Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1882-06-09


plains, awakened in me the feelings and
thoughts so beautifully expressed in Cow
pers word-famed lines in "Alexander
Selkirk, which although Mt first in great
part forgotten, were soon recalled cor
rectly word for word, and was wont
from day to day, whilst riding in or
trampng by the side of tho wagon, to
repeat in song, or rather in as near
an approach TO n camp-meeting hymn
US my limited talent in that line would
allow, and on Sunday especially, when
knowing it to be that day OF the week,
(Which frequently we did not, and when
traversing extremely wild and rugged
grounds, the force of that simply ex-
pressed sentiment
"But the sound of the church-going bells"
&c, compelled mo to give it utterance as
though meant those hills and rocks
themselves to hear how truly this poetry
suited my then surroundings.
Our larder. Gin the wagon of course,
consisted of the following edibles to wit
Flour, (to last us to Salt Lake City,
midaling bacon, hard tack, sugar. soffec,
tea, molasses, yeast powders, dried ap-
pies, salt, and course ground, kiln
dried, sweetened, corn meal (a Mexican
compound) very nutritious and used
when every other article of consump-
sion was gone to sustain belated or lost
emigrant or explorer, also a few cans of
canned meat and fruit to be used in sick
ness and large bottle of lemon syrup
to bo used as shown hereafter, and last,
but by no means least, ten gallon keg
of wbiskoy and five gallon keg of good
brandy Now and then, and especially
towards tho latter part Of our journey,
We were enabled to obtain some milk
from tho cattle.
Our cooking utensils consisted of a
largo camp kettle, large, long-handlod
frying pan, and large coffee and tea pots,
our table furniture of tin plates, iron
spoons, and for knives and forks too,
for that matter, either the Bowie or
butcher knives, worn in the belts con.
tanning our six shooters. The frst
cooked meal we ate pre-describeb pretty
much all the meals of the journey, OK
cept when we were fortunate enough TO
kill either rabbit, prairie chicken, sage
hen, antelope or buffalo, one or the other
of which we frequently got while on the
eastern side of tho Rocky Mountains.
Antelope mcat was decidedly the best,
buffalo meat the worst, the tongue and
liver Of tho latter being quite palatablc.
Some of the emigrants secured elk and
Rocky Mountain sheep, both very fine
eating, but our party did not After
making a fire either of any dried sticks
we could procure in the entirely treeless
country we traversed for tho first two or
three hundred miles, or buffalo chips or
dead sage, (both the latter made really
good fires, sage particularly F; sticks Of
which six or more feet in length and two
inches in breadth being constantly pro-
durable in tho sage growing districts we
passed through When in mountain
region we found plenty of good wood,
dry cedar for instance, and had fine fires
when we needed them our fire made
and water procured, the next thing was
to fry fat mddling, enough at least to
obtain grease for frying our slap-iacks and
our fresh meat of whatever kind. The
slap-jacks were made Of -four, salt, yoast
powders mixed with water to the con-
sstency of pretty stiff dough, this dough
was then flattened out to a size would
admit of about four Of them being placed
in our large frying pan. All the party
got very expert in making slap-jacks,
and when Drowned nicely aud piled up
preparatory for the party pitching into,
looked quite tempting and indeed with a
good strong cup of coffee or ten and the
fried middling only, ate to hungry men,
such as We were, splendidly, when in
lieu of middling wo had fresh meat, say
antelope steak, for breakfast or supper
it was still better and much enjoyed.
We never ate but ono dinner on the whole
routc--that one will hereafter describe.
| tell you, dear reader, you should have
been there 10 have tasted | must
make another exception to the dinner
matter aud that is, that while in Salt
Lake City we "dined out" several times.
] will now return to another remem-
bered incident, intending to picture life
upon the Plains, at any rate for the year
1852, as faithfully as | can. All cattle
driven across tho Plains were branded
before starting, generally with tho initial
letters Of their owners names. Some
times different drovcs had similar brands,
and the cattle from these straying from
their proper herds got mixed and were
the cause Of disputes as to ownership.
One day whilst driving along slowly,
| heard loud and angry talking iD n
Dutch emigrant train, not more than two
hundred and fifty yards behind our train.
Several Of our men were making in tho
direction Of the noise, and | jumped out
Of the wagon and followed to see what
tho muss was about. Two men on horse
back were in the midst Of the Dutch
train trying 10 separate therefrom and
drive of two or three head of cattle
Several men, women and children were
trying TO prevent this, and one OF the
men with long pole or ox-wbip was
striking at one Of the men on horseback.
| saw the latter ride suddenly up to the
man with the whip, and raising high in
the air large navy revolver came crash
down with all bis powor upon the poor
Dutchman's cup. saw him drop, APP
parently on his knees first and holding
out his hands as il pleading for mercy.
nevertheless when got where no was
| discovered him lying fiat on the ground
and entirely dead. There was great
uproar, Of course, aud particularly among
the females present, in the midst OF
which the two men on horseback rodo
swiftly oifand back to their trains. There
was some talk Of lynching the murderer
that night. but nothing was done, and
the next day our party was solicited TO
join in aud help to arrest and try the
man by regular drum-head court. In
tho meantime Jack Galloway Chat was
tkn ..a.... % tta u.au ka ,o.t., 18th