Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-10-01
How / was "Sat Down.
The Four BullShackers Of Bitter Creek

Lock MelOnc in october Californian.
Perhaps every person who is some
what advanced in life can remember
some incident in his early years
which he would really like to forget,
something that resulted from the
freshness and vast inexperience OF
youth. / remember one which l
have spent a good deal of time try
ing to forget. just before the Un-
ion Pacific Railroad reached the
Bitter Creek country, l made my
first overland trip to the Pacific
Coast. l staged it from the theu
terminus of the Union Pacific to the
Central Pacific, which was pushing
east. The stage broke down on
Bitter Creek, and the passengers
had to walk to the next station. I
grew tired of walking before l
reached the station, aud coming,
late in the afternoon, to where some
teamsters were camped~ Il concluded
to stop with them for the night. On
asking their permission to do SO,
they asssnted so heartily that l felt
at home at once. Life in the West
was something new to me. I was
young and buoyant, and just out OF
college. / was fond of talking. 1
thought it would be novel and de-
lightful to sleep out with these half
savage ox.drivers, with no shelter
but the vaulted, star-gemmed heav-
ems. There were four teanrsters,
and as many wagons, while thirty
two oxen srazed around in the vi
cinity. OF the teaDs.ers, one was
u giant in statue, and wore busiy
black beard; another was. shorter,
but powerfully built, and one-eyed; /;
the third was tall, lank, and hame-
iawed; while the fourth was II wiry,
red headed man. In my thoughts I
pitied them, on account of the hard
life they led, and spoke 10 them in
kind tone, and endeavored to make
my conversation instructive. l
plucked a flower, and, pulling it to
pieces, mentioned the names OF the
parts-pistil, stamens, calyx, and SO
on--and remarked that it must be
Indigenous to the locality, and spoke
of the plant being endogenous, i'll
contradistinction to exogenous, and
that they could see that it was not
cryptogamous. In looking at some
fragments of rock, my thoughts
wandered off into geology, and
among other things, l spoke of the
tertiary and carboniferous periods,
and of the pterodactyl, ickthyosau-
rus, and dinotherium. The team
sters looked at me, then at each
other, but made no response. We
squatted down around the frying
pan to take supper, and as the big
fellow, with his right hand, slapped,
or sort of larruped, a long piece of
flied bacon, over piece of bread
in his left hand, sending a drop OF
hot grease into my left eye, he said
TO the one eyed man:
"Bill, is my copy OF Shakespeare in
yo' wagon? ! missed it to-day.
"No. Ny Tenncrson and voluln
of the Italian poets is in thar-nc
Shakespeare.
The lnnk looking toamstcr, biting
off II piece Of bread about the size OF
saucer, said to the big man, IN ;
voice which camc huskily thlouSl
the bread. " Jake, did yer ever rea'
that volum Of pp' ms that writ
No, Gnt hey often hcarn tell OF
cm.
"Ycl mean Musin's of an Idle
Man, spoke up the red-hared man
addressing the poet.
"les.
q" Hev read every line in it Il doz
ell times said the teamster Will
> the red hair; and as he sopped ;
four inch swath, with piece o
bread, across II fryins-pan, he re
peated some lines.
" Them's they" nodded the poet
''The Emp'ror of Austry writ Inc
letter highly complimentin then
po'ms." L" They're very techin, ,
added the wiry man.
took no part i'll these remarks
, Somehow | did not feel like loinln;
in.
a,yb In n