Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1877-03-16
Idaho Pete.
HOW TWO OLD TRAPPERs AND INDIAN FIGHTERS
TALKED EACH OTHER TO DEATH.
From the Salt Lake Herald

When Idaho Pete made his appearance in
camp the other day, there was quite an ex-
cItement among the sports" Pete was a
talkist. 1t was said Of him that he had de-
populated a few camps in Nevada and start
ed the first graveyard in Treasurer hill.
Having talked increasingly night and day
for two weeks in Owens valley, the boys put
leather muzzle on him committee was
appointed to see him from the countay and
he was unmuzzled and turned loose on the
borders of Arizona. How he managed to
find us out is a mystery. but there he was and
made himself heard, too. Bingham coul d
always boast of q few Ia lkers, and perhaps
on state occasions We could raise one good
one. Men of speculative turn who had heard
of Pete thought this good chance to try his
powers or kill him, and they went to the up
per camp for the Highland chief, better
known as the Scatterer. They were intro
duced in the Grifiinhouse parlor, and eyed
each other for while.
NEARLY thirty years now. boys, since
first struck the coast, and I'll be teetotally
broom handled If this isn't the dogonest ter
ritory out of hell" This was Pete's first
put, and Scatterer felt 1T his duty to remark
that Thar warn't Il pile of bones on top of
ground that rnttled over more acres of un-
surveyed land than yours truly Jist sich
lookin' individuals like my humble self made
toe-path for sich cowhides AZ yours to find
your way to this country. an III be painted
with sorghum an stood mp agin stump for
fly -baIt IN July, If Ill sit still an hear Il left
handed miner criticise these valleys and
mountains I'm n straight out and outer,
am. Ken strike in n hole either hand afore-
side, winder or upper. with any slab-sided.
prickly-pear- eating galoot that ever strad-
died the backbone of tho Rockies an as
good Judge of II country ever chawed
tobaccer, an I'll take Utah IN mine every
time stranger" Here Scatterer stopped to
spit, and before the tobacco juice had got
into position on the floor, Pete had settled
down to his work like Il professional, and by
the time poor Scatterer realized that he had
met his match. Pete had ratified of twenty
five years Of his experience on the western
| slope. Continued Pete.
II do not boast much. I've got over the
| time when the sight Of piece OF quartz or II
| nugget made my heels itch. Eve Travelled
too much to be taken by surprise have
years ago settled down to an unprejudiced
observation of the various sections of the
\ west. | have made the custom of those
whom | met in my wanderings special
study, and nature, together with II fair liberal
education, has endowed me with qualities
| eminently suited to the study OF mankind
| After years of patient, persistent toll in my
peculiar avocatlon, the sum total is: What
the Digger is to the Caucasian in literature,
| science and art, what the Chinaman il to the
American in modern civilization and culture
what the chicken-hawk is to the dove, and
| the skunk is to the fawn-so is all average
poogamist to the buzzard -
| The betting up to this was in favor of the
| ScHtterer but Pete had the floor, and things
looked blue for Bingham's favorte. Some
| one who had few twenties bet on him pro-
| posed to set OF bunch of fre-crackcrs un-
| der Petes chair, so as TO give Scatterer u
show to slide in n word. After a stormy dis
| cussion the motion was oyerruled, AS the
referees said it looked too much like intim-
dation, and any party guilty Of bull-dosng
would forfeit the stakes-in fact be counted
| out. The lamps were now trimmed, yet
| Pete had the floor. Ten o'clock came. but
poor Scatterer could not get IN word with a
1 thin case knife.
Pete had been following up the vigilants in
| San Francisco, and at IL o'clock he had got
as far as the hanging Of Cortez. Pete was
not 'law and order" man, and he dwelt
with pathos on the killing Of William King,
comparing his fate with the killing Of Dr.
Robinson. He described the fatal duel be
tween Broderick and Teray, every word he
uttered sinking deep into the Scatterer's..so
| as he himself was in California during that
stormy almost revolutionary period. This
! was Just what Pete wanted, and one could