Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1877-04-28

bert sydney Johnston ON his expedition
to Subiu@ate the Mormons. Many OF
these Transfers were imprisoned, and
some Of them were murdered. This man
and two Others escaped from prison and
walked back across the Plains TO the
nearest 'nited States fort. They started
without arms and subsisted chiefly upon
strips OF hides torn from the dried car
cases of buffalo found on the plains.
To hear this fellows opinion of Brigham
loung's ability was positively refresh
ing. He said: ..Old Brig has more
brains in his head than all the officers OF
the riggler army have in their heads. =
! When Gen. Johnston's army was en-
tirely without salt. he sent them wagon
load As present. This Johnston re-
fused to use for fear it was poisoned.
and the Mormon dumped tout upon the
plain. where it was gathered up by the
suffers, who sold il to the Quartermas-
ter's Department at fabulous prices.
The - old GUS" (meanin@ Young) would
let the supply trains get just rs far As he
wanted them 10, and then send down a
squad of men, disguised as Indians, TO
stampede the stock OF course, the
train had to be abandoned, and the sup
plies destroyed.
But to get on with our trip. We
started from Leavenworth with three
wagons. drawn by two mules each. and
reached Denver in twenty-four days.
Ali the way ont we heard fabulous ac-
counts of the digging and the from
tier papers teemed with stories of won
derful :. finds AT one point greas-
err" with only a calabash of wood, wash
ed out S220 (eXacD worth of dust in six
hours. AT another. ''two boys packed
some disintegrated quartz seventy miles
on the back of mule TO have it assayed,
and found it worth $4,000 per tom At
another, "three men found some pay
dirt in a creyice ON the top of Il noun
tain, and carrying it down TO Il stream,
found they had $500 worth of gold At
every rancho we heard glowing reports
of the country; and although we met
many returning gold diggers, none of
them said discouraging word-why,
we found out later. At Denverwe found
Il population living entirely upon the
money of the incoming gold seekers,
whom they called :. Ameeroogans. or
I" Pilgrims Freights from the Mis-
souri, River t. Denver were eight cents
per pound. and the hauling of supplies
was great industry.
Thence TO the diggings, the grand
round of which we made. We saw no
gold dug (in any quantity; everywhere
the miners had just quit work, or the
roof of the drift was out of order, or the
water had driven them out, and they
We're waiting for a pump. All gave
glowing accounts Of the gold they had
got. and were going to get. but all were
anxious TO trade their claims for money,
goods, wagons, mules, oXen-in fact for
any thing in the shape of portable prop
erty-alwavs provided that YOU gave
them Il bond to pay them any sum from
$4,000 to 100000 when you got it out
of the claim, You having first taken out
for yourself, say, the same amount. The
bond further stipulated that you were to
keep fair and truthful account of all
disbursements and receipts, the sellers
always insisting in solemn language that
the bond was the only consideration for
which they could be persuaded to sell,
and that the portable property they got
from the purchaser was of value only as
II enabled them to prospect some remot-
er section. They were always ready to
promise to give You twentieth or a for
tieth of the prospective 8 find
At the diggings every body spoke well
OF his neighbor When the Denver pa
pers came up the community We're fire.
quently astounded by marvellous ac-
counts of the richness of their own see
ton.
After DONG the mines. started alone
for the East, leaving my friend, who had
invested in one of these claims When |
my intention became known to nv ac-