The Red Cloud chief., 1881-03-17

boarded house in the average line OF
aim. The papers left nothing unsaid
which could taunt and irritate. Editors
went about the streets weighed down
by masked batteries. II was calculated
that five hundred pounds at Iron were
daily hacked about the streets in the
shape of derringers. knives end revoly-
ers. The champions OF the opposing
parties never met on the highway but
that people peercd and squinted from
| door and window for the bombardmcnt
TO commence. Knives were bathed IN
gore. Barroom floors showed bloody
stains. Men died with their boots on.
Loaded shotguns lay in ambush behind
front and back doors. The atmosphere
smelt of blood and possible killing.
Saloon plate glass mirrors showed the
track Of pistol bullets. Mass meetings
were assemblages Of men from town
and country. secretly armed. People
spent mos OF their time hating each
other. Ministers went behind the or
thodox returns and preached sectional
and partisan politics. The more vital
tenets Of religion were suspended for
the time being with the writ of habeas
corpus. ~canvassed the county with
my comic lecture. II took. II was
popular with both parties. 1t was n
| pleasant relief from the heavier logic
and argument used by heavier and
more solid speakers. Ii was like the
farce after the tragedy. Ii sent assem-
blies and mass meetings home in good
humor. Nobody asked il such a an
didate was fit TO make laws. But there
Tuolumne showed wisdom. They didn'.
want any more laws made. Every
BODY who had been sent to the Leg
i~slature- since California was created a
State had been busy putting more.laws
on the statute books. There was an
overplus. People couldn't keep count
of the laws already made. Tuolumne
then showed wisdom In its endeavor to
send one man TO the Legislature of
1867 who, not being able to draw
up n bill, could not have added a single
new law to the mass already made.
NOVELTIES AT FIJI POLLS. Z.
Feeling that I had not done Justice to
the party in making a n active canvass
of the county. principally because 1 had
no money to make a canvass with by
treating long lines of e~ver-ready patri-
OTIS at every bar in Tuolumne, l con-
cluded l would hold n series of private
mass meetings in the day time on horse
back. | would do this on election day.
1 would gallop from poll TO poll and
make a speech at each poll. | had a
route laid out embracing half the coun-
ty. | made the initial equestrian speech
at jamestown. Thence l galloped to
Shaw's Flat. Shaw's Flat upset me.
The pillar of our party there, at whose
saloon the polls were held, came to his
door while | was speaking, took n
look at me and walked off in disgust. l
saw the disgust on hisface an inch thick.
II smote me. 1t threw a wet blanket
over all this newly-roused enthusiasm.
| started for Columbia. but all the way
that mans face peered into mine. 1t
robbed me Of all courage and conf
dence. l had no further heart to con-
tinue the work. 1t was not at all the
regular thing. II was an innovation on
old party usages. The country eve
then was too old for such politico-eques-
trian heroics. | rode back to James.
town. put the horse in his stable, and
hid myself. The people did not agree
to send me to Sacramento. Perhaps it
was fortunate for them they did not.
Probably it was for me. Whatever hap
pens to n man in this life is probably the
best thing for him, inasmuch as nothing
else can happen tohim. | had the profit
of m experience in making a semi-polit-
zeal debut, and the people profited by
sending another man. -
SOME SAGE REFLECTIONS.
Could the past but be recalled, with
all its conditions. contingencies and &C
cessories; could | once more renew this
episode with the advantage of years Of
past experience and accumulated wis
dom, l should succeed. l should fill
the post of Legislator, if not a Legisla-
tor. But the future is apt to come too
late. To be sure it was for me a period
of folly and weakness. MY soul ever
now squirms with shame to think of it.
"And it should" | hear my fellow
human judges saving. OF course it
should. Mans first duty to himself is
TO hide his follies and bear himself as
though he V committed any. Only
/ can afford to tell what 4 wretch l have
been. Were | a candidate for office |
could not. Some day, when the world
is wiser. men will cease strutting about
in their masks of propriety and wisdom.
and publish their own past errors as
freely as now they do those of their fell
lows. 1t is a good preliminary previous
to entrance into that world where "all
things shall be revealed" where each
action lies i'm its true nature, and where
each one of us must sever to the teeth
and forehead of our faults give in evil
dence." "Why not?"-hcntice Null
ford, in the San Francisco Chronicle.