Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-02

white snow. And if the ''savor thereof
was not "sweet to the nostrils of the gods"
it certainly was pleasant to the wolves.
These gaunt and CHASTITY creatures had al
ready formed a circle, a slowly mar
rowing circle of white teeth, but
the smell of roast beef and burning
hides was too potent an attraction for them
to abandon and we soon had the infinite
satisfaction of leaving the greater part of
these shaggy and sharp-toothed creatures
sitting in solemn circle around the edge of
our deserted camp, their noses and long
necks reaching forward. All night and all
next day that weary and worn line of men
struggled on in sullen silence toward the
summit of the high bald mountain from
which the great valley with its grasses and
its gorgeous flowers could be seen. Sleds,
horses, men and most important of all even
guns and ammunition lay along that line of
march almost from one end to the other.
The men were too weak and worn to fight or
even quarrel among themselves any more.
And that is saying they were pretty weak.
A warm south wind had been soughing
through the towering pines almost from the
moment we set out from the camp Of wolves.
This singular bit of good fortune saved US,
or at least many of us, from being literally
eaten alive. For the warm winds and the
melting SHOWS drove the wolves back toward
their haunts in the high Sierras, or at least
kept them from crowding us too closely.
And now we were beset by a singular bird,
the garulous magpie. This gaudy bird of
gray and black and white and parti-colored
plumage had been increasing in numbers
from the day we first began this march
through the Sierras. And now with the
warm weather they were in clouds. From
the first this noisy and insolent bird had sat
on the backs of our pack-animals, where
their backs were sore, ana literally eaten
them alive. And now they had grown so
audacious that they would perch on even
the best of our animals and pick at their
eyes. We had to blanket and blindfold our
saddle horses to keep them from being de-
voured alive by these magpies! 1 have
mentioned the fact that the winter had been
one of incredible severity, and this may ac-
count in some sort for this plague of birds,
as well as wolves. 1t took us many days to.
'tpull ourselves together" on the summit of
that high bald mountain with the green sea
of grass rolling in billows at its base.
But how glorious was this glad face of
nature, after the long and continued and
most miserable and inglorious contact with
the face of man Never shall l forget those
for any flowers; the perfume of them that
came up to us in the snow from their frank
and open hearts. There was fringe of yel-
low on the outer line of the great green
valley. Buttercups Millions and myriad
of millions of golden buttercupsl And the
Cali ,ornia poppy! Away out in the heart
of the valley, where the two rivers surging
full from the melting SHOWS gathered their
waters from the lakes that almost environed
the valley, lay miles and miles of snow
white hyacinths. This wild hyacinth is odor-
less here, but it is perfect in its
beauty. In the heart of this wild white sea
of sudden-born blossoms slowly rose the
smoke of many wigwams. The Indians had
gathered their forces and taken up their de-
fense on one of the many islands. This was
to be our battlefield. The plan of campaign
formed itself almost instantly in my mind,
and that feature of the work before me was
dismissed. 1 did not like to think of that.
had had enough of strife, of hard and hor-
rible enmity with man. I wanted the
flowers now. wanted peace, rest But
above all, 1 wanted to once more see the
sad, sweet face of that silent captive who
had been brought to me in my own camp
only the year before. If could only find
her, only once see her face, it seemed to me
that the hard campaign with these coarse
and brutal men could be forever remembered
as golden day.
From my journal, kept regularly all this
time, but mostly in the Indian sign as that
was briefer, read that 'on the first new
moon OF the third month we were camped on
snow IL feet deep, with flowers only tour
miles distant" read further that ION the
third day of the new moon we had four
fights over my election as captain" Captain
Rodgers being deposed by the popular vote
because he wore, or rather had worn, a
white shirt How that I, boy, sensitive,
shy, frail and slender as a girl, was in full
of This rniserah1 snuad nf human
ity, with pickpockets and jailbirds in the
indeed, to these owed my
election set to work at once to descend |
through the fast melting snow and open an
war even before the arrival of re-
Inducements from the South
By this time Rodgers, the deposed cap |
tain, whoistill wore the fading glories OF the |
offensive White shirt, and / had become as
brothers. Itold him of the war that y