top, but of depths of one hundred feet and more. Another feature of this great perpetual field of snow and ice was that of the surface being literally strewn with dead grasshoppers, which, undoubtedly, in migrating from the valley of the Wind river to that of the Green, or the reverse, had chilled and settled there. Far out on the silvery surface two huge "silver tip" bears were seated a hundred yards or so apart, each busily engaged in raking these grasshoppers into little heaps with his claws and then devouring them. The course led midway between the banqueters, and, when opposite, each rested from his labors for a time, contemplated the intruders carefully, sniffed the air, licked their chops, and resumed operations, apparently concluding that they preferred grass- hoppers. Upon a little cone-shaped mass, the highest of all points in the great table-topped area which 202 REMINISCENT RAMBLIXGS. formed the summit, the desired observations were made, which completed, a return was at once engaged in. The bears had finished their meal and ambling leisurely along a hundred or two yards in advance, finally disappeared in the forest below. The eminence occupied showed an elevation of 13,215 feet, or but 575 feet less than that of Fremont's peak. In Irving' s " Adventures of Captain Bonne- ville" a graphic description is given of Bonne- ville and party's attempt at crossing this Wind River range from the head of "Popo Agie" on the east, with a view to reaching their camp (Fort Bonneville) in the upper portion of Green River basin by a shorter route, and when upon the summit they saw some distance to the north of them a formidable and lofty peak, which they visited and made the ascent of. Without inves- tigation it would appear that this was what is now known as Fremont's peak, but such could not have been the case, as it is at least forty miles in a straight line along the summit of the range from even the most northerly fork of the Popo Agie. However, Irving says: "It is to be regretted that Captain Bonneville had no instruments with him with which to ascer- tain the elevation of this peak. He gives it as his opinion that it is the loftiest point of the North American continent, but of this we have no proof. It is certain that the Rocky mountains REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 203 are of an altitude vastly superior to what was formerly supposed. We rather incline to the opinion that the highest peak is further to the northward and is the same measured by Mr. Thompson, surveyor to the Northwest Com- pany, who by the joint means of the barometer and trigonometric measurement, ascertained it to be twenty-five thousand feet above the level of the sea, an elevation only inferior to that of the Himalayas." How frightfully out of adjustment Mr. Thompson's instruments must have been. Descending into the basin and following down the Green and over the site of old Fort Bonneville, where some evidences of its existence still remained, a deflection was made to the east, keeping well under the lee of this magnificent section of the continental vertebrge, whose granite nucleus rises barren, unclothed and majestic to heights of from 2,000 to 3,000 feet above timber line and higher still above the up- turned edges of the later geological generations which rest upon its flanks. Skirting the shore of that pearl of waters, Fremont's lake, for a distance of some ten miles, thence southeasterly toward and over the "Lander Cut-off" pass, down the Atlantic slope through the old and nearly abandoned mining camps of South Pass City, Atlantic City, Camp Stambaugh, and Miners' Delight, when turn- ing north and hugging closely the eastern flank 204 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. of the range for a distance of thirty or forty miles, we reach the summit of a high divide between two lateral drains, from whence far away down in the valley the eye caught the bright flutter of the stars and stripes, while to the ear was borne the faint, melodious notes of the bugle call at Camp Brown, later named Fort Washakie. CHAPTEK XL The old time military post of the frontier was a feature worthy of mention. It was to the nomad of the boundless waste of mountain and plain what London, Paris or New York are to-day to the most rural life which sur- rounds them, a point where the prospector, freighter, hunter and trapper, red and white, met as though by common consent, free from the restrictions of class, and yet more free from moral restraint, and drank and gambled and raced horses and fought, and later lay in the guard house and pondered with dim recollection over the brief season they had enjoyed in this center of extreme civilization and convenience, while the post trader counted the cash they had so recently possessed and credited it to his own account. Of these features Camp Brown en- joyed a fair degree. Across the parade ground, past the quarters of the commandant, Major Upham, filed the pack train and its followers, then down the bluff and into camp on a short stretch of bottom land that bordered the stream. And here it was now learned that an uprising of the Ban- nock tribe of Indians was in progress in and about the Yellowstone National park and that all the military available, including such force 206 REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. as could be spared from Camp Brown, was en- gaged in suppressing it. Apout the post were encamped some three thousand Shoshones and Arapahoes, many of the former being enlisted in the service of the Government in quelling the Bannock disturb- ance. They received the pay and rations of regular soldiers, guided their own movements in the raids which they made, and were per- mitted to retain such plunder captured as was the property of the enemy. The night was always employed as the time of departure and return of the raiders, and this, with the blazing camp fires of three thous- and Indians within the radius of a mile, with scouts arriving at the post bringing information of the near approach of the Bannocks, and with the entry of a band of victorious Shoshones making merry with their spoils, the night was indeed "filled with music" and Camp Brown a faithful presentation of the typical frontier post. It was early in the morning of the second day when the packers, George and Mac, after attending their stock quartered at the quarter- master's corral, returned hastily with the in- formation that they had found there amongst the mules of the survey one named "Lucy," brought in during the night by a band of Sho- shones and having been captured from the Ban- nocks. REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 207 The mule Lucy was an iron gray, well known not only to the packers, but to the balance of the party, as belonging to the division which had accompanied our own from Ham's Fork up the Green river to the point where the separation occurred near its head. Further, to remove all question, the mule bore upon its left shoulder the brand of the survey, U. S. G. S. Incidentally, much other plunder, together with several Bannock prisoners, had accompanied the mule and was being held in an improvised guard house (a wall tent) but a short distance away. Approaching the guards, two Shoshone Indians, who, each with a rifle in his folded arms, paced with stealthy Indian tread, backward and forward, one in front, the other in the rear of the tent. Entering, there was met stalking about the interior, a stately Bannock brave, drawn about whose shoulders and falling to the floor in graceful folds, was a large red and white table cloth. Stopping short and half turning, he drew his gaudy mantle about him closely and assumed the majestic attitude of a toga-wrapped Roman. There was something strangely familiar as well as ludicrous in the ap- pearance presented by the improvised mantle, for it was of the identical pattern and cut from the same piece as that from which we had eaten our breakfast. In outfitting at Cheyenne each division had been supplied with this article cut from the same bolt. Upon the ground lay several other Bannocks, while in one corner was 14 208 EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. heaped a pile of blankets upon which rested two guns. Each of these articles was identified as the property of some member of the same division to which the mule belonged, and there was no longer any question as to the experience they had met with, other than the present con- dition of the members themselves. Later in the season it developed that this division encamped one night on the edge of a forest which bordered a mountain park, wherein the pack animals were grazing, and while grouped about the camp fire heard suddenly the rattle of the bell upon the bell mare, followed by a general stampede of the herd; then the sharp crack of a half dozen rifles from out the darkness followed, scattering the fire and ashes in their faces, while one of the packers made a quick grab at his hip, too late, however, to catch a rifle ball which grazed the skin. Instantly each member of the party tumbled backward out of the bright light of the camp fire into the friendly shadows of the forest and took to his heels, each for himself and selecting his own route. So widely did their paths diverge that the campaign was nearly ended ere a reunion fully occurred. A few found their way to still another division of the survey in the vicinity of Fire Hole basin, while others wandered on, finally reaching the old town of Helena in Montana, the entire party, during their pil- REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 209 grimage, subsisting mainly upon the fruits of the forest. _._ Eleven days in the camp established near the Post, and with packs replenished, the time had now come to again occupy the wilds, and with an escort of Shoshone Indians, together with an interpreter named Charles Blackburn, furnished by Major Upham, the division set forth in a northwesterly direction along the Wind river toward its head, then over the mountains and into the outskirts of the wily Bannocks' operations. The Shoshones who accompanied were pro- visioned by the post, and not wishing to be hampered with the care of pack animals, each packed his rations upon the animal he rode. Tiring of this and the additional load it im- posed upon their saddle ponies, they, after a few days' march, sought to devour it as rapidly as possible. This processs proving too slow, they threw the balance away. Then, until hunger discouraged further attempt, hung about the camp of the survey, picking up the scraps and waiting each meal time for an invitation which never came. Discouraged in this, two of them detoured from the line of march and that night appeared at camp with the sides of two elk. Late into the night they frolicked about the camp fire, dancing, singing, pow-wowing, toasting the ribs of the elk, supported by green sticks before the fire, until the dormancy of 210 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. gluttony overcame them and they slept. Alter- nating the days, they fasted and feasted in regular order through the entire campaign. During the day's march they rode in no regular order. Many of them would disappear entirely, to reappear only when camp was made for the night. Whether at any time they were in front, in the rear, to the right or to the left, was never known, but from the high points reached as one looked backward, the general course traveled was found to be accurately marked by faint ascending columns of smoke, arising from fires which they had started upon the most prominent points along the line. That it was the work of our Indian escort there was little question, though the act or its purpose was never detected. It was difficult to realize that these simple, playful, seemingly improvident and childlike beings were really warriors whose defense was worthy of consideration, but the Shoshone of that day required no supplementary testimony in this behalf. The silent graves of innu- merable foes who had sought to trespass upon his possessions of time immemorial bore mute evi- dence that he had and would fight. And why should he be other than simple and playful ? Por he was possessed of a happiness that was un- affected and true. And why be provident to the end of accumulation for which he had no rational need and the cares of which he could not dispel? His wants were simple, few and REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 211 easily supplied. His intelligence was wholly adapted to the maintenance of an unostenta- tious and unchanging style of existence. He neither packed about or hoarded up any evidence of an indebtedness to him on the part of his fellow being which he had never earned, nor did he destroy any portion of his privilege of consumption and enrich an idle, cunning and presuming master through contribution of a portion of his production. He was never a sufferer from over-production, for when his needs were supplied his labors ceased. To be sure he hung about our camp at mealtime, for his palate had already been tickled by the highly spiced and unnatural foods we ate, and with the whiskey which he hoped we might possess. He was also an inveterate gambler, and played draw poker to the end that he ofttimes wore no blanket and walked ; yet there remains no ques- tion of whom he learned the game or from whom he obtained the cards. As together we wandered through the forest our more advanced minds entered into no successful competition with him in detecting and interpreting the warn- ings of nature as to our actual needs and welfare. When later, fortified with barometers, etc., we disregarded the evidence and advice he had offered and remained in Buffalo Fork basin but a few days past the time he had advised for our departure, it was to battle against and camp in five feet of snow upon the range in making our escape. Still, how little advanced he seemed 212 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. in comparison with ourselves ! Though he worshipped an infinite power (differing a little perhaps in the form of worship, but evidently the same as our own, for there certainly can be. but one) and of which he possessed as intimate a knowledge as we! Again, his knowledge of himself seemed fairly perfect. His hair was abundant, his teeth contained no gold filling, nor were there any cavities to fill. He wore no lenses of glass before his eyes wherewith to augment his vision, for it was perfect. He packed no supply of drugs, Latin phrased pre- scriptions or medicines of any kind, yet he remained in perfect health, while we were at times ill. Still, it was plain that he was of no earthly account; a miserable vagabond stum- bling about in the dense jungle of ignorance, accumulating nothing he did not need and inter- fering with those who did; taking no interest whatever in the acquirement of that which makes the individual great through fear and dependency on the part of his fellow man. He had not even learned to destroy a hundred monarchs of the forest wherewith to construct for himself a vast, palatial wigwam containing rooms for which he had no use and which re- quired the time and labor belonging to others to care for, and the destruction of hundreds of other monarchs of the forest to warm. It had never occurred to the sodden intellect of this ambitionless being to gain a personal ownership of a portion of the lands of his tribe, or, better REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 213 still, the whole, if possible, or even to possess himself of the exclusive privilege to hunt or fish, or tan the pelts of wild animals, or manu- facture the bows and arrows of his tribe, and thus derive a greater advantage through the needs of others. But who wishes to become an Indian ? No one, of course. Still lower in the scale of animal life, the bee and the ant are unquestionably amongst the most striking examples of industry, thrift, order and success, handicapped as they are through their evident principles of collectivism. Yet who wishes to become a bee or an ant ? And we must admit that for the simple purpose of adopting many of their teachings of incalcu- lable value to mankind, it is hardly necessary that we should. And so, disgusted with his utter lack of enterprise or so-called civilization, and dis- couraged at any attempt to cultivate it, we passed on and resumed our labors as the advance guard of individual accumulation and pointed out as accurately as possible the precious metal-bearing areas, together with the most promising deposits of coal and iron, where- by they might be gathered up as quickly and inexpensively as possible and forever placed within the absolute possession and sacred guard- ianship of some philanthropic individual or combine, and generations yet unborn be relieved 214 EEMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. of any worry or distress incident to any interest whatever in them. Eeaching "Bull Lake" fork of the Wind river, a camp was established upon its shores while making ob- servations from a prominent point high up in the range to the west. The lake was o r m e d through e destruction of a wide area of the recent sedimentary formation through which the stream flowed and the cre- ation of a terminal moraine below. The name "Bull Lake" had been given it by the In- dians from the fact that at certain times low moan- ings or bellowing sounds emanated apparently from its bosom, while the legend ran that far away in the "IUd Blanket." REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 215 dim distant past of the race a Shoshone brave had wounded a buffalo bull who, in his frenzy, had chased him into the lake, where both were drowned. Investigation proved, however, that the wind blowing from a certain quarter and entering the holes and hollows which nature carved in the cliffs of soft rock which fringed its shores, was alone responsible for the uncanny sounds. Amongst the Indian escort was one of strik- ing peculiarities called "Ked Blanket," from the fact that he wore girded about his loins a red blanket which fell in double folds about the upper portions of his legs, forming a kilt, the upper or outer fold of which, when necessary, he raised and wrapped about his shoulders for additional protection from the weather. Far up on the headwaters of the fork, alone with the Indian, we halted to rest in the shelter of a dense thicket by the stream. Scarce were we seated, when an elk bugled in the forest a short distance above. The Indian, in a playful mood, opened the breech of the government car- bine which he carried, and placing the stock upon the ground between his mocasined feet, blew into the muzzle, reproducing the melody of the elk so exact as to be startling. Promptly the elk answered and an interchange of calls followed, the elk meantime approaching closer and closer, until at last, peering through the dense thicket, he could be seen picking his way with cautious and uncertain tread through the 216 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. timber and down the mountain side directly toward us. ~No longer able to withstand the cowardly impulse, the writer raised his rifle to fire, when "Red Blanket/' reaching across, placed his hand upon the barrel of the gun, and deflecting it gently, said with a kindly implor- ing glance and shake of his head, "~No shoot em elk; no want em; got heap meat now. Sabe?" What a teaching along the line of material econ- omy and the higher principles of humanity was here presented through the act of this uncultured child of the forest. And what a reflection upon the long-haired, cowardly, improvident white renegade who, hidden in the "breaks" of some dry arroya, wantonly slaughtered a nearby herd of buffalo, simply to see them fall and secure the hida Forty miles further to the northwest the range was crossed through Union Pass. The pass was broad and filled with heavy timber. It was near the middle of the afternoon of an early autumn day, bright shafts of sunlight streamed downward through innumerable openings in the rich foliage of the primeval forest, while the stilly stillness of undisturbed nature pervaded all. The Major rode in the lead, as was his cus- tom, the writer following closely, while the In- dians occupied a position some distance in the rear of the train. It was the hour of march in which as a rule the morning's stock of conversa- tion material was well exhausted, and all had REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 2lT relapsed into the dreamy meditation which ac- companies the last quarter of a lengthy march and precedes the establishment of camp. The Major alone, as was his custom at times, continued a line of conversation as he rode slowly forward, never turning his head, and so subdued in tone that only a small percentage of his words penetrated the writer's drowsy understanding; while guided by the modulations of his voice, he interpolated with amazing correctness, born of long experience, such exclamations of interest as, "Well, well!" "A ha!" "Indeed!" etc., all of which required less effort and disturbance of dreams on his part than an attempt at clearer un- derstanding through a request for a repetition of each statement, and as experience had proven, was more satisfactory to the Major. Suddenly the Major brought his mule to a halt, and nervously clutched the Ballard rifle, scrambled out of the saddle and crouched at the foot of a huge pine. No form of game of any kind could be seen, but his movements indicated it was a bear ; and whereas the Major was pos- sessed of certain manners and movements which accompanied the discovery of each kind of ani- mal', his bear movements were less liable to be misunderstood than any. Discharging his rifle, ho climbed hurriedly back into the saddle, while through the thick timber, at a distance of a hun- dred yards or less, a monster form was seen to rise upon its hind legs to a towering height, while angry snarls rent the stillness of the forest. 218 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. It was a huge bear of the grizzly type. For a moment he stalked about upon his hind feet in search of the enemy, all the while pouring forth a torrent of the most blasphemous bear language, when finally discovering nothing, he dropped upon all fours, and starting at right angles to our pathway, crossed a small ridge and disap- peared from view. Advancing to the point where he had been engaged, there lay beside the trail the carcass of a huge bull elk, so recently killed that the flesh was still warm. Bear were so common in all this country at this time, that under ordinary circumstances their meeting cre- ated but little excitement, but this fellow was of such Herculean proportions as to excite the old- est hunter. Unable to restrain an insane ambi- tion for the conquest of so exceptional a beast, the writer rode hurriedly, yet cautiously to the summit of the ridge in pursuit, while the intense eagerness which possessed him had mixed with it a trace of fear that possibly he might be found. Sitting astride the mule on the brow of the ridge, sharp watch was kept of the direction in which he had disappeared, then listened intently, but no sight or sound of the ponderous old pa- triarch presented itself for a time, when of a sudden a loud crash accompanied by a violent commotion of the underbrush in the bed of the drain below, and the form of a monstrous bear emerged and started to climb the opposite slope. The mule snorted his expressions of fear and dis- approval, worked his long ears nervously, gave a REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 219 few quick glances to the right and left, then be- hind him to see that the field was open for re- treat, and trembled slightly beneath the writer, while he trembled violently above the mule, then raised the rifle and fired quickly at the immense target. A snarl of pain and anger followed the report of the gun, as glancing backward over his shoulder he caught sight of his enemy, and wheeling about, plunged headlong into the brush on a return trip of annihilation. Instantly upon his appearance from the thicket a second shot was sent in search of him, as the mule turned and stampeded wildly back down the face of the ridge, which he had ascended, circled about a short distance, then of his own accord, stopped and faced about in the direction of his starting point. Hardly had he done so, when the bear reached the summit of the ridge, where a third shot greeted him. The mule cavorted about in a small circle, while the bear tore madly down the slope, rushing blindly into a large spruce which intercepted his pathway. Crazed by his wounds and maddened at the interference, he reared upon his hind legs, and with his huge forepaws, beat the trunk of the tree high up, tearing away the green bark in great sheets and filling the air with its fragments. Changing from this form of attack at intervals he hugged the trunk with desperation, biting savagely at the form within his embrace. Taking advan- tage of his distraction, a fourth shot was dis- charged, the ball striking him in the ear and en- 220 REMINISCENT RAMBUNGS. tering the brain. Slowly he sank upon his haunches, the great claws cutting deep grooves as he clung with a dying and hopeless determi- nation to the trunk of the tree, then with his head thrown back in pathetic despair the mas- sive paws relaxed their hold, while the brave and noble brute fell backward upon the tufted carpet of his forest home, a lifeless mass. It was in- deed a most pathetic exhibition of the dethrone- ment of superb physical power, and the conquer- ing only through death of a courage that knew no fear. The Indians, packers and other members of the party, hearing the firing, had now reached the spot, and were grouped about the huge and prostrate mass, carefully investigating and joint- ly admiring the whole. He had quite acquired his winter coat, the fur averaging eight inches in depth. One ear was torn off close to his head, probably the result of a difference of opinion arising between him- self and a worthy rival. In repeated lifting of his carcass, through the joint effort of six men, it was estimated that his weight was not far from eleven hundred pounds. The Indians, in removing the hide, found a ball from the Ballard rifle, which acquitted the Major gracefully. Then there was found three of the four fired from the writer's Spencer. Nor was this all, for the old fellow was a veritable lead mine. Against his right shoulder was found another, flattened to about the dimensions REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 221 of a silver dollar, while in the muscles of his neck was still another, also much battered, each of the two last mentioned wounds having long since healed. Stretching the green hide and pinning it to the ground, it was found to measure over seven feet square. Dressing with what little salt could he spared for its preservation, Red Blan- ket was the following morning dispatched with the skin to a cow camp some sixty miles distant on Wind River, with instructions for it to be taken to the post upon their first visit, and de- livered to the squaws to tan. We had journeyed far on down the Gros Ventre and up a tributary and into the moun- tains to the north, when Red Blanket, several days later, overtook the party, having taken up the trail at the point of his separation and fol- lowed it unerringly into camp. For weeks the outfit stole stealthily forward through wild and beautiful forest and park, over precipitous mountains, down into weird and shadowed glens, then along the banks of limpid, murmuring and trout laden streams, and the shores of mirror like lakelets, well up into the land of the hostile Bannock. Circling about over a great area in the south of the Yellowstone National Park, and finally wandering back upon the head waters of Buffalo Fork to engage in the completion of some unfinished work in this locality. For days past the Indians had at in- 222 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. tervals looked wisely into the heavens, then scanned the horizon closely, and with accompa- nying gesticulations muttered their fear of a great storm. Each time the barometers were consulted carefully, and firmness added to the belief that not only was there little danger of a serious storm, but that the Indians' motive was more that of a return to the butterfly life of the post, than a fear of the elements, either on his own account or that of others. Supper finished one night in a little aspen- bordered park by the stream, the smoking of pipes in comfort and a feeling of security about the blazing camp fire was being indulged in, when a rustle of the deciduous foliage near, ac- companied by a flutter of the flame, and a puff of smoke from the fire attracted the attention, and looking upward over the encircling peaks, great clouds were seen hurrying across the open- ing. Soon an unrestful sound, gradually deep- ening into a low moan, and then into a decisive and determined roar, came from the fastnesses of the forest-clad hills above; a moment later the storm, furious and blinding, burst relent- lessly upon the camp. All night long, and until late on the afternoon of the following day, the storm raged, when at its close the snow lay waist deep in the little park, with well-known addi- tional depths in the mountain passes above. The stock were now subsisting from the leaves of the quaking aspen, which were felled for that purpose. No escape, save through REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 223 greater depths of snow than that which immedi- ately surrounded was possible, unless it were to follow down the drainage of the Snake, and west- ward into Idaho. And this led far away from the objective point, and out into a wide waste that involved a lengthy wandering. All other routes led over a mountain range. Above the camp and to the eastward was a pass known as "To-owo-tee." It was by far the nearest, and as the Indians believed, much the most likely to permit of passage. Early on the morning of the second day fol- lowing the storm the hungry and weakened ani- mals were saddled and packed, and the battle was on with the beautiful. Deeper and deeper became the snow as the little band wallowed and struggled upward toward the summit. Late in the afternoon, and high up on the pass appeared a bunch of quaking aspens at the sight of which the hungry mules brayed in cho- rus, and camp was made for the night in five feet of snow. At noon of the following day the summit was reached, and with the grade changed to advantage, a rapid descent was made into shallower depths, and finally out upon an out- lying spur of the range, and well down in the valley of the upper Wind River where the grass was plentiful and the ground bare. Far away down this stream, where "Crow Heart Butte" towers high above its eastern banks, camp was established one night in a log cabin owned by Washakie, Chief of the Sho- 15 224 EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. shones, and employed by him as a headquarters upon hunting expeditions. This cabin in later years became additionally historic through becoming the final retreat while hard pressed of a certain renegade Shoshone chief, where, though surrounded by soldiers and Indians, he made so determined a defense that finally a howitzer was brought into action, his stronghold shelled, the Indian killed, and the old cabin partially destroyed. Camp was hardly established here, when the storm, seemingly enraged at the escape from Buffalo Fork, followed and again burst in fury. Crow Heart Butte has for generations been a historical landmark, and was the last topo- graphical station to be occupied. This butte rises to a height of a thousand feet above the level of the valley in which it is situated, and is composed of alternating layers of clays and sand- stones. It is the most prominent landmark in all that section, and derives its name from the interesting fact that in time past, during an un- pleasantness which at all times existed between the Shoshones and their neighbors, the Crows, a battle was fought a short distance to the east. The Shoshones were victorious, and a zealous and triumphant Shoshone brave, cutting outrthe heart of a dead Crow, placed it upon the point of a lodge pole, and ascending the butte, erected the pole upon its summit, where it was allowed to remain long afterward as a warning to the foe. EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 225 Near the camp which followed this, down at the junction of Torrey's Fork with the Wind River, was camped that night a prospector of the old school. The stranger came over the bluffs to the east, and from the direction of the Owl Creek range of mountains. He was a short, solidly built man with full bushy beard, and a heavy shock of hair, each grizzled to about the extent of a middle-aged badger, and generously sheltered by an expansive brim of a much bat- tered and weather-beaten sombrero. Upon each hip was mounted an enormous Colt's navy of somewhat ancient model. In a scabbard at his saddle bow on the right was sheathed a huge hunting knife, while resting behind the pommel and balanced across his lap was an old Springfield army rifle. The whole, mounted on a scrubby, sleeping-looking "Pinto" pony of Indian breed, and followed closely by a little square built Texas pack mule, who bore upon his back the household supplies and tools of a typical prospector. The little outfit ambled down the bank and into the creek bottom but a few rods below, and were soon unsaddled and encamped. While en- gaged in preparing his supper, the writer strolled over to the camp and attempted to engage him in conversation, but failed. He was dignified, si- lent, and even morose. I wanted to tell him who we were, and im- press him with a knowledge of the social and scientific surroundings into which he had un- 226 EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. consciously drifted, but he didn't seem to care, or place any value on it whatever. Then inter- est changed to an observance of the man and his methods. The camp equipment of the Hayden expedi- tions, and particularly that of the kitchen de- partment, had long been regarded as a wonder. The methods of the entire world along this line had been ransacked and culled of their valuable features. In addition, all this had been altered and added to by the most experienced and ingen- ious minds, until it seemed that nothing re- mained possible to do in attaining perfection, and that the system presented itself without fear of competition as the acme of compactness, de- sirability and simplicity. One could imagine the stupefying effect through the sudden de- thronement of a belief so deep-seated, had they watched the system of this old prospector unfold itself. His little miniature camp fire, which could be easily covered with the hat he wore, was now started, and his operations of preparing the evening meal well under way. In the edge of the fire was a tomato can filled with water being heated. Nearby upon the ground was a small frying pan, a little ten- pound lard bucket, and a bit of soiled and heavy canvas about two feet square. Taking a handful of coffee, he threw it into a small leathern bag about the size of a tobacco sack ; this he pounded between two stones until REMINISCENT RAMBUNGS. 227 the kernels were crushed. Cutting a few slices of bacon, he threw them into the frying pan and placed it on the fire; while this was cooking he mixed a batter of flour and baking powder in the lard bucket with a little wooden paddle he had whittled. The bacon fried, he tossed out the slices one by one upon the piece of canvas with the point of the big hunting knife, then poured the batter into the pan with the bacon grease, and replaced it on the fire. When the lower side of the flap- jack was done he loosened it from the pan with his knife, and seizing the pan by the handle, tossed the cake high in the air, and caught it in the pan bottom upward; while this side was browning, the water in the tomato can reached the boiling point, when he dumped the little sack of coffee therein, and already the evening meal was fully prepared. Seating himself upon the ground beside the canvas he feasted alternately from a slice of bacon held in one hand and a fragment torn from the huge flap- jack in the other, interspersing the process at frequent intervals with long draughts of coffee from the tomato can in which it was boiled, finally finishing with a dessert of dried fruit, previously prepared and stored in a glass pickle jar. Supper ended, he rinsed the coffee can, dashed a little cold water in the heated frying pan, leaving the lard bucket until the following meal, when the batter having dried, the scales were easily removed and all dish- washing done. No fork, spoon, cup, plate or 228 EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. cooking utensil of any form other than those mentioned, found the slightest service to ^er- f orm in either his kitchen or dining-room, while from the man's unsocial and inhospitable man- ner, the writer little dreamed that a year later in a camp many hundreds of miles removed, he would be invited, even forced at the muzzle of one of those ancient but persuasive Colts to dine with him. CHAPTEE XII. Keaching Camp Brown a few days later, the campaign was now ended so far as field work was concerned, yet a long weary march of nearly four hundred miles remained to reach Chey- enne, where the mules and paraphernalia must be returned for care and safe-keeping during the winter, to be again ready for service the succeed- ing summer. Of the scientific force, a greater number were regular attaches of the survey, and in haste to reach Washington and enter with as little delay as possible upon the duties of work- ing up the field notes of the past summer; though unconsciously on their part perhaps, somewhat possessed of, and influenced by a de- sire to seek a speedy relief from the crude life of mountain and plain, and again taste the luxu- ries of a higher civilization and its surround- ings. Hence the writer was detailed to conduct the outfit to Cheyenne, while they made the near- est point on the Union Pacific railway by army ambulance from Camp Brown. A few days rest of the mules while rearrang- ing the packs, when together with the packers and cook, we single-filed aw r ay from the fort, and off to the southward along the eastern flank of the Wind River Mountains, the mules swinging 230 REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. onward with free and lengthy strides, at each of which they wagged their long ears in approval of their lightened loads, and the homeward course they were pursuing, camping at nightfall of the first day in the outskirts of Lander City, an old settlement on the Popo Agie. Lander was in its time a typical frontier city of those early days. Now not more than a half dozen of its crude edifices remained whose weather-beaten and dilapidated exteriors bore mute evidence of the fearful odds against which the town had contended in the struggle to main- tain its title as a city. Still what reputation the place may have lost in this direction, it had gained in others, for it was then known far and near as the most noted rendezvous of horse thieves, stage robbers, train robbers and hold- ups generally, in all that northern country, then so fruitful of such talent. But a few days previous a band who had robbed the camp at Caribou, and successfully held up a Union Pacific train, with its escort of regular soldiers, started northward for the Black Hills. Early en route they had encamped one night, when the party whose turn it was to cook conceived the idea of capturing the entire stock of plunder, and to this end poisoned the bread which he was baking. In his eagerness to make the attempt a success, he exercised so great gen- erosity in dealing out the poison that their stom- achs refused to harbor it. Capturing the mur- derous chef (who alone had remained unaf- REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 231 fected), they hastily discussed the case and de- cided to shoot him, then deliberating farther, they commuted the sentence to abandonment, after being stripped of all valuables and given a crippled horse. With this he was left to work out his own salvation in escaping from the posse which they knew then to be on their trail. In this condition he made his way to Lander, reach- ing there upon the same day as ourselves. The country about Lander to the south and east was now infested with this class, to whom the fine, strong pack and saddle animals of the survey with their now limited defense, were most desirable. Foregoing the delights of an extended stay in the extremely democratic com- munity, a hurried march was made to the head- waters of the Sweetwater, then down its valley and along the old California trail to a point near Independence Hock. Now leaving the valley and turning due south, passing through that de- file known as Whiskey Gap, thence onward in practically a straight line, keeping so far as possible away from all trails until noon of the sixth day, when suddenly from a line of bluffs appeared the track of the Union Pacific rail- way at a point a short distance west of Rawlins, then on along the railway east a distance of six- teen miles, completing the day's march at the station and government post of Fort Steele on the north fork of the Platte River, where at this time no blade of grass was visible for a radius 232 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. of many miles, while the public store was with- out a single pound of grain. The last rays of the setting sun were fast dis- appearing, as grouped about the store building, men and mules awaited some solution of the problem. There seemed nothing to do but march on into the night in search of grazing, which was well known to be impossible of obtaining in a less distance than twenty miles. A short distance away an officer was seen ap- proaching leisurely from the direction of the post. Drawing nearer he came directly to the writer and inquired, "Are you in charge of this stock, and are they government mules ?" Reply- ing in the affirmative. He asked, "Where will you feed them to-night ?" Replying that it was a matter as yet unsatisfactorily determined, he quietly and without further ceremony took a card from his pocket, and writing a brief note upon its back, presented it with the remark, "Perhaps this will help you out." The face of the card bore the name, Major Thomas T. Thornburg, Fourth IT. S. Infantry. While upon the opposite side was written an or- der to the Quartermaster at the post to care for the mules until the following day. Then cor- dially extending the hospitality of his quarters, he passed on, each little thinking that we would later be indirectly associated in an affair so fatal to himself. Reaching Cheyenne, the outfit was given into EEMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. . 233 custody for the winter, and the campaign was fully ended. _,,_ Ever since the discovery of gold in the Black Hills of Dakota, and the commencement of the stampede in that direction, Cheyenne had been its most important outfitting point. From here the six-horse Concord coaches dashed away daily to the northward laden with the adventurous spirits in the search for gold, followed slowly by long lines of freight teams carrying forward the necessaries of life which they later must have, together with the luxuries they surely would have, in case of success, save perchance the wily Indians of the North got either them- selves or the goods which followed them en route^ But why, now, this horde of fortune hunters returning in so great numbers ? Had the golden reefs and sands of the hills played out? No. But news of a richer field had found its way to them. Leadville had disclosed its treasure vault hidden away in what was now known as Fryer Hill, and thither from North, South, East and West, and every point of compass between, where a passable trail existed, streamed hun- dreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of be- ings, old and young, male and female, pressing tumultuously forward over rugged mountain and across the barren and desolate plain to reach this Mecca of glittering wealth. And now like Charlemagne in his grief and forebodings, as he watched the wild and resolute 234 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. Norseman coasting along the shores of his land in their snake-like galleys, and bethought him- self of the woes that were about to befall his countrymen, the writer stood beside the trail and gazed upon the motley throng, while hope sank to a fathomless depth as he realized the probable loss of those Leadville mining claims, in which it had so long been centered. Far away down in the Wet Mountain Val- ley, lying between the Wet Mountain and the Sangre de Christo ranges there had now been discovered a still later field from which ore of fabulous richness was already being mined. Rounding up the saddle horse and pack mule, which had been wisely retained as a sort of safe- guard against railway and stage rates, in case of future necessity for travel, coupled with a shortage of funds, the writer a few days later passed southward over the Divide, driving the pack mule before, and headed for the "new find." It was not the springtime in which the prospec- tor usually starts on his hopeful mission, glad- dened and strengthened by the bright sunshine and the gentle exhilarating atmosphere of the re- gion, his ears filled with the joyful notes of birds, and his eyes feasting upon the fresh and growing foliage and flowers, but a gray chill No- vember day near the close of the month. Far away to the left stretched the plains like a cold, bleak, lifeless and sombre sea, its horizon inde- finable and lost in the murky storm-laden clouds above. To the right rose the "Base Kange," the REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 235 summit of which was now white from a recent fall of snow. Pike's Peak, away to the south, had sought shelter for its upper or unclothed por- tion in vapory sheets which left only its forest- clad base exposed. Fitful gusts from the range tore through the jack pines, which bordered the trail and spitefully hurled the scattering snowflakes far away out of their vertical line of descent. On to the southward but a short distance be- low Colorado Springs a bridle path diverged from the wagon trail and led southwesterly across the lower portion of the range to the south of Pike's Peak, and in an almost direct course for the new camp of Silver Cliff, yet nearly a hundred miles distant. Following the dim trail, not many miles had been traversed, when the storm which for several days had threatened, commenced in that silent, steady, systematic manner which indicates its operation to be severe and of long duration. The wayside feed for the animals in this mountainous region was short and scarce, and when but an hour or two had passed, no sign of it was visible above the snow. Enveloped in gloom which also shrouded the hungry beasts as they saw their food disappear, we plodded onward ; the pack mule, as the noon hour approached, stopping at intervals at some point which appeared suitable for camping, then being rebuked, snatched a mouthful of foliage from some nearby shrub and hurried forward out of present reach. 236 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. Finally descending a slope from the ever- green timber above, into a little belt of quaking aspens which fringed it, we emerged suddenly into one of those meadowland parks so fre- quently met with in the Rocky Mountains. Out across the little park near its opposite border and close beside a limpid stream whose sinuous chan- nel bespoke its apparently numerous changes of decision as to which course to pursue, stood an old log cabin, and beyond, at the very edge of the park, a log stable. A thin column of smoke curled upward from a huge chimney, the stones of which were rough- ly laid in a mortar of mud, and which rested buttress-like against the cabin's easterly side, The storm was now raging fiercely, when rid- ing hurriedly across the park and dismounting at the door which opened to the west, a knock was sounded for admittance, while the pack mule scurried quickly around the corner and hugged closely to the south face of the structure, seeking shelter from the storm which was coming mercilessly out of the north. ~No sound of footsteps from within had been heard, when the door was cautiously opened for a short distance, and around its edge (her form being sheltered behind it) appeared the kindly face of an old lady. Without waiting to listen to an explanation in full, she pulled the door wider open, keeping well behind it for shelter as she did so, and bade me enter. To- REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 237 gether with the storm I drifted in, while the sad- dle animal sought vainly to follow. The cabin was divided into two rooms. The one entered was warmed by a, kitchen stove, upon which a teakettle sputtered and sang its cheery simmering song, undisturbed by the dis- cord of the tempest's howl without. Across the room and underneath its only window stood an old-fashioned dining table, with its leaves at- tached by hinges, to be opened for service or folded for compactness and convenience w r hen not in use. Upon a rough board shelf attached to the wall stood an old-style clock with wooden frame, a picture painted upon the lower portion of its door, its dial marked with large Arabic figures in place of Roman numerals, and the hands pointing to the fact that it was now past noon. A huge Maltese cat left the chair in which it was nestled near the stove, and ap- proaching, arched its back, elevated its tail, and walking past nibbed its side familiarly against my leg, then turning suddenly about, repeated the operation with the other side ; while a shep- herd dog, which had followed in after sounding the alarm of approach, and who now seemed con- vinced that the stranger was welcome, sought to entertain by alternately disturbing the cat's dem- onstrations and standing on his hind .legs with his paws upon my breast. The old lady mean- while added several sticks of wood to the fire, opened the draughts to their fullest extent, and while the writer warmed his hands and ex- 238 REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. plained the intrusion she listened attentively, occasionally interpolating a sympathetic remark or a wise suggestion, until at last a scraping sound against the logs of the cabin, as the saddle and pack animals crowded each other in their choice of position, awakened us to the fact that the pleasant climatic change within did not extend to them. The kind-hearted and consid- erate hostess, also not unmindful of the discom- forts of the storm-beaten brutes, said, "Now, when you have warmed, I would put those ani- mals in the stable; it's empty, my son has gone down to the Arkansas valley and won't be back for a day or two yet. The only feed we have for them is that corn out there in the shock, and you will have to husk it, so get your hands good and warm." A half hour later the animals were snugly stabled and munching their nubbins of corn with that comfortable, cosy sound so familiar to one who as a boy has done chores and taken care of stock during the long winter on a New England farm. Returning to the cabin, one leaf of the table was found raised, the whole covered with a clean white cloth and spread bounteously with food. Entering, the old lady took the teapot from the stove, and por.ring a cup of hot tea, remarked, "Now sit right down to the table while everything is warm. I hadn't noticed it was so late, being alone, and if you don't mind I'll eat a little something with you." Then ad- REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 239 justing the little shawl she wore about her neck and shoulders, she seated herself at the opposite side of the table, while the cat stationed itself by her side and the dog by mine. As I ate, the mind was so filled with the memory of earlier days that there were soon three biscuits beside my plate, each partially de- voured, had lost my fork by leaving it in the plate of fried eggs, and only ceased putting sugar in my tea when the dog warningly laid one paw upon my knee. Then leaving my tea- spoon in the sugar bowl, and forgetting for the time that the present environment was but tran- sient, I lived again the simple life of boyhood on the old farm up in Washington county, New York, and over near the Vermont line. This was just such an old table as ours, and there being! but three in the family my mother never moved it from the wall or raised but one leaf at mealtime, except when there was company. The old clock upon the shelf was exactly like ours, only the picture on the door differed and that but slightly. And now as it struck the hour of one, its tone was startling. It was the same agonizing sound that all through youth had dis- turbed my morning slumbers and hurried me off to school, and later, when night came, whose imperative tones had sent me back to bed again. The dog and cat chose their partners the same as they were doing here; and I dreamed on, that all this turmoil, strife and disappointment, all these weary paths so lately trod were but a 16 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 241 dream, and peace and joy possessed me as the false conviction forced itself upon my mind. Once more the dog laid his paw upon my kne6, and, partially arousing, I gazed abstract- edly across the table at the woman as she poured a portion of the steaming tea from the cup into the saucer, raised it to her lips and turning her head from side to side gently blew the heated atmosphere from its surface ; then sipped it with long-drawn sips, pausing between each to further cool it by blowing again. The sight intensified my fancy, for during all my life at home I had each mealtime witnessed this identical style of tea drinking with never a detail omitted, and listened to the same long-drawn soothing sips, and nursed the joyous phantasma until again the dog, placing his paw impatiently upon my knee, awakened me more fully than before. The vision cleared, I heard the clink of the cup as it was replaced in the empty saucer, and at last looked understandingly into the genial face of the old lady as she smilingly and significantly remarked, "It makes one sleepy riding in the storm and cold of a day like this, doesn't it ?" In the course of the conversation which fol- lowed inquiry was made as to the length of her residence in the park, then gradually sought to pry into a knowledge of her birthplace and all subsequent dwelling places. For that hated malady, homesickness, still lingered, nurtured and revived through recent misfortunes, and a mania possessed me to search for those whose 242 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. early home had been near mine. Not demand- ing an extremely near-by residence, the same State now made them appear as old-time friends and slightly related. Noticing, no doubt, the determination to possess this information, the old lady said, "I was born and lived all my girlhood life back in York State." I was fully awake now, the heartbeats strengthened and quickened, the blood increased the velocity of its circulation, and leaning forward I eagerly in- quired, "What part of York State?" She replied, "I was born and raised on a farm in Washington county, near the town of Salem, and on the road leading from there to a neighboring town then called Union Villaga" Incapable of further restraint, I arose from the chair so suddenly that the dog, alarmed at the unlooked-for demonstration, jumped away to the middle of the room, and turning half way around to be in a position to continue the retreat or return in case the alarm proved false, looked inquiringly at each of us for some explanation ; the cat arched its back at the sud- den demonstration on the part of the dog ; while excitedly reaching across the table, my coat sleeve caught and upset the castor, as I grasped the hand of the old lady and assured her that I, too, was from Salem. And now, while she prepared a dinner for the dog and cat by gathering upon one plate all the scraps of food remaining from the meal, stacked the dishes in one pile, gathered up the REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 243 table cloth, and opening the door, shook the crumbs out on the surface of the snow, then taking the dishpan from the wall where it was hanging beside the stove, poured a quantity of hot water into it from the teakettle, added a little soft soap from an old brown bowl on a shelf near by (the same old soft soap that at each springtime at home on the farm the writer had assisted in the manufacture of by packing water and pouring it into the barrel of wood ashes from which was leached the lye, and then boiled the lye and grease down into the real article, and scrubbed his chapped hands with it, and got it down deep into the cracks and while it smarted danced about on his toes and indulged in a few unorthodox remarks in an undertone) then while standing by the table, she washed the dishes and he wiped them, and later as we sat by the kitchen fire, we resurrected all the old resi- dents in Union Village and Salem, then toured the balance of Washington County and made all sorts of pleasing discoveries while the cat lay in the old lady's lap and purred its satisfaction at the good time we were all having, and the dog sat on his haunches close up beside the writer and gazed thoughtfully into the fire, maintain- ing a respectful silence and seeming to regret that he, too, was not born and raised in Wash- ington County away back there in York State. And thus we sat and talked of the old home, and of those who were personally known to each, though they were few, for time had removed 244 BEMINTSCENT KAMBLINGS. most of her acquaintances ere those of the writer were formed. Still her mind went back by as short a route, and seemed to dwell as lovingly in the memory of those scenes as his own. And now the old clock on the shelf struck three, the storm had abated, but a deep frown shadowed the landscape, and the storm clouds hung menacingly above. Declining her urgent appeal to remain for the night, she pointed out from the window where a wagon trail led out of the park and over the divide to other settlements on Beaver Creek. Then packing in wood and heaping the box behind the stove high up against the wall, I bade her a last farewell, and looking backwards as we left the park to enter the tim- ber, saw again at the cabin window the anxious face of the kind old lady, as she watched us wal- low onward and disappear in the forest beyond. We had found the wagon trail, denoted now only by an opening through the timber, and the smooth bench of snow where the grade followed upward along the mountain side. The wind with fitful gusts hurled at intervals upon man and beast small avalanches of snow from the heavily laden boughs of the pine and spruce trees. The animals struggled onward and up- ward, protesting at each step against the seem- ing foolishness of their master in abandoning the comfortable quarters obtained, to again subject ourselves to the discomforts and severity of travel at so late an hour. REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 245 Reaching the wide undulating surface which formed the summit of the divide, the first faint shadows of the approaching close of day were noticeable, as leaving a small clearing we entered a belt of scattering timber through which the trail extended for some distance in a nearly straight line. Suddenly the long ears of the pack mule became erect, and his gait hesitating and shy. Looking forward there was visible in the trail far ahead through the timber the form of what appeared an animal struggling in the snow. Quickly detaching the rifle from the horn of the saddle, it was raised to fire, when a closer glance showed it to be the form of a child, while at the same moment a faint cry reached the ear. Pushing rapidly forward to the object, it proved to be a little girl of some ten or twelve years of age, who moaned piteously, as nearly exhausted and with aching fingers and toes she struggled onward through the snow. The pack mule, for the time forgetting his own troubles, hesitated for an instant, and cast a sympathetic glance at the child as it passed ; then riding close beside her, I reached down and pulled her up into the saddle. Hastening onward she ex- plained between sobs how she had been at the house of another settler in a small park just off the trail we were traveling, and that her own home was but a short distance ahead at the foot of the hill, and I listened with inward delight at the certainty of enjoying for the night the hos- pitality of her grateful parents. Then forged 246 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. ahead and depositing the child in its mother's arms as she was about to start in pursuit, awk- wardly awaited the invitation to dismount and remain for the night; then discouraged at the outlook, ventured to inquire if such would be convenient. Turning half around, with one hand on the door latch, she replied, "Naw, we hain't got no room, and my man ain't to home, neither, and besides we hain't got no hoss feed, nohow. There's some folks lives jest down the road, and over across the creek, that sometimes keeps folks ; I reckon mebbe ye kin git to stay there." With this she slammed the door behind her in a manner that attracted the attention of both animals, who apparently embarrassed, looked at each other inquiringly. The mule looked up at the writer sort of reproachfully for having left a good home with the old lady from Washington County, then sidled off in search of a camping ground. A mile or more down the road and on the op- posite bank of the creek stood a log cabin of rather diminutive proportions for hotel pur- poses. Near the cabin a man with unkempt locks and straggling beard was chopping wood, while two little tow-headed freckled-faced boys with yarn mittens and muskrat-skin caps were packing it into the cabin and filling the wood box for the night. Fording the stream and rid- ing directly to him an appeal was made for a night's lodging, while the nmle, assuming it REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 247 would be granted, continued its course to the rear of the cabin where a small corral and a couple of stacks of oats cut while green for fod- der had already been discovered. The man stuck his axe in the chopping block, his hands in his trousers pockets, spat a great quantity of tobacco juice on the snow, looked up good-natur- edly, then surveying the premises generally said, "Wall, stranger, we hain't got much fixings for keepin' folks, but dog-goned if I don't kinder hate to turn a feller out a night like this (it was snowing again fiercely) , so if you can make out with sich's we've got, why ye kin tackle it." With this, he started to lead the way to the cor- ral, then turning, called to one of the boys who was about entering the house and said, "Tell yer maw there's a feller here to stay all night." While engaged in caring for the animals, the writer related to him briefly the experiences of the day, how he had rescued the child of his neighbor and after conveying it to its home, had been denied shelter for the night. "Who d' ye see?" he asked, "Him or her?" "Her," I replied ; "he was not at home." "Gone sum'ers, hey, wall yew betcher life, pardner, I'd go most ennywher's to git shet o' her ; why if he shud cum hum hisself inside the next half hour, he's jest 's liable not to cum enny nearer gittin' to stay ther 'n yew did. Jest de- pends on how she happens to be f eelin' ; mighty good woman 'bout sum things, but when she gits 248 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. on the warpath her sassiety ain't wuth fightiir fer." The animals finally cared for and entering the cabin through a little lean-to kitchen, and from thence into the main living room, a rousing fire shot its bright flames upward from the hearth of a big stone fireplace around which was grouped a herd of seven children, while the mother, whose form and movement gave no evi- dence of Delsarte training, ambled about in preparation of the evening meal. Supper fin- ished, we gathered about the old stone fireplace ten strong. The host and hostess each filled and lighted their pipe and commenced smoking; when, privileged by the proceeding, the writer did the same. The room was large and commodious and seemed to embrace the whole of the cabin. In each corner of the opposite end of the room stood a bed, while at the foot of one was a large trundle bed. A few scattered boards rested up- on the cross-beams overhead, over the edges of which hung a few ropes, straps and the tugs of a harness. It was evident there was no sleeping ac- commodations up there. A door led out of the room from the opposite side from which we had entered, and the possibility of its connecting with another apartment alone remained. Finally one of the children opening it, dumped a bucket of ashes out in the snow. It now began to appear that the guest was to be treated as one of the family. It was a long time REMINISCENT RAMBLING S. 249 we had sat and smoked and talked, the pipes be- ing filled and refilled, when to give the more modestly inclined of the family a chance to re- tire, the writer arose, knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and remarked the advisability of hav- ing a look at the stock to see that everything was all right before going to bed. The man endeav- ored by all sorts of argument to> discourage the act as unnecessary, while the woman expressed a like opinion. However,regardless of their wishes, and after wandering around in the cold and snow for sufficient time to enable such as wished to retire, the house was re-entered, to find the entire family still clustered about the fire. Again the pipes were filled and smoked for an hour or more, when suddenly yawning, the landlord re- marked : "Wall, pardner, I reckon how mebbe you'd like to turn in. So when yer ready take that ar bed over thar," pointing to one of the beds in the corner of the room. "Reckon ye don't mind a couple of the young 'uns sleepin' with ye, do ye?" Assuring him that nothing would afford greater pleasure, he detailed as bedfellows the two boys who were packing wood upon the writer's arrival, probably for the rea- son that they had known him longest. The bed itself seemed to differ in no particular respect from beds in which he had before slept, yet some- how in finding his way into this one that night, and out again the following morning, a certain awkwardness possessed him, which he had never 250 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. before experienced, and will not attempt to de- scribe, -f- Breakfast over the following morning, the animals saddled and packed, and bidding adieux to the hospitable settler, his wife and each of the seven children, the journey was resumed. The storm had cleared during the night, the sky was now bright and clear, and the atmosphere exces- sively cold. The saddle horse and pack mule each arched their back and stepped forward in a gingerly manner, while a mingling of squeaks and growls emanated from their footsteps as they crushed the snow beneath their feet. The third day following the summit of the Rosita Hills was reached, at the western base of which rested the Wet Mountain Valley. Far distant along the western border of this valley, extended in an unbroken line that matchless Cordillera, the Sangre de Christos, rising ab- ruptly from a plain on either flank, the Wet Mountain Valley to the east, and the San Luis Valley to the west, it presents for a hundred miles a broadside of mountain sculpture and an outline of crest unsurpassed. For a time the great white barrier was studied and admired; its upper portions silhouetted against a Colorado sky and tinged with the glow of a setting sun, while here and there along the crest, as described by Bret Harte, "A few baby peaks were peeking from under their bed cloths of snow." Down below in the foot hills nestled the little mining camp of Rosita, near the Humboldt and Poca- REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 251 hontas mines, now well past their zenith of pro- duction. A mile or more to the north, and in the same eruptive belt,was situated the recently discovered bonanza known as the Bassick Mine, whose fame had already spread afar; not alone through the marvelous richness of its ore, but its phenomenal features and occurrence as well, the deposit being a f umarole or solf atara ; a later vent, occurring in the throat of a greater volcano whose surface area embraced more than a hun- dred acres. Down deep in this chimney of about forty feet in diameter, and which once belched fire, smoke, hot water, steam, and gas, men were now engaged in extracting the stony substance which gathering therein, had under- gone the lengthy chemical influences of an active plutonic laboratory, until the fragments through disturbance from gaseous forces, and precipita- tions from solutions had become first rounded into boulder form, and then incrustated with concentric layers of mineral compounds, form- ing of the whole an ore fabulously rich in gold and silver, and as it were, shutting off the fiery breath and strangling into lifelessness this once appalling igneous monster. Away out yonder to the north some five miles distant, and well down in the very edge of the Wet Mountain Valley, appeared a miscellaneous mixture of abodes comprised chiefly of tents and rough board shanties. It was Silver Cliff, the objective point toward which the pack mule, the saddle animal and the writer now resumed their course. CHAPTEE XIII. Silver Cliff, during the winter of 1878 and 1879, was composed of a single street, which ran in an easterly and westerly course along the south side of a small drain which led down into the valley. On the north side and near its edge occurred a projection of eruptive rock (rhyolite) heavily stained and blackened with manganese, which a force of miners were blasting and exca- vating after the manner of a stone quarry. This was the celebrated "Racine Boy" mine, -the dis- covery of which had mainly created the stam- pede and established the camp. The discovery was made by some lumbermen, whose attention was attracted by the discolored mass, found scattered throughout particles of "horn" silver. And now while the massive out- crop was being quarried and the rich ore sorted therefrom, hundreds of men were scouring the hills round about and sinking prospect holes blindly here and there, with no evidence to guide them, but filled with the hope and belief that each stroke of the pick, each shot they fired, would disclose a continuation of the silver- studded formation. Hundreds more were arriv- ing and each day the radial line starting from the common center denoted by the Racine Boy was lengthened in describing a circle outside of BEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 253 which only was there ground subject to loca- tion. The one street of the town was lined on each side with structures as crude and varied as the lines of business conducted therein. Sa- loons, gambling houses, grocery stores and hard- ware establishments mingled and vied with each other in their daily transactions, while the great general center, where, after nightfall the home- less mass of males of all ages and types of char- acter met as if by common consent, was at "Arbor's" dance hall, a barn-like structure with wide open front, and whose interior of one great room embraced in its front half a bar, two faro tables, a Mexican monte table, a roulette wheel and a crap game. The rear half, being reserved for dancing, was the realm of a bevy of pow- dered and painted females, who, inspired by the strains of a piano and violin, flitted here and there amongst the groups of men gath- ered about the different games, in search of partners for a dance, which ended, he was escorted to the bar where, in recognition of the attention he had received, and at his expense, they for a brief time dwelt lovingly over the flowing bowl. The fair entertainer each time receiving a check for the amount of the purchase, upon which she was later paid a commission. The dances were short and conse- quently the drinks were frequent. Occasion- ally, in the case of some individual whose drinks had become of sufficient number, his change received also became correspondingly short, 254 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. and this provided another source of revenue, to say nothing of his admiration ofttimes inclining him to buy wine in place of beer. At intervals, to break the monotony of this one continual round of pleasure, some hilarious prospector or mule skinner would shoot the light from one of the kerosene lamps that hung in a chandelier above, showering broken glass and coal oil upon the dancers' heads, while they in turn showered the vilest imprecations upon his. The more impecunious huddled about the big stove awaiting the general invitation which ofttimes came from some whiskey-laden philan- thropist to huddle about the bar. Others hov- ered watchfully over the faro tables awaiting the only "sleeper" to be found in that wide-awake throng. The little ball spun around and around the stationary border of the roulette wheel, and then fell into one of the pockets of the rapidly revolving center, and rode swiftly away in an opposite direction, while the oper- ator cashed the bets that won and took posses- sion of those that lost. And thus the wild revelry continued until the coal oil lamps burned low and the first faint light of coming day tinged the topmost peaks on the crest of the Sangre de Christo, far out across the valley to the west. On the southern slope of the drain, some dis- tance above the Racine Boy, the snow had mostly been removed through the agency of BEMINISCETTT EAMBLINGS. 255 wind and the sun's rays over an area of some considerable extent, which was now well cov- ered with the tents of prospectors and amongst which the writer pitched his own. It was a settlement of motley denizens with no written law of municipal government, no titled holdings, no regulated thoroughfares or sanitary system, and no class distinction, save the horse thief and professional claim jumper on the one side, and the combined heterogeneous mass of inhabitants, irrespective of race or pre- vious condition of servitude, who steadfastly observed the unwritten laws of the camp, on the other. By far the greater number of the settlement's population were men, but here and there the presence of a woman was unmistakably denoted by the size and frequency of the washings which appeared on the guy-ropes of a tent, and the children who clambered upon the backs of the numerous jacks, whose feed being now well buried beneath the snow, hung about the camp in search of other food. Having selected a residence location in the socialistic community, there was first to con- tend with that difficult task of pitching a wall tent without assistance, when suddenly aroused by the precipitate flight of two jacks who were hovering closely about the flaps of the tent near- est by, there was seen to emerge therefrom a tall, raw-boned, broad-shouldered, unkempt spec- imen of manhood, not yet past thirty years of 17 256 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. age. He was clad in a blue flannel shirt with coat and overalls of brown canvas, profusely decorated with fastenings of copper rivets, to- gether with a fairly generous and apparently unstudied application of candle drippings scat- tered artistically about over a faultless and sub- stantial groundwork, laid upon the aforemen- tioned garments, and formed through innumer- able and alternate applications of bacon grease, together with that of the soil of this and other camps respectively. About his waist was strapped the conventional six shooter, while upon his head he wore, in the most unassuming man- ner, unconscious and utterly innocent of any in- tent at personal display, a sombrero, the crown of which, though low, possessed the most expansive brim yet seen about the camp, and from beneath which appeared the tangled locks of a sandy or sunburned hair. This article of dress, which he never removed except when sleeping, indi- vidualized the man to an extent wherein with- out it few of his acquaintances recognized him. It proved his most cherished holding. Its con- dition indicated that he had already clung to it for a great length of time, not necessarily through impecuniousness, but most likely through inability to duplicate its most wonderful brim. Several missing front teeth, in the ab- sence of positive evidence to the contrary, some- how suggested an association of their disap- pearance with the butt end of a six shooter. REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 257 Straightening up from the crouching posi- tion in which he emerged from the tent, he ex- claimed, "How d'y, neighbor, lemme give ye a hand thar." Not waiting for further consent, he strode forward and set to work. The tent was soon pitched and the packs deposited therein, when reaching down in the pocket of his overalls he brought forth in one capacious paw an old silver watch, a jack knife and a plug of chewing tobacco. Sorting out the jack knife, he dropped it back in the pocket, then holding the watch in his left hand, he looked at its open face meditatively, while with his side teeth he tugged at the plug of tobacco which he held in his right. Then, finally gaining the chew of tobacco and a conclusion at the same time, he remarked, "It's plumb noon right now, so you just come over and have a little snack uv suthin to eat with me ; I've done got a fire goin', and it won't take no time to git some grub ready." Suiting his movements to the sugges- tion, he turned and passed out of the tent, stop- ping on the outside and holding open the flap, calling loudly, "Come on thar, pardner, don't stop to do no fixin' up." Following him into his tent, he commenced dinner arrangements and a line of conversation at the same time. Standing over the litle sheet iron stove in the corner and slicing bacon into a frying pan, he began a line of questioning as follows, "When'd ye git here ? Where ye frum ? 258 REMINISCENT BAMBLING8. What'd ye say yer name was?" Then, with- out awaiting a reply to the last question, con- tinued, "My name's Halloway, Bill Halloway, I'm 'rigin'ly frum Missoury, Ozark county, Missoury, way down next to Arkinsaw, been knockin' round out in these 'ere mountuns though for goin' on seven year now." Gathering up the bacon rinds, which he had sliced off, he strode across the tent to its entrance, and throw- ing them out to the jacks, who had again re- turned, he continued, "Haint staked enny ground yit, I reckon haint been here long nufF to look round much? Well, when ye be, if ye don't find nothin, 't suits ye enny better, I'll put ye on to a piece of ground up next to the claim I'm workin' thet's a bird, it's jest's good's mine, and I'm down 'bout ten feet now, and yew bet she's showin' up great. Mangineez's beginnin' to cum in, un she's lookin way up, un I low she's goin' ter make a mine." It was evident he had reached the danger line in his relations with and judgment of his property. A period which awaits every prospector in the possession and early development of his holdings, the strongest and most unmistakable symptoms of which weakness and absolute inability to distinguish its most glaring signs of worthlessness, and his own blind determination to construe the same into indisputable evidence of a bonanza, is inci- dentally, his inclination to make it the sole topic of conversation, but mainly his uncontrollable habit of sexing the cherished holding, and a REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 259 never failing and frequent reference to the same in the feminine gender. Being wholly unacquainted with the camp, and having no previous engagement to fulfill with any other portion of it, and the deep snow covering and concealing the entire surface, it Bill Halloway takes the children for a ride about the camp. seemed wise to accept the man's proposition and locate the ground he recommended. As time passed and a more thorough acquaintance and closer relationship was grad- ually formed, Bill Halloway proved a genial, whole-souled fellow on all occasions, a good neighbor down in the little camp on the drain, 260 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. and an agreeable owner of adjoining property up in the hills, notwithstanding the fact that at intervals he made a few good natured displays of harmless little combinations of Missouri and "Arkinsaw" habits acquired in his early home down there on the border. And hence, when on occasional sprees he patroled the little home camp, and roared and laughed and whooped, and fired his six shooter right and left into the air, and scattered handfuls of bright colored candies broadcast upon the snow, the children followed and flocked about him as joyous, fearless and lovingly as when, in his condition of most in- tense sobriety, he fondly and patiently toiled in the arrangement of a harness from lash ropes and pack saddle cinches, and hitched the largest and gentlest of his two jacks to an improvised sleigh which he had rudely constructed for them out of goods boxes, and loaded them all in for a ride about the camp. The writer's discovery shaft had reached a depth of ten feet, and as he could no longer throw out the material with a shovel, it became necessary to resort to the use of a windlass and climb out of the hole each time the bucket was filled, and hoist it to the surface and dump it, and lower it back into place, and then climb down again and refill it, which was a slow and labo- rious process, and one in which Halloway had for some time past been engaged. REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 261 And so, born of a necessity which had now arisen, and which our individual conditions were incapable of relieving, and which was unquestionably withholding from the world's supply of precious metals the combined product of two bonanzas, we conceived the idea, (in the absence of capital) of avoiding the expensive demands of hired labor, and to that end formed a sort of development trust, or, more strictly speaking, a co-operative organization wherein the combined force of the two properties, consisting of himself and myself, should operate them alternately, working his claim one day (which claim as announced upon his claim stake was the "Pijjuntoad Pol," and which Bill had named in honor of a certain siren down at the Arbor dance hall, who executed with exceeding excellence certain steps and maneuvers employed at dances in the region about Bill's home on the Arkansas border. ) The following day the -entire force would be transferred to the "OT1 Des- perandum" which was the writer's claim, and thus the plants of the two properties were oper- ated to their fullest capacity, and to the best possible advantage. Yet, still in the midst of this finally arranged and seemingly fortunate alliance (with the shadowy form of prosperity hovering so close that already our dreamy vision had identified it, and all possible surprise had given way to eagerness for its nearer approach and a final em- 262 EEMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. brace) there lurked another detachment of that subtle foe, misfortune. The following day was Christmas, and all day long the hallowed influence of its near approach had been noticeable in Bill as he toiled and talked of its coming. There was a notice- able rattling of the stove lids and fry pans, together with the tin cups and plates that night in Bill's tent, as he prepared his evening meal and later washed and wiped the dishes, which evidenced uncommon haste, and so far exceeded the writer's similar labors in the result of final accomplishment, that he was still eating when, peering in, he called, "Come on, pardner, les' go over to town un see Santy Claws." Making the excuse of unfinished household work, the truth of which was self-evident, he departed with a final admonition to "hurry up and come over." An hour or more had elapsed since his de- parture, while his instructions yet remained unheeded, for, having arranged the supper dishes, mixed a batch of sour dough bread and placed it in the oven to bake, washed a red bandana handkerchief and hung it close beside the little sheet iron stove to dry, then, in further effort tending toward improvement of personal appearance in preparation for the coming Christ- mas festivities, the writer sat patching a huge rent in his overalls, when, from over in the direction of town, came the Bang ! Bang ! Bang ! EEMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 263 of a six shooter, followed by a whoop and yell so familiar that there no longer remained any doubt as to Bill's having found Santa Glaus. It was late, when the noise of his demonstrations having finally ceased, the rent in the overalls having been closed, and its location now denoted only by a broad irregular seam toward which a cluster of wrinkles pointed from every direc- tion, the writer stole cautiously forth over into the town and down its single yet crowded thoroughfare, watching closely for Bill, not with a view of acquiring his society, but rather to avoid it, and wondering meanwhile that his location remained so unmarked by further sounds of Christmas cheer on his part, when finally concluding that possibly the strong arm of the law had interposed an objection to his monopoly of cheerfulness, and had forced him into silence through durance vile, strolled on viewing the sights and visiting the old familiar haunts in their regular order, when finally the dance hall was reached at the lower end of the street, radiant with light and the decorations of pine and spruce bough, crowded to the open doorway with a horde of human beings whose numbers seemed greater than ever before, whose characters were even more varied, as well as the purposes which brought them hither. Approaching the open doorway, no sound of music accompanying a cotillion or Virginia reel interspersed with the loud and regular tones of the caller was heard, but instead of these there 264: REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. rose above the hum of voices the sweet low strains of a Christmas carol. The dealers sat idly at their tables watching the merry, motley throng, while the man at the roulette wheel, to while away the time and incidentally call the players thither, spun the little ball around its course with clock-work regularity, unable, how- ever, to attract the attention he sought. For upon this house devoted to ribald revelry, there had, for the time, fallen the hush of a hallowed influence that so completely overshadowing vice, checked the maddest in their career, so purified the very atmosphere that was wont to be, that even the most chaste and timid passer-by paused to note the change within. Entering and elbowing a passage through the good-natured, joyous crowd, stopping now to exchange a holiday greeting with some neigh- boring knight of the hills, and again to convince another (whose cheer had reached the stage of wholesale entertainment) of the imperative causes and attending sorrow of declination, at last turned to the right, and there, curled up on a faro table (not in use), the broad brimmed sombrero resting close beside him, and in its absence his head sheltered beneath the protecting branches of a huge Christmas tree which reared itself from a large dry goods box nearby, its myriad of candles shed their light full upon the slumbering form of Bill Halloway. Apparently unable to longer follow the swift journeyings of his friend, St. Nicholas, he had REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 265 abandoned further attempt and cast himself down, a devoted, admiring, now senseless wor- shipper at the shrine of his creation, while the faint traces of a lingering smile of joyous resig- nation still rested upon his freckled and sun- burned features, further heightened and intensi- fied through the direct rays of a tallow dip nestled in the innermost recesses of a bough which closely overhung his head. It was indeed a scene to be preserved, if from no other motive than consideration of those who had enjoyed the last few hours of his preceding wakefulness. And stealing softly away, the writer placed him- self beyond the limit of any possible contribu- tion to his awakening. For some time his slumbers had continued, when suddenly loud shouts of laughter arose from the vicinity of the Christmas tree, attended by a surging crowd in that direction. Ap- proaching as closely as possible, there was seen sitting upon the edge of the faro table, his long legs hanging listlessly below, his body inclined forward and braced laterally by his arms, what otherwise appeared the form of Halloway, save that in place of the familiar and time-honored sombrero with its enormous brim, there rested demurely upon his head the little skull cap of an ancient alchemist. And there he sat, stupidly gazing at the boisterous, laughing crowd before him, as yet but half conscious of himself being the object of their jest. And sitting thus he awaited the fading of his stupor and the final 266 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. dawn of a full realization of the truth. And yet the mystery of its cause remained to him unsolved, until, still sitting there, his eyes rested upon the huge mirror which confronted him from behind the bar, and therein he saw him- self as others saw him. Reaching up, he quickly removed the insignificant headgear, held it an instant before his wondering gaze, then quickly turning about in search of his own, his eyes fell upon a circle of felt with a large round hole in its center, through which appeared the bright green covering of the faro table upon which it rested. In an instant the truth was revealed. Some facetious fiend had, while he slept, sto- len up and passing a sharp knife about the crown at its point of union with the brim, com- pletely separated the two, and leaving the parts otherwise undisturbed and occupying their respective relations to each other, the crime re- mained unnoticed until Bill finally arising, and in a half aroused and stupefied condition, invol- untarily possessed himself of and placed the treasured holding upon his head, unmindful of the fact that the crown and brim had severed their connection with each other, and thereby forever destroyed the happy combination that had so long been the object of his deepest pride and the bulwark of his entire happiness. For a brief space he stood paralyzed and speechless, then awakening from the horrible dream into a full realization of its reality, he turned in the frenzy of his outraged feelings, and with his face EEMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 267 blanched with the pent up poison of indescrib- able hatred and anger, his speech stifled with curses, and with his hand upon his six shooter, he slowly advanced toward the crowd which confronted him and which now surged backward to escape his wrath, demanding to know the perpetrator of the deed. Ex- asperated at. the sudden cessation of mirth (which in itself conveyed the impression of general complicity and wholesale guilt) and unable to obtain an utterance or expression of any kind from a single one of the great number about him, he burst into renewed frenzy, and jerking the six shooter from its holster, fired two shots in rapid succession close above the heads of his audience, much for the same pur- pose, it seemed, that a speaker might sound the gavel, but with far different effect, for in place of bringing the meeting to order it precipitated a frightful state of disorder which Bill aug- mented by occasional additional shots and a torrent of threats, abuse and blasphemy, as the crowd rushed pell mell in all directions for escape. Enjoying a more intimate acquaintance than the balance with the outraged individual, and prophesying closely the results which would fol- low, and preferring to witness the affair from an absolutely neutral and unprejudiced standpoint, the writer had timed his retreat so far in ad- vance of the balance as to be well outside the building when the general stampede commenced. 268 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. And now, as he charged about the almost empty hall, occupied only by a few who, like the bar- tender were penned in during the stampede, his ragings rose and fell like the hush and howl of a mighty tempest, as, approaching one of his captives, he quieted down into a pathetic appeal for some evidence in the case, then, gazing again with uncontrollable grief and anger upon the mutilated remains of the loved som- brero, burst forth anew with frenzy so fierce that the very lights in the Christmas tree flickered and burned dim in the poisonous at- mosphere of his wrath. All the Christmas day which followed, Bill sulked in his tent, issuing forth only a few times and in a hurried manner in search of some pos- sible clue which had suggested itself to his gloomy thought, and each time returning with a fresh store of disappointment and depression. Entering his tent Christmas morning, he was found alone in his grief and silent anger, with needle and thread, tearfully engaged in the al- most pathetic and hopeless task of restoring to the glorious, but dethroned brim, the crown to which it was entitled. And now, unable to endure the insufferable sorrow and degradation, heightened by the constant scenes of his humili- ating misfortune, and the indignity it had heaped upon him, and powerless to redress his wrong through fear of injuring an innocent party (for Bill was a just man) he, the follow- ing morning folded his tent, packed the two REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 269 jacks, and shouldering his rifle, silently and sor- rowfully stole away out of the camp and over the hills to the north, taking with him the key to the co-operative scheme so recently inaugu- rated, and so successfully operated, ignoring and heartlessly deserting the Pij juntoad Pol and the riches it had in store for him, and enforcing upon the writer's part the same attitude toward the Nil Desperandum. And now that Bill had finally departed, the writer wandered, desolate and discour- aged, back to the scene of previous operations and, leaning against the windlass of his own claim, viewed with grief the two now silent and abandoned workings ; then far out across the valley and beneath the shadow of the towering Sangre de Christos, saw the retreating forms of Bill and the two jacks, now mere specks in the distance as they moved slowly northward over the frozen snow. Little by little they moved on and out of sight, and with their final disap- pearance seemed to fade the last ray of hope. Rousing from the melancholy of the surround- ings, the writer gathered up the remaining tools, and dejectedly wended his way back to the now lonely camp upon the drain, passed in approach- ing his own tent over the site recently occupied by that of Bill's, and stepping upon the mattress of pine boughs which had been his bed, noticed beneath his feet, and partially concealed by the 270 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. evergreens, a letter soiled and worn. Picking it up, he unfolded the sheet and read as follows : November Tth, 1878. My Dear Son: I got your last letter you wrote frum Silver- ton in the San Juan country, and it found us all in good helth, and we was all glad to here thet you was enjoin the same. I hev sent you too pares of wollin socks and a pare of yarn mittuns thet I nit fer you fer crismas. We got wurd the uther day thet they got thet hafbrede stock rusler thet kild youre poor bruther Tom over in the nashun last fall. They sent Tom's belongings to us sum time ago and I sent his gun and belt rite on to you soons I got em and also that broad brim hat he wore thet you tuJc such a lifcin to when you was home last time fer I want you to hev um Bill fer keapsakes. Write to us reel oftun and let us no if you got the box alrite and how youre gittin along all the time and hopin youle hev the marist kind of a crismas I remane, Youre luvin mother MIRANDA HALLOWAY. CHAPTER XIV. Bill Halloway had gone but a few days when, lonely in the absence of his genial and hos- pitable society, unable to form a like alliance with another neighboring operator, and discour- aged in further attempts to resume operations upon his own claim, (the very name of which now in utter helplessness became a hollow mockery) the writer followed the course of Bill, and packing the little outfit on the back of the wise mule (who from the very first had shown his disapproval of the undertaking) wended his way dejectedly over the hills and out of the camp. That all human kind, of whatsoever age, are but children of larger growth is everywhere and at all times evidenced by their fanciful ideas of the desirability, and the absurd and fictitious value which they place upon all things beyond their reach ; and distance but lends intensity to the emerald hue. In this, no class ranks those engaged in the search for precious metals. A neighboring country, still retained by the In- dian, grows daily more alluring until its soil possesses a richness unheard of, while its moun- tain sides and the sands of its streams simply glitter with gold. 18 272 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. Such was the estimation in which had long been held that great area lying west of the main range in Colorado, and known as the Ute Indian reservation, the demands upon the Government for the opening of which were now rapidly growing. Notwithstanding the pilgrimage with Evans, hereinbefore related, there was still re- tained the longing and vivid imagination of con- ditions which experience had already shown to be false, but of which there was evidently re- quired still another object lesson to fully and forever impress its truth. And now, shut out from all other nearer sources of wealth, the writer's inclinations nat- urally centered themselves upon this one great- est of all possibilities, this one main ambition to which he had clung from the first; and thus influenced abruptly shaped the pack mule's course for Denver to await the opening of spring, the melting of the deep snows which lay to the west of the main range, and the first op- portunity to again enter that far away and phan- tom treasure vault. Awaiting all this, the horse and mule were housed in Bailey's corral at Wa- zee and Sixteenth streets, and accepting the position of day clerk at the Planters hotel im- mediately adjoining, we together settled down to await the coming of spring. Great crowds en route to Leadville filled the hofel to overflowing, and the mule would stand for hours at the corral fence and look across the alley into the hotel windows, his face lighted up REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 273 with approval and satisfaction at the enormous trade the house was having, and the hope that in the rush of business, further campaigns in the mountains would be overlooked, while he re- mained undisturbed and happy. The time finally came, however, when the snows upon the high and little traveled passes of the Saguache range had melted to an extent that rendered passage with pack animals pos- sible. The Ute Indian reservation comprised an immense tract of about eighteen thousand square miles; about equal to the combined areas of Vermont and ^N"ew Hampshire. Its eastern boundaries followed the line of the 107th mer- idian from a point a short distance above the 38th parallel northward a distance of one hun- dred and forty miles. Between this eastern boundary and the Continental Divide (of which the Saguache range formed a part) existed a streteh of broken and mountainous country, varying in width from twenty-five to seventy- five miles, owing to the irregular course of the main Cordilleras. The southern half of this belt of territory was drained by the Gunnison river, and was familiarly known as the "Gunnison country." This section bordered that portion of the res- ervation believed to possess the greatest mineral resources, and toward it now flocked great num- bers of adventurous spirits filled with visions of 274 REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. success and the enthusiasm of an uncertainty; eager in their ambition to be as near the border as possible when the gates to the coveted realm should finally be opened, and meanwhile to ex- plore the bordering domain referred to, of which little more was actually known than of the res- ervation itself, and which, in the minds of the imaginative horde of fortune hunters, must cer- tainly be strewn with a greater or less amount of treasure which had naturally spilled over the eastern edge of the overflowing storehouse of the Utes. Aside from this, being close to the line afforded possible opportunities to make little pilgrimages across the boundary and familiarize oneself with the trails and general topography in advance of the rush which would soon follow. The time finally arrived when the snows had melted upon the high mountain passes to an extent that permitted crossing, and only the swollen streams interfered seriously with travel across country and along unfrequented routes. Two English lads, named Walter R. Askew and Percy Ramsden, who, characteristic of their race, had left their homes in the British Isles, not for a campaign through the parks of a neighboring country, but upon a pilgrimage far out across the Atlantic and through the vast- ness of the newest portions of a new world, had reached Denver. Both were evidently of excel- lent family, and possessed, aside from natur- REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 275 ally inherent graces, a good education, together with ample funds for all necessities, and being inclined toward establishing a residence in the land, (though their maiden efforts and experi- ence led them an out-of-door, adventurous fron- tier life to which they were not averse) it was quickly arranged that they should unite with the writer in extended wanderings about the border lands of the Utes. All in readiness, the little cavalcade filed out of Denver, and toward the great range of mountains in another attack upon the treasure vaults that lay beyond. It was early in the season yet, and crossing South Park and the Park range, and entering the valley of the Arkansas, our course led over Poncha pass, into the San Luis valley, westward up the Saguache river to its head, then across the Cochetopa hills and down Cochetopa and Tomochi creeks to the Gunnison river. From far away up on the forks of this stream rumors had been for some time current concerning rich discoveries of gold and silver, and already little bands had centered at certain points called camps, to each of which had already been given a name, and who vied with each other in the al- luring tales sent forth of the wealth possessed. Some ten or twelve miles above the Gunni- son river forked, its easterly branch being known as Taylor river and having its head in 276 EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. that great open country or park into which Evans and the writer had two years previously found their way in escaping from the Utes. The remaining branch continued more northerly, where its nascent waters emanated from fields of snow in that rugged range known as the Elk mountains. Up this last mentioned fork, a route was fol- lowed past "Jack's cabin," some fifteen miles above, a lonely abode on the easterly bluffs of the river and the only settlement for many miles about save the camp of the wandering prospector who was now beginning to appear. "Jack" was a character known by nearly all the Indians to the west, and for many years known of, in the white settlements far to the east. ~No one seemed to know his other name, or from whence he came, or inquired. He was a "large raw-boned, black whiskered, good na- tured, hospitable frontiersman, who dwelt here alone in a log cabin built by himself, and may, so far as known, have been the original subject of the mythical man and house. Jack was a hunter and trapper, professionally, while inci- dentally he cultivated a little garden patch near the cabin and washed some gold from the river at the foot of the bluff. The saddles of an elk, recently shot, hung from the limb of a tree near the river bank, and purchasing a quantity thereof, \ve moved on up the stream a further distance of six or eight miles, where the stream again forked, forming EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 277 a westerly branch known as Slate river, and an easterly one known as East river. Up Slate river some six miles from its mouth and upon the point of land separating the two forks aforementioned, there rose from the cre- taceous beds forming the surface, a butte or iso- lated mountain of porphyretic trachyte, being a fragment remaining from the erosion of the pre- existing great sheet of this matter, which once covered the section. Its crest rose to an eleva- tion of over twelve thousand feet above the level of the sea, and to over three thousand feet above the valley which surrounded it. It was one of the heroic statues in the great gallery of the region, carved by nature from the endless mass with her varied tools of rain, snow, frost, ice, etc., and forming a giant sentinel of the valley known as Crested Butte, whose towering form could be seen from afar by the wan- dering prospector as he journeyed up the drain- age of the Gunison en route to the Elk mountain. On the westerly bank of Slate river, directly opposite the butte, a camp was already started, which bore the name of the towering mass which confronted it. Thither we shaped our course, and for the time cast our lot with the motley little throng which had preceded. The camp was yet embryological indeed. Only one saloon graced the settlement, that kept by a burly old German named Burns, together with his wife, a plodding, industrious German, who yet spoke English with difficulty. Each 278 EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. were possessed of the prosperous air that be- speaks an extensive trade and lack of competi- tion. In further explanation of which, though they had settled in the, camp some time since, and business had been brisk meanwhile, and the small stock of goods which attended their arrival having displayed but one moderate sized package that might contain whiskey, and no consignment having since reached them, and the stock bearing no evidence of becoming exhausted, it was soon generally accepted that they under- stood the business in which they were engaged thoroughly, were solvent, prosperous and enti- tled to a flattering degree of credit; and no further questions arose save when some regular and wholesale patron reached a condition so crit- ical as to require a body guard, or another was transported over the range and far away to the lunatic asylum at Pueblo; until one day Burns lost his recipe for the manufacture of his goods, and a party finding it and determining that the total cost of production was but fifty cents per gallon, decided to enter into competition with him. And here Burns' downfall began, to liasten which he imbibed freely of his own whiskey, which he had heretofore rigidly shunned ; until declining health, fortune and final death closed his heretofore prosperous career. The camp was one whose resources embraced not only gold and silver, but in the upper cre- taceous beds, whose exposed edges presented REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 279 themselves in the bluffs of Slate river valley on the west and north, and which through the agency of eruptive forces were uplifted into high mountain ranges farther away, there occurred exposed, work- able measures of the finest coal, which as yet was of but little use save for the limited domes- tic requirements which ex- isted upon the ground. In "O-be-Joyful" gulch, which led into Slate river from the west, rich silver ore had been found ; also in Poverty gulch farther to the north. Poverty gulch, however, was regarded as somewhat of a mineral reserve. Well up in its fastnesses dwelt an unique character, known as "Yank" Baxter. E"o one seemed to know of his coming, the earliest arriv- als found him there, thoroughly established and with the gulch staked from its mouth well up on the range at its head. . ,$ Yank was a man of huge proportions, raw-boned, angu- lar, ill-shaped, and unkempt. His roar, when excited, might be easily mistaken, even in this arid country, for a fog-horn ; while "Yank" Baxter. 280 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. his movements and manners were in direct com- petition with, the hippotamus, especially when packing home from the butte a goodly supply of Burns' home-made whiskey. His presence for so long a time in the gulch had in fact driven out every other kind of wild animal, and only the echoing hillsides, it seemed, dare make reply to his violent assertions and frightful impre- cations. Later, when the district had attracted more attention, and purchasers began to appear in search of property, Yank's holdings were in the market, with the conditions imposed that "the feller that bought it must bring the money right up into Poverty gulch and pay it to him on the dump." Only a few minutes of Yank's so- ciety was required on the part of a purchaser unacquainted with him to form the impression that it was not a safe thing to do, and so a sale was never effected until, later, Yank died and the hazardous conditions were removed. Nearly opposite the camp a drain entered Slate river from the east, known as Washington gulch, which in still earlier times had been a placer camp, and which was one of the points visited by Evans and the writer in their wan- derings during the summer of 18 77. Beyond this and over on East river another little band had established a camp at the mouth of Copper creek, a tributary which entered East river from the east. High up in the precipi- tous breaks at the head of this stream a dis- covery had been made which produced masses EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 281 of "wire silver" of marvelous size and richness, and which, though it meant little in its indica- tion of an ore producer of great magnitude, was best calculated, (as ever before and since) to excite and lure the seeker after wealth, and thus drew largely upon the heretofore contented owners and searchers about O-be-Joyful and Poverty gulches to the west. Amongst the first to be influenced was the writer and about the only one to remain unmoved through the entire excitement which prevailed, was the hermit of Poverty gulch, Yank Baxter. It was during one of those prolonged and steady rainfalls so frequent during the early summer months upon the Pacific slope of the Rocky mountains, wherein the rain drenches everything without, and the saturated atmos- phere dampens everything within, that the pack animals were hurried forward along the trail and over the rolling hills covered with bunch grass which formed the divide between Slate and East rivers ; now and then plunging through small drains grown dense with willows, and emerging upon the opposite bank as from a plunge bath, and at last descending into the little camp of Gothic, pushed hurriedly up the one thoroughfare, bordered with tents and occasional crude log structures, in search of shelter or a camping place. Passing the saloon and dance hall, the writer's attention was attracted to a Pinto sad- 282 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. die pony, close beside which was huddled a little brown pack mule, each standing ankle deep in the mud, their backs arched and their tails turned to the storm. The long, wet ears of the little mule hung dejectedly downward, while from the water-soaked pack upon his back the rain trickled down in little streams into the mud below. There was something in the scene with which the writer's mind seemed strikingly familiar, yet he could in no manner correlate it with any earthly experience he had ever undergone; and riding on and into camp at the upper end of town, he had fully credited the impression to some dim vision of pre-existence, when suddenly he recognized the two animals as those of the lone prospector with the condensed cooking out- fit, who had the previous summer camped one night near the Hayden Survey outfit at the junction of Torrey's fork with Wind river in Wyoming. An hour or more passed in drying clothes when strolling back down the street he found the little mule and saddle pony still standing where he had left them. Entering the dance hall, there standing before the bar, brandishing the old sombrero and haranguing the crowd, was the identical individual referred to, now gloriously drunk, and as noisy and demonstrative as he was quiet, sullen and unobtrusive at the camp on Torrey's fork. The door had scarcely closed when he had REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 283 seen, recognized and embraced the writer with all the ardency of a high degree of intoxication. Partially freeing himself from his clutches he managed to make his way outside, still clung to, however, by his admiring friend. Here he ap- pealed to the man's finer feelings in behalf of the horse and mule, then told him a graphic tale of his own ill health, absolute inability to drink whiskey, and extreme danger from getting wet, but it was all of no avail. Then after a lengthy argument out there in the rain and mud, the whole was compromised through a final propo- sition that the writer should become his guest for the night in camp. Glancing at his would-be host (whose general tout ensemble is hereinbe- fore described) then at the rain soaked bedding on the back of the drenched and bedraggled mule, and finally round about over the dismal, vapory storm-clad landscape, he fortified him- self for one final and determined declination of this unwelcome hospitality. ~No great prog- ress had been made when the dark clouds which had been rapidly gathering upon the man's face, emitted a storm of antagonism to his wishes in the matter, wherein it was readily seen, as he significantly fumbled at the old navy at his hip, that further excuses were now entirely out of order and altogether imprudent ; and so, trail- ing along with him and the two animals through the mud and rain and the drenched grass and willows far away down the valley of East river until he at last reached a place that seemed to 284 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. suit him, we camped ; and when he had finally unpacked and deposited the paraphernalia in one soggy mass upon the wet ground, the shades of night were drawing well about and adding, if possible, to the desolation and discomfort of the scene. All the while the drunken old kid- napper had watched closely, kept himself well on the defensive and given not the slightest oppor- tunity to either escape or get the drop on him, which last was a difficult thing for one unarmed to accomplish. It was now intensely dark when, surrender- ing the hopeless task of starting a camp fire, and supper seeming not to be on his list of entertainments, we nestled together on the pile of wet blankets, where he drew forth a quart bottle of the vilest whiskey and pressed his at- tentions even more forcibly than heretofore. Feigning the utmost pleasure at this unlooked- for method of entertainment, the old pirate was made to feel that he had at last struck the key-note of his guest's happiness, and favored by the intense darkness, he managed to waste large quantities of the fluid on his shirt front and to swallow very little, while os- tensibly clinging lovingly to the bottle. Ap- preciative of the writer's apparent thirst and capacity for absorbing stimulants and not to be outdone by one whose years denoted inexperience, he now applied himself earn- REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 285 estly to the task of acquiring his share of the rapidly disappearing refreshment. Soon the welcome signs of drowsiness made their appearance. His speech became more and more incoherent, as gradually he relinquished his watchfulness. Finally his head sank upon his breast, while he struggled feebly for an in- stant to maintain an upright position, then rolled helplessly off the bundle of bedding into a pool of water by his side. For the following few minutes the writer sat and peered at him through the darkness, grati- fied at the result, and to make sure that he was not being entrapped into an attempt to escape. The man's heavy breathing gave ample evidence that his condition was not counterfeit, and steal- ing over beside him, the old cap and ball Navy was slipped from its holster and deposited care- fully in the shallow pool of water by his side as though it had fallen there by chance, and where the cap and priming might become thoroughly soaked. Then, stealing cautiously away in the darkness through the tangle of grass, weeds and brush which filled the river bottom, until reach- ing a point of safety, the writer hurried on to camp. But a brief period of prospecting was in- dulged in in the mountains about Gothic, then a wandering on out of the drainage at the head of East river and over the range to Rock creek beyond. Here upon this stream, high up in the range, several little bands were gathered, 286 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. each endeavoring to attract the attention neces- sary to establish a mining camp. Soon there came to this isolated region, ru- mors of the discovery of fabulous rich "ruby" silver ore, by a prospector named Brennan, in the mountains twenty miles to the southwest and about ten miles west of Crested Butte ; and hur- rying back over the range and down the head waters of Slate river, camp was made that night a few miles westerly from Crested Butte on the trail leading to the new find. Breakfast had scarce been cooked and eaten the following morn- ing, when far away down the trail and through the dense timber, came the voice of some one evidently battling with stubborn pack animals. As they drew nearer and the yells of command became clearer, a strange familiarity accompa- nied them, yet insufficient for indentification. Finally there emerged from the thick timber into the little park surrounding camp, closely following two pack jacks, and with his rifle thrown across his shoulder, the tall, brawny form of Bill Halloway. Busily engaged with the jacks, who now separated as they entered the park in search of the rich grass, Bill gave no heed until he was opposite the camp, when, looking full upon the writer, he stopped short, passed his hand across his eyes as though to clear his vision, then exclaimed, "Well I'll be d d, pardner, is that you ?" For the following two hours or more the jacks remained undis- REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 287 turbed, as with their packs upon their backs they wandered about the little park and feasted upon its luxurious growths, while Bill and the writer sat upon the trunk of a fallen tree at the edge of the timber and talked of the times in Silver Cliff the winter previous. Talked of everything save of that Christmas eve and the sombrero affair; for upon his head still rested the loved and mutilated heirloom, the secret of his insane love for which was now fully revealed, yet to refer to it in any direct manner seemed as indelicate and unfeeling as reference to the fall and dishonor of his nearest of kin. Still a condition existed which rendered it imperative that the unpleasant memory should be revived, and reaching in his pocket the writer drew forth and handed to him the Christmas letter from his mother found in his bed of pine boughs. He stared strangely while the tale of explanation was being told, gazed dreamingly for a time at the open letter before him, then, placing his elbow upon his knee, rested his head upon his hand, his face turned away, and thus silently we sat there, undisturbed save by the convulsions of his frame during each spasmodic inhalation, until finally his grief and hatred had subsided in a measure, and, raising his head, he looked sadly at the Winchester lying across his lap and stroked its shining barrel softly, soothingly and thoughtfully, as if in mute apology at never yet having found warranted employment for it in redress of this, his one great wrong. 19 288 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. Then, rising from the tree trunk, he strode away toward his jacks, and together they disap- peared, following up the trail that led to the new find. -^ In a camp already formed on the shores of a small glacial lake near the foot of what was known as Ruby peak, a cheery little band of hardy prospectors were already gathered. Amongst the rest was one Dick Irwin, an old- time prospector, from the mining camp of Ro- sita. He was a man but little past forty years of age, of medium stature, a genial, kindly face, courteous and unassuming in manner, and though so far as known his career had been none other than that of a miner and prospector, yet possessed of a speech that was charm- ing in its refinement. With these accomplish- ments, coupled with a mining experience exceed- ing that of any present, it was with little oppo- sition agreed to name the new camp after him, and hence the mining camp of "Irwin" in Gun- nison county, Colorado. Irwin had an elevation of over ten thousand feet above sea level, while Ruby peak rose to an elevation of about thirteen thousand feet. It was an ideal pioneer camp during summer months, the forests which surrounded it being filled with game and the streams with fish, while the clear, cold nights of this high elevation made sleep refreshing. It was known, however, to be located very close upon the reservation line, though the EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 289 107th meridian was in those days and to those people a thing of indefinite location. Yet, in spite of the insane effort the white man made to convince himself that it was still to the west, he was possessed of a certain mental reservation that it was to the east, which it really was, and the Indian knew it even better than he. The horses, mules and jacks of the entire band of prospectors were having an easy time, and mostly joined in one big happy family and munched the rich wild grass which grew upon the hill-sides and kept a good safe distance from their respective saddles and pack outfits which were stored in camp, save when some frolicsome bear, with which the hills were well infested, suddenly appeared in their midst, when they would scamper wildly for home. Nor did they do all the scampering. The writer recollects vividly a like experience in the same camp, and having exercised pretty much the same inclina- tions toward haste as they. The day had been spent alone, far up on the mountain top above timber line and well over toward the drains that led into O-be- Joyful gulch. The afternoon was well gone when re- turning, the soft mellow light of a setting sun shed its rich effulgence upon the luxurious pine and spruce bough as the writer hurried down- ward toward camp yet a mile or more distant. Passing through a thicket of underbrush and emerging into a little glade or park where the 290 EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. drain widened, and hearing a slight noise, he turned to the right and saw, sitting not ten yards distant, a good sized bear, busily engaged in tearing to pieces an old rotten log and devour- ing the insects he found therein. Instantly he ceased his operations and, turning his head, looked over his shoulder while an amused ex- pression mingled with mild surprise overspread his face. Then, rising upon his hind legs, he toddled over to where the writer was standing, balancing sidewise, backward and forward, and circling about, now farther away, then so close that his hot breath was plainly felt in the face, as with mouth wide open, he grinned good na- turedly. As it was, I was wholly unarmed, save the pick and shovel carried upon my shoulder and which lent a certain dignity as I turned around and around in keeping face to the bear. Tiring of this, he would throw himself upon the ground and roll about, raise upon his haunches and sit there and think seriously for a while, then he would walk up and sniff about my feet, and up along the leg of my overalls to about the knee, then back to my feet and up along the other leg, while I each time involuntarily raised upon my toes in the effort to get out of reach. Finally he would again raise upon his hind ilegs and engage in another "all hands round," and I danced attentively in each set, while the pick and shovel on my shoulder lent a sort of military grace to my movements meanwhile. And again I felt REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 291 that I was being kidnapped for social purposes, and this time by a bear. And although the bear was sober, and, so far, good natured, and the weather extremely pleasant, I somehow failed to fully enter into an appreciation of the atten- tion I was receiving, and racked my brain for "And I danced attentively in each set." some safe method of departure. Then the thought occurred of a bear's fondness for sweet meats. Down in Denver there had stood upon the street corners for a year or more past a tall, lank vendor whose constant cry of "Rocky Mountain Cough Drops, warranted to cure 292 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. coughs, colds and sore throat, only ten cents a sack," arrested the attention of the passer by ; to an occasional one of whom, including the writer, he shoveled from a huge pile before him into a paper bag the amount required. Having caught a slight cold a day or so previous, and happening to have a small supply at hand, reached in the hip pocket of my overalls, ex- tracted one and held it out towards him tempt- ingly. He stopped his cavorting about, ambled up, sniffed it gingerly, then daintily accepted it from my fingers, dropped on all fours, and com- menced eating it, looking up sidewise at inter- vals to assure himself that it was not a dream, and to inquire further if the supply was liable to hold out. Finishing this, he again rose to his hind feet and presented himself for another serving. He was handed the second one, and while he chewed away at it, and it stuck to his teeth and delayed him, the remaining stock was scattered about in the grass in front of his nose, where he could not fail to find them, yet in such a manner that it would take some time to gather them up ; then the start was made on the establishment of a time record down that mountain, which it is safe to say has never yet been beaten ; often since wondering if that bear was ever afterward troubled with coughs, colds or sore throat. If so, it certainly was no fault of the writer. -=- The summer was getting fairly well along now, and neither Askew, Ramsden or the writer EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 293 having found anything that appealed in any high degree to even our easily satisfied selves, and chafing under the restraint of being con- fined to this limited and comparatively worthless field, when just over the line there to the west existed unlimited wealth easily found, we, unable longer to withstand the temptation, quietly "folded our tents and silently stole away." Secretly and cautiously we made our arrangements and departed from camp in an opposite direction, that no one see- ing us might divine our mission. 'Not even that old friend and partner, Bill Hal- loway was permitted to become aware of this, though Bill had suggested it for some time past, but it was really too good and sure a thing to take any chances with. For Bill, though he meant well, was ungovernable in his indiscre- tions and yelled at his jacks so loudly as to be liable to attract the attention of an Indian several miles distant, and so any feelings of in- justice toward him were excused through a sincere resolution to stake him in. Cautiously we felt our way by easy stages down Anthracite creek ( a tributary of the north fork of the Gun- nison) until Mt. Marcellena had been rounded. At about this point it became easy to note unfavorable Indian signs. From the high points it was discovered that forest fires were starting in all the higher country, and but a few days elapsed until that portion already traversed well back up to the camp of Irwin, was a cloud 294 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. of smoke by day and lurid from the light of flames by night. It had been well known ever since the mining camp was first established that the Ute claimed it to be upon his territory, and had always regarded it with a frown, hence, in view of all this inexplicable demonstration, it was deemed advisable to move with caution and observe the strictest regulations regarding maneuvers, and to this end, avoiding all Indian trails, we kept well in the high country (which incidentally was the choicest locality for mineral discoveries) and after each evening meal moved camp to some remote spot, that a lurking Indian, noting the smoke from the camp fire, would in his at- tempted midnight surprise, find it vacant. And thus for days maneuvering about in the very roughest and most unfrequented portions of these then wilds, the evidences of Indian out- break each day grew more and more manifest, until finally it was evident that we were sur- rounded by Indians; the country on each side being literally alive with them, en- gaged in practices so uncommon as to cause alarm. Hidden away in the most inacces- sible and unfrequented parts, they yet, at times, approached so closely that at night the singing and yelling about their camp fires could be plainly heard as we lay in concealment high up in the mountains above them. REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 295 Finally it was decided to abandon this game of hide and seek, as well as the undertaking altogether, and leave the reservation, but in out- lining a method it was soon discovered that this was no easy thing to do, with the intervening country well on fire and more or less infested with Indians, as evidenced from the sounds of continuous shooting which came from this direction, as they evidently through the medium of this and the forest fires sought to drive the game from the higher country, which bordered the now encroached upon reservation on the east, into the lower portions and the heart of their land further to the west. However, no time was lost in the attempt, and we toiled stealthily and unceasingly along as high up on the mountain sides as possible and not become exposed in the naked areas above timber line. Progress was necessarily slow, yet the second day of retreat had passed otherwise successfully and without appar- rent detection, and supper had been cooked and eaten by a little camp fire no larger than a pocket handkerchief and deep down amongst the rocks, that the wily foe might not detect its smoke, and camp had been removed several hun- dred yards distant, and the animals gathered in a choice hiding place, where, smoking our pipes and congratulating ourselves upon the headway being made, the sharp crack of a rifle not two' hundred yards distant and below in the timber suddenly altered impressions and brought each 296 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. to our feet. Evidently an Indian had discovered the camp and this was a signal shot to the balance of the band. Acting upon this im- pression, we seized our guns, together with a blanket each, and leaving the balance of the equipage together with the animals where they were, sought safety in abandoning the camp apparently discovered, and taking possession in- dividually of still another place of concealment not far removed. Here we lay and watched and shivered with the cold during the long night, and waited for the attack which failed to come. Daylight dawned at last, and still it was feared to return and take possession of the out- fit, through suspicion that discovering our individual absence they were lurking about in the rocks and thickets awaiting an appearance. The sun was now far up above the eastern hor- izon ere the belief had been overcome to an extent wherein possession of the outfit was re- covered and we were again under way. Another day of wandering and successful evasion of the foe when, during the forenoon of the day following, a point was reached so near the eastern border that in view of the success so far met with, coupled with the belief that we were now outside Indian occupation, together with the further fact of being well worn out with climbing over rocks, through fallen timber, and along precipitous mountain sides, it was de- termined to descend into lower country and REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 297 intercept some Indian trail leading to the east. It was near the middle of the forenoon when, striking a well defined trail, it was followed east- ward at a rapid gait up the drain which it led. Soon it left the bottom and began a gradual ascent through heavy timber, of the mountain side to the south. From the time of entering it the writer's saddle animal had manifested uneasiness, hurrying forward, champing the bit and otherwise fretting, when leaning forward in the saddle and looking downward, first over one shoulder and then the other to detect the pres- ence of a horse fly, his eyes rested upon the trail and a myriad of pony tracks therein, all leading in the same direction in which we were traveling. Ramsden and Askew were in the rear following the two pack mules. Hurrying on without calling their attention to the matter, and watching sharply for signs ahead, there soon reached the ear a faint sound at first attributed to the sighing of the wind through the tree tops. Little by little it became more distinct, until the ding dong of a cow bell was unmis- takable. Deciding finally that it was the animal of some prowling prospector like ourselves, we rode on. Still the pony tracks in the trail fur- nished a source of unrest. The tones of the bell came clearer and clearer through the dense for- est, and seemed to come from far below, down the steep mountain side. But, a short distance further on and glancing to the left through the heavy timber, and in a little glade in the drain 298 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. below there was seen flitting about a myriad of bright colored blankets, each covering the form of a husky Ute. Turning quickly in the saddle and calling in a whisper to Ramsden, who was riding next behind the packs: "Injuns, Percy, cut 'em loose," he rushed upon the rear pack mule and jerking a blacksnake whip from the horn of his saddle, dealt him a blow. The mule made a sudden bound and jumped out from under the pack upon his back. Now an excite- ment prevailed, which, though silent, was in- tense. Jumping from our saddle animals, the writer dropped the bridle reins of his saddle animal upon the ground, leaned his Sharp's rifle against a tree and hastened to assist in repacking the mule. This quickly accom- plished, he turned to find his saddle horse had fled up the trail and was now no where in sight. It was quickly arranged that his two companions should push on with the packs, overtake the saddle horse as quickly as possible, when one of them should return with it, while he meanwhile would make the best time possible on foot. In excitement he rushed forward a hundred yards or more, then discovered that he had forgotten the rifle by the tree, and rushed back to its re- covery. Through all movements so far we had remained undiscovered by the Indians; when seizing the rifle and turning to run, an Indian far down in the park below, detecting the act, gave a yell calling the attention of his compan- ions. From the run made forward and back REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 299 again to recover the rifle, the writer was now well exhausted, and quickly figuring out the only chances of escape. They could not rapidly climb the mountain to the trail above, it was true, yet it was all the same in the end unless the boys came to the rescue with that saddle horse. Meanwhile, in hastening on to meet them, pro- tection must be had from becoming a target for their rifle balls. Only twice, as stumbling forward through the timber was an exposure made, and to which attention was quickly called by the sharp crack of a rifle below and a whistle of the ball as it passed nearby. Soon rounding a point of the mountain, one was for the time well out of range, and now the trail became more level and soon left the timber as it sought to regain the creek bed, which it had left and climbed by easy grade along the mountain side to avoid a steep, rocky and impassable section above, where the Indians were encamped. Stumbling forward, utterly exhausted, and at times falling, with no sign of the returning saddle horse, the last remaining hope was to reach the creek bed in the trail ahead, where a dense growth of willows filled the gulch, and possibly thereby prolong briefly the search, and life meanwhile, for the Indians had saddled up and were fast climbing the mountain side, yel- ling with glee at the triumph awaiting them. Staggering onward and at last reaching the willows, the writer fell forward into their pro- tecting fastnesses, for a time unable to rise, then 300 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. staggering to his feet as there came a loud crash from the opposite bank, a violent commotion of the willows, and two horses with a single rider tore past ere they could stop. It was Askew, who, as the writer caught the horn of the saddle, too weak to mount, reached across the animal's back and, seizing his collar, dragged him into the seat; then turning we tore back through the willows and up the trail in a wild and reck- less race for life. A half mile or more up the steep grades, and our saddle animals were felt weakening beneath us, as, reeling, their pace slackened and they struggled violently for breath. Then a savage yell came from far down the drain, and turning in our saddles, w saw a band of Indians (who had at last reached the trail above) emerge from the timber with horses evidently as exhausted as our own, and halting, they held a pow-wow, as they saw their prey mounted and well out of rifle range, far up the trail. Then abandoning further pursuit, they wheeled about and trotted sullenlv back into the forest from which they had emerged. And now, riding into Irwin a half hour later, what, situated in the camp's very center, was the strange structure that greeted the sight? Logs from six to twelve inches in diameter and about fifteen feet in height were standing in the ground close beside each other and forming a great circle fifty feet or more in diameter, while, from the wild-eyed and scanty populace huddled in groups it was soon learned that this EEMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 301 was a stronghold which hereafter one had best not stray too far from; that the Utes were on the war path ; that already they had massacred the entire white population at the agency on White river, including Meeker, the Government agent, and had then gone north and inter- cepted and ambushed the force of troops from Fort Steele, under command of the writer's friend, Major Thornburg, who were coming to the relief of the agency, and had killed Thorn- burg, together with twenty-two soldiers and one hundred and seventy-five head of mules. Fur- ther, that scouts reported large forces of warriors now approaching from the north and west, mov- ing upon the Camps of Irwin, Crested Butte, Gothic and Gunnison City. All that night we remained awake in the log fort at Irwiri, and the following morning sud- denly discovered that we were out of certain supplies, which could not be obtained at a point nearer east than Crested Butte. Moreover, since learning the true state of affairs, a feeling overcame us that possibly Irwin was a little over on the reservation, and if so it wasn't at all the right thing to remain there and be a party to such unjust proceedings, and so, overcome with this sudden revolution of sentiment, and weighed down with our so recently acquired principles and sense of justice in the matter, and further influenced to some slight degree through our lack of faith in the utter impregnability of Fort Irwin, together with the scanty and 302 BEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. somewhat demoralized force remaining to pro- tect it, we packed up and moved on down to Crested Butte on Slate river. Reaching the Butte in safety, there was found here greater consternation than at Irwin. The news of the massacre and imminent attack upon all the bordering camps had crept through- out the wilds, and the unprotected denizens of every gulch round ahout had already found their way to Crested Butte or Gothic, or with greater discretion had passed on down the river to Gun- nison City. Even old Yank Baxter had evacu- ated his stronghold in Poverty gulch, and was prancing up and down the only street of the town, stopping to take a drink each time he passed Burns 7 saloon, and loudly assuring each one he met that he "didn't leave till the Injuns smoked him out and he had shot the last 'cat- ridge' into 'em he had left," all of which was accepted in the general excitement as true. Later evidence, however, went to show that there hadn't been an Indian within five miles of Poverty gulch. The greater part of the comparatively few women and children had sought greater safety by migrating down the river, while a surprisingly large detachment of men had found a convenient excuse to accompany and protect them. The bal- ance that remained, armed with such weapons as existed, and fortified with generous amounts of Burns' whiskey, constituted the sole defense. As night approached and additional wild reports REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 303 came in, the fortification was added to until in the darkness as between the large percentage of excited, frightened, half drunken white defend- ers and the murderous Utes there was little to choose. The self -constituted commandant of the gar- rison was a charac- ter who had ap- peared in the Butte with the ear- ly arrivals and who passed generally under the nom de plume of "Arkin- saw." No one seemed to know his other name, his previous record, or from whence he came, while a cer- tain atmosphere of j stern reticence and>^ uncertain disposi- \[ tion, attended at all times by a pair of formidable six shooters (one at each hip), tended to discourage too much inquis- itiveness. He was naturally sullen and morose, and, drunk or sober, engaged in very little con- versation with any one. However, when he at times started in looking for trouble, it required 20 \\ "Arkinsaw" looking for trouble. 304 EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. no lengthy promulgation of his views to convince the older residents that he was in earnest. He was a man of about fifty years of age, of medium height, strongly built, with heavy hair and beard and stern visaged. For two or three days fol- lowing our arrival the excitement increased rather than abated. Finally it was agreed, and a subscription made (evidently without con- sulting Arkinsaw, who was never known to have a cent, or pay if he did have it) for the pur- pose of sending a messenger to Leadville, some one hundred miles through a wild and broken country, for arms and assistance, while to this end the writer was chosen to make the trip, the start to be made after nightfall that the chances of capture might be lessened, when by daylight a point would be reached far enough to the east to be well outside of the enemy's lines. Finish- ing supper and preparing a midnight lunch, he crossed the street to Burns' saloon, where all important public gatherings met, and where a contribution to defray the expenses of the trip was on deposit. Standing at the bar while Burns counted out the fund, the transaction was interrupted by Arkinsaw who, entering, strode forward, and leaning across the bar, rudely, and in violent tones entered his protest against the whole proceeding. Irritated beyond further endurance, the writer turned slightly toward him and remarked, "What particular business of yours is this, anyhow, Arkinsaw?" Then resuming the conversation with Burns, some- EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 305 thing cold touched his neck just below the ear, while a voice remarked, "It's a heap of my busi- ness, joung feller ; see ? Now dig up that coin you've got there and chuck it right back over the bar 'fore I blow the whole top o' yer head off." Slowly, yet obediently, the writer's hands went down deep in his trousers pockets and raked forth the last coin he had received, while fearing to move his head an inch, he turned his eyes apologetically toward him and remarked, "I beg your pardon, Mr. Arkinsaw, I was only joking, upon my word and honor I didn't mean any- thing personal, Mr. Arkinsaw." "Well, I do," remarked the blood-thirsty old pirate, "and now you trot home, sonny, and git your gun if you want to argue this matter any further with me, and be careful I don't ketch sight uv ye first." After a brief discussion, Arkinsaw's views were, as usual, adopted, and the writer's fully aranged-for Paul Revere notoriety came suddenly to an end. Gradually the Indian scare in the border mining camps subsided, yet further and more detailed and authentic information from the Indian country proved conclusively that the first horrible information relative to the massacre of troops and agency attaches was only too true, and in addition to which it was now known that several women present (amongst others Miss Josephine Meeker, a daughter of the agent), though not murdered, were captured and yet in the hands of the savages. Henceforth 306 EEMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. there were no more raids into Indian territory, on the part of prospectors; and aside from the camp of Irwin, already established, most oper- ations were conducted at a point safely east of any probable location of the 107th meridian. Winter came at last, and with no holdings worthy of preparation for winter operation, we drifted with the first wintry blast and its ac- companying snow, back over the mountains to the east and away to that mecca of all Colorado miners and prospectors, Denver. CHAPTER XV. The season of 1878 had closed the career of that eminent, sincere, geological genius, Dr. Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, who had spent more than a quarter of a century of the very best of his life in unceasing, unselfish, invaluable and arduous service for the Government of the United States in the exploration and determin- ation of the economic resources of the vast re- gion lying west of the Mississippi, and which in greater part was, during the first half at least of his labors a trackless waste aside from the pathway of the wily Indian and the untamed beast. And the operations of the survey were now conducted under the directorship of Clar- ence King, under whom Major Clark was in charge of the division of the "Great Basin" with headquarters at Eureka, Nevada, where the writer now resumed service in the survey. The Great Basin, so-called, embraces east- erly and westerly the vast area lying between the Wasatch mountains on its eastern and the Sierra Nevadas on its western border. A pe- culiarity of the floor of this great enclosure being that it displays a generally true and marked convexity of surface along its east and west section, some 400 miles in length, starting from an elevation of about 4500 feet at the base 308 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. of the Wasatch range, and in the vicinity of Salt Lake City, rising gradually to a mean elevation of from 6500 to 7000 feet in its central portion and descending as gradually to a like elevation with the point of commencement, in its western terminus at the foot of the Sierras in the vicin- ity of Carson City, Nevada. The then great mining camp of Eureka, being situated very nearly midway between the ter- minal points of the line mentioned, as a result rested upon the highest elevation of the great vertical curve, although surrounded by local elevations which reach some distance above it in the form of broken hills and fragmentary ranges. About two miles to the west of the town in an eminence known as Euby hill existed one of the greatest precious metal ore occurrences the world has ever seen. Though other minor dis- coveries in the neighborhood were made as early as 1864, the ores of this particular hill remained unnoticed or received no attention until late in 1868, when work was commenced and enough information finally gained, that in 1870 or there- abouts, two great companies were formed, the Eureka Consolidated with San Erancisco cap- ital and the Richmond Consolidated by a Lon- don syndicate, each with reduction works of their own. Then rapidly followed the organiza- tion and operations of numerous minor compa- nies upon the hill and in the district surround- ing, several of which followed the example of BEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 309 their two predecessors and built other furnaces for the private treatment of their ores until final- ly the deep gulch in which the town was located was clogged with a dense bank of smoke and filled with fumes infernal, out of which ema- nated finally a production of nearly one hun- dred and fifty millions of dollars in gold, silver and lead bullion. The formation of Ruby hill in which this great ore body occurred was made up originally of successive sheets of sedimentary rocks, in all nine or more in number, and some of which were a thousand feet and more in thickness, the whole having at some time been uplifted at this point through the forces accompanying eruptive action, into a great anticlinal fold, forming Ruby hill. Following this the hill or fold had fissured or split open, as it were, to great depths, along its northeast face and par- allel to its axis. Then, one of these parts was pushed up or the other subsided, or both, until the corresponding ends of these sheets assumed a displacement of over 1200 feet at points along the big crack or fissure, and through which dis- placement of the parts it now became what is known as a "fault." The order of the four lower sheets begin- ning at the bottom were, first, a quartzite of indefinite, though great thickness, resting upon the granites ; second, seven hundred feet of lime- stone; third, somewhat less than this of shale; fourth, a second bed of limestone of the same 310 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. character and of about the same depth as the first. These four lower sheets were of the oldest sedimentary rocks known. The earliest sedi- ments laid down upon the surface of the gran- ite and known as " Cambrian." They were the foundation rocks of the Paleozoic era, and though originally covered by other beds aggregating thousands of feet in thickness, were now (due to erosion) practically the only rocks appearing upon the surface of Ruby hill. This great fissure was not truly vertical, but in its course downward had a dip or inclination from the vertical of about twenty degrees. The entire formation on the under or foot wall side of this fissure had been pushed up, or the opposite side had subsided as the case may be, until the lower or first mentioned formation of limestone now in places coincided quite closely with the second mentioned formation of the same material, some 1200 feet above, while at other points it reached much higher than this. Erosion then, during the countless centuries which followed, carved away at the summit of the great fractured fold, until now, of all the form- ations of sedimentary rock which once clothed the hill nothing remained above the lowermost or quartzite formation to cover the uplifted por- tion, save a long, irregular fragment of the lower lime brought up from a thousand and more feet below. In cross section the form of this frag- ment of lime was roughly that of a scaline tri- REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 311 angle with one face resting against the great faulted fissure, and its most acute angle pointing downward along the line of same. This remaining ledge of limestone had, through the grinding effect attending its upward movement, become profusely fractured through- out, while much of it was finely crushed, and the whole thus prepared to receive through per- colation and substitution the vast bodies of precious metal bearing ores that were later herein found. By just what method these ore bodies were deposited, there remains no positive evidence. It seems most probable, however, that the dynamical action which uplifted the great sedimentary beds created innumerable other frac- tures aside from the Kuby hill fissure found so directly connected with these ore bodies and so enormously faulted. As a product of this dynamical action, there appears in the immediate vicinity large areas of eruptive matter (porphyry and ryholite) the deposition of which was certainly attended by great heat, gases, vapors and superheated waters which, laden with mineral matter in solution, circulated most freely along planes of least re- sistance, such as bedding planes and fractures, and ascending along the great Euby hill fault fissure, as at least one channel, came finally in contact with the crushed and unresisting lime, and permeating the broken and pulverized mass, deposited little by little of its burden of iron, lead, gold, silver, silica, etc., etc., which con- 312 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. stituted the ore proper ; not, however, impregnat- ing the entire mass, as seemingly a wise prov- idence thoroughly understood that such a method of deposition would render the whole of far too low a grade for successful operation by creatures of the earth destined to follow, who would make the discovery and assume the undertaking ; and thus it came, that these values, through some law of inorganic affinity imperfectly understood, were concentrated at irregular points and in irregular bodies throughout the field; usually in caves, either pre-existing or created through the process of ore deposition. Most of the greater ore bodies were found deposited upon the floor of great caves in the lime and only partially filling the same, a phenomena some- what difficult to explain. Certainly it was not due to infiltration or leaching, as no trace of stalagmites or stalactites other than those of calcium carbonate were found. Again, if due to substitution, and the circulating solutions deposited an atom of their metalliferous burden in replacement of the atom lime rock which they in turn converted into solution, then why was not the replacement complete, and the cave full ? However, these ores unquestionably presented a far different structure immediately following their deposition than when later discovered by man. They must originally have been deposited in primary form as sulphides; when found, however, they were in an almost perfect state of oxidization. This metamorphism, it is quite BEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 313 possible and even probable, diminished their volume. To whatever extent this occurred, the mass naturally settled away from the roof and left the open chamber found. Were the deposits made in caves already formed, and upon which these ore bearing solu- tions and vapors through lack of carbonic acid had no further effect, the deposit would be made equally upon all exposed portions of the recep- tacle, when in case of a complete filling the re- sult would be identical with that filled by sub- stitution, and in case of an incomplete filling or the existence of a central vacuity, the appar- ent shrinkage through oxidization would be cor- respondingly increased. The early operation of these properties near the surface and in the big end of the wedge indicated a field of startling magnitude. Soon, however, development at greater depth presented unmistakable evidence that the longitudinal boundary planes of this bonanza converged rap- idly in their course downward, until finally con- tinued delving after its wealth terminated not exactly at the "little end of the horn," but more precisely at the lower and sharper point of the wedge or triangle, one fourth of a mile or there- abouts below the surface. The winter of '79 and '80 found the camp but little past the zenith of its glory and produc- tion. Eureka, with a population of ten thousand people and its single business street, following 314 BEMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. the bed of the gulch, up and down which all day long huge freight and charcoal wagons, drawn by long strings of mules, each thirty or forty in number, filed slowly and in endless pro- cession until nightfall, when seemingly half the population, added to by nightly delegations from the town of Ruby Hill up at the mines two miles distant, thronged the brilliantly lighted and noisy thoroughfare, until passage was only pos- sible through the middle of the street. From the little narrow-gauge railway line which had its terminus here, freight and passen- gers were transported to such points in the great desert beyond as Hamilton, Ely, Tybo, and so far south as Pioche ; from here daily, long lines of freight teams started upon their dreary, toil- some march such freighting as the world has never seen outside of this very desert and its bordering range, the Sierra Nevadas. For more than fifty miles at a stretch in various sections of the routes traveled, no sign of habitation was met with save the hut of the stock-tender, and the adobe stables for the mules at the regular stations where night was passed and water was secured to fill the casks slung each side of the ponderous freight wagons, with which to slake the thirst of the toiling mules until the next water hole or station was reached. Each of these freighting outfits was com- posed of from three to five monstrous wagons, connected in a train like railway cars, and all of which, except the front wagon or that to EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 315 which the mules were hitched, were known as "trails" and were dropped at the foot of heavy grades and hauled up separately and recon- nected at the summit. These wagons were built largely at Carson City, Nevada, which point enjoyed as great a reputation for the manufacture of this class of conveyance as Concord, New Hampshire, did for stage coaches. The hubs of many of these wagons were each fully the size of a flour barrel. Each wagon had a capacity of from ten to fifteen tons. The mules employed were from sixteen to forty according to the weight of the load, con- dition of road, etc. The whole was managed by a single driver, who, riding one of the wheel mules, guided the balance by a "jerk" line, at the same time oper- ating the brakes through another line attached to a long lever. In such a manner and upon such scale was freight handled between the Rocky mountains and the Pacific coast and from the borders of Mexico to British Columbia only. Throughout the Rocky mountains and east thereof, in fact, throughout the world, in so far as the writer's information extends, no such freighting has ever been engaged in, wherein, as in an instance actu- ally witnessed, a load of sixty-five tons left Winnemucca, Nevada, in the spring of 1880, handled by a single driver, and destined through a long, weary journey over mountain and plain 316 BEMimSCENT EAMBLINGS. for final delivery at Boise City, and other points in Idaho. The field work of the survey had embraced an area of about twenty miles square, or 400 square miles, in which the Ruby hill deposit occurred near the center of its northern half. This entire area was contoured at fifty feet vertical intervals, while a general geological ex- amination of the whole, embodying a more de- tailed examination of the small section embrac- ing the ore deposits, followed. A blanket of snow, accompanied by a low temperature incident to this elevation and lati- tude, had now shrouded the region round about. Field work had been abandoned, and in fur- nished quarters rented for the winter, the force were now cosily ensconced and busily engaged in compiling the data obtained during the sum- mer preceding; making an occasional trip through the deep snow to some distant point to obtain information overlooked, or to check some condition which, through its apparent inconsis- tency, seemed an error. Then, underground, deep down in the workings of the Eureka Consol- idated, Richmond and other great mines, climb- ing about with flickering lights through passages and caverns, like gnomes in the under world, in search of truths to present to those who dwelt in the light of day. Fourteen hundred and more feet down in the bowels of the earth, hundreds of miners were REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 317 here engaged, scattered through miles upon miles of winzes, drifts, and upraises, and perched in countless numbers high up on breasts of ore, or in the roofs of stopes, their positions denoted only by the faint flare of a candle car- ried by each, and whose feeble rays lighted but dimly a small radius round about in the Plutonic darkness everywhere. Whole forests of the best timber from along the Pacific coast in Oregon and Washington were already interred in the workings of these mines, for the purpose of sustaining the mountain above them and protecting the workmen while engaged in extracting the ore bodies. As an evidence of the enormous weight to be sustained, there might be seen in the lower work- ings of these mines, timbers, originally sixteen inches square, which had been compressed to a thickness of four inches and less, so solidified that the destructive effect upon an edged tool was almost equal to that of a bar of railway iron. As heretofore stated, the entire and enor- mous tonnage of ore produced was treated by smelting upon the ground. Far removed from coal supply, and with ninety miles of wagon haul across the desert during a period covering early operations, necessity compelled the intro- duction of some cheaper fuel. Indigenous to the soil and climate of this desert region, there grew upon the smaller hills, in the gulches and upon the slopes of the fragmentary ranges 318 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. round about, a more or less dense growth of "mountain mahogany." Though beautiful in color and texture, intensely hard and to all appearance a perfect mahogany, its growth was so dwarfed as to render it simply a giant shrub and unfit for any commercial uses, other than as a fuel. And thus nature had provided crude facilities for pioneer operations preceding in- dustrial advancement not yet acquired. This mahogany, at the close of operations, had been cut and converted into charcoal over an area represented by a radius of at least twenty miles, drawn from the town of Eureka. A still more striking illustration of the force of necessity along this line is given at Tusca- rora, in the northern portion of Nevada, and a camp of even earlier date than Eureka, Here the ores were of a milling in place of a smelt- ing nature, and must of necessity be treated upon the ground. Yet here even the dwarfed mahogany did not occur; but in its stead the great arid valley, embracing hundreds of square miles in area, upon whose borders the camp occurred, was one dense forest of giant sage, the trunks of which were as large as a man's arm. The growth was possessed of a high calo- rific, through an inflammable oil which it con- tained, and although it burned rapidly, the forest of this material which covered the val- ley was so dense, and of so great an area that a million tons of ore or more was reduced REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 319 here, through the agency of this energy-creating substanca While incidentally and briefly referring to such as we have of the ore deposits of this most remarkable precious metal producing state, it would appear most inconsistent to pass un- mentioned that most wonderful occurrence of its kind, which as yet has ever been disclosed to humankind in the entire world, viz : the Comstock lode, which lies at a point in Storey county, about twenty miles easterly from the foot of the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada range; more definitely it is located in a small spur or offshoot of said range, and more def- initely still, at the foot of a prominent peak in this spur range known as Mount Davidson. Gold was first discovered in Nevada in the spring of 1850, in what is now known as Gold canyon, by William Prouse, one of a party of Mormons who were en route to California. Although the gravel which they found here would, under ordinary circumstances, have been regarded as rich, yet the excitement over the fabulous wealth of California diggings was so great as to make this appear insignificant, and most of them, after a short stay, passed on over the Sierras. Little was done here dur- ing this year, owing to the insane rush to California, wherein, during the summer, over 60,000 emigrants crossed the desert, stripping every oasis in their way until barren as a 21 320 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. Kansas cornfield after the grasshopper plague. Flour in the valley of the Carson and at the sinks of the Humboldt reached a price of $2.50 per pound, and it is related that the little band in the canyon, influenced by hunger, became highwaymen, and attacked wagon trains of provisions in their passage westward through the country. -f- By Act of Congress, approved September 9th, 1850, the territory of Utah had been estab- lished, and its assembly passed an act Jan- uary 17th, 1854, organizing the county of Car- son, described by metes and bounds, which in- cluded an immense area. Brigham Young was territorial governor, and being empowered by the same act, appointed Orson Hyde, one of the elders of the Mormon church, as probate judge of the new county, who having authority to act in both civil and criminal cases, exercised the first local government amongst the new comers. During the severest months of winter, the little band in Gold canyon, together with those in the Carson valley, had no possibility of com- munication with the outside world save from the settlement of Placerville on the western slope of the Sierra Nevadas, and this alone through the marvelous strength and endurance of John A. Thompson, a stalwart Norwegian, who made the trip regularly and alone, pack- ing on his back from 50 to 100 pounds of freight. These trips of a hundred miles from Placerville to the Carson valley, more than half EEMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 321 the distance being through the pine forests of the Sierras and over a field of snow of from ten to twenty feet in depth, he accomplished in from two to three days. During the summer of 1854, two brothers, Ethan Allen and Hosea Ballon Grosh from Pennsylvania, spent much time in the hills about Gold canyon prospecting for silver leads, and particularly upon the canyon slope of Mount Davidson, then called by the gulch miners Sun peak, and from letters written by them, it appears certain that they had noted what was afterward known as the Comstock ledge. And here without funds, save what they washed from the sands of the canyon below, they toiled and struggled on in this remote, uninhabited and desolate location until the spring of 1857, when the brother Hosea, wounding his foot with the pick which he was weilding, died but a few days later for want of proper treatment. Stricken with misfortune, the remaining brother, Ethan, together with a companion named Burke, set out late in November for California. In crossing the Sierras, they en- countered a terrible snow storm near Lake Tahoe. A few days later a second storm ob- literated the trail, and the great depth of snow now attained, together with the extreme cold, rendered travel almost impossible. Still they struggled on, killing and eating the burro which accompanied them, as he could no longer make 322 BEMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. his way through the deep snow. Finally, in terrible condition, they crawled to the hut of a lone placer miner on the Middle Fork of American river, where Ethan in a few days died from the effect of his sufferings, while Burke was so badly frozen that amputation of both feet being necessary, the operation was crudely yet successfully performed by the pros- pector host, who removed them by un jointing at the ankles. Thus ended the first attempt at locating that greatest of all bonanzas, the Corn- stock lode. In February of the year following the death of Grosh, a character known down in the placer camp in Gold canyon as "Old Virginny," (a native of the state of Virginia, and whose true name was James Finney) in wandering over the hills bordering the canyon, noticed the out- crop of some peculiar looking rock on the north- eastern face of Sun peak, and at once made a vague and indefinite location of the same. Later in the year, the diggings down in the canyon becoming poor, others were induced to give attention to the rock up and along the face of the peak. And though the location made by Finney was absolutely invalid, no development whatever having been done, for though a resi- dent of the canyon since 1851, work was an act of which "Old Virginny" had never yet been guilty. Still his location was respected and the name "Virginia" given it in honor of the dis- REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 323 coverer. Late in the year, Finney, together with two or three others, began prospecting a large mound-shaped mass of disintegrated ma- terial lying about a mile south of Finney's orig- inal location. This proved to be fairly rich in gold, and they made other locations thereon. Immediately thereafter five other prospectors (the name of one of whom was Henry Corn- stock) came to the mound and took up a single claim, and the new camp was given the name of Gold Hill. Work now actuallly began at this point in April, 1859. Meanwhile the placer mining down in the canyon had been carried upward to its head, and two of these miners, Patrick McLaughlin and Peter O'Eiley, began trenching up the face of Sun peak in the hope to find a little dirt rich enough to pack down in the canyon and wash. At one point a little water trickled from the face of the mountain, and thinking to avail themselves of this, they dug a hole in the earth close by as a reservoir. The earth thus ex- tracted, being of a peculiar color, they washed a small amount and discovered it to be fabu- lously rich in gold. It was in fact the decom- posed apex of the great lode at still another point Ceaselessly and silently they toiled, and with even the crude appliances they possessed, were rapidly gaining a fortune, when the party Corn- stock referred to, (who was a worthless, shiftless fellow, ever prying about to gain some advan- 324 REMINISCENT RAMBIJNGS. tage through the labor and discovery of others) in roaming about the hills one day and stop- ping at the little camp of McLaughlin and O'Riley, soon discovered their secret, and in- stantly began conjuring a scheme to rob them of a portion at least of their find. Coolly and un- blushingly, he informed them that he had some time since located a ranch of 160 acres, the boundaries of which included the ground they were w r orking. In addition to this, he claimed the water which they were using, as having purchased it from a mythical locator a long time previous. Intimidated by these fraudulent assertions, and rather than have trouble, McLaughlin and O'Riley foolishly conveyed to the impostor 100 feet in length along the line of their rich outcrop. Comstock with associates now set to work and quietly and vaguely located 1500 feet along this northerly portion of the great ledge, and being a loud-mouthed, self-styled leader and authority, became through this, and his ques- tionably obtained yet extensive holdings, prom- inent in the camp ; and thus the great ledge, by fraud and loud pretense, came in its early and unimportant stage and ever after to bear the name of this worthless, dishonest vagabond, who never did a day's work or discovered anything ; a name it has ever since retained. McLaughlin and O'Riley, content with the small holdings left them after being swindled by Comstock, continued to toil ceaselessly, and in REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 325 the excavation they were making to obtain dis- integrated matter, which they could wash with- out crushing, they at no great depth began encountering small seams but a few inches in width of hard black rock which interfered with their work and annoyed them much from the fact that it was difficult to extract with pick and shovel, and beside the fragments had to be sorted from the loose material to be washed in their rockers. Finally a stroller about the camp one day picked up a few pieces of this black rock and carried them away to Placerville, Califor- nia. Here they were assayed, showing a result of three thousand dollars per ton in silver and nearly a thousand dollars in gold. This, of course, created an excitement and a wild stampede followed. Hordes of human- ity and long trains of pack animals laden with supplies quickly filled the passes of the Sierras headed for the new El Dorado. Wildly they swarmed down the eastern slope, and out across the desolate sage brush waste beyond, guided ever by the towering sum- mit of Sun peak. And by the coming of winter or the close of the year 1859, all of Gold hill, the eastern slope of Sun peak, far down into Gold canyon, together with the surrounding hills, was a mass of holes and mounds of earth created by this motley horde of fortune hunters. And it was now well known that the loose yellow dirt, though a rich silver chloride, was but incidental, 326 EEMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. and that the great wealth lay in the heretofore despised hard black rock, which from unknown depths poked its nose upward into the affairs of the early operators. Late in August of 1859, one and a half tons of this black rock (which in fact was a fabu- lously rich ore containing "argentite" or silver glance, together with stephanite) was packed upon the backs of animals to San Francisco and there sold for one dollar and fifty cents per pound, or three thousand dollars per ton. This was followed by other shipments until, at the close of the year, over twenty tons had been packed over the Sierras. The cost of packing was about one hundred and fifty dollars per ton, and the treatment charge at that time over four hundred dollars per ton. Two camps were now started along the face of the mountain heretofore known as Sun peak, but now renamed Mount Davidson, after a San Francisco banker, now interested in several of the claims, which he had incorporated into what was known as the Ophir company. One of the towns referred to was built at the mound and named Gold Hill ; the other was located farther out along the ledge to the north and was called Virginia City, after "Old Vir- ginny." The main street was laid along the out- crop of the ledge and was soon lined with gro- tesque habitations. REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 327 The spring of 1860 witnessed a stampede from the settlements of California to the new bonanza never before seen. It was the outburst of a long winter of rapidly growing and almost unbearable desire accompanied by most exten- sive preparation. It was an easy route so far as Sacramento, for the river of that name be- tween San Francisco and this point was nav- igable, and steamboats of some considerable di- mensions made their way without difficulty. From here, however, it was a long, tedious pilgrimage through the wilderness of the steep Sierras, each foot of the way beset with hard- ships too numerous to mention, as in their route via Placerville and over Johnson's pass into the valley of the Carson, they clambered through snow banks and mud holes, then over fallen tim- ber and rocks. In this manner thousands of beings, composed of every nationality and every station in life, found their way ere the summer of 1860 had far advanced, to this desolate, yet seductive, center. Development upon the great lode progressed rapidly under the conditions imposed. Prac- tical miners, or in fact wage earners of any kind, were difficult to obtain. ISTone came here with a view to indulging in so slow and com- monplace an acquirement of worldly goods. The vein was growing huge in its proportions as depth was attained, and was soft and inca- pable of self support Comparatively little was known at this time of scientific mining, and 328 EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. timber must be brought a long way. To add to all this, the lode soon developed a strong flow of water which must be cared for. Nor was all this the sum total of trouble in operation. Although the volume of ore disclosed was in- creasing enormously, there was but a small per- centage of it of that extremely high grade neces- sary to stand transportation to California and the costly treatment by smelting which it must receive ; hence, the by far greatest tonnage must remain on the dumps a worthless mass, through absolute lack of knowledge of any method of treating it upon the ground at a profit. Yankee science, aided by importations of talent from Frieburg, Germany, failed to in any degree solve the problem, and resort was neces- sary to a method devised and employed by the Mexicans for a century or more prior, in the extraction of gold and silver from certain ores not of a free milling nature. The method was that now known in this country as pan amal- gamation. The ore, after first being ground finely, was mixed with salt, mercury and water, then heated and stirred constantly. The Mex- ican appliances, however,, for producing the highest practical result from the scientific prin- ciple to which they had given birth, were crude and inefficient, and it remained for Yankee in- genuity to perfect them as seen to-day. The matter of who constructed and placed in operation the first mill for the treatment of these ores seems at this late dav difficult of de- KEMINTSCENT RAMBLINGS. 329 termination, two mills being built, one by Almarin B. Paul, and the other by Charles S. Coover; both were completed on the 9th day of August, 1860, and started nearly simultaneous- ly, the charge for treatment being thirty dollars per ton. Other mills with continued improvements now followed rapidly until about 100 mills were in operation. In the following year of 1861 the territory of Nevada was created, with James W. Nye ap- pointed as governor. And now nearly a hundred companies were formed and operating to a greater or less extent upon this wonderful lode. And probably in no operations ever engaged in heretofore or since was there ever seen such inconceivably and in- sanely reckless extravagance as was here uni- versally practiced. The very air was filled with processes for treatment of the ores, each claimed to be far superior to the Mexican method. Great pri- vate mills were built, that were total failures, and costing as much as a million dollars each, surrounded with beautifully terraced grounds filled with costly fountains, statuary and aqua- riums, together with managers' residences that were veritable palaces. In addition to such expenditures, the vari- ous companies were now beset with litigation. The great lode made its appearance upon the 330 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. surface as apparently many different lodes run- ning parallel and with partitions of porphyritic rock, in some cases a hundred or more feet in width, the dip of each being to the west or into Mount Davidson. Now, with depth, this series of veins was found not only uniting into one, but the great vein formed of this accumu- lation reversed its dip and was now pitching to the east or away from Mount Davidson, at an angle of about 40 degrees from the horizon. Endless litigation now commenced, based upon innumerable complaints, and in five years fol- lowing, no less than ten millions of dollars were expended in legal warfare. The terrible trail over the Sierras, via Lake Tahoe and Placerville, had now developed into the most magnificent highway in the United States. Nearly a million dollars had been ex- pended upon it in crossing the range. It was macadamized for nearly its entire length, its width at all points was sufficient for two teams to drive abreast, while it was traversed from early morn until late at night by an unending line of the finest stages and freight teams in the world. In every direction efforts were being made to avoid the haul of supplies from California. The Carson and Truckee valleys were, so far as pos- sible, being brought under cultivation, whereby to furnish foodstuffs. Salt, which was used in large quantities in the mills, it was found, could be obtained from the beds of saline lakes in the REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 331 desert to the south. To transport this across the arid waste a train of Bactrian camels were im- ported, who for some time performed the ser- vice, each carrying a load of from 400 to 500 pounds; finally, however, their use was aban- doned, from the fact that their feet could not withstand injury from the sharp stones encoun- tered in the mountainous portions of the trail. They were now taken into the trackless desert in the south and there turned loose to roam at will. Possibly a few of them still exist, in the most impenetrable portions of the great waste, but as these regions have little by little been explored, most of them have been shot by team- sters, whose mules and horses they frightened into the wildest of stampedes. In the fall of 1869 William Sharon, inter- ested not only upon the lode, but in the mills which treated the ores, completed a line of railway from Virginia City and the mines, down to the mills on the Carson river and to Carson City, and the following year extended it to a connection at Reno which the Central Pacific railway now built. The water supply for the overcrowded towns of Virginia City and Gold Hill being obtained from tunnels run for the purpose, and from the discharge of the mines, was not only of poor quality but inadequate in volume, hence in 1873 a company known as the Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company, installed a pipe line from Hobart creek in the Sierra Nevadas, seven and 332 EEMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. one-half miles distant in a straight line. This pipe was twelve inches inside diameter, and in crossing Washoe valley sustained a head of over seventeeen hundred (IT 00) feet, a remarkable example for this or later times. In 1875 a disastrous fire demonstrated the inefficiency of this line, when it was duplicated, the supply being taken from Lake Mariette in the Sierras. For some time there had been a decrease in the output of the mines opened, while some were out of ore entirely. Things looked uncer- tain and discouraging in Virginia City, where, away up there on the side of Mount Davidson, city lots had sold as high as $25,000 each. In the very heart of the lode was a stretch of from twelve to thirteen hundred feet, owned by dif- ferent parties who would not, or could not, de- velop the same themselves, and had placed upon it a price so high that no one would consider it. In the camp was a party named John W. Mackey. First a miner, he had risen to super- intendent of what was known as the Caledonia Tunnel and Mining company, then became the owner of considerable stock in the Kentuck mine. In the camp was also another party named James G. Fair, who had followed pretty much the same course as Mackey. Associating themselves together they obtained control of the Hale and Norcross mine, which at that time was deemed of little value. Engaging in the EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 333 operation of this, they developed new ore bodies and made a somewhat marked success. Associated with Mackey and Fair in the Hale and Norcross, were two San Francisco parties (saloon keepers) named James C. Flood and William O'Brien, constituting a quartet of Irishmen whose subsequent success will be shown to be notable. The Hale and Norcross was finally ex- hausted, and the quartet, in casting about for some other Holding out of which they might make a mine, settled upon the undeveloped stretch heretofore referred to, which had under- gone no change save that the various owners had consolidated their holdings under the title of the Virginia Consolidated Mining company. Obtaining ownership of this at a small price, the four set to work upon its development by sinking a large shaft upon the property and also by projecting a drift into the ground from the 1200 foot level of the Gould and Curry mine and through the Best and Belcher mine which lay between. In running this drift they followed a small streak of ore, at times no thicker than a knife blade. At intervals they stopped and extended crosscuts east and west. Finding nothing they would continue following the little seam of ore, where at last at a point 178 feet from the north boundary of the Best and Belcher, it suddenly opened to a vein of large dimensions filled with 334 EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. ore of good grade, and continued to widen rap- idly as the drift was pushed forward. Meanwhile the big shaft from the surface was being hurried downward, and as crosscuts were extended from it at points below the drift mentioned, the width of the ore body showed itself rapidly increasing until a maximum width of some 400 feet had been determined, of an ore running in value from $100 to $600 per ton. Gradually excitement had increased until now it knew no bounds, and no mind was fitted to make a rational prophecy of the volume of wealth which this one great treasure chamber contained. The other mines upon the lode which had heretofore been regarded as bonanzas, now sunk into insignificance in the light of the fabulous riches here disclosed. Still the maddening influence was felt by these own- ers alike with others, spurring them on to redoubled energy in development, with the belief that like treasures were confined in the lode throughout. The public believed this also, and the stock of all properties soared skyward, borne irresistibly upon the tor- nado of wild, delirious imagination. The ingenuity of mankind was taxed to its utmost in the creation of appliances wherewith to more rapidly delve into the bowels of the earth and extract its golden contents. The hoisting engines were marvels of magnitude and EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 335 efficiency. The hoisting capacity of the Consol- idated Virginia alone being 2000 tons per day. Meanwhile an enterprise of great magnitude, aside from the mining and milling of these ores, though dependent upon the same for its success, was now hastening to a completion. In 1865, Adolph Sutro, with others, incorporated through act of the Nevada state legislature what was known as the Sutro Tunnel Company. Its mouth or portal was located in the border of the Carson valley, and its proposed length to be nearly four miles, to cut the Comstock lode at a depth of about 1700 feet below the collar of the Savage Mining Company's shaft. From its inception, the enterprise was laden with difficulties. Still undaunted, Sutro strug- gled on accomplishing a little each year, until at last, when the great bonanza was encountered in 18Y3, and the greater depths were sought by all the mines, Sutro, finding money easier to ob- tain, pushed forward with redoubled energy, aided in a marked degree and at a most oppor- tune period through the introduction of practical power drills, ( and, incidentally, whose record in this work has never since been equaled) when on the 8th of July, 1878, the heading was broken through into the workings of the Savage mine, too late, however, to reap the full reward which an earlier entry would have assured, as under the stress and strain of the five years preceding, millions of tons of ore and water had been raised 336 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. to the surface, while the stopes of the mines were well below the tunnel level. The heat in the workings (especially below the Sutro tunnel level) of all the mines upon the lode was intense; its increase was three degrees of temperature with each 100 feet of depth. Though the workings reached depths of over 3000 feet, this was not due to an ap- proach of the earth's center, but was conveyed by ascending hot waters in part, and in part by the decomposition of certain rocks. The workmen employed in these lower levels were necessarily strong and vigorous. Tons of ice were daily lowered into the workings, the men in no case working over a half hour, and in most cases but ten or fifteen minutes, when they would retreat to the mouth of the great blower pipe and ice pile, while a fresh crew with pieces of ice in their mouths would rush forward to the breasts for a short and trying shift. All worked naked to the waist, and in the great subterranean chambers, with flitting lights, ascending vapors, noisy drills and roar- ing blasts, it provided a scene in which Dante might have reveled. Now and then an ill fated wretch, stumbling in the darkness or slipping from the face of a stope, fell into a sump or pool of the boiling waters, and in more than one instance when pulled from the deadly bath, the flesh fell from his bones into the seething cal- dron from whence he was lifted. Adding to such fatalities those arising from falling down EEMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 337 shafts, being crushed by falling rock and smoth- ered in drifts through great cavings which closed the openings and shut off their only means of escape, and the length of the chapter of horrors presented is only outdone by the appalling tale it unfolds. The lode was treacherous and difficult to operate, owing to the combined conditions of its immense magnitude, the flood of water which entered its lower levels, together with the nature of the material which formed the great vein being loose, incapable of self support and the feldspathic matter tending to swell upon ex- posure. The movement of the great mass was almost irresistible, though 110 expense was spared in the attempt, for over 3000 human beings were at all times of day and night scattered about, thousands of feet below the surface in the deadly yawning chasms of this treacherous subterranean field. Hence timber of the best quality was employed to such an extent that in many places where the ground was the heavi- est, the ore extracted had been substituted sol- idly therewith ; and even this was soon crushed or compressed to a fraction of its original bulk. To-day there exists, deep down in the Comstock lode and scattered throughout its entire work- ings, timber which standing upon the surface constituted entire forests. To the layman in such matters who treads over the comparatively silent surface of to-day, 338 EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. pausing here and there to peer downward into the deep, dark shafts, once golden highways beyond belief, but now little used, it is dif- ficult to understand all this. When, however, we leave here and tramp for 114 miles about the shores of Lake Tahoe, over in the Sierras, and far back from its water's edge, all of the way over ground once covered thickly by a forest of towering and magnificent pines, the position and magnitude of each of which is to-day clearly denoted by its stump, and then further realize that all this represents but a minor portion of the timber employed, the devouring capacity of this subterranean monster, from whose stom- ach had been extracted the ores of gold and sil- ver with which it was once filled, becomes ap- parent. The probable cost of all this timber, includ- ing transportation, framing and putting in place, together with that of some three million cords of wood consumed at the mills and hoists is not far from one hundred millions of dollars. The total timber which has gone down the shafts and into the workings for their support, if packed in one solid body, would form a cube at least 500 feet in height, 500 feet in length and 500 feet in width. The gross value in gold and silver of all ores extracted from this great storehouse is well known to be considerably more than seven hundred and fifty millions of dollars,, notwithstanding published statistics of about four hundred millions, for the figures REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 339 given to history must agree with those from time to time previously given to the assessor. In addition to these values, it is estimated that over one hundred millions have passed down the Carson river, having escaped from the mills along its banks in which the ore was treated. The geology of this great ore deposit was first and most accurately, though briefly and simply, described by Baron Von Richthofen, who was sent from Europe in 1865 by a syndi- cate who contemplated the purchase of a large block of stock in the Sutro tunnel scheme. In fact, his report formed a document of reference in all of the later examinations which followed, while the reports subsequently made varied in no manner worthy of mention from his determin- ations, though vastly superior advantages were presented later authorities, through almost un- limited development. In substance he says: "The west wall of the lode conforms very closely to the easterly slope of the range and its con- tours, and of Mount Davidson. This west wall, along the greater portion of the vein, and espec- ially along the slope of Mount Davidson, is syenite so far as explored, though propylite and occasional occurrences of aphanite are met with as coming in contact with the vein. The eastern wall is formed of endless varieties of propylite. The vein matter is composed of fragments of country rock, clay, quartz and ores. Near the surface, about five-sixths of the Comstock vein consists of 'horses' of syenite and propylite, 340 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. most largely the latter. This surface width of the lode including its 'horses/ is in many places 500 feet in width. A clayey selvage at many points- from ten to twenty feet in thickness, parts the vein matter from each of the walls, and in many instances from th& 'horses/ through- out the entire length of the vein, so far as opened." When the great Comstock was at its zenith of production and the extent of its monstrous ore bodies, particularly that of the Virginia Consolidated practically unknown, the whole financial world was for the time being in a state of alarm over possible results to the future values of the money metals, for upon the ratio then and ever before maintained, the value of the production in gold was nearly as much as that in silver, or more accurately, 45 per cent, gold and 55 per cent, silver. The sight alone of the breast of rich ore of the great bonanza, 400 feet in width with its other dimensions un- determined, suggested to the coolest of those most concerned, the possibility that from here alone would be produced a volume of gold and silver which would soon render each a base metal. The Comstock has come, and practically gone, while in truth, from the earlier standpoint of the greatest good to the greatest number, there is yet a marked shortage of both silver and gold for money uses ! REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 341 To picture the lives and relate the deeds of even the most unique of the characters who abounded in the midst of this carnival of gold, though most interesting, provides material of far too great volume to embody in a work con- taining aught else but this. The fortunes, and through these fortunes, the lives of the four great bonanza kings, Mackey, Fair, Flood and O'Brien, have received wide publication, yet others sprang from, passed their lives, and went into oblivion upon the great lode, who, had they not been so completely overshadowed by the four towering monuments of success referred to, would have become far more widely known. The briefest reference, however, to the Comstock and its characters is unpardonably incomplete, which fails to men- tion the name of Sandy Bowers. Sandy was one of the early comers who obtained a location upon the lode at a time in which its future value was little dreamed of, and while he pa- tiently toiled in the development of his holdings, he obtained his food and shelter at a certain boarding house down at Gold Hill, kept by an industrious, hard-working Scotch woman, who was also the owner of a piece of ground immedi- ately adjoining that belonging to Sandy. Force of circumstances rendered it both convenient and advisable for them to pool their mining inter- ests, and but a short time later their joys and sorrows; and now Mr. and Mrs. Bowers were joint owners of a prospective mine at one end 342 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. of the line and a boarding house at the other; and while he toiled farther up on the mountain side in search of hidden and uncertain wealth, she labored meanwhile, and late into the night, along less hopeful lines, whereby was acquired the necessary funds for the maintenance of each. Finally Sandy's pick uncovered the treasure for which they had each long hoped and toiled, and as they delved deeper and deeper into their find, it ere long developed a magnitude and wealth beyond question, and the boarding house was closed, and they each evolved with a single bound out of plebian and into the surroundings of patricians. Their wealth now poured in upon them in such torrents that it was with difficulty their heads were kept above 'the flood. They now conceived the idea of building a palace, and chose a location out across Washoe valley opposite the lake and close up under the sheltering shadows of the towering Sierras. Upon the construction of this they expended $500,000. The knobs and hinges of the doors were of solid silver, taken from their own mine ; even the kitchen range was trimmed with the same material. In place of little, insignificant bath-tubs, they fitted up an elaborate natatori- um, which was fed from a thermal spring near by. When all this was complete, they decided to engage in a little travel and take a look at the few things in the world that amounted to anything outside of Virginia City and the Corn- stock lode. To this end they drew from the bank REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 343 a quarter of a million dollars, and later made another draft to enable them to return home. They visited Europe, and Mrs. Bowers being a Scotch woman and a British subject, they caused to be made from the bullion from their own mine, a most elaborate dinner service of gold and silver (for this bullion was rich in gold). This service they took with them, and through some influence attended court and were presented to the queen, and in turn pre- sented her with the service mentioned. They purchased and sent home to the Bow- ers' mansion, a ship load of things that no one else would have, and then returning, installed themselves amidst all this wealth and grandeur, and studied other and more extended methods of expenditure, having obtained a few additional ideas abroad. And now rapidly came reverses. The agent who had conducted their affairs during their ab- sence had proven unworthy of his stewardship. The ore bodies in their mine declined in mag- nitude and richness, and soon became exhausted. Enormous expenditures and bad investments had already reduced their wealth to a small per cent of the total they had received. Soon Sandy died, and continued misfortune shortly left the widow with nothing but the Bowers mansion. She had always followed to some extent the role of a seeress, and now en- tered upon a series of prophecies relative to the Comstock. Amongst other predictions which were 344 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. promptly fulfilled at the day and hour named, was the great fire of April, 1869, in the work- ings of the Grown Point and Yellow Jacket mines, wherein the millions of dollars of dam- age resulting was attended by a loss of life through suffocation and burning in these sub- terranean tombs too appalling for description. The fulfillment of these prophecies now made her famous, and the advice of the "Washoe Seeress," as she was termed, was sought on every hand. Scarce an operator on the Corn- stock failed to consult her, while the fees she re- ceived were enormous, yet this money seemed to follow her previous wealth, and her services later being less sought, she again found herself roaming penniless through the stately halls of her mansion, which she now converted into a source of revenue, and for years, dwelling there alone, rented it and its grounds for picnics and dances to pleasure parties from Reno, Carson and Virginia, while she, incidentally, catered to the believers amongst them, by telling a for- tune for 50 cents, for which she had in time past received as high as a thousand dollars. Finally, declining years and inability to even keep the great place in a state of repair, (though the authorities had waived her taxes for many years) induced her to abandon the loneliness and responsibilities of her queenly abode and flee from the mockery of its decaying magnifi- cence. She went to San Francisco and there eked out an existence at her old profession of EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 345 fortune telling, until one day, later, the east bound overland train, stopping at Reno, an old lady past 80 years of age, decrepit and ill, was helped from the day coach, and tottering into the waiting room of the station, seated herself and asked to see some of the town authorities, that she might receive a home in the county poor house. It was the Washoe seeress. To-day in traveling between Reno and Car- son, as one looks from the car window far out across the Washoe valley, at the grim old ruin, once her palatial home, now stripped of its magnificent appointments, tottering under the touch of decay, and dwarfed through distance, and the massive, towering Sierras, at whose foot it nestles, it appeals to us as the most inter- esting of the many monuments which still re- main, each possessed of its own tale of poverty and affluence, sorrows and joys, strife and profligacy, with which early life on the great Comstock was so fruitful. And finally (aside from the Grosh brothers, whose misfortunes and death are hereinbefore related) what of the fortunes and final ending of the early locators of 1859, Finney, O'Riley, McLaughlin and Comstock ? Finney, after two years of a profligate drunken existence, fell from his horse and was killed. O'Riley lost his money in other and more visionary mining prospects, then losing his rea- 346 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. son, was consigned to an insane asylum, where he soon died. McLaughlin, through general misfortune, soon lost his competence, and spent the balance of his life in the performance of menial duties, finally dying in the county hospital of San Bernardino county, California, friendless, pen- niless and unknown. Comstock, the least worthy of them all, squandered his money in the gratification of tastes common to a person of his character and inclinations, then became a wandering and worthless prospector, and finally through drink and general dissipation, parting with what little mind he ever possessed, wandered about the country, owning in his imagination the entire lode which bore his name, and presenting to those he met princely portions of the great bo- nanza. At length, wandering into the little min- ing camp of Bonanza, Montana, his senses cleared for an instant, when, seeming to realize his true condition, he seized a six shooter, and blowing out his brains, was rudely interred in an obscure and unmarked grave, September 27, 1870. Thus endeth a brief history of the greatest individual occurrence of the precious metal ores the world has so far known. CHAPTEE XVI. The spring time was again approaching and with it the usual feeling of unrest that afflicts the confirmed prospector. Numerous fields scattered over a wide area presented their allur- ing and deceptive attractions. Leadville had now reached the zenith of its glory and production. The ores of Cripple Creek yet remained undiscovered. While Butte, Montana, though a camp dating from the 60's when gold was first discovered in Missoula gulch, had worked its way through a lengthy, trying, uneventful period of gold and silver production, until now, during the winter of J T9 and '80, it was attracting the world's at- tention through the development of a new in- dustry, and the well established fact that its copper deposits were of startling magnitude. The town built upon the south face of the mountain which sloped to the plain below, rested upon a great field of eruptive granite, bordered but a short distance to the west by an area many square miles in extent of more strict- ly eruptive matter, as rhyolite and kindred rocks. Stretching away down the mountain toward the east from the rhyolite contact, underlying the city and a great area to the north, coursed a system of veins some of which, being worked 348 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. originally for silver, upon reaching the limit of oxidization led their owners into the far more extensive and remunerative field of pyritlcal ores of copper. Far away to the south in the desert of Arizona, and not far distant from the boundary line between the United States and Mexico, there had now also sprung into existence, and already gained full-fledged form, the wildest and most alluring of all the then mining centers, "Tombstone." Its discoveries and output of silver, coupled with a certain wild, untamed environment it enjoyed, worked well together in endowing the great majority everywhere with the infatuation for which they longed. Located away up in a group of barren hills which bor- dered the Rio San Pedro on the east and some eight miles distant, it enjoyed a position of superior freedom, even in this practically unin- ha.bited region, from the dominance or interfer- ence of organizations for the promotion of law and order, or the levers thereof. The only com- petition of importance which the lawless, riot- ous element which, unrestrained, flooded the camp, had, was on the part of the Apaches under old "Cochise," who dwelt (when safety demanded) in what was known as "Cochise" stronghold, over in the Dragoon mountains about twelve miles to the northeast, and far up in its fastnesses in a little a pot hole" of a park where water existed and some feed grew, REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 349 encircled by a rim of towering rocks, render- ing it practically inacessible at but one point. And here the wily Apache retreated when he deemed discretion the better part of valor, and dwelt for years in safety, and defied all the world of which he knew, the IT. S. soldiers over at Fort Grant, twenty miles to the north in the Pinaleno range, included. And thus Cochise stronghold and Tombstone became rival retreats; the one for the Apache, and the other for the white outlaw, of which the country soon became well infested. Tombstone, owing to its advantages, soon added to its silver industry others (legitimate and otherwise) which soon swelled its popula- tion to some 10,000 or 12,000 beings. It be- came somewhat of a supply and distributing point for the great unprovided area roundabout, now fast becoming inhabited by the prospector and others through the influence of the Tomb- stone discoveries, and its aptly named news- paper the "Epitaph." Another important and remunerative industry was that of delivering American goods over the line and into the Re- public of Mexico, and bringing Mexican goods back into Tombstone, in each case free of duty, a pursuit commonly called smuggling. The ab- solute boldness with which this occupation was engaged in was never dreamed of on the part of a southern "moonshiner." In the broad light of the midday, groups of well known con- 350 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. trabandists might have been seen boldly load- ing jack trains with all manner of merchandise from the various business houses on "Whiskey Row/' the leading thoroughfare of the town. From here they would start out in various directions, apparently to supply isolated camps upon the desert and in the hills, when, after a round-about course, they would finally, after night fall, rendezvous at some hidden point near the line, where, from their concealment, they could watch the line rider on the Mexican side, when, after he had passed, they would, under cover of darkness, hasten across. Returning with their loads of Mexican goods, the opera- tion was simply repeated, with the exception that the Mexican line rider was ignored and the American avoided. The ores of this camp, though of high grade, were so far removed from railway lines that the long wagon haul involved a loss greater than the difference in saving between the smelter and that of milling. Hence, they were treated in mills erected upon the banks of the Rio San Pedro eight miles distant, and here another town sprang up known as Charleston, which soon became a formidable rival of Tombstone along the lines of general outlawry. The ores were most largely silver bearing, producing upon an average eight dollars of the white metal (at the then existing price) to one dollar of the yellow. The total production hav- EEMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 351 ing been three and one-quarter million dollars in gold, and twenty-five millions in silver, to- gether with a bi-product of about five thousand tons of lead and a later product of some con- siderable manganese of commercial value. The ores occurred in alternate sheets of lime, quartzite and shale, having a total thickness of about three thousand feet, folded and otherwise disturbed through the influences of an adjacent field of massive diorite. The ore presented it- self both in fissure veins and bedded deposits ; the veins were vertical or nearly so, and occurred along or near dikes of eruptive material, while the bedded deposits were along anticlinal folds of the strata. Little ore was found in the shales except in the fissures, from which, however, about one-half of the camp's production came. Manganese in both oxide and sulphide form occurred to some extent in nearly all of the mines. The main properties were the Grand Cen- tral, Contention, Head Center and others with less dignified names, such as, the Way Up, Good Enough, Tough Nut, and Lucky Cuss. The great deserts of Arizona, southern Cal- ifornia and portions of New Mexico were, in the days preceding the discovery of Tombstone and until the building of the Southern Pacific and Atlantic and Pacific railways, a trackless waste, penetrated only by mule and ox teams from Santa Fe and Albuquerque on the east, or 28 352 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. from that water way, the Colorado river, which wends its sinuous course from north to south through the desolation and solitude of that great burning, barren waste, well toward the west. This great river, formed from a major portion of the drainage of Utah, Colorado and Wyom- ing, first carves for itself a channel hun- dreds of miles in length, and in many places a mile or more in depth, through the elevated and extremely arid regions of northern Ari- zona and southern Utah, where the lack of rain fall and consequent lack of erosion, or destruc- tion of land surface on either side, has pre- served the original elevation of the adjacent country, while the noble stream, tearing away at its bed through countless ages, has finally created that masterpiece of earth sculpture known as the canon of the Colorado. For three hundred miles from its mouth it was for many years an active highway that fed the trackless desert east and west for hundreds of miles. Freight and passengers were deliv- ered by ocean transit at the head of the gulf of California, where they were met by the river streamers, "Gila" and "Mohave." Though now of ancient type, they were powerful ; for the current of the Colorado, especially in high water, was a force no ordinary boat could con- tend with. For forty years they navigated this stream, one under the command of Captain Pol- hamus, and the other under command of Cap- tain Mellon, and probably no steam conveyance EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 353 ever, for so great a length of time, entered a field of such varied types and methods, or one that so perfectly maintained through all time the unrestrained customs of a wild and desolate frontier. Far away up from its mouth a dis- tance of one hundred and forty miles or more, and on the Arizona shore, there was founded (near the close of the Rebellion) a town called La Paz. It was at a convenient point on the river for reaching a large trade in the desert, and moreover situated near the mouth of a large drain where rich placer digging had been dis- covered. And now, away there in the solitude of this remote desert waste, it suddenly grew into a city of some fifteen thousand or more inhabitants, and was the mecca toward which drifted sooner or later every outlaw, male and female, Mexican and white, from out of every quarter of the boundless, wild domain which sur- rounded it; until at last, seemingly through its inordinate iniquity, the hand of providence smote it. Not with fire or tempest, but through the operation of a comparatively gentle flood. The melting snows far away in the northlands produced the annual high water in the river, when, the formidable and persistent stream, obstructed and impeded by the formation of a great sand bar in the vicinity, suddenly changed its course and formed a new channel, leaving La Paz and its occupants a mile inland. There was now no alternative but to remain helpless in an exiled town or return to the river. 354 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. It was impassible to remove the buildings, as they were all built of adobe; and so the population gathered up their goods, and laden with these and their misfortune, wended their way down the river a distance of about three miles where a deep channel of the stream came in contact with an indestructible bank, and here founded a new town named Ehrenberg, after that re- nowned scientist. In recent years, the writer, during a night journey from the Chem-e-huev-vis Indian reser- vation south, wandered, near midnight, into what was once the main business thoroughfare, nearly a mile in length, of this long-since ab- solutely deserted city of La Paz. It was in the early summer, and in this arid region, the un- restricted rays of a full moon fell weirdly and silently upon this equally silent scene of deso- lation and decay. Here and there, patches of cement sidewalk peeped from beneath accumu- lations of drifted sands, while an occasional iron shutter of a once pretentious warehouse, dance hall, or saloon, still clung tenaciously by one hinge to an opening in a now crumbling adobe wall; while, in numerous instances, in- side these ruined enclosures, where the din and clamor of trade and revelry had long since ceased, and the roof had later fallen in, there had since grown to its fullest size a mesquite tree, whose branches overhung and tenderly REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 355 sheltered the tottering work of man, now rap- idly passing back to earth again. A short distance ahead, a desert wolf glided noiselessly out of the sheltering shadows of the ruins upon the right, into the full light of the moon-lit street, paused for an instant to note our approach, then as silently as the shadow which accompanied him, disappeared midst the fastnesses of the ruins upon our left. A rattle - snake of the "side winder" type wriggled hurriedly from out the pathway of the mule team, and viciously buzzed its threats as we passed. This with a single sharp howl of protest from the wolf, which reached us later on, were the only sounds that rent the stilly stillness of the midnight air, as we stole silently on through the dark, des- olate, uncanny scene, and out past the cluster of barren mounds that marked the resting place of the remains of La Paz dead, nine-tenths of whom died with their boots on. Ehrenberg, though an important river land- ing, never reached the proportions of La Paz. Yet, proportionate to its size, there was little La Paz could boast of in the way of wild and woolly waywardness that Ehrenberg was a stranger to. Not many years after its estab- lishment, the extension of railway lines robbed the river of its importance as a thoroughfare ; the steamers made less and less frequent trips, until to-day Ehrenberg has become but a point marked 356 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. by the ruins of its former greatness, and inhab- ited only by some forty or fifty Mexicans and Indians, whose numbers are at intervals in- creased temporarily by the visits of white and Mexican "dry washers" for gold, scattered about in the ranges bordering the river valley. Many interesting and surprising tales are related of happenings in and about these two old river towns. One well authenticated, and the hero of which (a Mohave Indian) was personal- ly known to the writer, appeals strongly to all lovers of athletics as a matter worthy of record. To all people possessed of any knowledge of them, the wonderful feats of the desert tribes (and particularly of the Mohaves) in long-dis- tance running are well known. In the early days of Ehrenberg, a man was one day frightfully burned by kerosene; there was no physician and no drug store in this ex- tremely frontier town; a noted Mohave runner who dwelt along the river nearby, was hastily engaged to run to Fort Yuma, a govern- ment post later occupied as a Catholic school, situated on the California side of the river, directly opposite the present town of Yuma. The distance from Ehrenberg to Fort Yuma, as the crow flies and as determined by the gov- ernment surveys, is sixty miles. By the nearest trail possible for the Indian to take, it was at least seventy-five miles and involved swimming the river once each way. The distance follow- ing the river, and owing to the great bend which REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 357 it makes to the east between these points, is more than one hundred miles. The agreement with the Indian was that he was to receive ten dollars for the trip and an additional ten dollars if he returned within twenty - four hours. The Indian prepared himself quickly for the undertaking, and following the trail mentioned, disappeared. Well inside the twen- ty-four hour limit he ran into Ehrenberg on his return, bringing with him the packages of medicine for which he had been sent, each pack- age bearing proper labels from the Yuma dis- pensary. His appearance there, however, was further verified later, and there was no living being along the trail between the two places from whom he could have obtained any assist- ance, even if such were of value to him ; and it remains a fact from the very best evidence that this Indian ran at least one hundred and fifty miles in less than twenty-four hours, and that over a barren, stony desert, interspersed with deep, dry gulches and ravines, in and out of which he was forced to climb, and in addition to all of which, swam the river twice. Receiving his twenty dollars, he bought some choice food, then crawling into the shel- ter of a clump of mesquite trees down by the river bank, he ate and slept alternately for two days, when he reappeared in seemingly perfect form, having beaten by far the great- est run heretofore ever made by any human being, for twenty-four consecutive hours, of 358 REMINISCENT E AMBLINGS. which the world has any positive or even re- liable evidence. The vastness of the great desert which lies both to the east and west of the Colorado river, is but imperfectly realized by the great ma- jority of the intelligent citizens of the country to which it belongs. As an instance of this, and the solitude born of lack of habitation, the incident may be interesting to relate, in which the writer, accompanied by a thoughtful and well-informed companion and friend, in journeying through the great waste bordering the river on the east, approached, near the close of a day, the head of a wide and barren valley up which we had traveled the entire day, and where it now, as we could see before us at a distance of some thirty miles, terminated in a great and perfect amphitheater. It was, how- ever, only one of hundreds of such topograph- ical features that occur in this boundless waste ; yet suggested, perhaps, through the occasional speculation one hears indulged in, as to the possibility of the lack of standing room upon the earth in time to come, owing to its rapidly increasing population, we engaged in estimates of capacity for its various uses. To the east of us a distance of fifteen miles lay a low range of mountains; to the west an equal distance lay a somewhat lower range, while along the foot of its western slope flowed the Colorado river. These two ranges were EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 359 connected at a point about thirty miles ahead, by a still lower range. Enclosed by the three lay a great arid plain of magnificent area. After a mass of calculations engaged in, while the team toiled onward through sand and sage- brush, we readily deduced the following results. That first, in this comparatively insignificant enclosure that confronted us, the armies of all the nations of the earth could maneuver with ample room, and the army of no one nation ap- proach within rifle range of that of another. Secondly, that herein might be congregated the entire human life of the earth, with ample room for free movement, while the traveler might journey along its borders, five miles dis- tant therefrom, separated by the small ranges referred to and remain unconscious of the ex- istence of a single being therein. Notwithstanding the exploration which had been engaged in, and the introduction through- out its most remote and inaccessible portions, in the past quarter of a century of an advanced people and their methods, the noble Colorado has retrograded rather than advanced in its use- fulness, and to-day shares but little part in the great changes of the recent past. The Southern Pacific railway, penetrating the most forbid- ding portions of the desert from east to west, crosses it at Yuma near its mouth, while the Atlantic and Pacific railway, following the same general course and crossing at Needles, 360 REMINISCENT KAMBI.INGS. nearly three hundred miles farther north, have drained the traffic of the once busy waterway, until to-day its broad and shining surface, re- mains placid and undisturbed, save at points where its waters, circling rapidly, form a huge and dangerous whirlpool, the tempestuous, boil- ing mass arising from the majestic flood's resentment and attack upon some meddlesome sand bar which seeks to obstruct its silent, peace- ful course, or the silvery wake of an Indian's boat as he pilots a pilgrim from the Needles to some landing on the river far below. The Gila and Mohave, once proud factors in the country's reclamation and advancement, and whose names were known throughout the land, now rest at Yuma, crippled and forlorn, moored to the sympathetic shores of that noble stream whose waters their ponderous stern wheels will never again disturb, patiently awaiting the final stroke of the relentless hand of decay. While their respective captains through all the years of their active service, (and now aged men) dwell beside, and linger fondly about their loved craft, watching with gradually bedimmed sight the growing ruins of their pride. Then gazing far up the river to Castle Dome, that prominent landmark and point in river navi- gation of the past, they lead again, in fancy, the proud existence of those good old days, when, with boilers steaming from the intense heat of "mesquite," a palo verde" and "ironwood," a hurrying crowd of deck hands (Mohave In- EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 361 dians) running hither and thither, the cabins filled with passengers who paid a high rate of fare, their decks loaded to. the water's edge with merchandise at an equally high rate, they in the exuberance of younger life, and in exulta- tion over an occupation to which they were fond- ly wed, strode proudly the upper deck, fore and aft, and from rail to rail, shouting their orders, now in Spanish and again in the Mohave tongue, to the boat's crew below ; and the great stern wheel tore madly at the swift running waters of the stream, while the craft forged steadily onward against the rapid current, and away up the watery pathway and out into the glimmer and glare of the heated desert, until finally lost to view in the desolate waste about Castle Dome. It was indeed a curious sight to the onlookers who, standing amidst the burning sands of the desert, far removed from sight of the river and miles distant from its shores, saw for the first time the smoke stacks and upper works of a steamboat sailing smoothly along through this arid waste; its upward course slow in case of either high or low water. In low water, the shifting channel and numerous sand bars made progress slow, while in high water a seven to ten-mile per hour current was a formidable force to make headway against. Upon the down river trip, however, it was different ; there being nothing to contend with but snags and whirl- pools; and many years ago, during extremely 362 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. high water in the river, the Mohave is recorded as having made the run from the Needles to Yuma, a distance of three hundred miles in ten hours, much of the distance having been sailed a mile or more from the river channel, for the Colorado in high water is, at points, many miles in width. A whirlpool that would engulf a powerful river steamboat of any considerable size, is difficult to understand, but the Colorado, in high water, abounds with such, in which both the Gila and Mohave have been entrapped for many hours at a time, and narrowly escaped destruction. Wherein this great area, particularly that lying south of the Atlantic and Pacific railway, and between the Rio Grande on the east and the San Jacinto range of mountains on the west, is, so far as the productiveness of its soil is con- cerned, probably as barren and forbidding as that to be found in any country, it, taken as a whole, furnishes support for a great number of range cattle, while the few streams that exist have been made to reclaim and render produc- tive, small areas within their reach; yet this is but a tithing of the real value of this other- wise seemingly worthless domain. At about the time that the great flood of igneous matter was poured out over the north- west, another deluge of like character was spread over the southwest, covering an area of some fifty thousand miles. REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 363 The intense plutonic action enriched the crust of the area through a generous and wide- spread distribution of metals, far beyond that of the more enormous and still wider spread eruptive flood of the northwest. Long before the days of Tombstone, or even Prescott, and while yet the wily and blood- thirsty Apache was monarch of mountain and plain, much was known of rich occurrences of both gold and silver in this wilderness of rattle- snakes, scorpions, cactus and thirst, and numer- ous discoveries were made and operations en- gaged in on some considerable scale, while numberless adventurous prospectors crossed its borders and, penetrating too deeply into its fast- nesses, remained absent evermore; for the Apache guarded well this domain, and under Chief Geronimo, administered to all invaders caught, punishment so merciless, brutal and re- volting, as to shock the most hardened of humanity. The IT. S. soldiers hunted this chief and his followers for years with no important result other than that this, coupled with increased in- vasion of the whites, finally rendered it advis- able in the prudent mind of Geronimo to cross the border with his band upon important occa- sions and rest easily in the fastnesses of the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico until mat- ters at home had quieted down a little. They had, however, through a long period of active 364 REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. depredations in the United States, become so industrious and ambitious along this line -that the frequent lengthy and idle sojourns in Mex- ico became tame and tiresome, and they resolved to liven matters a little by inaugurating mean- while a branch department of theft and slaughter amongst the Mexicans. This soon brought upon them a hunt to the death on the part of the Mexican government, when (the bor- der being now lined with soldiers and others on the American side, and being cornered by the Mexicans, and knowing positively that capture by them meant being at once lined up and shot without trial or parleying of whatsoever nature) they stepped over the line and into the more tender grasp of the Americans ; while Geronimo himself, through all the years which have since elapsed has grown into a prominent figure down amongst the swamps of the south, to which he was transferred. This stopped Apache depredations upon a large scale, yet there was one young tender root of this terrible scourge left, w T hich here in the desert grew and flourished and finally engaged in business on his own account and single- handed for several years committed depreda- tions that for boldness made Geronimo appear an amateur. Over on the Apache reservation was, amongst others, a young Apache buck, whose life so far had been unattended by any misdemeanors, EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 365 or acts of violence, and who was generally re- garded as one of the most trustworthy of his race. The time came when, in a trouble which arose, and in which a killing occurred, this young Indian played a part (justifiable or otherwise), was arrested, tried and convicted with others, and sentenced to a term of imprisonment at the penitentiary in Yuma. He grieved deeply over the result, but showed no resentment when they all started for their new home in a stage coach attended by two officers heavily armed. Beaching a long, steep hill en route, the officers alighted to walk behind the coach, and this young Indian asked the privilege also, when the officers, removing the shackles from his ankles (but remaining handcuffed), permitted him to do so. Walking between the officers, he after a time dropped slightly in the rear, made a quick jump, grabbed a six shooter from the hip of one of the officers, shot them both dead, then took a long shot at the driver of the stage coach some distance ahead, and hitting him in the head the ball glanced, but being stunned, he fell from his seat, while the four-mule team ran away with the balance of the convicts. Approaching the fallen driver, (who had now regained consciousness, but who adroitly concealed it) the Indian examined him care- fully, when becoming convinced that he was dead, and not wishing to waste ammunition, passed on, and out upon the boldest and most 366 EEMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. successful career of crime ever engaged in by human kind, and became known to the world thereafter as the "Apache kid." Bordering the Eio San Pedro on the north- east for a distance of more than fifty miles lies a mountain chain known as the Caliuro range, which, for ruggedness and inaccessibility, is un- surpassed. And here in its most remote fastnesses the "Apache kid" established himself, and alone, bid defiance to the world, and through a con- tinuous carnival of the most atrocious crimes, executed by himself alone, existed for years, though the territories of New Mexico and Ari- zona offered a combined reward of nine thou- sand dollars for him dead or alive; while the government troops hunted him almost contin- uously, and, fearful of finding him, each time conveniently lost the trail when it led them too far into the rocky defiles of the Caliuros. The "cow punchers" on the San Pedro for years wisely refrained from the attempt to "round up" cattle that had entered the range. His deeds were so bold, and his movements so adroit and invisible that, although the members of his own tribe feared him equally with the whites, they refused to engage in hunting him, believ- ing him to be possessed of uncanny powers, and incapable of being harmed. Although the "kid" had, during his entire reign, so far scrupulously avoided contact with any human being, save when engaged in lifting REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 367 their scalp lock, the time finally came when the idea gained possession of his mind that it was no longer well for him to dwell alone, and so one day, impelled by the desperation of loneli- ness and love, he rode boldly down from his mountain lair and out upon the reservation, and lying in wait well outside the encampments, a lone Apache maiden, strolling aimlessly about and unconsciously coming near his hiding, the "kid" swooping down upon his prey, threw a rope about her, and pulling her upon the ani- mal's back with himself, dashed back into the fastnesses of the Caliuros. It was but a short time following this bold proceeding when "Hualapai" Clark, an old scout and Indian fighter, and incidentally a prospector, having a mining claim near the foot of the western slope of the range, determined to take chances with, the "kid" for a few days and go up and perform the annual labor neces- sary to hold his property. Reaching there, his experienced eye was not long in detecting in and about the cabin unmistakable signs of the daring young red man, and Hualapai farther realizing that his arrival had not been accomplished un- noticed by the wily "kid" and not unmindful of the "kid's love of horse flesh, picketed the pack animal in a remote and open spot, and filling the magazine of his Winchester with cartridges, crept into a neighboring thicket and camped for the night. Long and anxiously he waited, when at last his vigil was rewarded by a slight move- 24 368 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. ment of the underbrush on the opposite side of the opening, and a form emerged from the darkness of the thicket and stole cautiously toward the animal. Hualapai raised his rifle to fire, when silently another form stole forth following the first. A sharp crack of the Win- chester, and the leader, with a piercing scream, fell dead. Not yet had the body struck the ground, when the flash of a second rifle in the hands of the one that followed, for an instant lit up the scene, and a ball sped dangerously close to Hualapai in his hiding, while as sud- denly the form disappeared in the depths of the shelter from which it had emerged. When the morning light dawned upon the scene of these midnight doings, there, clutching in a death grasp the picket rope of the pack animal, lay the "kid's" unwilling and now eman- cipated bride, whom her foxy mate had sent before him to draw the fire of the watchful Hualapai. But a few days had elapsed since this event- ful night when the writer, wandering late in the day along the San Pedro, sought lodging at the home of a settler not far removed from the scene described, and retiring to the guest's chamber, found therein artistically draped, as a mural decoration, the blood-stained and bullet-rent robe of the dusky departed denizen of the Caliuros. Alone in the anger and possible grief of his loss, the "kid" now so increased the boldnesss of REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 369 his depredations as to for the time completely dull the luster of his previous record. Then suddenly, and forever since, his footprints ceased to mark the sands of the San Pedro, while the grim and silent Caliuros that sheltered him so long breathe evermore no tale of his mysterious disappearance. CHAPTER XVII. From the Little Colorado river, and even far- ther north into Utah, all through the great des- ert area of Arizona and well into Mexico on the south, exists a copper resource which will in time be demonstrated (if not already) to be the greatest in the known world. That portion in the United States, beginning at the Colorado river on the west, and extending easterly well over the line into New Mexico, embraces evi- dences of the general distribution of the ores of this metal which, coupled with the already dem- onstrated occurrences of commercial value, leave no question of its coming importance, and probable dominance for all time of any other like area in the production of copper. High upon the face of the Black range that borders the Rio Verde on the west rests the busy town of Jerome, built about and existing wholly through the operations of that greatest of all copper mines, the "United Verde," which, with the constant outpouring of smoke and sul- phurous fumes from the stacks of its great re- duction works, together with that of the acres of open air roasts with which the face of the mountain is clothed, gives to the traveler along the banks of the Rio Verde, far below, the im- pression that the plutonic agencies are again at REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 371 work away up there near the summit of the dark, forbidding igneous uplift, and he shudders slightly at the thought, as the little narrow gauge train appears rounding the northern ex- tremity of the range, and creeping slowly along its precipitous face, deliberately enters and is swallowed up in the seeming caldron of fire, smoke and brimstone. The ores of this great mine are in sulphide, or unchanged form, and of high grade. The oc- currence is in outline a great lenticular mass set upon edge, and already being operated sev- eral thousand feet in length and five hundred and more feet in depth. In the ground already opened, there is at all times in sight, not less than a hundred millions of dollars worth of ore, while the amount already extracted and treated is far greater than this. And now to more fully impress the reader with the magnitude and wealth of this storehouse of copper, it may be stated that from the bottom of the present workings, borings have been made with Dia- mond drills of such depth and over so great areas as to determine fully the existence in unopened ground of an ore body whose value, conservatively estimated, reaches nearly, if not quite, half a billion of dollars. When the reader reflects upon the fact that more than ninety per cent, of this great mine is the property of a single individual, there re- mains little occasion for alarm over his inability to secure the necessaries of life until such time 372 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. at least, as he can secure more remunerative employment. A hundred miles and more southeast of the United Verde, and at Globe, on a fork of Salt river, occurs other great producing properties, also at Clifton and Morenci, on the headwaters of the Gila. But by far greater than these is that of the "Copper Queen" company at Bisbee, in the southern terminus of the "Mule" moun- tains and near the Mexico border. Here where for miles the line of demarkation between a great field of gray lime and an equally great field of decidedly red porphyretic rocks is so sharp and clearly defined that a comparatively short-legged man, walking with the feet well apart, may travel almost the entire length of the contact with an individual formation for each foot to rest upon, and the whole through the con- tact of separate and distinct coloring noted for many miles before reaching it. There occurred, here upon the slopes of a dry arroya, in the field of lime, yet near the line of contact of the two formations referred to, a "blow-out" of carbon- ate of copper ores, the vivid blues and greens of which subdued the colors of the surrounding formations and caught the eye of thejobserver from afar. It was a small exposure of less than a hundred feet in diameter, but which, followed down into the limes, opened into a great chamber of fine ore, but which, soon exhausted, left no evidence, save little seams, at times no thicker REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 373 .than the blade of a knife, extending into the naked walls of lime. The owners were about to withdraw from further operation when a trusted employee in charge of the work, appealed so strongly to be allowed to explore the sur- roundings, offering to receive his pay in sjtock of the now exhausted property, and farther, to contribute from his own savings toward the un- dertaking, he was, through a desire 'to humor him, permitted to continue. Following one of the little stringers, he soon plunged into a second chamber; and thus the system of exploration has continued and chamber after chamber been disclosed covering hundreds of acres of the ter- ritory of lime down deep in which, connecting the multitude of ore bodies and their intricate workings, (wherein two thousand or more men are working) exists a hundred miles or more of underground railway for gathering the ore and transporting it to the great hoists for de- livery to the surface and into the furnaces await- ing it ; more than enough miles of railway in this one mine five hundred feet and more beneath the surface, to reach from !N"ew York to Philadel- phia, while hundreds of miles of standard-guage railway owned by, or constructed wholly in con- sequence of the production of this great mine, together with others owned by the same company at Nacozari, a short distance over the line in Mexico, and which reach to junctions with the Southern Pacific at El Paso, Texas, and Benson, Arizona, and again to junctions with both the 374 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. Southern Pacific and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railways at Deining in New Mexico, find ample traffic. The ores of the Copper Queen are almost wholly in carbonate form, and though being of a far lower grade than those of the United Verde, averaging, as they do, less than eight per cent, of metallic copper per ton of crude ore, still possess upon an average, double the values of the ores at Butte, Montana, and four times those of Michigan and the famous Rio Tinto in Spain, though the values are far more expensive of extraction than in the case of the two latter. A feature of copper ores is their occurrence in nearly every known formation of the earth, and (as a rule) to greater depths than those of precious metals. In the great cop- per mines of the United States, silver, and frequently gold, occurs in the upper zone of the ore bodies, usually, however, disappear- ing at about five hundred feet in depth. More especially since the days of the conquest by Cortez, the Mexicans have to some consid- erable extent employed copper ; and wherein the metal abounds in almost unlimited quantities within the present borders of their own land, it occurred with the exception of an extremely small percentage, locked in the embrace of varied combines with other elements forming as a whole an ore mass containing a comparatively small proportion of metallic copper, and that through the then known methods difficult to obtain. The REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 375 extremely small percentage referred to of oc- currences other than this being that of native copper or the extremely high grade ores, such as chalcocite and cuprite, all of which occur everywhere in extremely limited quantities, these early searchers after the metal were com- pelled to cover great areas in obtaining the re- quired amount and thus extended their opera- tions into what is now Arizona and New Mex- ico, where to-day may be seen and entered a labyrinth of old workings at various points, to- gether with the impregnable quarters for pro- tection which hundreds of years since they erected, usually circular in form, and of either adobe or stone; for the Apache exercised then the same guardianship and administered the same punishment as since. At the a Aja" copper mine, fifty miles south of Gila bend on the Southern Pacific railway, and in Santa Rita basin, twelve miles from the present town of Silver City, in New Mexico, yet remain notable examples of these ancient workings. Long antecedent to the advent of the Mex- icans in these lands which are now a portion of the United States, there here lived and dwelt another race of beings. A race other than that of the North American Indians, and agricul- tural in their pursuits, as determined through the many evidences which remain. Through all that great area extending from the southern portion of Colorado on the north, 376 BEMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. far away to the east and west throughout New Mexico and Arizona, and well down the shores of the Colorado to its mouth, are scattered the bones of these people, together with the ruins of their work. There were, in fact, two races occupying the same territory, but whether or not contemporaneous is uncertain. The one is known as Aztec, the other as "Cliff Dwellers." Their habits seem to have been in common, aside from the habitations in which they lodged. The Aztecs dw r elt in structures of stone and adobe scattered throughout the valleys, while the Cliff Dwellers, (who incidentally were somewhat in- ferior in stature) made their dwelling places in the shallow caverns, or eroded recesses, high upon the face of the sandstone cliffs of nearby canons. The front of these caverns were closed with a masonry wall, and access was obtained only through ladders which, upon entering their abode, they pulled up after them. They evi- dently feared an enemy unknown to the Aztec of the valley, but whether such was the Aztecs themselves or another is unknown. In pursuance of professional duties other than that of archaeology, the writer has spent much time in various districts scat- tered over the great area mentioned and abounding with the evidences of this long- forgotten race. Thickly studding large areas are to be seen mounds of various sizes over- grown with sage and other vegetation, and ofttimes shaded by gnarled and knotted pinon REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 377 trees of so great an age as to now be in process of decay ; the life of these alone being known to be hundreds of years, marks to this extent the antiquity of the mound itself. And w r hat are these strange hummocks rising with such regu- larity from an otherwise smooth surface? A little open cut extended into its interior from the level of its surroundings, discloses in every case the foundations of an abode. Drifting around the outer edge of these, the doorway will be found inside of which (in the more preten- tious) will be unearthed partition walls while in all will be found a greater or less amount of pottery; mostly broken, of course, through the falling in of the ruins. If, however, one wishes to secure specimens of this intact, (much of which is quite desirable) it may, with far greater chances of success be accomplished by trenching the surface at a point about fifty feet due south of the mound; for it seems to have been the custom for each fam- ily to have its private cemetery at this point, and a further custom in burying their dead to place on either side of the head an urn or other piece of pottery closely sealed, (apparently the choicest the family possessed) and containing food. And therein, in recent years, the writer, in pursuance of such research, or possibly what might more properly be termed vandalism, has found the bones of turkeys, together with the kernels of maize, parched and apparently in 378 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. as perfect state of preservation as upon the funeral day. In the Montezuma valley, near the northern boundary of Arizona, the exploration of one of these mounds discloses the walls of a building eighty feet square, its interior being divided by masonry walls into rectangular, circular and triangular rooms, while the loftiness of the mound would indicate that the building must originally have been a hundred feet or more in height. In the Aztec valley immediately south of the Montezuma, a settler in search of water through sinking, noticed, at a point near, a series of shallow depressions strikingly circular in form, and twelve or fifteen feet in diameter. Having so far been unsuccessful, and thinking that per- haps these might mark the location of water supplies of the extinct race, he selected one and began digging, when at a depth of about fifteen feet he suddenly encountered a mass of human skeletons entangled in the most disorderly man- ner, and at the time of the writer's visit the depth of the deposit was undetermined, though a score or more had been removed. A greater portion of the skulls were so badly fractured as to be incapable of restoration, yet of eight recovered in a fair state of preservation, each was crushed at a point just behind and slightly above the right ear, and covering an area ranging from the size of a silver dollar to the palm of one's hand. Evidently these beings were exe- REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 379 cuted either for crimes, or as offerings to their gods; though this was not the method of the Aztecs of the valley of Mexico, of which there is written history, their method being that of holding the victim upon the sacrificial stone while the priest, with an obsidian knife, cut open the breast, and tearing out the palpitating heart, held it up to the image of the god to be appeased. In various parts of the lands where the ruins of this race exist are still traceable, long lines of dim grades which were evidently at one time canals for the irrigation of lands. These lines are as artfully located and the grades as accurately established as in the modern canal of to-day, occupying the same territory, and constructed for the same purposes. In fact, instances exist wherein the modern canal follows the site of the ancient waterway for considerable distances. Though unmistakably 'agricultural, little evi- dence is presented of their being pastoral; no bones of domestic animals save turkey bones are to be found even in the provision jars which invariably accompany the dead, while there is little cause for belief that these were domestic birds, from the fact that great portions of the land abounded with wild turkeys until recent years, while many are yet to be found. About the more thickly settled portions, the soil is yet strewn with fragments of their pot- tery, in the decoration of which the writer has, in several instances, detected the perfect Egyp- 380 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. tian border. Can it be that this lost race were once in connection with those people, from whom they were forever exiled, possibly through the submerged Atlantis? However, there remains excellent reasons for belief that their existence is possessed of far greater antiquity than is given credit for by the few historians and still fewer archaeologists who have discussed the subject. The Aztecs of the valley of Mexico at the time of the appearance of Cortez knew noth- ing of the existence of these so-called Aztecs to the north. And when later bands of these in- vaders, believing that other great cities with temples filled with gold and silver and precious stones, like unto which they had just conquered and despoiled, existed far away in this north- land, and made invasions herein, they found only these same ruins, as ancient to all appear- ance then as now. Again amongst these dead and their ruins exist ample evidence of their taste for personal adornment. Necklaces, rings and other decora- tive articles, made from bone, chalcedony and other substances are found in profusion, but none of gold and silver, and yet they dwelt in the very heart of regions abounding with the precious metals of which they seemed to possess no knowledge whatever. Wherein it appears from the habits and pot- tery of each, and aside from the fashioning of their abodes, and from the difference in stature, that the Aztecs and Cliff Dwellers were of the REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 381 same race, yet there is much in evidence that they were not contemporaneous, though little whereby to determine with any degree of ac- curacy the intervening interval; the more ad- vanced destruction of the works of the so-called Aztec of the valleys through natural disinte- gration and decay points unmistakably to their occupancy of the country having antedated by many generations, and centuries perhaps, that of the Cliff Dwellers. Again no remains of the former are found except in a state of systematic burial, while in the case of the latter, their skel- etons and mummified forms are found strewn upon the floors of the dwellings they occupied, pointing significantly to the fact of their having been overtaken and overwhelmed by some cat- aclysm from which they were unable to escape. And what this terrible entrapment from which they were unable to extricate themselves and flee? Far away up a rugged canon, and high up in the sedimentary cliffs that formed its southern walls, appears the masonry front that closes the mouth of a great recess and forms a home as yet undisturbed by vandals ; this arti- ficial front is so neatly constructed and the storms and stains of centuries have so artfully spread the mantle o'er it that marks the handi- work of nature, that the observer looks long and questions much its being a home of this ancient race ; moreover, the glass fails to detect any evi- dence of the low, narrow opening or entrance through which they crawled, but which, after 382 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. nearer approach, through toilsome and hazardous climbing, reveals itself, closed and sealed from within. The work in no manner provided, or was it evidently intended to provide protection to the inmates against a forceful foe from with- out, for a slight pressure of the shoulder, and the mass falls inward upon the floor. Entering, we find strewn about the apartments, nine mum- mified forms lying upon their faces, the arms folded closely about the head, as though to shut out some horrifying vision, or exclude some deadly gas; and in defense against the latter there is little question but that these efforts were made ; for round about the country below exists successive sheets of eruptive flows, long hard- ened into rock, entrapped and submerged by the last of which we find varied examples of the works of these people, here a stone axe of paleolithic pattern, there a fragment of pottery, and finally the perfect moulds of a mass of ears of Indian corn, which engulfed in the molten mass were finally consumed, leaving only the cavity they occupied, upon the walls of which are faithfully preserved their minutest imprint; moreover, in some instances the charred kernels still adhere to the surrounding surfaces. And thus (our geological conclusions being anywhere within the very outer limits of approximate ac- curacy) we are brought face to face with the fact that these beings here dwelt and finally became extinct, through an agency that presented itself long, long before even the first of the great ice BEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 383 caps crept down from the north, or the waters of their melting created the terraces called "Champlain." Hence, might they say unto the earliest of the Egyptians of which there appears even the vaguest tradition, even as these Egyp- tians said unto the early Greeks, "Ye are but children and know nothing of the past." CHAPTER XVIII. To one who has traveled long through Texas and the southern portions of New Mexico, Ar- izona and California, there comes finally a de- sire to wander over the border and far away into that sunlit land to the south Mexico. A land luxuriant in its fruits and vegetation, grand in the noble forests that clothe its imposing moun- tain chains, and in its towering stately palms that adorn the intervening vales, far beyond be- lief in the mind of the observer who first gazes upon that forbidding and seemingly limitless expanse, which, prevailing over so great an area in the United States, stretches far over into this adjacent realm. A land wherein existed treas- ure and works of art, filling palaces and temples without number, of matchless magnificence and grand architecture, of themselves ancient, yet their foundations resting upon the ruins of oth- ers equally great, of which no history recites the tale or even vague tradition murmurs. For the authentic historv of these people dates back no further than about six hundred years after the birth of Christ, when the Toltecs made their appearance in the valley of Mexico ; not entirely as strangers, for evidence goes to show that they were simply returning home from a pilgrimage into the far North, where REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 385 they were for so many centuries engaged in building mounds in the valleys of the Ohio, Mis- sissippi and Missouri rivers that upon their re- turn only the ruins of their earlier work re- mained. Selecting probably the first they came to of these ruined cities of their ancestors (for there were many more of theirs or others far- ther to the south), they restored it, or built a new one upon its ruins and named it "Tula," now a station of the Mexican Central Railway, a short distance north of the City of Mexico, and still bearing its original name; and here to-day may be seen the ruins of both the restoration and the original. This is but an in>stance of the antiquity of this race possessing a high civil- ization so far as measured through works of art and the construction of great temples and palaces, massive and indestructible, grand, im- pressive and beautiful in architectural lines, and striking in the elaborate and ornate sculp- turing of their walls. Even in the valley of Mexico, of which the earliest history treats, there are numerous ruins believed to be far older than those of Tula; amongst which there are many pyramids; of these there are two, that of the moon and an- other of the sun, which are of enormous propor- tions. The latter measures over seven hundred feet square at its base, and over two hundred feet in height. Another, the pyramid of Cho- lula, is nearly 1,500 feet square at its base, and 386 EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. covers more than forty acres, much larger than any of those of Egypt. For over four hundred years this race of Tol- tec mound builders, returning from the North, remained in the valley, when, migrating, it is believed to the South, their general disappear- ance being in time noted by a neighboring race, the Chichimecs (vastly inferior to the Toltecs in point of civilization), they crept cautiously into the vacant valley, then called "Anahuac" by these early people, meaning "by the water side," from the chain of lakes occupying the valley, and about whose shores they largely dwelt. These were soon followed by other tribes, the last and most formidable of which were called "Aztecs," and came from a land called Aztlan, wherever that may have been, said, however, to have been located far to the north or northwest Tradition further says that even this indefinite location was not the land of their origin, and that the earliest home of the race was far 'to the south, about Yucatan or Guatemala, and that like the Toltecs, they wandered to this foreign abode, where they dwelt for ages, and like them, were now simply return- ing toward the land of their nativity. At all events, they proceeded no farther, but settling here, they rapidly absorbed and grew into a dominance of all those tribes which had preceded them, and multiplied and grew strong and more civilized, aside from the creation en route of a wood or stone image of a war god called Huit- REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 387 zilopoehtle, from the leader of their band Huitr ziton, who had died on the journey. And to which image in time to come there was in all probability offered up as sacrifice, more human lives than to any other on earth. And here in this valley of Anahuac at the end of 300 years or thereabouts, this race of Az- tecs (who upon their journey hither had named themselves "Mexicans") had thrived and grown strong and became the dominant power amongst the numerous small tribes with which they inter- mingled, and who had preceded them by a hun- dred years. In the search for a camping spot as described through the oracle of their war god, they came to a rocky point extending into the lake, where, perched upon a cactus, with its wings out- stretched toward the rising sun, holding in its beak a serpent, sat an eagle of great size, the emblem of the present flag of Mexico. This was at once accepted as an omen of good, indi- cating a site for their city, which was immedi- ately founded and named Tenochtitlan, the name being later changed to Mexico, and here by the greatest of lakes, "Texcoco," and upon the site of the present City of Mexico, had created a city even greater in many respects than the pres- ent one, and therein, and throughout the coun- try occupied by them there seems to have later been attained a high moral standard, a rapid ad- vancement and a generally peaceful, happy con- dition, aside from the frequent wars waged upon 388 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. neighboring tribes who jet maintained a sepa- rate government, incited in each case almost wholly through the demands of a religious rite, in the practice of which these people grew into a greater and greater belief, into a deeper and deeper fanaticism through the teachings and blind following of a brutal, beastly priesthood. And herein alone in the lives of these people seems to have existed the one condition, if any, which in the slightest degree may be employed to warrant or excuse the subjugation, with its attendant infamous outrages, so .soon to be vis- ited upon them. For this god of theirs, "Huit- zilopochtle," whose creation and acceptance oc- curred during their journey from Aztlan, ap- pears to have been a healthy offspring, and in the 300 years which followed, to have grown into so insatiable a monster that its hunger for human life was difficult to appease through those of their own race who in any manner mer- ited death ; hence war was waged upon outside races for the sole purpose of obtaining prisoners wherewith to keep the larder of this ravenous deity stocked. Finally, and not more than a quarter of a century prior to the landing of Columbus, they had fully completed and added to the noble structures of this otherwise beauti- ful city a great temple of stone, its interior filled with earth against which its walls battered, the summit being a great level surface paved with stone and surmounted by two towers, in one of which was placed this terrible god of war. REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 389 King Ahuitzotl, under whom the temple was completed, and who being one of those most thoroughly governed by the horrible priesthood and its doctrine, believing that the displeasure of the gods could only be averted and their good will maintained through the shedding of tor- rents of blood, had for several years prior to the completion of the temple resolved to render its dedication an event long to be remembered, and to this end had for a lengthy period cut short the rations of this god, and waged war contin- uously and hoarded his prisoners carefully, that an offering might be made upon this occasion that would not only please the god, but would wipe out all previous records, and incidentally impress other tribes (with which he was at war, and to whom he took occasion to extend invita- tions) with his great superiority. The dedica- tion ceremonies lasted four days, during which time historians agree that sixty thousand human beings were led to the summit of this temple (which stood upon the exact spot where the great cathedral of the City of Mexico now stands), and being cast upon their backs across the sac- rificial stone, a priest cut open the breast with an obsidian knife, when plunging his hand into the wound, tore out and held up to the image of this frightful god the palpitating heart. The bodies were cast to the throng in the great square below, while the blood flowing in torrents down the sloping walls drenched the ground upon which they stoo/1. Six millions of people are 390 EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. said to have been present at this carnival of blood, where the king acted as master of cere- monies and commenced the work with his own hands. Throughout Mexico to this day the people employ the name Ahuitzotl as the syno- nym of monster. Ahuitzotl was succeeded by the second Mon- tezuma, who differed widely from his uncle, the great Montezuma, and who from the standpoint of priestly and beastly practices was not far be- hind Ahuitzotl. It occurred to him that the sacrificial stone then in use was not in keeping with the new temple and so sought a new one, which was found in the form of a great block of basalt, and being first hewn into circular form and a bowl carved in its center, with a trench leading therefrom for the collection and con- veyance of blood, the whole was then elaborately carved and transported to its place upon the summit of the temple; at its dedication which immediately followed, the blood of twelve thou- sand human wretches was spilled upon its face, drained into the bowl, and flowed away through the connecting gutter. This stone may to-day be seen in the museum of the City of Mexico, together with the stone idol for the revolting uses of which it served. All this portrays the deep, dark shadow of cruelty and repulsiveness born of the blind following of a false belief which overhung this otherwise advanced and happy people, who in art and science were so proficient that works of gold . and silver sent REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 391 home to the robber king of Spain by his bandits, astonished the artisans of the old world in their elegance of design and exquisite workmanship. In architecture they were superb, while of as^- tronomy and botany they knew much. Not all of the great monolithic emblems of this race which to-day throng the gallery of the museum of Mexico represent such lamentable customs as that of the two previously mentioned. The great calendar stone which confronts one as he enters is a great circular block of basalt, elaborately carved, and through its design and divisions clearly indicates the calendar idea and their knowledge of the measurement of time. -f- Two years before the landing of Cortez, run- ners had carried the news to the Mexican capitol of the landing of a strange people from a strange craft upon the shores of Yucatan; it was the Spanish explorer, Cordova. The following year news was brought of still another appearing in the gulf near the present city of Vera Cruz; this was Don Juan de Grijalva. In the year following this Cortez appeared near the same spot as Grijalva, and making a final landing April 21st, 1519, burned his ships whereby to thwart any attempt at return upon the part of his already discontented followers, and started in upon the most cruel and diabolical system of robbery, rapine and murder that history gives any account of on the part of a civilized race pro- fessing the Christian faith. 392 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. Attacking the first tribe he came in contact with, he created such slaughter and final terror through the use of fire arms, together with men mounted on horses, all of which they had never seen or heard, they soon not only surrendered to avoid apparent extinction, but readily became their allies; after first giving up to these free- booters all their wealth, together with the choice of such of their wives and daughters as these fiends desired, who before prostituting these unfortunate women caused them to be bap- tised, and preached to by an accompanying rev- erend father, a pious old scoundrel named Bar- tolome Olmedo, who told them of all the good and beautiful things connected solely with the holy faith, after which they were parceled out as mistresses to a beastly soldiery. Through these allies they now learned definitely of a marvelous wealth stored in the Mexican capitol, and thither directed their march ; this evidence was soon further corroborated through the acts of the weak king, Montezuma, then reigning there, who being advised of their approach, sent envoy after envoy to meet them, each laden with presents of gold and silver, which they freely gave, at the same time imploring them to retrace their steps, and thus this foolish king hastened the destruction designed for himself and his race, little realizing that he was sending forth a bait for which these villainous sharks would stop at nothing, even the bartering of their own souls. Step by step, they drew nearer the ob- REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 393 ject of their avaricious desire, stopping only to pillage and murder by the way, until finally en- tering the city with their multitude of allies (who were themselves deadly enemies of the Mexicans) and under professions of the deepest friendship, they at once commenced intriguing for its capture. Soon, while being entertained in the most lavish manner as his guests, they made the king a captive and forced him to ad- vise quiet and obedience on the part of his sub- jects; but the treachery of the Spaniards, to- gether with the weakness of their sovereign, had created a hatred and disgust too deep to bear, and rising in arms they sought the liberation of their monarch and the death of the intruders. Again Montezuma was forced to show himself to his outraged subjects and advise them to desist. Frenzied at his submission to such a purpose, his nephew, Guatemotzin, standing near, shot an arrow into his body, while others pelted the dead body with stones and clubs. Thus ended the great Montezuma, who was succeeded by Cuitlahuiatzin, who dying in a few months, was succeeded by Guatemotzin, who in the frenzy of his disgust had killed his uncle, Montezuma. Cortez and his allies had meantime been driven from the city with a slaughter so great that his power was wrecked, and had the Mexi- cans chosen to have followed up their advantage, might have easily exterminated them. And now while Cortez and the remnant of his followers lay sullenly outside the city nurs- 394 REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. ing their wrath and wounds, with Cbrtez sitting during an entire night beneath a great cypress tree (which may yet be seen in the outskirts of the city, and called "The tree of La Noche Triste"), weeping at the loss of his power, and the Mexicans were rising about them until there seemed no possible escape, reinforcements came from Cuba. With these, making a combined force of six hundred Spaniards, with a battery of nine cannon, together with one hundred and twenty-five thousand Tlascallan allies and fifty thosuand Tozcocoans, Cortex commenced a siege of the city, now defended by the brave Guate- motzin. Mercilessly this horde attacked the be- sieged Mexicans, setting fire to the buildings as they pressed about, and shutting off all supplies. Desperately the Mexicans fought, scorning sur- render, and by decoying them into ambush made such havoc in their ranks as to cause them for a time to falter, finally, however, weak from starvation, they were forced to the last trench, the city's center, when with fiendish desperation they were rushed upon from all sides and slain like sheep, until the streets, the squares and the courts of buildings were so covered with the dead that travel was impossible withouit stepping upon them. Guatemotziii was captured, and in forcing him to divulge the hiding of treasure in addition to that taken from Montezuma upon their pre- vious possession of the city, the Spaniards soaked his feet in oil and burned them over a REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 395 slow fire. This brought forth, however, no con- fession from the brave, unyielding Guatemot- zin, save the exultant reply that he had east it into the lake. To-day a fine statue of this noble defender of his race, and the last of the Aztec kings may be seen rising proudly from the cen- ter of one of the Glorietas, or great circles of the Paseo leading to Chapultepec. The Aztecs or Mexicans now fully conquered and their city and stronghold in ruins, Spanish triumph was complete save the subjugation of numerous small and unimportant tribes, and Spanish rule at once began. Much, of which we will ever remain utterly ignorant, concerning the Aztecs might have been given to the world had it not been for the act of that iconoclastic and bigoted priest, the first Archbishop of Mex- ico, Don Juan Zumarraga, who caused to be gathered up and burned all of their records, which were in the form of picture writings. The government of this country henceforth by the Spaniards is too well known to require detailed discussion or description herein. The Viceroys of the Vice Regal system installed were in most part effete members of nobility, ex- haiiisted in purse and devoid of principle, who as autocratic rulers of this new and far distant possession, saw an opportunity to quickly re 1 - plenish their wasted fortunes, and lost no time in so doing, to the end that between the enforced system of contributions on the part of the sub- 396 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. jects for the fattening of these viceroys, the enor- mous tax levied for the benefit of the king and the ostentations home government in Spain, coupled with the continued abuses by that gov- ernment particularly under that monster of ini- quity, Phillip the Second, through whom the terrors of Inquisition were now introduced in his new dominion (then called Nuevo Espana), together with a practical enslavement of the na- tive population, placed these poor people in a po- sition pitiable in the extreme ; a condition which they endured, however, for nearly three hundred years, when of a sudden unheralded and unat- tended by pomp or display there emerged from the wilderness to the south in the year 1803 and entered their land an individual, unpretentious, yet greater than all the viceroys of Mexico, greater than all the kings or queens of Spain or any other country who had yet lived or who have ever since lived, for he, the illustrious Von Humboldt, gave to these people (as he did to other nations) more truths and a greater knowl- edge of their country's resources than they had gained in all time preceding. The successful attempt at independence on the part of the American Colonists (together with the awakening received, quickened trade, and generally improved conditions, arising from the war between Spain and England, wherein through fear of transporting the product of the mines to the mother country on account of Eng- BEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 397 lish privateers with which the seas swarmed, it was forced to remain ^in Mexico), had instilled in the minds of these people the thought of a like attempt; and now when five years subse- quent to the appearance of Humboldt the ag- gressive Napoleon usurped the government of Spain, the thought grew stronger in the minds of many that any possible obligations to a for- eign power had ceased, and that in place of be- ing conveyed as part and parcel of a great hold- ing to a stranger, they were free to establish a government of their own. This ambition, how- ever, was of course bitterly opposed by the Spanish rulers of that country, as under a con- stitutional form of government they would re- ceive slight recognition through any ability or merit they possessed and especially in view of the unprincipled and cruel service they had lent themselves to for more than three-quarters of a century preceding. Yet, two years longer the fires of their ambition smouldered, then burst into flame and under the leadership of that pa- triot priest, Don Miguel Hidalgo, revolution raged throughout the land. Hidalgo was in charge of an unimportant parish in the little town of Dolores, when on the 15th day of Sep- tember, 1810, he proclaimed his renouncement of Spanish rule, of which the church was the great advocate and through which it had accu- mulated untold wealth and power, and an- nounced himself as the uncompromising advo- cate of independence. Instantly from moun- 398 REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. tain and plain, from forest and jungle poured forth legions of the poverty-stricken, down-trod- den, long-suffering natives, amongst which were found a liberal sprinkling of the middle classes. Twenty thousand of them armed only with clubs, stones and knives, with an occasional gun, pounced first upon the important and wealthy city of Guanajuato, a stronghold of the Span- iards, when blind with fury over their three cen- turies of abuse, they gave no heed of their own lives and spared not those of their persecutors. The stronghold fell, the city was sacked, and with its streets slippery with blood, they marched forth and away toward the capital itself. Reach- ing the valley, Hidalgo's followers had increased to one hundred thousand ; meeting here a Span- ish army which he defeated, he marched on to within fifteen miles of the city, and camping for a few days, he for some reason never yet ex- plained, began a retreat. And herein the error occurred which caused long weary years of tur- moil and bloodshed to ensue ere these unhappy and oppressed people in any manner controlled their own destinies, for unquestionably had Hi- dalgo followed up his advantages, himself and his followers would have been overwhelmed with triumphs, the Augean stables would have been quickly and effectually cleaned, independence under constitutional government thoroughly and more quickly established and accepted by these people so unaccustomed and uneducated to the change, and vast areas afterward lost would no REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 399 doubt have yet remained Mexican territory. The sudden voluntary cessation of his triumphal march, however, allowed the fury of his follow- ers to cool and gave to the Spanish government that time so much needed to recover from sur- prise and consternation, when with a train of artillery and an army of ten thousand men, Hi- dalgo was overtaken and defeated. Guanajuato was then retaken and over fourteen thousand de- fenceless men, women and children murdered in the streets in one day. Hidalgo was again de- feated, captured and shot, Morelos now became the leader of the vast and scattered horde in whom the spirit of independence had in no de- gree abated, and on the 16th day of November, 1813, the first formal declaration of independ- ence was made, while on October 22, 1814, nearly a year later, and while fugitives every- where from Spanish soldiery, a constitution was framed by a delegation of these patriots hidden in the forest of Apantzingo. Morelos soon shared the fate of Hidalgo, as did several others of the numerous leaders which followed. There was one wily, uncompromis- ing chieftain, however, who from his mountain retreat defied the power of Spain; it was Don Yincente Guerrero. Iterbide, commander of the army of the viceroy, was at last sent with a large force to capture him. Camping in his vicinity, he first thought over the matter of attack upon this invincible patriot, then concluded to become a revolutionist himself, and arranging a meetr 400 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. ing with Guerrero, the two formulated the cele- brated "Plan of Iguala," so named from a little town in which they met. This was proclaimed and the country rose en masse to its support. Iterbide and Guerrero united their forces, and strengthened by rapidly augmenting numbers, they entered and took possession of the capital without resistance. Iterbide was at once pro- claimed Emperor Augustin I ? when at the end of nine months there made his appearance for the first time in the national affairs of Mexico that seditious scoundrel, Santa Anna, who tak- ing advantage of a growing unpopularity on the part of Iterbide, worked up a following. In- citing insurrection, Iterbide was exiled, when venturing later to return to his native land, was shot; the country meantime having been gov- erned by an executive body of three. And now in 1825 came a republic with Gua- delupe Victoria as its first president. Victoria, like Guerrero, was a vicious enemy of Spanish government, and as leader of a Guerilla band, waged fearful warfare for a time, until finally his little band being wiped out, he took to the mountain forests, where alone he wandered a fu- gitive for over three years, learning nothing of the affairs of his. nation until one day an Indian found him and imparted to him the joyful news of independence. Again during Victoria's term of office we find Santa Anna issuing pronuncia- mentos and stirring up trouble and revolt wher- REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 401 ever t he could. However, at the close of Victo- ria's term, or in the year 1828, the independence of Mexico was acknowledged by the United States, also in fact by other nations of Europe. In the same year an American .settlement was made in Texas, then a part of Mexico. Victo- ria was succeeded by Guerrero, and again the meddlesome Santa Anna began his traitorous work. Guerrero with a body of troop left the city to punish the scoundrel, was captured and shot by this traitorous fiend, and again Santa Anna began plotting against his successor as he continued to do against everyone with whom he came in contact, keeping the republic in constant turmoil and warfare, when finally in 1841, he secured control of government for a short time, was dethroned, made prisoner for a brief spa.ce, then allowed to escape to Cuba, from which point he continued his seditious work. He set to work negotiating with nearly every country in Europe to* take possession of his unfortunate and defenseless country, bankrupt and raging with dissension and revolution, which he had studiously and viciously incited. And here pre- sents itself a page in the history of this long- suffering and now ruin-rent republic which will ever remain a reflection upon the government of the United States. The little band of Americans and foreigners, settled in Texas through consent of the Mexican government, had grown in numbers, and through the long internal warfare and constant revolu- 402 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. tion in Mexico had sought and obtained annex- ation to the United States. Santa Anna doing more than any other one in producing and main- taining a condition which made this desirable, and finally even in exile, causing to be exercised continuous persecution of these people for so doing, to the end (diplomatic relations being al- ready abandoned), that the government at Wash- ington sought the protection of its newly ac- quired state, and war followed. In so far as de- fense of Texas was concerned, there is (aside from such views as many might have of harbor- ing a runaway or secessionist), no criticism whatever, were there not another side to the case quite plain to those familiar with the circum- stances and no longer disputed. That the great conspirator and destroyer of the peace and strength of his own country, the infamous Santa Anna, finally succeeded in en- gaging the United States in the questionable un- dertaking refused by the governments of Eu- rope, and that such was brought about by collu- sion, the main object of the United States being that of acquiring territory, and that it was a part of the political intrigue through which James K. Polk was elected president, is a mat- ter which few versed in its details attempt to dispute or justify, and is fully evidenced by such transactions as Taylor's uncalled-for ag- gression in crossing the Rio Grande and attack- ing Matamoras, by the importation of Santa Anna into Mexico wherein he was permitted to REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 403 pass through the blockade of American vessels and land at Vera Cruz, for the purpose of stir- ring up greater discord amongst his countrymen, and by means of his revolutionary following se- cure his command of the Mexican forces, through all of which together with the fact that one-half of Mexico was fighting the remaining half, the nation bankrupt aside from the wealth of the church, which they refused to disgorge a dollar of except to create greater internal strife, and it became apparent with what ease an in- vading force and an even smaller one of any na- tion, no matter their mission, might have accom- plished its purpose. The war ended (which incidentally was by our own Gen. Ulysses S. Grant pronounced "the most unjust and unholy war ever waged against a destitute and defenseless people") and peace finally declared (for which was delivered the plunder in the form of a vast territory that had formed the sole object of invasion), Santa Anna the virtual agent and ally of the United States, no longer fortified in his position through the presence of the enemy, again quickly made good his escape, when, six years later his band of revolutionists having gained a position in which to protect, him, this arch conspirator again re- turned for a brief term, was finally overcome by those struggling for law, order and general good government, and leaving the capital between two days, took refuge in the United States, whose in- terests he had so zealously served. 404 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. The church, since the overthrow of Spanish dominion, cared little in whose hands the gov- ernment rested, so that such government what- ever it might be, made the Catholic faith exclu- sive of all other in Mexico, freed them from taxation, and permitted their continuous drain upon the wealth of the nation, through a perpet- uation of blind ignorance on the part of the pro- ducing masses, whereby from the sale of bulls for absolvence from any crime whatsoever, and from the wholesale appropriation of the prop- erty of equally ignorant, unthinking, death-bed penitents, be they rich or poor, they had already taken unto themselves one-half of the taxable property of Mexico, and were en route to rap- idly acquire the other half. Their cathedrals were simply filled to overflowing with the wealth of the nation in the form of gold, silver, precious stones, and art, while the choicest landed estates dotted the republic, until in even those days of comparatively undeveloped resources, the aggre- gate wealth of the church in Mexico was esti- mated at nearly one billion of dollars, though nine-tenths of the nation's people were enslaved and starving. At the outbreak of the war with the United States, Gomez Farias suggested that the penni- less nation, having all it could do to cope with such internal conspirators as Santa Anna and his followers, should receive some assistance from the church, who possessed all the wealth and nine-tenths of the privileges. In response to REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 405 this (as stated) they simply armed bands to make war upon Farias and his followers for daring to suggest such contribution. The Constitution so far had declared that no church but the Catholic should be allowed, and that the press while free in other respects, should under no circumstances be permitted to criticize the church. But now, in 1857, a new Constitution (that which now exists) was adopt- ed, and the right was declared to worship in any faith one chose, and to discuss the same freely. Benito Juarez was at the time (under Alvarez) Minister of Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs, and through whom (a Zapotec Indian, born of poor parents in the state of Oaxaca, but of a tribe who, fortified in their mountain fast- nesses, the Spanish had never been able to con- quer) was created what was known as the "Law of Juarez," abolishing class legislation, restrict- ing the military and the church, and establish- ing absolute equality of all citizens before the law. The President Comonfort, too weak to en- force the law ? played fast and loose, until finally assassinated at the instigation of the church, when Juarez falling heir to the presidency, com- menced at once the work of relieving the distress and prohibiting further impositions upon a long- outraged populace, and at the same time admin- istering to the church the punishment they so richly deserved. 406 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. In the forty years preceding, Mexico had endured thirty-six different forms of govern- ment, administered by seventy-three different rulers. The entire period being fraught with in- creasing internal strife, conspiracy and warfare, with additional troubles from without, Mexico was driven to the depths of national poverty, and in debt to everyone of whom they could bor- row. And now when the first ray of light seemed to be dawning after the long, dark night of turbulence and distress, the three creditor na- tions England, Spain and France formed a forced collection alliance, when after the com- bined fleet had reached Vera Cruz a treaty was made whereby the English and Spanish, ashamed of their action, found an excuse to withdraw, while the Erench insisted upon in- vading the interior. And now, unlike the con- ditions which opposed American invasion (though equally penniless and poorly equipped) there existed that important factor of com- parative loyalty and unity of effort in their country's defence, which coupled with the lead- ership other than that of an infamous Santa Anna, gave to the French an unlooked for strug- gle. For an unexpected Napoleon had risen up and confronted them in the Western Hemis- phere in the person of Porfirio Diaz. Yet they swept onward and capturing the capital, Juarez and his cabinet were driven from place to place, finally settling at Paso del Norte, now called Ciudad Juarez, situate upon the American bor- REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 407 der, just across the Rio Grande from the pres- ent town of El Paso, in Texas. The French now installed themselves and set up a government known as a limited hered- itary monarchy, with a Catholic prince as ruler, who was to assume the title of Emperor of Mex- ico, and conferred the same upon Prince Ferdi- nand Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, and brother to the Emperor Francis Joseph. Being deluded into the belief that the matter was agree- able to the Mexican people, he accepted, and accompanied by his wife Carlotta, assumed rule. His unfortunate ending is known throughout the world. He was in no sense at heart a bad man, but neither he nor his government were of the people's choice. A deceitful priesthood had convinced him that they were, and sup- ported for the time by the iron hand of the French military, he rested secure. Through his innate desire to be just, he through an en- terprising and democratic attitude, soon called upon himself the displeasure of the church, and so disappointed the French Emperor that he abandoned his idea of establishing an empire, and withdrew his soldiers from Mexico 1 , leaving Maximilian to work out his own salvation. Had he been wise he would have departed with his military support, but remaining, his danger rap- idly increased, for though disposed to champion the cause of the people, he could not be forgotten as the representative of an invading and usurp- ing power, and forgetful of all his virtues was 408 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. held responsible for its acts. As his predica- ment became more appalling, Carlotta went alone to Paris and begged the emperor to return the troops, which he firmly refused to do. Juarez and his cabinet now began moving southward upon a return to the capital, while a rapidly augmenting avenging army gathered for his support. Maximilian with such support as he could accumulate, moved northward to Queretaro, and meeting here the opposing forces of Juarez, was defeated, captured, and together with his two generals, Miramon and Mejia, were courtmartialed, and on the 19th of June, 1867, were shot upon the summit of "The Hill of Bells," an eminence in the outskirts of the city, where to-day may be seen three crosses marking the spot where they fell. Two days following the execution of Maxi- milian, Diaz, who coming up from the south with his followers, had captured the city of Pu- ebla, now triumphantly, after a short siege, en- tered the City of Mexico, where Juarez and his cabinet joined him in the middle of the month following. And now the country settled down to a some- what united and peaceful condition, while sin- cere and rational steps were taken for the ad- justment of the national debt, for a system of public education, and for the encouragement of the construction of railways and other improve- ments. REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 400 And where was the contemptible Santa Anna during all this ? Upon the arrival of Maximilian, he from his place of exile at once tendered his services to the new emperor; be- ing refused, he lost no time in making a like proposition to Juarez ; treated with disdain here, he at once undertook starting a rebellion of his own, and landing in Yucatan, was arrested, tried and sentenced to death, which the great magnanimous Juarez commuted to eight years of exile, finally dying in obscurity and ridding the world of his detestable being in 1877. Revolution had so long prevailed that through force of habit it appeared from time to time for a brief period, but was met with stern resistance by Juarez. Juarez was suc- ceeded by Lerdo, one of the faithful cabinet, who fled with him to Paso del Norte, and who in turn was succeeded by Porfirio Diaz, the pro- tege, pupil, law partner, and general, of that grand old patriot, Juarez. With the exception of one term held by Gonzales, Diaz has ever since remained presi- dent of the rapidly advancing republic, now fast assuming a prominent place amongst the powers of the earth, at peace with itself and the world, prosperous in the pursuits of trade and the de- velopment of its vast resources, and possessed of as fine, and a more rapidly growing system of public education than elsewhere to be found, all of which having been accomplished under the reign of this remarkable man. There need be 410 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. little criticism in the act of a now united and patriotic people, who but little over a quarter of a century since agreed upon nothing save re- volt against the general government, who in the recent past have seen fit to amend their constitu- tion whereby to make possible his occupancy of the office so long as he shall live, which in all probability will occur, for though having been born in 1830, his work in war and in peace place him to-day pre-eminently at the head of the pres- ent-day chiefs of the nations of the earth. Such roughly and briefly is the tale of Mex- ico from the dawn of information upon the sub- ject until now. CHAPTER XIX. In no small degree does one's knowledge of the country's past contribute to their first im- pressions of the extremely sunny peaceful, po- etic atmosphere that everywhere to-day pervades Mexico and its life. The mind freighted with information of those distressing scenes of human sacrifice, the brutality and inhumanity of conquest, and the terrors of revolution (which combined would seem to have fully engrossed the acts and the ambitions of these people for nearly a thousand years), comes first into contact with them fully and only prepared to experience and accept a personality on the part of these people, which acquired, augmented and handed down through centuries of bloodshed and dissension, it would seem must form an inheritance which even yet would manifest itself through sullen indiffer- ence and a coarse and brutal manner. Yet no- where amongst the nations of the earth are to be found a people whose genial, courteous, hospit- able manner, exceeds in genuineness and extent that of the Mexicans^ be they patrician or ple- bian. In the thousands of miles traveled by the writer with pack train through the most re- mote regions of the land, and accompanied only by servants of the Indian or peon class "Mozos," 412 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. camping by the wayside where night overtook us and hundreds of miles perhaps from railway or telegraph, he has yet to experience at their hands other than kindness, courtesy and a de- gree of faithfulness difficult to find elsewhere. And again frequently sheltered in the humble abode of a poor Mexican, enjoyed an observ- ance of unaffected dignity tempered by a refined,, whole-souled hospitality, that might long yet remain an example to be emulated by the most pretentious of Newport entertainers. And now, when morning came and we were about to depart (knowing well the scanty store of fri- joles and tortillas which had been so gener- ously shared), venturing to ask the indebted* ness, the impecunious yet proud and dignified host would majestically draw his zerape about him and courteously yet decisively impart the information that his was not a hotel. Of the fourteen millions or more who inhabit the republic, more than three-fourths are natives, or descendants of the different tribes who occu- pied the country prior to the conquest, In many of them the blood remains pure, but largely it is intermingled with the Spanish, English and French. Although a bordering na- tion, there are yet but little over thirty thousand Americans in the entire republic, by far the greater percentage of whom are engaged in min- ing, and many of whom cannot be regarded as even true residents, let alone the matter of citi- zenship. REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 413 The general form of Mexico is that of an ele- vated table land rising somewhat abruptly from each the Atlantic and Pacific coast lines into nigged mountain chains, between which exists the table land proper, itself interspersed with fragmentary ranges, while the desert-like fea- tures bounding it on the north and covering so great an area in the United States, continue southward over this entire plateau to a line cor- responding closely with the 22d parallel, when a field of productiveness has been reached which extends unbroken (save for the mountainous portions) to the southern boundary. Both coast lines, though the climate isi hot and at points unhealthy, are extremely productive and sup- port a large population. The great northern and central table land referred to must not be regarded, however, as an absolute waste, for over its arid plains range millions of cattle, sheep and goats, while the small ranges with which it is dotted, furnish much gold and silver, though the most general mineral area is the mountains of the western coast In fact, the largest individual cattle and land owner in the world is to be found here upon this table land in the state of Chihuahua. Gen- eral Terrazas, an ardent revolutionist, after a long struggle in behalf of independence finally settled down to the more peaceful pursuit of stock raising, and here to-day ranging over mill- ions of acres of his own lands, besides millions more belonging to the government, are found 414: REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. bearing his brand five hundred thousand head of cattle, one million sheep and eight hundred thou- sand goats, together with a herd of horses so great than at an anniversary of his birth (the festivities being held at one of his ranches in the edge of a mountain range about ten miles distant across a level plain from the Mexican Central Railway) he was enabled to select five hundred white horses from his own herd, and to mount them with five hundred of his own cow punchers, dressed in white uniforms ; with these he received his guests at the railway and gave them escort to the ranch and return. Aside from his palatial residence in the city of Chi- huahua, he owns and occupies a country seat about five miles distant up the Chihuahua river and near the Mexican Central Railway, which has few equals in all the efforts of the multi-mill- ionaire class in the- United States. Banking, mining, iron manufacture, and meat canning contribute further to the unlimited holdings and princely income of this lord of the arid waste. Mexico is without question the most fruitful area of its size in the world in the production of precious metals. Since the conquest the re- corded production of silver alone amounts to over four billions of ounces; or otherwise ex- pressed, more silver than exists in the world at the present time in the form of money. There are at least four mining camps in Mexico, to each of whom is to be credited a production of gold and silver of over one billion of dollars. REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 415 Under Spanish rule one-fifth of the gross pro- duct was a tithing taken for the king or the home government; then the corrupt viceroy must be cared for, while the church at one time came very near taking what was left. In the city of Chihuahua is a cathedral costing eight hundred thousand dollars, built from a tax of two per cent, levied upon the gross product of the Santa Eulalia mine near by. Yet notwithstanding all these demands, and notwithstanding the ab- ject poverty and pitiful condition of servitude endured, by the native masses, the fortune of mining then as in later times picked occasion- ally from the lowly and serf -like horde an object iipon which to lavish untold wealth. Nearly fifty years before the liberty bell in Philadel- phia rang out its peals of independence, a poor peon in Mexico named Peter Terreros who had for twelve years toiled alone (during such time as was left him after earning a miserable sup- port) digging away in an abandoned mine, with little promise of reward, when suddenly he en- countered ore of such volume and of such fab- ulous richness, that, the wealth pouring in upon him was difficult to handle. He first built two magnificent ships of the line and presented them to the King of Spain, then sent word to his Maj- esty that if he would visit him, that both he and the horse he rode should tread upon nothing but sheets of silver from the time of his landing at Vera Cruz until his return. Upon the mar- riage of his daughter the pathway over which 27 416 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. the bridal party passed between the house and the church was paved with bars of silver and gold ; his income rose to more than a million dollars per month, while his final possessions amounting to a hundred millions or more were during that period simply inconceivable. In consideration of this man's vast wealth, together with his princely contributions to the church and other causes, he was created Count of Regla. The revolution which followed swept away his vast accumulations to an extent that his entire descendants were left penniless. Other in- stances in these early times and amongst these down-trodden and severely governed people, of sudden elevation from pitiful poverty to won- drous wealth occurred frequently, one in partic- ular which probably ranks next to that of Terre- ros, occurred but a short time subsequent, where the fortunate discoverer gained a fortune of nearly seventy-five millions. Again over where the city of Durango now slands (and incidentally where occurs the great- est and most valuable iron deposit in the world) there dwelt three hundred and seventy-five years ago a humble "ranchero." A little village was started upon his lands, and a mine was dis- covered which soon endowed him with such fab- ulous wealth that he built a palace, which to-day is occupied as the palace of the governor of the state of Durango ; before building this he sent a request to the King of Spain to be allowed to build his "portales," or porches, of silver, REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 417 and accompanied the request with a present of two millions of dollars. It being a privilege of royalty only, the king refused permission, but neglected to return the two millions. And now at the present writing comes Pedro Alverado, who after a lifetime of toil in which to provide himself with the plainest of food and clothing, meantime owning and delving away at an insignificant holding in the mining camp of Parral, at last breaks into a storehouse of treas- ure which converts his little property of yester- day, seeking a sale at a few thousand dollars, into a bonanza the purchase of which now stag- gers the largest combinations of capital; mean- time the opulent owner seeks not the title of a count, but loyal to his country and his race, be- stows his wealth with a lavish hand upon the less fortunate who surround him, and incident- ally proposes to the President of his republic to be permitted to pay the national debt. Few there are as compared with the whole (even in the adjoining country of the United States), who even vaguely realize the wealth of interesting matter with which this sunny land is strewn. When the resident of the newer do- main to the north, exhausted from the struggle and laden with accumulation, starts for Europe, either in pursuit of quiet. and rest or the gratifi- cation of a scholarly and refined taste (fanciful or otherwise) through an environment of art and antiquity, he or she simply goes farther and 418 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. fares worse, for in this great range of territory extending from the thirty-second parallel on the north to a point only twelve degrees removed from the equator, with elevations reaching from sea level to nearly eighteen thousand feet above, with meteorological conditions varying from an inch of rainfall to one hundred, with centers teeming with life and vast areas wrapt in soli- tude, there is found every condition of climate and every degree of life association. And again, here thronged with beings were great cities with lordly palaces and gilded temples, while the ground upon which now stand those the most ancient of modern Europe was still the wild and unreclaimed hunting ground of a then brutal savage, and yet others with walls of ornate sculp- ture, then apparently as battered and gray with age as now, had their creation long before our Saviour had His birth. The Pacific coast, including Lower Califor- nia, still remains the frontier of Mexico, for as yet no line of railway from the interior reaches it in all that great stretch from the Gulf of Te- huantepec northerly to Guaymas, while from the latter place the connection is made for some con- siderable distance through the United States, a condition, however, the end of which is near. The coast cities of Guaymas, Culiacan, Ma- zatlan, Manzanillo and Acupulco, though active and prosperous business centers, are compara- tively modern and present little of interest to the student of art and archeology, save to a slight REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 419 extent that of the latter, which, on account of its delightful harbor soon discovered by the inde- fatigable Spanish conquerors, was immediately occupied, and from here in 1540, but nine years after its discovery, sailed Don Hernando de Alarcon, the discoverer of California. From here later, and until the end of Spanish rule, sailed the richly laden galleons, in the trade be- tween Spain, China and the East Indies. For as Bret Harte has said in his famous poem, the "Lost Galleon," "In sixteen hundred and forty-one The regular yearly Galleon Laden with odorous gums and spice, And the richest silks of far Cathay, Was due at Aeupulco Bay." These cargos were the richest upon an aver- age of those of any carrying trade in the world before or since, and ran into millions of dollars each, the outgoing being treasure from the rich mines of Mexico, in payment for the costly mer- chandise that returned, and much of which, by the way, did not return, for English and French pirates with swift, and well-armed vessels lurked constantly in the numerous shelterings of the coast to pounce upon the enticing prey. By far the most charming of this altogether intensely interesting land is the south half of that portion lying east of the Pacific coast range. Ciudad Juarez, on the extreme northern boun- dary, has little of historical interest save as be- 420 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. ing the fugitive capital during the struggle for independence. Chihuahua, over two hundred miles due south, ranks well in years with the earliest of the cities that followed the conquest, having been founded only forty-seven years sub- sequent to the landing of Columbus. It is, however, too much a border town to preserve in any marked degree the purity of race customs. East of the Sierra Madres and between Chi- huahua and the twenty-fourth parallel, which may be taken as the northern limit of the more attractive area referred to, are located the fol- lowing more or less interesting cities, nearly all founded during the sixteenth century. Parras, noted for its surrounding vineyards and the ex- cellent quality of its wines; Saltillo, where the finest zerapes are made. Monterey, Monclova and Matamoros, like Chihuahua and Juarez, are in too great a degree border towns to be possessed of extreme interest. Torreon, though of con- siderable size, is a railway town and modern. Durango, situated upon the dividing line, or the 24th parallel, is by far the most prominent and interesting of all the cities so far reached. Aside from the already mentioned mountain of iron which still exists, and the ranchers with ambitions for silver balconies and porches who no longer exist, the place, now a city of no mean dimensions, possesses many attractions and is the center of extensive mining and other indus- tries. Continuing southward, the traveler now en- REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 421 ters a field even richer as a whole than any other on earth in all that goes to heighten the fancy and gratify the cravings of a mind governed by loftier conceptions and guided bynobler impulses than the limitless accumulation and individual appropriation of material things with its result- ant governing power, no matter whether it be through the brutal conquest of a Cortez or the equally effective and no less oppressive methods of more modern design. A land where fertile and tranquil valley and plain teem with monu- ments hewn from the everlasting rocks, impres- sively heroic in magnitude and artful in design, which mark the wavering, winding course of evo- lution and tell the tale of an existence from that of now, back so far that no single other fact remains, the pathway itself is lost, while ever ready yet unfounded tradition reverently recoils from any attempt at explanation. And now cir- cling 'round about the whole, reared into mon- strous form through the earth's convulsions and later carved into intricate design by that great artisan in earth sculpture, exists a system of mountain barriers, with here and there a tower- ing sentinel breathing forth at intervals in tones of thunder and with breath of fire and flame a stern warning to the earthly, irreverent vandals who prowl below, that there yet remains a power other and greater than they. Here upon the eastern or gulf shore line of this lower half of the republic rest the promi- nent ports of Tampico and Vera Cruz, while 422 REMINISCENT R AMBLINGS. scattered throughout the vast interior and clus- tering about their sovereign (that altogether most charming of all cities of the Western Hem- ispheres) are such as Zacatecas, San Luis, Po- tosi, Guanajuato and Pachuca, queens in the realm of gold and silver, whose mines though worked for more than four hundred years are still producing, and each of which has given to the world in the two metals more than one bill- ion dollars. Queretaro with its field of opal gems ; Leon a great industrial hive in the manu- facture of cotton, woolen and leather goods, ironware and cutlery, with no usurpation of priv- ilege, but divided into hundreds of small propri- etorships; Guadalajara, the most beautiful and cleanly city in North America. Puebla filled with churches and surrounded by volcanoes, its cathedral rivaling that of Mexico, except in di- mensions; Morelia, the birthplace of Morelos, and the city of beautiful homes; Cuernavaca, with its beautiful Jardin de la Borda, with its fountains, lakes, cataracts, and terraces, the whole rivaling the gardens of the palace at Mar- sailles, and the gift of a poor peon who made fifty millions in mines ; here Cortez built a pal- ace home, which to-day is occupied as the state capitol, and here, too, Maximilian and Carlo tta passed much of that gay and luxurious existence which preceded the terrible end. Oaxaca, a city long before the conquest by Cortez or the land- ing of Columbus, with its beautiful church of Santo Domingo, costing over thirteen millions REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 423 of dollars and filled with priceless treasure, the birthplace of each of those illustrious sons of pure Indian blood, Bonito Juarez and Porfirio Diaz, lies upon the border of a great domain extending still farther southward, over which are scattered the ruins of cities of monstrous size and grand design, so wrapt in the mysticism of antiquity that yet no light is shed upon their creation, occupation or abandonment. The first of these, Mitla, is but a short day's drive from Oaxaca; from here extending along the isthmus of Tehuantepec, through the states of Chiapas, Campechi and Yucatan, there are great numbers of these ruins of prehistoric cities ; but the greatest of them all is that of Pal- enque, situated in the state of Chiapas, near the border of Guatemala, and buried in most part in the depths of a dense, dark, tropical forest, so tangled with thickets and vines and fallen trees as to be practically impenetrable. Here once existed a city that, so far as modern explorers have been able to determine, covered an area of twenty miles square. The natives claim it to be much larger; however, numerous authorities reckon it to have covered more than ten times the area of the city of New York, and several times that of London. It will be many genera- tions under the most favorable circumstances be- fore its true boundaries will be known ; as buried beneath debris, the accumulation of scores of centuries, and the present surface covered with vegetation so dense and of such rapid growth 424 EEMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. that its reproduction in most part is but a matter of a few months, it becomes, together with the great area to be unearthed, no easy task. Yet of it, enough is exposed and fully explored to warrant the statement that Herculanseum, Pom- peii, Thebes and the pyramids of Egypt are in comparison but toys viewed from the standpoint of magnitude and design, while from that of time it is more than possible they are but chil- dren of tender years. Charnay and Dupaix place its origin (together with others of these cities) long prior to the beginning of the Chris- tian era. The priesthood points to certain indefinite figures, in the wilderness of carvings that yet adorn both the outer and inner walls of such temples and palaces as are exposed, as evidence that these people knew of the Christian faith; and with no authority whatever, place the period of founding in the third century. How- ever, so far as the occurrence of the cross (though it may be) is concerned, it appears of but little value in establishing the existence of these people and the creation of their inconceiv- able works, when we consider the fact that archeologists in recent time have recovered in- numerable of these emblems with the very best evidence to show their existence thousands of years before our Christ was born. In viewing the works here presented in this one city, and in contemplation of the vast area remaining yet unexplored (for the forest and REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 425 jungle is so dense that one might pass within, a stone's throw of a structure as large as the capital at Washington and never dream of its presence) one is lost in wonder at the accom- plishments of these early people. Pantheons and palaces, temples and towers, a hundred or more, (though an infinitesimal fraction of the whole) have been discovered and explored, the largest about three hundred feet square, all of them constructed of the hardest stone and of blocks of such dimensions as to tax to its utter- most the capacity of our most modern appli- ances of to-day for handling, the quarries from which they were taken certainly not being with- in any reasonable distance, each stone cut and laid in the most workmanlike manner, and the whole covered with carvings of bird and beast and man, interspersed with acres of hiero- glyphics which yet await deciphering; all this with the lack of conveniences, which must then have existed, and the mind is lost in calculation of the time and toil, patience and perseverance that here alone present their evidence. Uxmal and Chichen in Yucatan seem next in impor- tance so far as discovered, the former being especially rich in monstrous and highly adorned structures. Labna, Kahbah, Nohpat and May- apan are still other notable examples. Awakening from the reverie, and abandon- ing the vain struggle for further information concerning this ancient life, let us return to the 426 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. present capital, about which clusters all of to- day in this land of the Aztec, the Toltec, and, earlier still, that apparently superior race for which we have no name. Where today stands the City of Mexico with a population of five hundred thousand peo- ple, there existed for two hundred years prior to the conquest an even greater city, Tenochtitr Ian, the capital of the Aztecs; which together with the long train of other features of an- tiquity in and about, coupled with its climate and its multitude of present-day charms, render Mexico to the visitor the most interesting and agreeable metropolis of all in the Americas, north of the equator at least. The Mexicans are a music loving people, and no town of any magnitude can be found throughout the republic whose plaza does not con- tain a band stand, and such band stands ! ISTot the clumsy affair with hideous lines which pre- vails in the United States, but a light, airy, graceful, tastefully-decorated structure in orna- mental iron work. Nor do the military bands of which there are one or more in every town of any importance (for Mexico is a somewhat military nation), and who like all such are the servants of and supported by the people at large, require to be paid extra, or assume the attitude of conveying some especial favor upon the peo- ple who support them, but are compelled to play regularly from the band stands of the public squares, and other points until the land is filled REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 427 with music and the cares of life dispelled; of this and of all else that elevates and ennobles, the City of Mexico is the seat not only for Mexico, but in fact for the Western hemisphere. Here has been gathered in art a portion of all that excels in the so-called old world; Titians, Raphaels, Murillos, Correas , Cortonas, Van Dycks, Rubens and Leonardo diVinces, together with the works of other masters too numerous to mention, are found in places open to all. The equestrian statue of Charles the Fourth stand- ing at the city's entrance to the Paseo, was mod- eled by a native artist and cast by native work- men in 1802. It still remains the largest single piece of bronze in the world, horse and rider being in one piece. Humboldt declared it also the finest example of its kind in existence, save that of Marcus Aurelius in Rome. The statues of Columbus and of Guatimotzin occupying re- spective glorietas in the Paseo rank high in the world of art, while the monument to Juarez (a Grecian temple, within which rests a figure of the noble Indian president, his head sup- ported by a goddess-like figure of Mexico, the whole in the whitest marble) appeals to the writer as the grandest and most beautiful piece of sculpture he has yet seen, while amongst the ablest critics it has long been conceded that this is one of the choicest the world possesses. Here again the newspaper of the new world had its birth; a printing press being set up in 428 EEMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 1535 for the publication of a paper called the "Gaoeta." Here, also, we find established but sixteen years subsequent to the Gaceta the first uni- versity of the continent. Both the newspaper and the university, how- ever, were strictly curtailed in their usefulness, and contributed little toward the general uplift- ing and betterment of the masses. Tenochtitlan, upon the arrival of Cortez, contained from 50,000 to 60,000 buildings of all sorts, and a probable population of over 500,000 people ; while Mexico, the city of today, is closely approaching this magnitude. Like all cities of the nation, the number and splendor of its churches forcibly impress one; for the century succeeding the conquest was a period of the most beautiful work along these lines, borrowing and grouping here the gem features of church architecture from throughout the entire old world and adding to it much of the native Indian idea, especially in carving and other ornamentation, and with cheap, yet skillful, labor of the natives, together with the untold and rapidly developing wealth in gold and silver of this new possession to warrant it, the government gave free reign in church con- struction to the end that the land is studded, even throughout the wildest and most inacces- sible portions, with works of this kind, of endur- ing construction and matchless beauty. REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 429 Here in the City of Mexico alone are 125 churches, the beautiful form and detail of whose facades, together with that of the towers and domes above, tinged with the exquisite colorings of age, render each an example whose descrip- tion other than vague and unworthy must flow from the tongue or pen of a skilled and eloquent artist. Of all these churches which surround it, and in fact of all that now exist upon the American continent, the great cathedral, in point of size, grandeur and wealth of interior decoration and fittings, stands pre - eminently alone. With a depth of 426 feet, a frontage of 203 feet, its pon- derous, yet graceful, dome rising from the center of the rear half, and its two great towers each reaching upward to a height of 206 feet, render inquiry on the part of the visitor to Mexico as to its whereabouts quite unnecessary. Added to this already huge structure, and now forming a part of the same, is the "Sagrario," which, with the little chapel of "La Capilla de la Soledad," gives to the grand pile a total frontage of about 400 feet The walls, roof and towers alone of the Cathedral proper cost over two millions of dollars, and this with prac- tically slave labor representing but little more than one-tenth of the cost to-day. Its corner- stone was laid in 1573 and its complete con- struction occupied a period of 219 years. The greater outlay by far upon this edifice was its* interior adornment, altars, figures, etc. Within 430 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. this vast and magnificent enclosure are five naves, six altars, and fourteen chapels. At the northern extremity and facing the main en- trance rests the high altar, a towering mass of ornate carving covered with gold, the lower por- tion a system of panels each filled with a paint- ing by the hand of one of the old masters, the whole, rising to the very arches of the roof, forming what was long regarded as the richest altar in the world, for then, like other portions of this gorgeous temple, it was lavishly arrayed in statues, crosses, chalices, censers and candle sticks of solid gold, set with diamonds and other precious stones, many of these pieces being too heavy for one man to lift ; one, the statue of the assumption, was alone valued at over a million of dollars. But, the bitter revolution ended and independence attained, the church having throughout aided Spain and antagonized the revolutionists, now found themselves in a most embarrassing position; though enormously wealthy and owning as they did more than half of all the property of Mexico, and holding the same free from taxation, while the new gov- ernment found itself bankrupt. But though the church had the wealth, the government had the power, and at once engaged in the sequestration of church property, and the massive images and ornaments of gold, together with tons of bap- tismal fonts and chancel railings of gold and silver combined, went into the melting pot from these storehouses of wealth all over the land. REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 431 To give the reader a clearer idea of the enormous wealth other than apparent that exists even yet in these temples of holy faith, it may be related that in recent years a leading concern, engaged in the reduction of gold and silver ores, offered for the chancel railing of one of the churches of the republic, to replace the same in identical form in sterling silver and pay one million dol- lars in exchange; the present silver railing con- taining enough gold that this transaction might be engaged in at a profit. The great cathedral though the largest, grandest and most gorgeous church edifice in the western hemisphere to-day, is but a skeleton of its former self through this process of seques- tration, to which the present heretical govern- ment has added the further indignity that outr side the church walls no priest shall wear his robes. In the Sagrario, which opens into and forms a part of the great cathedral pile, are thirteen altars, making nineteen in all. The entire front of the Sagrario is an intricate mass of ornate carving and is in striking contrast to that of the cathedral proper. But there are other things of interest and great good in this most charming of cities, also much of interest in the struggle for independ- ence that is almost identical with that of the United States; amongst the rest a liberty bell. For at midnight on the 15th of September in the year 1810 the patriot priest Hidalgo startled 432 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. from their slumbers the people 'round about by violently ringing the bell in the tower of his little church at Dolores. They gathered to listen to his eloquent appeal for liberty as it rang out on the midnight air, and gathering such weap- ons as they could find, formed then and there the nucleus of a mighty host that quickly fol- lowed. Eighty-six years to a day following this event the writer happened to be in the City of Mexico, when this old Tocsin of terror to the tyrant of long before was brought from its home and mounted amidst great pomp and ceremony, over the central gate to the palace. When all was ready, and as the first tone sounded, a thou- sand or more carrier pigeons, gathered from all the country 'round about and garlanded with streamers in the tri-colors of Mexico fastened about their necks, were suddenly liberated from confinement beneath the bell, and soaring up- ward in a great cloud departed to all points of the compass, bearing to the oppressed every- where the glad tidings of liberty. More and better libraries are hard to find anywhere; the national library, occupying the old church of San Augustin, contains more than half a million volumes; amongst which are to be found a greater number of rare and valuable works than in all other libraries of North Amer- ica combined. The National Museum, already extensive, is rapidly growing, and one of the most inter- esting in the world. REMINISCENT RAM BEINGS. 433 The School of Mines is a superb institution of learning, and the building one of the most magnificent to be found anywhere. The School of Fine Arts, The College of San Ygnacio Loyola, the School of Agriculture, that of Medicine and other too numerous to mention, are all important and rapidly growing institu- tions, while hospitals and asylums are abundant. No finer system of street and suburban rail- ways, street pavement and other municipal im- provements exist in any city in the world. "No lovelier parks and public squares, no boulevard so grand as the Paseo de la Raforma, and no residence of the ruler of any other nation so beautiful and poetic as the Castle of Chapulte- pec, from which, perched upon the summit of the ancient "Hill of the Grasshoppers," one looks for three miles down and along the broad paseo thronged with life and gaiety, on through the city, out across the silvery lakes with their surrounding fields and forests green, and away beyond at those great silent, towering, snow- capped volcanic peaks, which rising majestically to an elevation of two miles above the plain of Anahuac, blend almost indefinably their sil- vered summits with the soft pale blue of a south- ern summer sky ; and, wrapped in admiration of the scene, we are further lost in wonder dense, that here in all time past could have reigned aught else than peace, contentment and good will. CHAPTER XX. Out across the plain to the northeast, but a few miles distant from the outskirts of the City of Mexico, and nestled at the foot of a range of rocky hills, rests the little hamlet of Guadalupa, and the holiest shrine in all the Catholic world. It was in the month of December, in the year 1531, that a young native Indian, an early convert and devout follower of the Catholic faith, in wending his way to a little nearby mis- sion church, took the trail of a short route which led along the face of one of these rocky hills. Suddenly he heard the sound of music and sing- ing, and looking up, there amongst the rocks and cactus on the hillside, stood a beautiful lady, about whose form was gathered a halo of light, and who beckoned him toward her. Paralyzed with fright, the poor Indian approached, when she bade him have no fear, but go on an errand for her at once to the City of Mexico, where dwelt Bishop Don Juan Zumarraga, the first Archbishop of Mexico, and soon thereafter ap- pointed, and say to him for her that it was her request that a temple at once be built in her hon- or and upon the spot where she then stood. Then she vanished, and Juan trotted tremblingly away toward the city on his uncanny errand. The Bishop listened to his strange tale and sent him REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 435 away without further discussion. Returning, she sent him back the second and even the third time, when the Bishop, annoyed and uncertain how to act, sent a spy to shadow his return, but approaching the mountain, Juan's form melted into thin air, and all trace of him was lost. He found the lady, however, awaiting his return at the usual place, and conveyed to her the Bishop's command that some further evidence of a more convincing nature than Juan's simple statements be furnished him. She bade him go home for the present and meet her again on the following day. Reaching home he found his father ill with fever, and in place of returning on the fol- lowing day as directed, remained to nurse him. Several days elapsed, when his father's condi- tion becoming alarming, he hastened back to the little church whither he was bent when first meeting the strange lady, and through fear of meeting her again, passed around the hill on its opposite side, but at a given point she again ap- peared to him. Falling upon his knees he im- plored her to not delay him, for that his father lay dying at his home of fever, and that all haste must be made for the priest that he might die confessed. Then she bade him have no fear, that his father was already cured and well, and smil> ing the rocks upon which she stood, lo there sprang up a forest of rose bushes laden with beautiful roses, moist with dew. These Indians of the poorer and laboring class to this day wear suspended from the neck 436 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. a leathern apron of rather large dimensions, called a "tilma." Juan wore one of these, and the strange lady ordered him to pluck and fill his apron with these flowers of sudden growth and take them to the Bishop as an evidence of her divine being. Then to further impress her already dumfounded messenger, and hasten his footsteps, she again smote the ground near where she had been standing, when suddenly there burst forth a stream of clear, cold water. And where to-day inside a beautiful chapel which has been erected over it, the weary pil- grims quench their thirst. Reaching the Bishop, Juan loosed his hold upon the apron and dumped the mass of roses at his feet, when lo and behold, upon the exposed face of the tilma where the roses had rested, appeared a most beautiful im- age of the Virgin. The Bishop at once took possession of the tilma and Juan hastened home to find that his father had been suddenly restored to health and strength upon the very hour that the wonderful apparition had assured him of his recovery. A chapel was at once erected upon the spot from which the roses were plucked, the now sacred tilma with the image thereon was placed with- in, and Juan and his father established as guar- dians and caretakers to the end of life. Though from the first all Mexico devoutly believed in this miraculous event and worshipped at this shrine, two hundred and twenty-three years elapsed ere the Pope at Rome gave official REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 437 recognition to it through the Papal Bull of Ben- edict XIV, and the Virgin of Guadalupa was proclaimed Protectress and Patroness of all New Spain. It was on the 12th of December, 1531, that occurred the last meeting between Juan Diego and the Virgin of Guadalupa in which she sent him on his mission laden with flowers, and the people of Mexico had they been privileged to govern themselves, would without doubt immedi- ately have given the day official recognition, but not acquiring this righteous privilege for nearly 300 years following, they were delayed until the 29th day of November, 1824, when the very first Congress that met of these now independent peo- ple, made the 12th of December a national holy day, which still remains probably the most sa- cred of all Mexican holy days. The little chapel built by Bishop Zumarraga in honor of the Virgin, still stands upon the face of the rocky hill ? while at its base now towers a magnificent pile, the church of Guadalupa, with- in which, upon the high altar (an imposing mass exquisitely wrought from the whitest marble) rests the sacred tilma, beneath a sheet of plate glass and bordered by a priceless frame. On one side of the altar is the figure of Bishop Zu- marraga, and on the other that of Juan Diego, the whole enclosed by an ornate railing of ster- ling silver weighing twenty-six tons. The 12th of October, 1895, witnessed a gathering and ceremony over this sacred emblem 438 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. that has probably never been outdone in the world of Catholic faith. On this date the image upon the tilma was crowned with a crown of gold bedecked with precious stones, costing more than five hundred thousand dollars. Thirty thousand dollars being paid to a French firm of jewelers for the work alone. The scene of this coronation cannot be fitly described; there gathered here upon this occa- sion representatives of the church and followers of the faith from every land on earth in which the Catholic form of worship exists. The railway lines entering the city of Mex- ico were taxed to their fullest capacity in hand- ling the visiting crowds, while from every quarter of Mexico, over mountain ranges, through the vales and across the desert wastes streamed thousands and hundreds of thousands, on foot and with beasts of burden, pressing fa- natically onward toward this Mexican mecca, until the great plain of Anahuac, as viewed from the hill of Guadalupa, appeared, so far as the eye could reach, a limitless sea of mixed human- ity and dust by day, and at night, through the myriad of camp fires, a vast mirror which, con- cealed by the darkness that covered the earth, reflected only the bright and innumerable lights of the firmament above. When all was ready and the hour of the cor- onation arrived, there rose up from the plain below, filling the great depression and reverber- ating from the fastnesses of its towering, rocky EEMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 439 rim even unto the remotest parts thereof, such sounds as had never yet been heard. Bells rang forth and cannon roared from far and near, while shouts of prayers and songs of praise burst from the lips of millions of assembled devotees. Much discussion has arisen and occasional criticism has been engaged in, even on the part of priests of the church, relative to the truth of this miraculous event, in consequence of which, near the close of the nineteenth century, the church consented to an expert examination of the sacred emblem, when a committee of high standing being agreed upon, consisting of three chemists and three artists, each of renown in their calling, and unfettered in their religious beliefs were permitted to remove the tilma from its encasement and examine the same in the most scientific and painstaking manner. Their full agreement and final decision was that the color- ing matter was a pigment unknown to them; that it was not a painting of any kind ; and that its production was by no method known to art. This has ever since, to a great degree, silenced the voice of the skeptic everywhere, for now that it has passed through and withstood the severest test of finite power, by whom and through what remaining evidence can the claim of miraculous and divine origin be overthrown? At this writing nearly three hundred and seventy-five years have elapsed since Juan Diego, letting loose the folds of his plain garment, and showering the roses contained therein at the 440 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. bishop's feet, this strange and yet unaccounted- for image appeared upon its surface, During all these centuries it has been guarded zealously, and never, day or night, for the minutest space of time, has it been beyond the reach of worship- ing and watchful eyes. To-day not only the tilma remains intact, unblemished, unimpaired and free from the finger of decay, but the mysterious image upon its face grows seemingly stronger in its lines and brighter and more beau- tiful in its coloring as the centuries fade away. It has long since passed boyond the pale and possibility of proof that its alleged origin is a myth, and will ever remain the holiest of all the holy shrines of Mexico. Far away over the mountain ranges to the west, situate in the state of Jalisco and not more than one hundred miles from the Pacific coast is the little town of Talpa. Some fifteen miles northerly therefrom lies the neighboring town Mascota. Occupying a niche in the church at Talpa was a figure of the Virgin about three feet in height. Many years ago (the figure, having then, through age, become bedimmed and soiled) the priest ordered it removed for repairs and redecoration, when a servant of the church, an aged woman, who for years had scrubbed and swept and dusted therein, pausing from toil at frequent intervals to worship this blessed image, indulged in lamentations so loud at the disturb- REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 441 ance of her divine idol associate of so many years that it was permitted to remain until the following day. All night long she knelt before it in anguish and darkness, and lo, when the morn- ing light streamed through the windows above, its rays fell upon and lighted up the decorations of the shabby lady of the previous day. It was and yet remains a work of art beyond the power of any artist to execute in a single night. The miracle spread like wildfire throughout the land, and soon, upon the occasion of some important church event to be held at Masco ta (the neigh- boring town referred to), the holy image in its miraculous garb was taken thither and placed in the church at that place to remain a guest of the occasion. During the night following its arrival an earthquake shook the land, the tower of the church crumbled and fell, and, as related, the discontented virgin, climbing down from her place of deposit in the church at Mascota, walked back the fifteen miles, climbed up into her accus- tomed niche in the church at Talpa where she was found the following morning, and where she has ever since remained. In the latter part of the month of March of a recent year, the writer, journeying with pack and saddle animals from Ameca, the railway terminus, to a point far away into the wilds of the western coast, passed for many miles over the trail that led to Talpa. It was the month in which occurred the annual pilgrimage of dev- 4:42 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. otees to this holy shrine, which is more than eighty miles by bridle path over rough and arid waste from Ameca, a town of twelve thousand people. No great distance had been covered in our journey when these returning pilgrims were encountered. Men, women and children, the greater portion on foot bearing upon their backs the burden of food and blankets necessary for the trip ; others on foot, but driving before them beasts of burden ; still others of higher stations in life who rode some animal a burro or a horse. All day long streamed homeward this motley throng of weary, foot sore, yet devoted pilgrims. Bordering the Ameca river on the west stretches a rugged, precipitous range of mountains over which our trail led. All of the way down its eastern slope had poured a never-ending stream of beings of varied con- ditions and interesting accoutrements for the journey, each bespeaking, in some degree, the blind, unwavering faith they followed. Toil- ing upward and near the summit, at a point where the trail turned in its zigzag course, there confronted us a comely maiden, leading gently by the hand, along the rocky, thorny, precipitous pathway, an aged and totally blind father. This was indeed the limit of all our observations and impressions of faith, devotion, and sacred belief. For, whatever may have been our own impres- sions regarding the truth of all this, such an example of acceptance, devotion and martyrdom could not but appeal to the loving loyalty of any BEMHaSCENT KAMBLINGS. 443 mind, for when a child lovingly, tenderly and uncomplaining leads its aged and blind parent, each with naked feet, over a hundred and sixty miles or more of burning sand and broken rock, toiling through the thorny intricacies of moun- tain fastnesses, fording deep and swift running streams, subsisting upon the coarsest fare and that in sparing quantities, when they shall have done all this in their love and devotion of any cause, be its tale truthful or otherwise, surely they should not pass on forever unheeded and unrewarded by the ruler thereof, be he finite or infinite. _._ At the hacienda of Senora Hernandez that night, was gathered a motley throng. The ranch was a camping place about midway on the trail between Ameca and Talpa; a sinuous stream crossed the trail here at the foot of the little rise of ground upon which the senora's house stood. The house was an adobe after the Mex- ican style, long, rambling and low; the latticed doors of the windowless rooms opened upon a broad porch, the floor of which was covered with red earthen tile, and which extended from end to end of the building. Senora Hernandez was a large, fine-looking woman past fifty years of age, her heavy tresses of dark hair tinged with gray ; the strong lines of her face giving an im- pression of sternness and severity that was soon dispelled by the soft notes of the Spanish tongue as it flowed melodiously from her lips, 444 BEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. while tlie strong features she possessed kindled into the light of sympathy, kindness and good will. Her blood was the mixture in about equal parts of the native Indian race with that of the And the Senora crossed herself reverently at each mention of the Virgin of Talpa. conquering Castilian. Being born and reared here, she had witnessed many gatherings like that of this night with throngs of her race rest- ing from their pilgrimage gathered about their diminutive camp fires without, together with wandering heretical guests of" foreign birth REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 445 within, and she trod the red earthen tiles of the long porch majestically, now dispatching a Mozo to some point in attendance upon the stock, then directing the dressing of two chickens being pre- pared for our evening meal, which arranged, she leaned over the porch wall and interrogating a little group of pilgrims gathered below, rever- ently crossed herself at each mention of that miraculous image of the holy virgin at Talpa. Late that night we wandered about amidst this weird scene of wayfaring worshipers, out of the bright light of one camp fire through the belt of intervening darkness and into that of another, watching here the grinding of their kernels of maize upon the stone "metat" and the baking of the tortilla upon a bit of iron, until, wearied with the never-ending scene of little cavalcades still arriving, others preparing and devouring their evening meal, with still others wrapt in slumber for the night, we too retired to our cuarto in the casa of the senora. With a feeling of absolute safety, surrounded as we were by this host of devout followers of the faith, and without fear of intrusion, save perhaps on the part of a prowling member of the senora' s herd of numerous swine, which roamed at will about the hacienda, we swung the latticed door wide open and retired for the night. The writer from his cot placed at the far end of the room, could, through the open door- way and the darkness without, still plainly view 446 EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. far out across the stretch of gently sloping up- land, the range o'er which we had journeyed, silhouetted as it was against a moonlit sky. He had slumbered long when partially awakening and unconsciously opening the eyes, there ap- peared a line of restless dancing lights extending far away into the dark distance of the mountain range to the east, and partially sleeping, he in dreamy vision experienced again the intense ex- citement and wild delight of that first event forever recorded in childish memory a "Wide awake" or "Little Giant" parade away back in the days of Lincoln and Douglas, and in fancy saw those wonderful uniforms of cape and cap in black or yellow, and heard the stirring notes of fife and drum. Then further awakening, the vision cleared, and arising and going forth into the open air in an effort to solve this strange and striking night affair, saw extending from the stream at the foot of the slope below, as large and blazing lights, then far away across the sloping upland and even unto the mountain tops beyond, where through distance they had gradually grown smaller and dimmer until now but seem- ing fireflies, an almost unbroken line of torches borne by these already departing pilgrims, whereby to light their way through the intensity of darkness which precedes the early dawn. It was indeed as weird and impressive a spectacle as one might witness on the part of those wor- shiping hordes who for so long and in such vast numbers have toiled over mountain and plain EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 447 through the desert wastes of Arabia. Watch- ing long this line of march shrouded in dark- ness and marked only by blazing torches, slumber again overcame deep interest, and the bright morning sun, standing high above the summit of the eastern range, now lit the pathway of the faithful, when the kindly and partially shrouded face of Senora Hernandez peered in at the open doorway, and her soft, sonorous speech announced the fact that the morning meal was awaiting at the far and shaded end of the red tiled porch without. In the drainage of the Rio Ameca not far from the head of the bay of Banderas on the Pacific coast, was located a mine owned by Americans and known as El Carmen ; the ex- amination of which was in part the object of the writer's journey. One or more of these owners from the far east and near the Atlantic coast, all strangers to the writer, having preceded, were to be met upon the ground. It was late at night several days subsequent to our departure from the hospitable roof of Senora Hernandez when the weary pack and saddle animals of our little cavalcade drew up at the vine-clad portales of the hacienda of Senor Antonio Escalante, a stopping place near the mine, and where was found smoking and enjoying the late evening air of this tropical climate, the visiting owners of El Carmen, to- gether with the genial host and others. 448 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. Partaking of a hasty meal, and returning to the party outside, we sat and talked and smoked long and late beneath the sheltering branches of the tropical foliage which flourished in towering and tangled masses about the place. In one of the owners of El Carmen, named Coleman, there was that which appealed to the writer's previous knowledge and acquaintance; his form, movements, speech and manner were all seemingly familiar, but above all, while the balance of the party, Mexicans and Americans, smoked, the former cigarettes and the latter only cigars (and the cigars of Mexico are fine and cheap) this individual clung tenaciously to a peculiar looking pipe, and picked and rolled and powdered the tobacco in the palm of his hand in an old fashioned, peculiar and familiar way before filling it, until there no longer seemed any possibility of this being our first meeting, and now followed a line of conversation of an inquir- ing nature that soon developed the fact that the strange impression was well founded and true, for the man was no other than Edward Coleman., who, as a lad, had been the writer's companion twenty-eight years previous during the lengthy voyage and later still upon the golden shores of our destination. Early the following morning our little party wended its way upward and along the winding trail that led to El Carmen far up in the lofty hills to the west. Reaching the dump there REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 449 awaited us, standing amongst the numerous Mex- ican miners engaged in sorting ore, a tall and sunburned individual, differing to no great ex- tent in dress and general appearance from the lighter hued of the natives, and only in the flu- ency with which he spoke the English tongue was the possibility of his being other than a Mexican noticeable. He was introduced as the superintendent in charge of the property, and though his name at the time escaped me, I was from the first impressed of a familiarity with the man as in the case of Coleman, which as the hours passed grew more forcible even down deep in the darkness of the mine's depths, when at last, after a vain struggle to acquire it and thus avoid the uncomplimentary disclosure rapidly becoming more so through the lapse of time, at once engaged in manifestations of ex- treme disgust at this sudden loss of pretended memory, and humbly and apologetically begged his indulgence and kindly assistance in enabling me to recall his name. "Askew," he replied, "Walter E. Askew; and have I not met you before? Were we not camp mates and prospectors together in the Gun- nison country and upon the lite Indian reser- vation during the summer of 1879, now a quarter of a century since ?" We were. And late that night, and each night of our stay that followed, a reunited trio sat beneath the vine and fig tree of Senor Escalante and smoked and talked of those days 450 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. of youth on land and sea, and traced the hap- penings and wanderings of each until, the mid- night hour at hand, Coleman knocked the ashes from the quaint old pipe, and polishing its bowl in the palm of his hand preparatory to returning it to its case ( as he was wont to do on board the Colon in days gone by) there arose in the minds of each during the brief silence that preceded the final "buenas noches," the well founded im- pression that the world was indeed small. The engagement ended at El Carmen, the writer, with his little outfit, turned northward and entered upon a journey with pack and saddle of twelve hundred miles or more, all of the way by trail, and over the roughest country to be found in all Mexico. Yet, though rough and wild and free from telegraph and telephone lines, railways and even wagon roads, it was still a long-settled country and lacked that pris- tine charm so faultlessly preserved by the North American Indian in the United States, and which in early youth it had, for a brief time, been the writer's privilege to enjoy; then the great act being near its end, had watched the busy and relentless hand of evolution shift the scenes, then saw the curtain fall to hide its charms forevermore. Well along the backbone of the Sierra Madres our little outfit made its way, first upon one slope, then upon the other, wandering over steep and precipitous elevations, along the face REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 451 of sheer and rocky declivities, following not the "straight and narrow path," but the sinuous and narrow trail, down deep into barrancas of inter- minable depth, along these and out into the broader valleys to which they were tributary, when lo, the dream of existence in limitless fields of undisturbed and unadorned nature are ruth- lessly dispelled; for here rests a little village midst vines and fruit trees with fields of culti- vated ground surrounding the whole, and now during the heated portion of the day, there is little in the way of sound that denotes this arti- ficial adornment or the existence of its people save occasional peals of the bells in the tower of the little mission church which fronts on the plaza; for the church and the plaza are found everywhere in Mexico, and the tiniest hamlet is not without them, though in the remotest por- tion of the land, and even yet a hundred miles or more removed from a wagon road, and far more deeply impressed are we with the fanatical zeal, heroic effort and mammoth magnitude of that work that spread this form of the Christian faith into and throughout these wild and most forbidding parts, when we enter this compara- tively diminutive sanctuary here in the distant wilds, than when we tread beneath the grand and lofty arches of that monstrous and magnifi- cent structure, the Cathedral of Mexico, for this little church in the wilderness wherever it may be found, is seldom less than three hundred years of age, this alone bespeaks the fact that it 452 EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. must have been well constructed ; usually it is of stone, and more less of carved brackets and moldings and tablets adorn its exterior ; but why those formidable buttresses that in nearly every case support its walls ? Upon closer examina- tion we find its roof is also stone, a single great arch that reaches from wall to wall, and though its radius of curvature is great the centuries come and go and still no weakness manifests it- self throughout. In many cases these churches of the frontier were strongholds, and adjoining them upon one side, (accessible only through the church) is an enclosure surrounded by masonry walls twelve feet or more in height, which, at a point some six feet below the crest, decreases its thickness, leaving a shelf or path- way around the entire enclosed area, this upper and thinner wall being pierced with port holes of prismatic form, having their smaller opening within. At each angle of the wall is a circular tower from which port holes open in all directions; while within the church may be found a shaft or incline con- necting with a tunnel which leads well down under the bed of a nearby stream, insuring a supply of water for the besieged. In the interior of these remote churches, scattered throughout thousands of miles of rugged mountains and well within their fastnesses, may be found in every case more or less of wealth in the line of art and church ornamentation; paintings that in most cases bespeak the touch of a master hand, BEMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 453 set in massive frames that of themselves are works of art. Altar fixtures and images of Christ and the Virgin, all gorgeous and without end. And when one considers the fact that all of this was brought from the mother country hundreds of years ago, and packed upon the backs of animals from the seaport of Vera Cruz, far away over mountain and plain into the farther- most corners of the land, the magnitude of the work appeals to one as of such monstrous pro- portions and beset by such obstacles that the mind is lost in wonderment at its final and full accomplishment. We had reached a point well to the north and in the state of Senora, when, following a trail that led out of the mountains down into the valley of the Moctezuma, and to the town of Batuco, the noon hour was near at hand, and casting about for a suitable camp, we suddenly came upon an aged man camped by the side of a trickling stream and beneath the sheltering branches of a dense growth of dwarfed trees which grew upon its bank. The pack outfit with which he traveled was heaped together nearby, while two Mexican burros of large size, which conveyed the whole, grazed contentedly not far away. It was, upon the whole, an inviting spot in which to spend the heated portion of the day, and we too camped close by the venerable stranger. He was short but of rugged stature, 454 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. his hair and beard were tangled masses of gray, his age evidently past three score and ten, and his skin sunburned to an extent that rendered determination of his nationality uncertain until, replying to our salutations, his speech provided conclusive evidence that he was an American, still the stern old patriarch manifested no great degree of enthusiasm at meeting his countrymen in even this uninhabited, remote and foreign spot. Long we tarried until the sun had passed far away from the meridian, and long and in- dustriously the writer labored in the attempt to draw from this silent old sojourner by the wayside of these Mexican wilds the more or less interesting story of himself, which he knew all such to possess, for again in this case I was im- pressed even more forcibly than before with a vague recollection of this being, a strange and and undefinable familiarity with him, his man- ner and his accoutrements, yet only the cloudy vision of pre-existence presented itself in ex- planation. Finally rounding up the jacks and saddling them he, without comment, prepared to depart. Reaching down amongst a tangled mass of equipment deposited upon the ground a short distance away he pulled therefrom a belt and holster from which protruded an ancient cap and ball "Colts," while a peculiar looking old knife was fastened upon the opposite side. The scene grew more familiar. Then, leading up the pack jack, he in disentangling the cargo preparatory to packing, disclosed his cooking outfit, an old REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 455 bit of dirty, greasy canvas, a fry pan, a little tin lard bucket and a tomato can. Instantly my dreamy vision cleared, and I saw standing be- fore me the eccentric prospector who, more than a quarter of a century before, had, with the little pack mule and the pinto saddle pony near night- fall trotted down out of the breaks, and estab- lished camp near that of the Hayden survey on Torrey's Fork in Wyoming, and who, the fol- lowing summer had kidnapped me at Gothic on the north fork of the Gunnison river in Colorado for a night's entertainment in open camp and pouring rainfall upon the river's bank below. And this was the same old "Colts" that in his drunken stupor I had gently lifted from its holster and deposited in the nearby shallow pool for safety as I crawled away through the wet grass and willows in escaping from my stren- uous, yet overindulgent host. But where was the little mule and pinto whom I remembered so well, and which alone remained to complete the scene? And again I recalled the fact that twenty-five years had passed since then. But a short distance had been covered in leaving Batuco the following morning when the writer was taken suddenly ill. Clinging to the saddle horn in sheer desperation during the en- tire day we plodded onward beneath a broiling sun until after nightfall we had reached the little hamlet of Matope, some forty miles dis- 456 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. tant. At the foot of the thicket-clad bluffs upon which the little town rested, coursed a tiny stream of clear water, while the balance of the wide drain was a bed of dry sand, upon which, (our outfit halting for the night) the writer fell from the saddle insensible. It was midnight when, awakening with pain and distress, I found myself lying in the bright moonlight upon a cot where the attending Mozos had placed me. And now, while I rolled about in the sand groaning with pain, they arose and stood over me, powerless to render any assist- ance, when, just as the first gray light of morn- ing dawned, the sound of merry voices upon the village bluffs above broke in upon the wailings of distress below, and looking upward, there appeared passing in single file down and along the face of the declivity, nine graceful and state- ly maidens, the stateliness of whom was en- hanced through the poising of a large "olla," or earthen water jar which each, untouched by hands balanced upon her head. At intervals the line paused, and ceasing from their mirth, stared curiously at the writhing, howling, un- kempt individual over in the dry sands of the drain, then, venturing downward to the stream, they knelt upon its bank, and dipping the water from the shallow brooklet until their jars were filled, arose and huddling together with fre- quent inquiring glances, engaged in a low-toned and final discussion of the strange scene, then raising the vessels of water to their heads, re- REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 457 sumed their dignified and stately march up the narrow path by which they had descended, final- ly disappearing over the edge of the escarpment en route to the village and their respective homes. It was a wierd, poetic and impressive parade, and a faithful reproduction in real life of well remembered pictures in the old family bible of the writer. But a short time elapsed after the disap- pearance of this water supply system when an aged man and woman of the toiling class made their appearance in the drain, and diagnosing the writer's ailment, returned to the village and shortly reappeared with a gourd filled with tea made from roots and herbs, together with a similar solution for external application upon the affected portions, and while these good Samaritans squatted beside the cot and sought to soothe my afflictions, a courtly and distinguished appearing native of evidently the higher walks of life, as measured by possession of the world's goods, appeared and insisted upon removing me to his home in the village, where his wife, his daughter and himself bestowed upon me (an ab- solute stranger and an exceedingly unpresentable one at that) every care and attention for two days, until again able to journey onward. And now, departing from these people who scorned any monetary reward for their service, the question arose reproachfully in my mind, where, on the part of the people of my land, under similar circumstances and general appear- 458 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. ances, could I guarantee to these and theirs a like demonstration of kindness, sympathy and zealous care. Uninfluenced by position, posses- sion or hope of reward, and further, in view of the many patronizing and uncomplimentary re- marks heard concerning these people, it is but fitting to record such deeds as this, and for one who knows to assure the reader that such is with the natives of all Mexico not the exception, but the rule. Journeying on northward up the Rio Mocte- zuma to its head, and on to where the Rio Bate- pito suddenly changes its course from north to south, we had now reached a point where, from the higher elevations, the great arid wastes of Arizona and ISTew Mexico again presented them- selves, featureless, forbidding and dreary. The charm of this native land that lay before us, that of nature unadorned, with its flora and its fauna undisturbed, had vanished from every portion thereof a generation now past. And in all these wanderings through the wilds of a neighboring domain, from far away out of the sunny south and its atmosphere of entrancing mysticisms of antiquity, and the charm of its yet existing customs and art, we had failed to find that which we once enjoyed, and of which we witnessed the passing in our own home land, for none but the North American Indian has preserved that condition for which we sought, and where, unassociated with any other of REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 459 humankind but he, the forest remains primeval, the deer, the elk, the buffalo, and even the fish of the waters and the fowls of the air fear not, and roam at will. Alas, in retrospection we find these Homeric conditions to have now passed to such an extent that, though at times, in their pursuit or other- wise, led far into the fastnesses of these early scenes, we find at last a spot possessed appar- ently of its pristine charm, uncontaminated by the seemingly polluting touch of civilization, when, ere the dream is fairly formed, there breaks upon the ear the discordant notes of that advance agent of industry, the burro, the sound of a prospector's shot, or the vulgar tones of the steam whistle. We turn in hopeless longing when, from the soul, there echoes back the stern declaration, "That for which you search shall live in the land to gladden the hearts of you and yours, no more, forever." THE END.