Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1883-02-02
-S 90
THE LEGEND OF A SAINT.

III Tue pTluclpdl square III AIdSud-
lena stood a church; near it We're the
ruins of still more ancient edifice
To the latter. called the church OF
San Francisco, a legend was attached.
/ give it as it was related to me by
miner. wal, see. San want always
a saint, San want. They do say he
was 'customed sometimes to 60 on
scoop, on a bend. as it were. How
ever, he changed over in time and
come to be bishop. This here dis
trict was IN his claim. Wal, happened
once when the pishop was prospect
ing round, to see that the sky pilots
on his claim was all at work, that the
outfit banked up here for the night.
Next morning, when they was all
hitched up and ready for start,
they came to hoist old San on his
mule, and couldn't prize him up any
how. They put on fresh hands and
tried all they burned knew, but San
he'd kind O taken root, and there he
sot like an oyster on a rock, and
weighed as heavy as a ton of lead.
Boys says he, at last, we can let up
hauling soon as We burned please.
Guess I'll stay right here. Waltz in
now an put up church right away.
And thar he stopped sure 'nough.
An that's how this here church an
town come to be built, least, so folks
say hereabout. But they do lie here.
too" he added refectively, after a
pause.
THE DEAD OF PLATTE VALLEY.
A ''ffty-niner" writes as follows
from Greeley, Col, to the Denver
Tribune: A few days since there ap-
peared in your columns short dis
patch relative to skeleton found in
q sand cliff in digging ditch near
Bench, on the Platte, and this Incl
dent calls to mind the fact that if the
number of these skeletons found in
digging bitches in the valley within
the past year is an indication of what
is contained in the ground not dug
over, then the old trail to the land Of
gold would certainly rival the his
torical bone-bleached path of the cru
sades to the Holy land. And why
not? If you start anywhere-so far
as experience goes-and dig a ditch
ten mules long and twenty feet wide,
on the bottom you always dig up
dead mems bones. You naturally
begin to speculate as to what is in
the ground you do not dig up. In
fact, you can't help it. The idea is
forced upon you, and you begin to
figure. The river valley is, say, a
mile wide and six hundred miles long.
Suppose you count a man to each
twenty-foot strip of ten miles in
length there are generally from two
to ten. as far as dug over, and with
out figuring closely you at once see
your way to an array Of dead fortune
hunters fifty thousand strong! who
died, let us say, Of disease, Of suicide,
by accident, the hands of Indians,
struck by lightning, murdered for
money, or killed in drunken brawls
by the way; some with lead boards
made of old pieces of wagon-boxes
to mark the spot where grave was
made. some with only buffalo bones
stuck on end. but all long since scat
tered and gone, and many more care
fully concealed here and there among
the sand hills and waste places Of the
desert, where the winds and the drift
ing sands soon obliterated all traces
of the dark deeds of blood.
Such are the reveries and specula-
tons of an old timer, who remembers
strange things that happened when
he trudged up the Platte Valley
along with the well-nigh countless
thousands who beat the old trail OF
1880
Last winter, IN constructing the
Oglivy ditch below Greeley, from six
to ten skeletons were exhumed near
Crow Greek. on the Platte. These
had evidently been buried great
while, and were more than likely
victims of the overland march to Cali
fornia in 1649. Some of them had
collins.