The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1859-05-28

Missouri River Towns vs.. The Pixies Peakers
The Burlington Hawkeye pronounces
Pixies Peak ga humbug and a swindle,"
and speaking of the returning emigration,
INDUCES in this choice tit-hit:
'Those along the Missouri slope and their
respondents who have written and published glowing
Of gold discoveries of motives and
for the purpose OF punderng those whom they might
deude deserve general execraion. Great will be the
caauies which grow out Of H. and deep the curses Of
the victims"
We cannot but regard with contempt such
ebullitions of ill-digested feeling. The
charge that glowing accounts Of gold dis
coveries, have been written and published,
"out of mcrcenary motives, and for the
purpose of plundering those whom they
might deude, is not only false, but wickedly
and maliciously so, as its author must Of
known when he pcnned the same. "Those
editors along the Missouri Slope and their
correspondents, as far as we are cognizant,
are not aware of having done anything de-
serving Of "general execration." They
have neither deceived or plundered deluded
people-nor yet, have they aided or abetted
others in doing so. If there has been any
plundering or swindlins, We maintain that
it has been done in the vicinity Of the
Mississippi River. The Missouri River
towns have not " wa1ed ia. lin the "6tting-
out trade" The emigrants were skinned
at Burlington and other Mississippi River
towns, and, rs general thing arrived on
the Missouri Slope" poor as church mice"
If there is any "cxecration' to be bestowed
on western humanity, We hope " the devil
will get his due" We Of the Missouri
Slope shrink not from any responsibility we
may have incurred IT. the matter, but we do
protest against vengeance being called down
upon our heads, by those who are rs deep
in the mud as We are in the mire. The St.
Louis Nems takes q sensible view of this
matter-one which we commend to the
consideration of the public generally-as
follows:
The numerous letters from Cherry Greek,
which appeared in all the papers of the coun-
3ry during the past winter, were calculated
to excite the public; but the towns on the
Missouri river are not responsible for these
letters any more than other towns in the
West. Such letters wece received every.
where.
Nor do we think that the writer's Of those
letters are deserving of such general indig-
nation as vented on them. 10 the FIRST place,
they were, in most cases, private letters,
written to their friends, and they are not re.
sponsible fer the publicity given to them
And in the second place, it must be remem-
bcred, that the whole current of testimony
given by the letters from the alleged mines
was that, sin consequence Of the cold W cath
cr but little mining was done,' but that the
color was found the prospects good,' and
actual gold gathered in many places-not in
heaps, but in such quantities and positions
as to give nfdenee to the parties writing
that in the Spring abundant Gold would be
found.
We assert that this was the tenor of all
the letters from the mines and If any per-
sons have been deceived thereby, it is their
that's the question. We confess we see no
evidence Of it yet. Certainly these faint
hearted emigrants, that arc returning by
thousands, without ever having reached the
place of the alleged mines, bring no proof of
anything, s;.ve their own folly, and lack of
manly courage and energy to 60 through
with their undertakings.
We have no valid reason for doubling the
general truthfulness and reliability of the
statements in regard to the Gold Diggings
about the head waters Of the Arkansas and
Platte rivers, and we shnll not have, until a
\ 1
persons who are actually in the mines, and
prepared, after the full opening of spring
weather, to test their value and productive