The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1875-03-11
1.-THE RED WING"
A True Story of Early Days.
BY DAN DE GUILE.

1.-THE WRECKED EMlIRANE MILL
One scorching hot day in October,
1860, LETT Dayton, onthe Carson River,
for Carson City. 1t was as hot as III
midsummer. The road was at that
time dreary one to travel. 1t was the
regular cold Emigrant Road. . 1t
passed through sterile waste Of alkall
lands which spread away on almost
dead level in all directions. was on
foot, and YEARLY I toiled through the
same sand and alkaIi dust through
which long emigrant trains from the
Atlantic States had toiled every year
since 1849. At the time of which [
speak hundreds of eraigrants were still
crossing the plains, and for some years
later they still continued to pour in
across the deserts.
As I was plodding along had several
times noticed far ahead something that
looked like a small tent. At last [
could see that it was a covered wagon,
halted in the road.
Finally I could see several persons
seated on the roadside, near the wagon
"a small, two-horse affair. Then L
saw that one Of the horses was down,
while his mate stood by with dropping
head.
Said I: ''Here is trouble-evidently
sick horse"
When pulled up alongside of the
shipwrecked family, not one Of them
said word. They were the most woe
begone and forlorn party I had ever seen.
They hardly raised their heads to look
at me. All seemed utterly detected
and given over to some inconsolable
grief.
a hasty survey of the scene beforeme
showed small two-horse wagon-look-
ing very shaky about the wheels-broken
about the box, ana surmounted by
cover stretched over bows of very IN
equal height. The cover was of home
made linen; was patched in places with
pieces of butternut-colored linsey jeans,
and had painted on one side, in great
sprawling letters, the proud motto:
For Caleforny." A large water-cask
was slung under the wagon and feed
trough-nearly gnawed in two-hung
behind.
In front of the wagon stood an old
bald-faced horse, still attached to the
vehicle by the trace chains and his end
of the neck-yoke. Poor old fellow!
such another angular, harness-galled,
sunken-eyed, melancholy beast 1 had
not seen in many day.
Near by, hismate lay dead 'alkihed."
He seemed to have dropped down in his
tracks and died-died with no greater
struggle than to throw his head and
neck out across the path running by the
side of the wagon track.
On fragment of rock, near the dead
horse, sat a mana man about 45 years
of age-looking as though hope had ut
terly forsaken his breast His feet, in
cased in torn brogans, were half hidden
In the dust of the road in which they
were hstlessly planted; his head was
bowed until it almost reached his knees,
and the wilted brim of his home
wrought straw hat almost concealed his
sun-browned and unshaved face.
Near the head of the family sat bun
die, which I should not at once have re-
ccgnized rs human being had 1 not
observed pair of shriveled, claw like
hands clasped across what seemed the
knees. This bundle constantly rocked
to and fro and gave out some kind of
mutterings. As the face and upper part
of the body were covered by huge
sun-bonnet, with a most voluminous
cape, arrived at the conclusion that
the mumblng party" before me was a
woman and doubtless the grandmother