Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-06-23

Something About the Mali CARRIER
age and Endurance,
The Carson (Nevada) Appeal of Nav
10 has some particulars in regard 10 the
history Of John A. Thompson. better
known as Snow-shoe Thompson. whose
death has just been announced. The
comparison to the St Bernard dog is a
quaint one to say the least. The Appeal
says: Thompson was born at Upper
Tins, Prestijeld, Norway, in 1927. His
hrst trip across the Sierra was made in
January, 1859. He went from Placer
vile to Genoa, a distance of ninety miles,
carrying the mail bags strapped upon
his back, and gliding over fields of snow
from thirty to fifty feet in depth, his long
Norwegian snew-shoes bearing him safe
ly and swiftly upon the surface Of the
snow. He performed this service during
the severest winter weather for years.
The mail bags he carried weighed from
sixty to seventy pounds. In his noun
tam travels he has saved many lives.
Compared with other men in SHOWS and
snow storms, he was as much superior as
the st. Bernard is to the ordinary dog.
DE was never lost. Though the snow
was pitiless and binding, be never stray
ed from his straight path. The trip from
Genoa TO PlacerVille he made easily in
two days in the stormiest weather. He
slept wherever night overlook him. He
never went armed, because he never
wanted to be encountered by weight. He
was proof against cold, never having had
his feet or fingers frozen. He has stated
that he was never frightened but once,
and that was when be was confronted by
a pack of hungry wolves. But be kept
on his steady march, paying no heed to
them. and they did not modest him. But
these fstiguing trips, he stated lately,
had broken his constitution. He was in
Carson on the 9Th Of February last, and
called at the Appeal office. He had then
determined to ask Congress to grant him
some compensation for carrying the
mails. But be never received any, and
now he hes passed over to the other
shore where he will need none. Possess.
ed Of herculean strength, with nerves of
steel and an iron will, and a heart sus-
ceptible Of the kindest feelings, he was at
once the beau ideal Of strong manhood F."
The Virginia City Enterprise speaks
sfectienately of the old man, saying:
ITO the ordinary man, who is familiar
with the peril, there is nothing much
more terrible than winters snow-storm
in the Sierras. People unfamiliar with
the mountains can never realize what
tremendous forces are at work when q
Southwestern with accompanying snow
breaks upon the hills. But these terrors
seemed only Vaccinations to Thompson.
Into the %iercest storm he would disap-
pear as though its wild spirits, which
were rocking the pines aud bearing up
the SHOWS, we're simply in accor. with
his tremendous vitality, and as though
from them there was nothing to fear. All
the turmoil Of q midnight tempest could
never discomfort him or cause him to
wander from his path. He knew the
trees and the san by day, and the watch.
ing stars by night, and when they we're
shut out be would quietly sink down be-
hind some tree or rock and go to sleep
until daylight returned He bore a
heavier burden than ever Roman soldier
bent under; he made marches that no
Roman soldier would ever have under
| taken; and be never failed. He found
the Sierras when little was known Of
their passes, and when, for months in
the year, they rose up like an impossible
wall between California and the desert
e on this side. Something OF the danger
? or the splendor which clings to the hill
tops seemed to fascinate him he would
never give them up. Away back eigh-
teen years ago, Snow shoe Thompson
f. carried over the Sierras from Genoa
done up in the remnant Of a check shirt
some strange black material which
. was bothering the miners who were work
/, ing in Gold Canyon, about where Gold
, Hill is now, or perhaps below there He
showed the stuff to Prof Frank Stew
art, who was then managing a newspa-
; per in Placerville, and asked him what
! it was Stewart said instantly, 'Sulpburet
q of silver mixed heavily with cold
Thompson carried the material to Saera-
Z, mento and had it assayed, and the result
l was several hundred dollars per ton in
gold and several hundred dollars per ton
. also in silver. That was the commence
! ment of the Comstock. But for that lit
tie circumstance it might have been years
before the wonders which have been 60
I ing on here for seventeen years would
have been started, But the strong man
, who was the harbinger of all the prosper
e ty which has succeeded the wonderful
discovery died in poverty the other day
, in his little cabin among the mountains,
with only a faithful friend or two around
his rude couch"