The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1885-02-14
A WESTERN TALE.
[Chicsgo Times.

I
the Times of yesterday with that Salt
Lake man, where he spoke about Nor.
mon peddlers, put me in mind Of an in
cident that happened out in Southern
Nevada in 1922"
The speaker was a grizzled old fellow,
who had roughed it out on the "slope"
for many years, had finally "struck" it
in Colorado, sold his mine in the East,
and sensibly settled down to business in
Chicago, wooing civilization and ease as
a permanent boarder at the fremont. |
The reporter asked why it had suggested |
any particular happening.
sit brought to my recollection young |
fellow who was character in Phoebe. |
That was town that sprang up in the
southeastern part of the State, built upon
the discovery of the Raymond & Ely
mine. 1t was like all the rest Of the
Nevada camps, only exceeding the worst
of them in deviltry and wickedness, for
it gathered to itself the scum of hell
desperadoes, highway robbers, thieves,
gamblers and prostitutes-and they made
it just one of the liveliest towns that
ever existed. But that has nothing to
do with my story. This particular man
nice, quiet, genllemanly young fellow,
evidently well educated and college. bred.
He had no associates nor friends except
one, the district Judge, and the two used
to pass good deal of the time together
discussing the merits and beauties of the
old Greek and Latin philosophers and
kindred subjects, for which both had
passion. The young 'un followed no
pursuit, did no work, nor had any known
source of income. He lived on the hill
side by himself in little cabin, and
when he was not with the Judge it was a
sure thing that he was to be found at
faro table. He was an inveterate player,
but not an even nor lucky one, some
days buying stack of reds and setting
EN- in deep, and then picking along on
white chips for week until he'd go
broke. But that wouldn't last long, and
all of sudden he'd turn up again with
plenty of coin and repeat the same pro-
gramme. This thing ran along for a
year, and nobody paid any particular at
tention to him nor asked any inquisitive
questions-it wasn't healthy place to
pry into other peoples business, anyhow;
and that brings me to the Mormon ped
| dler part of it. That sort of vermin used
to be plenty around Pioche-it was only
couple of hundred miles over into Utah
and they brought in wagon.loads of
produce and sold it at big prices,
S4OO or $500 load, and on their
way back it was common thing for them
to be held up and robbed. OF course
they would complain, but the sheriff was
too busy looking after big mining fights
to bother with them, and besides, nobody
had any sympathy for buck Mormon.
They all, however, gave the same de-
scription Of the highwayman, an old fell
low with long gray beard and hair, wear
ing blue overalls and wooden shirt. In
the winter of 1878 the snow fell deep and
closed the road between st. George-the
Mormon settlemet-and Phoebe, and
closed out the peddlers, and it was re.
membered afterward that the young fell
low didn't play much faro for while.
Along in March, as the Eureka stage was
coming in about twenty miles north Of
the town, the same old gray-headed fell.
low popped up out of the sagebrush, lev
eled gun at the driver and ordered a
halt. Eugene Blair, the bravest messen.
ger that Wells, Fargo s Co. ever had on
the road, swung sawed.of shotgun
around and let both barrels go before the
highwayman could pull trigger, and he
fell deader than nit, dozen buckshot
putting as many holes in him as sieve
and his own gun went off in the air as he
tumbled. Eugene jumped down, turned
him over, and pulled off his hat, ant
bless my soul if whiskers and hair didn'
come off with it, and there lay, withou
kick in him, the gentlemanly fart
player. They tumbled the body into tn
, stage and brought it into town, and o
course the thing made stir. dom
think ever saw man as badly broker
up as the Judge. He had got to likinI
the boy the same as if he was own son
= and he cried over the corpse like baby
OF course all the mystery was explained
{ The youngster used to disguise himsel
as an old man, 60 out and rob peddler
and come back and play faro with tn
spoils. When the snow shut this off h
tried a whack at higher game, and strucl
the wrong customer
"Well, that is pretty good fairy
tale," said the reporter, surprising tha
the story had come to finish.
"That is where you get off wrong,
continued the relator, ''for every word o
it is gospel truth, and the strangest par
is to come. The judge saw to it that tn
boy had decent burial, and took charg
, of what few effects he had. Among then
! he found bundle of letters from hi
mother, who was widow living in com
! Portable circumstances in Buffalo, and h
was her only boy. Every letter was full
! of entreaties begging him to come HON
and live with her, and offering to sem
him money if he needed it. The judg
: sat down and wrote her letter, tellin
| l.. III 49, hot