The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1876-04-07

and expect to take pick and shovel and
make $40 to $50 per day. They have
read the lying, sensational reports sent
from Sioux City, Bismarck, Omaha and
Cheyenne, and come ont to Custer to
find themselves duped, and half of them
without n dollar to go back with. The
Black Hills are full of these victims to
the sensational advertising of frontier
towns, some of whom have paid letter.
writers and correspondents in the Hills.
Clerks come here to live on their
wits mechanics are working for their
board; gamblers are eking out u scanty
livelihood. loaiing round one of the
thirty log-cabin saloons, playing ten
cent "antc," or Il iive-cent " blind"
Miners do not stop here, but either 60
back or start over the hills to the new
diggings. Lawyers, doctors, specula-
tors of all classes, are hanging on the
ragged edge like so many Micaw-
bers. Good l~og-choppers get So
per day; grocery dealers make 100
per cent. and saw-mlll men make a for
tune. Nine-tcnths of the men in the
Hills are in q chronic state of "hard
up ~ most of them have a few weeks
provisions; they car have a town lot for
the asking. Many build a cabin or dig
a cave, and live and grumble all day
long. There is little money here, and
that little is constantly growing less,
being sent to Cheyenne for supplies.
Men must eat, and this mountain air
gives each and all II ~voracious appetite !;
but then n city of with no
producers, and 10 other resources than
the pockets of the broken, bankrupt,
specializing "tender-feet' daily arriv-
ing here, is not the happiest spot on
earth. l know / am writing treason
right here in the center of II lot OF
duped, desperate men, who have watch.
ed me close since my arrival, TO see
whether | intended to denouncc and in.
jure their country. But | am candid,
and do not intend to deceive; hence i
becomes impossible for me to put the
"gilt edge" upon my letters from the
misnamed land of golden gulches.
BEDROCK PRICES.
Parties coming to the Black Hills
and | honestly believe these hills oifel
better inducements and encouragement
to capital and labor than any Other
Western Territory-should keep them.
selves well informed as to the best
mode to reach the hills, and what they
want to do when they reach here
Cheyenne is the best p~laceto start from
They say it is only 27O miles from
Cheyenne to Custer, and the schedule
time ten days. kept a record of the
| distance with a good roadometer upot
one of our wagons, and it showed 34t
; miles, and | have yet to see Il train ar
rive in Custer in less time than thirteen
days from Cheyenne.
l Now about getting here. The regu
lar price of passage from Cheyenne K
Custer is $50 and $2j, and five cent pei
pound for freight or provisions-thiS by
wagons drawn by skeleton horses, OF
| bucking, balky bronchos. A man.
provisions and passage cost him at leas'
$50 for the trip over, and he invariably
| walks four-tifths of the way. Ninety
: nine hundrcths of the people now in The
hills paid for the privilege of walking
} here. liowP say you. Why, this way
| five or six men take Il passage Oh q wag
on which is to start from Cheyenne il
the morning. They get their mess-ki
; and bedding ready mt their hotel; the
teams drive up loaded down will
freight. "What's that in the
wagon?" ask the astonished passengers
"That's feed for the animals says
) the sarcastic driver, with a grin. Tha'
''feed" costs q cents per pound il
Cheyenne, and sells readily in Custer a
II cents per pound. Perhaps two ol
three sacks aroused on the voyage over
and the eight or nine remaining are SOLD
here for 10 or ~ cents per pound. The
teams are heavily loaded before the vic
timized passengers are called for, hence
they not only walk, but push up the
steep hills, of which there are not a few
The best way is to buy II rough "bron.
cho" pony, hire your food hauled, and
sell your pony here for what it costs in
Cheyenne. Flour in Custer sells at SIC
per 100 pounds; bacon, 20 cents pei
pound; venison, 10 cents per pound
coffee, p pounds forSl; sugar, 25 cent,
per pound, and dull; butter scarce at &C
cents; eggs in demand ut IS cents pei
dozen; vinegar, 80 cents per gallon, and