The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1874-10-29

Brown nlmSeII, anu pIcSclfcu W ecSSAy
against him at last. The paper and fig
| uring proved the key to the whole case,
and, much to Browns astOnishment, it
was produced in court and its history
told. Miss Susan E. Stevensons prescrva-
ton of little scrap of paper in her
ewel-box for eighteen years won an inn
portant lawsuit for Mrs. Susan E. Kirby
1t proved of more value than all the rest
of the jewels in the box, and Browns
own figures beat him.-St Louis Repub-
ltcdn.
An Indian PestiIence in 1882.
HAVE read the horrors Of the London
plague, and of the more than defamation
by pestilence of the inhabitants Of
various parts of the world in different
ages, and of the destruction of mankind
by the angels Of the Lord, and by destroy
ing angels, but l have never read or
heard Of such general destruction Of
people by any angel, good or bad, or by
plague or pestilence, as that which swept
Joaquin in the summer of 1888.
In the autumn of 1882 party, of
which the writer was member, travelled
from the mountain down along the banks
of the San Joaquin River and up those
of the Sacramento to some distance above
the confluence Of the latter with Feather
River
The number of Indians living along
and in the vicinity of the banks of the
rivers was SO much greater than | had
ever seen living upon the same area Of
country that it presented constant
source of surprise. The conclusion was
then reached by me that there was no
| other place on the continent, north of
the tropic, the natural productions of
which could support SO large popula-
ton as was then living in the section of
country to which have referred
In the latter part of the summer of
of the Sacramento Valley, from the Kla-
math Lake and Pitt River countries We
found the northern part of the valley
| strewed with the skeletons of Indians
under the shading trees, around springs
and the convenient watering places, upon
the banks of the river, and over the plain,
where wolves and coyotes, waddling from
tree to tree, or over the plain, their hides
/ distcnded with unnatural fairness, had
dragged and denuded them.
From the head of the valley to the
| American River but one living Indian
was seen, and he was the most perfect
| pcrsoniication of solitude that was ever
presented TO my view; his wasted mus
cles, his eyes deep sunk in their sockets,
rs if there were no brain within the
Uranium, emitted dull, vacant gaze, as
if astonished to behold a living human
being, when he believed that all were
| dead and he alone left; telling most en-
! phatically of his utter loneliness, of how
he had seen the destroying angel en-
| gagged in his work of death on every
hand, and wherever his eyes were turned
until he himself was Frustrated, not
killed, but left to rise upon his feet and
wander about among the bones and tester
ing bodies Of his folk
The dwellings of the Indians in the
numerous villages located upon and along
! the banks of the Sacramento River and
its tributaries were void, ands no foot
| tracks but those of fowls and wild beasts
were to be seen in the lonely villages.
As we travelled southcrly the skeletons
were OF fresher appearance, and be-
! fore reaching the buttcs, and from thence
southerly, the entire or partially de
| voured bodies ofthe Indians, in all stages
Of decay, were so invariably found in
and about all the convenient and desir
able camping places that it became nee
essary, in order to escape the stencil Of
decomposing humanity, to seek our
nights cncampment upon the open plain.
After crossing Feather River, those vii
| lagos along the Sacramento which in the
winter previous were each inhabited by
| hundreds Of Indians were desolate and
the abodes of ruin. The same appalling
| proofs of this dire calamity were con
stantly presented to us as we travelled up
the San Joaquin. Neither Biblical nor
profane history has portrayed such
mourntul results Of the destroying angel
as were presented to our senses as we re-
passed through, along by, and around
those silent and vacated villages which
| some ten months before we had seen
swarming with Indian life and rcsound-
| ing with voices from hundreds of human
| throats.
Around the naked villages, graves and
the ashes Of fdneral pyres, skeletons, and
swollen bodies told tale of death such
| as to us no written record had ever re-
| vealed. From the head of the Sacra-
mento Valley, until we reached the
mouth of Kings River, not exceeding five
live Indians were seen, and here we
found cncampcd a village of Indians,
among whom the destroying angel was
satiating his greed Of human victims by
CHASTITY carnage. During the one
| night more than "A score of victims were
added to the hosts upon which he had
been feeding. The wailing of that
stricken village during that night was in
cessant and most terrible.
The sword of the destroyer was remit.
tent fever, with which the victims were
stricken down, to be finished by hot
air bath, followed by plunge into a cold
water one.
1t was evident to us, from the signs
which we saw, that at first the Indians
buried their dead, but when the dead be-
came so nun erous that the living could
not bury them resort was had to the
burning of the dead bodies, and when
the living, from diminished numbers,
were unable to do this, they abandoned
their villages, the sick, and the dying, and
He'd IN dismay, only to die by the side of
the springs and pools of water, and be.
meath the shade of protecting trees-J.
j. Walker, IN Los angeles (Cal.) Star.
Holidays for MiddIe-Age.