The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-03-23
JOSEPH'S ADVENTURE.

cant you tell us some OF your adyan
tures2" asked or my friend Joseph, who ha,
returned from his many years travels In tn,
bush, and was sitting with mo and my wife
And though he had been absent so long h,
was. 10 to speak, young man yet
Adventures Well, I have mot will
plenty. Rough ones, some of Them"
aPlease tell us one" chimed In Mary.
Joseph laughed. II can tell you OF dueel
one that met with In the mountains
'oh, yes; do! Which mountains2"
"ln California up In one of It's wild dis
tricts."
"That will be the very thing"
well" said Joseph, running his taperina
fingers through hs hair and smiling at my
wife. "I'll soften down things In the telling ms
well IA my blunt speech and unclvilzed modes
of thought will admit of, and you must excuse
the rest"
'Oh, Ill excuse anything. Please begin"
"When | started from home TO settle In UNI
frequented districts" began Joseph, II set
up d theory that no man should ask q woman
to marry him until he has prepared home
for her. IT liz surprising how much you be-
gin TO think of wife West yonder which
OF ones existence. | was no exception. The
land took up was In the Rogue River Val
ley. and after had got 1t a bit ship-shape |
worked away with only one object in view
10 bring home wife p
But, Joseph, had you selected wife \" /
asked.
No, intended to do that as soon as
could, though you may say | was rather
young TO he thinking of It. | worked on. and
was pretty successful. ! built me house,
got considerable stock of cattle, made a
hower-garden for my wife, and even put VI
the pegs and nails she would want 10 hang
her dresses on. / intended that same autumn
TO mount my horse, ride through the Villa
mette Valley, find my wife, and hiring her
home."
AT the notion Of counting In that olI-hand
style. we laughed little. Joseph laughed
too, az II the recollection pleased him.
"fou think il strange, see, II was not so
very strange in those days out there, where
girls were as scarce as angels. There was
nota girl within forty miles of me; and as
sure you that the very thought Of one. rs /
drove in those nails for her garments to hang
on, went through me like thrill. You don't
believe? Go w est yourself and try It,"
Shut do believe"
Il had about two hundred and fifty head
OF cattle, q good house, with a garden, n
young orchard. vegetables growing, sweet
scented ilowerS-all In readiness for the wife |
hoped TO bring home TO bless me, and to take
care of these possessions. And what do you
think happened to them?'
We could not tell.
"There came such plague Of grasshoppers
upon the valley that everything persisted.
Crops, orchards, flowers grass-every green
and delightful and promising thing; the
grosshoppers destroyed all. You remember
the second chapter Of Joel"
nodded.
"aThe land Is as the garden of Eden before
them, and behind them a desolate wilderness
4 was ruined. My stock died ut least the
greater portion of it, the cattle had nothing
TO feed upon Yes 1t was complete and abso- |
lutte ruin"
Joseph paused q moment mentally looking |
at the past.
II considered myself disappointed In love- |
too" he resumed In the quaint ost Of tones |
Though | had not yet been out to find my |
girl, knew she was somewhere in that other |
valley waiting for me; and when the greedy |
grasshoppers ate up everything felt that | |
had been Tilted. 1t actually gives me pang |
now to think of those useless pegs on which |
my Imagination had so often seen a girls |
pink cotton dress and white sun-bonnet.'
centric fellow.
al became misanthropic-sai to myself |
that between Fate and the grasshoppers | |
had been hardly used. Packing up my books
and few other traps, babe adieu to the
Rogue River Valley forever, and started for
the mountains. 1t was a longish Journey as
4 had to drive before me the stock which was
LETT me. There, in the mountains, | settled |
hermit. No iilting girls should come near
now"
"a fort?"
regular fort-a stockade eighteen feet
high, with an embankmeRt four feet high |
around it, and strong gate in the middle.
Ny tent was in the midst of the Enclosure,
With my books and household gods, firearms
2. and q the rest OF my property slowed away
Were you afraid 81 Indians ,"
'Indians and white men. Yes, l saw a good
many Indians at first within the range of nv
Lihe. They learned to keep away from nv
tort, finding 1t did not pay to attempt an in
vaslon Down IN the valley below there were
mining camps; and you perhaps know what
some OF the hangers-on Of such camps are.
4 sold beef-that is heads of cattie[to the
miners; and as | had sometimes a tidy sum
IN y, money by me it was necessary to be care
what strange life for young man.
sa ~ mary. For you, Joseph"
<,nss nsiuea my cattle, drove them to market.
tusa ss STUDIED, wrote, and INDUCED in mix,
49, +sr,n r I1opy ana rifle practice. By
~ sns ~. VINE had entered on the second Summer
\, was e sa mountains felt quite at home, and
charms t1ls rieh. Alter all, the life had its
ID Il bst I'm man cannot quite tire Of it when
And the girl-wife5SS "' Vi his 'eehs.
sx..1..s - coming to her. Having had tina n
~ ~ my III usage, reaction set in vnn 80 "
MI ms,,a thought, after ALL l must ride To ~
~. y t;ia = rs 70 See after my girl But was
49, NV 70 me- M hurry over IT that had been be.
3Serei i h s = al very dull you will say, but
Az Is not at all dull"
one sunday afternoon thow did | know Il