Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-06-30
4 WINTER NIGHTS RIDEIN THE
SIERRA

MY medical friend had pulled away Wig
orOusly at his cigar for some minutes, In
silence and tLen, throwing away the
stump, quietly began:
It was in the winter Of 1852, when l
had lust been placed in charge OF divi.
sion near the summit of the Sierra Nevada,
on the then half finished Central Pacific
Railroad. After long days ride, / came
back to the boarding house ct 10 O'Clock
In the evening. and was told that mes
een9er had been there from Camp No. -,
vit6 : request that would lose no time
IN hurrying over there to attend upon
John Smith, who was in very critical
condition. The messenger had been very
urgent, and It was evidently case of life
and death-nothing less took few
minutes to consider. / was tired out, and
wanted sleep badly, but / could, on .
pinch, 20 little further without breaking
down entirely. The moon would be up
ct II o'clock, and the night was still and
clear, though the snow had only just
ceased falling, and was from five TO eight
feet deep OF the level, if you can use the
9 oppression properly where there u moth
ing like level to be found, and the roads
-Or trails, rather-are obliterated BY the
drifts. inquired about the location OF
Camp No. =. It was twelve miles away,
and directly over ridge or spur OF the
mountains. NY own horse could not
stand the trip, but big lubber OF cart
horse, that they said was good saddle
horse. was offered me. got supper, put
ON dry socks and an extra pair OF fur-hned
oyerboots, and Just before midnight was In
the saddle and o6.
A good saddle horse! The brute be-
longed to the nightmare family, and his
mother must have taken special pride in
him. Great heavens, what . gait! He
had Travelled 80 long in the cart that the
steady Jolt had communicated itself to his
spine, and become chronic. At every
step he jerked his back up, a. If expect
ing to feel the girth-strap strike him
underneath, and neither curses nor blows
would induce him for q moment to recog-
nize the fact that he was out of the shafts,
and abandon his eternal hippyty-hop.
When started out there were hard Jumps
In the saddle, as large as chestnuts; be.
fore the twelve miles were half completed
the Jumps had grown to the size OF paw.
ing stones, and awfully sharp-edged and
rasping. The snow which had just fallen
filed the trail, but the old snow under
meath being hard packed, and the trees
along the route well blazed, had no diff
Guilty in keeping in the right track most
of the time But when about three miles
from my place of destination, as near as |
could guess, clouds obscured the moon for
. long time, and lost the road. kept
ON as well as / knew how, guessing at
the location of Camp No. -, and after
rolling down the steep side of ravine,
and working half an hour to get old Jerky
back upon the ridge, filling my overshoes
with snow, and fairly exhausting myself
in foundering through the drifts, was
rewarded with the sight Of lights in some
cabins half a mile away. Not doubling
that this was Camp No. -, l rounded q
small canon, worked my way over point
of rocks, Jerky stumbling and falling re.
peatedly, and reached the cabins at half
past 10 o'clock.
The lights had disappeared. "Halloo,
the house, there" No answer. Halloo
the house |" louder and longer than before.
A panel in the side Of the nearest cabin
opened slowly and cautiously, and after
tune enough had elapsed to allow of
q critical examination Of the party out
side, a voice demanded: "Who you,
joint What you wantee catchee here ?"
II was Chinese wood cutters camp, and
there was not white man about the
place. 5T ~
The Johns told me that there was
camp of white men on the other side OF
the ravine l had just crossed, and perhaps
Q half mile further up the mountain
they thought it might be Camp Nunble
-" Half an hours f0undering through
the snow brought me back to the point
where I had sighted the lights, and soon
after a. m. was at the white mems
camp. reused the inmates more easily
here, as they were indulging in little
friendly game Of "pitch," or "drsw =
that being Saturday highland had not
retired to their virtuOus hunks. No, that
was not Camp No. -, my informer told
me, and, what was worse, Camp No. =
was right over the summit Of the noun
tain, mile and half away. could 60
around by the trail, three miles, or ride
up to the railroad track, tie my horse, and
walk through the snow sheds, little
more than mile-it was contrary to the
rules to take an animal inside the sheds.
I started up toward the track, and
reached 1t ct 2 q. m. The night was now
clear and still; not the slightest noise
could be heard, and the silence was some;
tuluS awful anu OppICSSIvCs AhO Ao9s
man and the last horse on earth will not
feel more completely alone than Jerky and
I did at that moment. As was about to
dismount and tie him to tree, thought
struck me. knew every regular train
on the road, and there was none due for
hours from either direction. / had time
table in my pocket, and took it out and
examined it carefully by the moonlight.
The track was clear why might l not
venture to save my strength and that Of
my horse, and, by saving time, perhaps
ave valuable human life as wells Why
not, indeed! The more thought of it,
the more satisfied became that it was a
safe thing to do.
The moon, now unobscured, was high
In the heavens as entered the snow-shed,
and it was not very difficult to keep the
way, az the1ight came scintillatinNt Through
Q thousand:cracks and crevicesin the rough
timber structure. Three or four culverts,
to allow the passage of mountain streams
when the snow Is melting, checked my
progress for brief time, but there was
plank across one or two, Tor the con.
venience of "foot passengers" and as the
water was hard frozen, got old Jerky
around the others in safety.
The worst was over, and was already
1>eDinninU tn chuckle over the adventure