Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-07-25

CAMPFIRE sToRIEs-No. /.
Written by DR.. II. Latham for the RECoI
IlNrnN !

Our little mining camp had settled down
TO an unbearable state of dullness. It
wasn't much ike its early:and palmy times.
Then we used to have a shooting match
and hanging bee every day. How the boys
did mourn over the fallen condition OF
affairs. They called 70 mind the glory Of
the time when Brocky Jack y struck the
stage line, and held up the express and
passengers every day for q month; when
/" Bitter Creek Joe" jumped on 10 the bar
in the Damfno - saloon, and proclaimed
that he was the blooming terror Of the
plains" and invited them =" to waltz 10
him which they did In two minutes he
was as full of holes as the nozzle Of Il
garden hose. They used TO dwell and
fondly hnger over the story Of the two
cowboys, who, filled up with chain-lght-
ming whisky, rode up the main street, pro-
claiming that they were tiger cats from
Texas" and wanted Us mountain snipe :"
to climb them, and then they opened fire
on everything in sight. The town accepted
the challenge and waded i'll.
It was rafting hot and sounded like old
times on the skirmish line during the war.
The COWBOYS were dead SHOTS and brought
q man every time. It looked for while
as though they would get away with the
whole camp, but they both got their dose
at last. II was costly job, though, as
when We laid the victims in a row, and
corrected the census returns, we We're
thirteen men short besides the wounded.
L got so duh that rOugh-and-tumbl fight
would be talked of for three days, and when
q silver tip" bear chcwed old Blaze too
fine to have q funeral over him il was
called q great thing. The old-timers were
completely discouraged and disgusted. They
wanted TO get away, but didn't know where
to 90 TO.
Just at this time Buck and Brownie, -
two old, grizzled prospectors, who had pros
pected every gulCh and canyon from Mon
tana to Arizona, came in from TWO
months prospecting tour up in the main
range They hadn't found anything worth
speaking about, they 'reckoned, y and they
didn't seem inclined to talk much about
the country That was suspicious in itself,
but when they were seen to go into old
Richardson's one-horse assay Office. then
everybody felt sure they had struck 1t rich.
1t didn't take long 10 rope Brownie into
the Damfino saloon and fill him up with
"tangle foot" and then he let the whole
story out, and showed up some specimens
that set the whole camp wild. Everybody
was ready to 90. Lawyers left Court,
Judges the bench, doctors their patients
and merchants their counters. Every old
horse, mule and wagon found ready
sale at four times their value. Those who
couldn't get q way to ride started out on foot.
Like politics, such excitements make
strange bed-fell0ws. There is no stopping
to chose cOngenial companions when gold
in solid chunks is waiting for the first
conner. II is touch and take then.
Our crowd was Il motley one. We had
two merchants one Il dealer IN mixed and
straight goods wholesale and retail; that
IS be sold by the single drink or bottle.
The other was an ivory merchant. l don't
mean that he had been to Africa buying
elephant tusks, but he sold ivory all the
same. Some people might have irTever-
entity called him faro deale~, but he
was handy with his gun, ard had sent sew
eral of the boys over the range so !
always spoke OF him to his face as an ivory
merchant. There was Judge, who had
never been q Judge of anything but good
whisky, and he was always full Of that
and Latin quotations.
The hunter of the party was Cherokee
Bob, from Arkansaw, be Gaud sar.' ,,He
had followed the game trail 10 the Rocky
mountains from his native wilds where he
wore q coon-skin cap and carried q rifle rs
long as a telegraph pole. In an interview
with q "silver-tip bar he had lost three
fingers of his left hand. He had cOolly let
the beast chew one hand while he killed
her with long hunting knife in the other.
lie was the boss hunter, and never came
into camp without pack load Of venison,
mountain sheep, or other game.
Texas Mat was atypical COWBOY, a droll,
dry genius-generally dron and always
dry He was an artist il camp, and could
build bigger fire and cook better meal
than any man in the mountains. Then
there was the doctor, who had seen service
through the war with the South and on
the plains for years.
The trail which We followed led
through the North Park, one Of the great
intra-mountain basins, across the Snowy
range, down its western slope, into the val
lev Of the Colorado of the West and
along its eastern border for two hundred
miles. The earth was clothed in her most
beautiful garments Of green, relieved by
the hues of a brilliant and varied fora.
Above us was the great pine belt of forests,
and still above that the line Of perpetual
SHOWS Below US were green slopes OF lux
uriant bunch grass. Further down, the
broad current of the Green river, the great
feeder Of the Colorado, divided the valley,
looking in the golden sunlight like a rib
bon Of silver Beyond We're the blue out
lines Of the Uintah and Nahsatch ranges.
After q days toll along the rough trail,
interspersed with the excitements OF break
downs, crossing swift streams, hunting elk,
antelope deer, mountain sheep, and being
hunted by the famous silvertip and CHINA
mon bears, the camp, under the shelterng
arms Of grove OF gigantic evergreen trees,
with its bright fire of pitch pine, that light
cd up the valley, and mountain side, was a
welcome place This night, on which my
little story runs, the tired animals had
been turned out on the rich bunch grass.
We had eaten q supper Of venison, PIN
tailed grouse, and mountain trout; great
logs of pitch pine and oak had been piled
on the fire and the whole party reclined
around it on robes and blankets, smoking
the fragrant kinnikinic.
Texas Mat" said The Ute country IS
down below here, and we'll have to keep
our ewes peeled now, if we want to save our
hair. l think | saw an old trail of theirs
to-day. The Government is teaching them
agriculture but ! don't believe they can
make EN- raise anything but hair and
hell"
a. had a pardner' who was scalped, and
it didn't hurt him much, said Cherokee
Bob"
"Oh, let up Q little, said the Judge and
the merchants.
" Its fact" said Bob The man IS
about somewhere now, and just as good as
ever he was. Then there was the conductor
that was scalped down at Sidney, and is
running a train yet. Why the doctor here
took care Of him. He can tell you all
about it
All hands wanted TO know how it was
50, in answer to their appeal, the doctor
told the following story of
" The Scalped Conductor"
1t was when the Union Pacific Railroad
had reached Cheyenne. The Northern
Sioux had been at war for years. Red
Cloud had fought the troops all over the
upper country, and massacred Carrington's
soldiers, near Fort Phil. Kearney, where
the gallant Fetterman, Brown, Grummond
and ninetv-four others lost their lives
not one Of the party escaping to tell the
blond1y story