The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1881-04-22
The Teamst. RS Escape.

AAASo OPO4O0 AL 1SOO, 4Nat leC1uG0, I'D
many years a teamster in that part O
Arizona, undertook to team the engin
boiler, battery stamps" and othe
heavy milling machinery, together witt
supplies, from place called Great Benz
on the Gila river.
Reines was then Swell-known charac
ter along the overland stage route; ant
the writer, at that time, was in his em
ploy. In fact was his nephew.
This will better account for my emf
grating to such country. For any
body who recollects what the popula
tion of Arizona was twelve years ag,
will think that man ought perhaps t.
satisfactorily explain how he came to b,
there.
The mine above mentioned was stu
ated in the range north of the Gila, from
forty to fifty miles above the point wher,
we took the machinery from the trans
portation company.
Uncle Nat was to have four Thousand
dollars in gold for hauling up an outfit
an offer liberal, certainly, and such al
only could be made in Arizona. But O.
course he had to run his own risks an6
take his chances of the Apaches getting
his scalp, as indeed we all did in those
days.
No one was safe outside the forts, OF
could even guess with any certainty
where the savages would strike theil
next-blow. They were out continually
securing the whole territory, and living
on plunder.
We had three six-mule teams. II
was supposed that to complete the con.
tract it would take four round trips
about months work altogether.
There were, beside myself, two other
teamsters, "Old Rube Floods" as we
called him, and Mexican nicknamed
'tLonze," with two spare hands,
brothers, from Missouri, named
Stroudsly.
We drivers rode or walked as the case
and had each, in addition to
his knife and cart-whip, a Henry rife,
which we were expected to be ready to
use at moments notice.
Uncle Nat had associated with him
then Texan, one Dan Lowell, as a
partner. They two rode at the head of
the teams, with their rifles and re-
and theirs were the only horses
in the train.
No one who has not been through the
Southwest can begin to imagine just
what strange, half-6nished looking
country Arizona is-at least some parts
Of il.
The hills and mountains have singu-
lar1y rugged, dark aspect. Then there
Came stretches of course blue gravel,
where there isn't SO much as a weed
growing, for miles and miles. When
there is grass, it is curious, coarse, out
landish stuff.
The woods are as peculiar as the grass;
thorn thickets, or brown jungles of
and meskit. These latter
grow mostly along the river-bottoms, or
in the arroyas, or gullies of brooks.
Then, to crown all, come the great
clumsy cactuses, with huge scanned
trunks and broad, thick limbs. or leaves,
covered with hthorns-growingo out of dry
and among lodges and rocks
where no other living thing could draw
moisture sufficient to live.
Our route mp from the Gila lay much
Of it through desert of this sort. 1t
took us three days to make the trip to
The mine, and two back.
On our first trip we hauled the boiler.
We had fourteen mules, heavy ones, too,
TO draw it. and two spare spans for hard
places. It was ponderous load, but we
got it safely through. Then came the
stamps, battery and other gear.
The load for the third trip was sup
plies of all sorts-beef, flour, corn, min
ing tools, etc. There were also eight or
ten kegs of powder and three heavy
boxes, which, remember, were quite a
puzzle to us, as to what was in them.
They were branded "Nobel's Blasting
OIL" and when handled and iolted, there
sifted out of the cracks of the boxes, a
fine, white powder, like -four.
Nobel's blasting oil is nothing more
nor less than nitro-glycerine. That was
the name it was used under for q time
after its discovery, or rather its practical
application to blasting, by Alfred Nobel,
IN 1858.
Dynamite-which is nitro-glycerine
put in dry form by mixing it with sill
cious earth-was not devised till six or
seven years later.
The law at one time required that. for
nitro-glycerine should be
put up in tin cans, and these packed in
plaster of paris IN boxes or cases.
Under ordinary circumstances, how
ever, there is little danger of accidental
explosions from nitro-glycerine, either
from light shocks Or from fire. To ex-
plode charges Of nitro-glycerine it is
necessary to inclose within them consid-
erable charges of powder, fired. by a
common safety fuse, or else a powerful
cap, fred also by fuse.
Electricity can be employed for this
purpose. Nitro-glycerine may be set on
fire with match, or lighted shaving,
and will burn slowly without exploding.