The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1877-03-29
IDAHO PETE.
How Two Old Trappers and Indfan-
Fighters Talked Each Other to Death.
From the Salt Lake Herald. ]

Fighters Talked Each Other to Death.
From the Salt Lake Herald
When Idaho Pete made his appear.
ance in camp the other day, there was
quite an excitement among the
"sports. Pete was a talkist. 1t was
said of him that he had depopulated a
few camps in Nevada, and started the
first graveyard in Treasure Hill. Hav-
ing talked increasingly night and day
for two weeks in Owens Valley, the
boys put leather muzzle on him. A
committee was appointed to see him
from the country, and he was unmuzzled
and turned loose on the borders of Ari-
IONA. How he managed to find US out
is a mystery, but here he was, and
made himself heard, too. Bingham
could always boast of a few takers
and perhaps on state occasions we
could raise one good one. Men of a
speculative turn who had heard of Pete,
thought this a good chance to try his
powers or kill him, and they went to
the Upper Camp for the Highland
Chief, better known as the Scatterer.
They were introduced in the Griffin
House parlor, and eyed each other for
a while.
|"Nearly thirty years now, boys, since
I first struck the Coast, and I'll be te-
totally broom-handled if this isn't the
dogonest Territory out of - This
was Pete's first put, and Scatterer felt
it his duty to remark that /" Thar warns
a pile of bones on top OF ground that
ratified over more square acres of I'M
surveyed land than yours truly. Jist
SIGH lookin' individuals like my humble
self made toe-paths for SIGH cowhides
as yours to find yer way to this coun-
try, an I'll be painted with sorghum
an stood up again stump for fly-bait
in July, if III sit still an hear left
handed miner criticise these valleys of
the mountains. I'm a straight out an
outer, am. Ken strike in a hole either
hand afore side, winder or upper, with
any slab-sided, prickly- eating ga
loot that ever straddled the back bone
OF the Rockies, an as good Judge of
a country as ever chawed tobaccor, 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 profess
sional, and by the time poor Scatterer
realized that he had met his match,
Pete had ratified off twenty-five years
of his experience on the Western slope.
Continued Pete: IA
" | do not boast much. I've got over
the time when the sight of q piece of
quartz or nugget made my heels itch.
I've travelled too much to be taken by
surprise. 1 have years ago settled
down to an unprejudiced observation
OF the various sections of the West. q
have made the customs of those whom
| met in my wanderings special study,
and nature, together with a fair liberal
education, has endowed me with quail
ties eminently suited to the study of
mankind. After years of patient, per-
sistent toll in my peculiar avocation,
the sum total is: What the Digger is
to the Caucasian in literature, science
and art what the Chinaman is to the
American in modern civilization and
culture; what the chicken-hawk is to
the dove; what the skunk is to the
fawn, so is an average polygamist to
the buzzard!"
The betting up to this was in favor of
the Scatterer; but Pete had the floor,
and things looked blue for Bingham's
favorite. Some one, who had. few
twenties bet on him, proposed to get
off a bunch of fire-crackers under Pete's
chair, so as to give Scatterer show to
slip in a word. After stormy discus
sion, the motion was overru1ed, as the
referees said it looked too much like
intimidation, and any party guilty of
bulldozing would forfeit the stakes
fact, be counted out. The lamps were
now trimmed, yet Pete had the floor.
Ten O'Clock came, and poor Scatterer
could not get in a word with a thin
case knife. -aAu~ do. ...-rg ltg
Pete had been following up the vigil
lantes in San Francisco, and st IL
O'Clock had got as far as the hanging
of Cortez. Pete was not claw and
order " man, and he dwelt with pathos
on the killing of William King, COM
pairing his fate with the killing of DIR.
Robinson. He described the fatal duel
between Broderick and Terry, every
word he uttered sinking deep into Scat
terer's soul, as he himself was in Cali
fornia during that stormy-almost rev
olutionary-period. This was just what
Pete wanted, and one could see by the
glitter of his eyes that he felt confident
of victory. .I
A wild shout from a hundred Threats
broke the stiffness of the night. "Scat-
terer cheped in, and is just hoeing it
down." yelled one of his hackers.
Pete's hackers claimed a foul. Some
one dropped red pepper on his mus
tache- nothing else, they said, could
make him sneeze. Anyhow he lost his