Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-06-29

hundreds of Pioneers gathered about and
listened to speeches and talked about the
long years ago. Inside the Pavilion the
young people of Portland, with perhaps
here aud there family from the country,
took part IN the "Pioneer ball. could
not see where the Pioneers were interested
in this part of the programme, except so
far as it helped pay the expenses. The
orator of the occasion was ex-senator
Nesmith, who certainly made an interest
ing rehearsal of the times of old, and the
experiences the early comers underwent.
His style is graphic, though plain, and the
pictures he gave of the past were sketched
with free hand.
ONE OF 1889.
Among the badges worn was that of an
old resident whose inscription was 1889,
though for the matter of that he could
have made it 1886, as he was a mountain
man who made hazardous excursion to
the Columbia river in 1886, and as the In
dams took his good horse and gave him IN
exchange a cayuse that was worn to
skeleton, he made poor trip back to the
rendezvous ON the Sweetwater. Coming to
the SHOWS in the Blue mountains he killed
the beast, made snow-shoes OF the hide,
and packed along some Of the impoverished
ribs to keep his soul in his body, and SO
wended his way back to his companions.
The old man looked pulling and childlike
enough in his veteran days, and being only
a small pattern of humanity in his prime,
we could but wonder what spirit nerved
him to do and dare so much as he must
have done forty-four years ago. The gath
ering of these old companions, to shake
hands and compare the civilization of 1880
with the primeval wilderness and savagery
of 1910, was pathetic picture. But the
pioneers are narrowing down to a remnant,
and the time is not distant when live
representative of the emigration that came
over the &c Great American Desert " in the
40s will be rarity.
THE EARLY MISSIONARIES.
Nesmith spoke some plain truths about
the vicissitudes incurred by the Meth
odist missionaries of that early day. He
gave all due credit to Spaulding and Whit
man, who located in the upper Columbia
region, braved martyrdom, and endured
much to actually teach the Indians there
the benefits of civilization, while the mis-
sionaries who came to the Willamette led
easy lives, had the best of everything,
traded off the goods and bounties sent by
self-denying people, even in the shape of
missionary boxes, to both Indians and
whites, took huge donation claims in the
best locations, and even claimed small
principality for their Emission reserve. !"
He showed, what have always considered
true, that the Methodist mission to the In
dams was lamentable failure. The In
dams have all faded away, but not one
was ever truly converted and civilized.
SHIP BUILDERS AND EARLY TRADERS.
Nesmith also gave an interesting account
of how, in the very early times, some adj
vcnturous men built vessel large enough
to sail the ocean, and having made voy-
age to the then port of Yerba Buena,
traded it off for $50 cows and drove back
overland to Oregon in 1916, over thousand
head OF horses and cattle and band of
sheep, that gave start in stock to the set
tiers. All these "reminiscences were valu
able, as well as interesting, and it is a
great pity that one OF the early pioneers,
like Nesmith, who has a graphic use of
words, cannot find time and inclination to
put ali the obtainable facts of early Oregon
days together in presentable shape and
make volume of prose and verse that
will be treasure to future ages. l say
verse as well as prose, because there were
many rhyming illusions in the early emf
grations that were popular in their day i;
songs and legends perpetrated mayhap in
incorrigible dialect, and in defiance of the
rules set down by the muses. in many in
stances, but which are well worth perpetu
ating as mementos of the genius of those
early times. G.