Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1877-09-29
THE OLD srAuE ROAD.


A Ssage.DriverS' "Reminiscences.
We dropped into an up town saloon
Thursday evening ats pretty late hour,
and found q jolly crowd OF men, all old
timers, or as they expressed it, men
that had been q long time on the
turf" sitting around the stove indulg-
ing In "reminiscences Of lively times up
In Montana, and anecdotes Of noted
persons who had flourished in that
country during the gold excitements.
We were more interested in the stories
from the fact that whenever Jack. Jim,
or Bill, as the case might be, were men,
toned, the tale always closed with the
remark that hottie one spoken Of
was hung by Vigilantes, shot by some
other desperate, or died with his bouts
on, an end that seemed to characterize
these ghosts of a dead past. The
group referred to the old times with a
rather saddened expression Of counte-
nance, and . general feeling of regret
was ex expressed for the departed worth
les. The gloom, however, was finally
Ottii ObCs ny ~ VI tu0 RoIty OiiD8tuk
10 memory . stage upset, at the time
he was handling the ribbons on the
road, and hearty laugh was INDUCED
in as he related how he forced the COM
pany to give him a discharge. We
quote his own language and description
of the affair : I'd been driving on the
division for over a year." he said, land
l had got kinder tired; fact was the
the thing was getting monotonous;
there wasn't any money In it. and 1t
used TO COS III drivers more coin for
whiplashes than our wages come to.
There was a fellow got . contract for
supplying US, and he kept = half-a-
dozen incl at work braiding the silk.
He charged $40 for q six-horse, and
SIS for q courthouse whip, and a dol
lar q foot for braiding. We used to
wear out one on the bronco teams
every trip. l were q $l75 dollars in
debt to the stage company; over
drawed you know, and l thought it
was the right time to slide into some
other business. ! told the superintend-
ent TO send out . man In my place, and
he kept putting me of, and ! see the
game was to make me work out the
advanced wages, so l concluded to give
'efn something to lay me off
for. / drove out of Helena this
particular morning, Is passen-
gers aboard, and Jim Kellogg
sitting on the box beside me, and
/ acknowledge l was a little drunk.
Jim rolled me up in a pair of blankets,
chucked me in the front boot, and
drove the cattle over the first two
stretches until We reached the first
breakfast station. The whole load
were q set OF thieves and gamblers,
with the exception of cock. eyed,
broken-nosed desdbead, what were
agOing out to take are of stock at
Milk river. The boys took me out
and filled me up with some more
1t were, put it on the track OF a Teller
and 1t would follow him up and kill
him ten miles from the cumberland
by the time breakfast was owe the
stuff commenced to work, and l WAS
getting full of the opinion that / were
the finest driver that sver throwed
silk owe q team. They all piled in
and away we wen sailing. The road
was as level As Q billiard table. As /
came 10 a little turn l give yell, and
as the team broke into a run she CON-.
menced to slant. You see she were a
bran now Concord, and the thorough
braces were cut O short, no trouble
in the world TO upset her. She ran
along on two wheels for a hundred
yards. and over she vent. Kellogg
jumped and landed all right, aud / was
too drunk TO damage, but all the rest
Of the boys were pretty badly shook
up. leastways they 'peared so As they
crawled out Of n uppermost door.
A half a dozen had their arms and legs
broke. and some were pretty badly cut
and bruised. What made me madder
nor anything was that squint-eyed
deadhead. He'd got scalped, and he
came blubbering up to where l vas
and wanted to know il l didn't think
he were disfigured for life. Why, /
says, you damn fool, I've made a good
looking man out of you, what are you
bowling about. Some of the fellers
talked about sueing the Company, but
they weakened on that, for they
couldn't prove that their time or car
casses were worth a cent to them
selves or anybody else. The Superin-
tsndent did give me hell about break
ing up the coach, and l were honor
ably discharged. which was $l7s in
my pocket. l never drove since, but
went 10 dealing farrer after that, cause
it was higher toned, and moro lsgiti-
inate, you know" Jim cOrroborated
the ex-driver's story, and was adding
sundry embellishments Of his own,
when the whistle warned us thar it
was time to put in an appearance at the