The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-05-18
SOME TRAIN TALK.
Good Stories Told by a Level
Headed Westerner.
CHICAGO DIVORCE CASE
The Painful Marital Experiences Of the
Wealthy Leslie Carter-Huggins East
and West-He was Excused.

Reading about the recent admission Of those
fs7r new western states brings back to my
remembrance wildly something which at the
time amused me as a lively Illustration sof
western independence from the trammels Of
''the effete civilization Of the east" In 1873,
on my way to Sen Francisco, stopped for a
fortnight in Ogden, Utah territory, and there
made the acquaintance Of a man who had
'hustled around" in the territories for num-
-Ac Of years before that time He was
quiet, serious sort of chap, with a monoto-
nous, low toned voice. and never seemed to
be excited by anything, or even to regard as
strange anything that he had ever known of
or that had happened to him. One day he
drifted into narration Of his experiences as
driver of a stage coach, and from that into
the story of his service as an express agent ON
the stage route up to Helena, Montana. The
unvarying monotony Of his tones made me
feel drowsy, and l just succeeded in keeping
sufficiently awake to understand the drift OF
his story and throw in an occasional exclama-
ton or query to encourage him TO keep on
and save me the effort of conversation. In
this way we got along nicely together
until he was far advanced in
yarn about taking two live game cocks
up to Helena. With a steady, slow but sure
sort of glacial movement Of facts he told
what a blank of a time he had had in getting
those game cocks through alive. 1t was in
the winter, so intensely cold that the crates
containing the birds had to be bundled up
in blankets and buffalo robes 10 keep the
fowls from freezing to death, and the fear
that they would smother under all that wrap
ping made his mind tired. Then, each time
that the coach was overturned in deep snow
l-.sfA L e %nn nNnl-5 hnA
smashed in the general tumble or had had
anything broken about them, and he never
mas sure but what, while he was making
those examinations, some OF their toes might
have been frozen so stiff as to break off like
icicles subsequently, 1t cost $500, he said, to
get those two chickens through to Helena.
Wondering little that anybody should have
been willing to pay such price for the com
pany of fowls, and partly to keep him going,
as he seemed to have reached the end of his
story, lazily asked him:
well, what did they do with the birds
when they got TO Helena?"
"a church, he replied, twas having fair
there at the time and they fit 'cm for the
benefit of the church"
That, he assured me, was what they had
been bought for and brought all that way at
such great expense, and it proved to be the
principal and most profitable feature of the
fair.
AN INDIAN STORY.
Talking with that man about the strained
relations between the Indians and the white
men in Montana l heard him give utterance
to a deliberately formed opinion that seemed
to me then, and does now, wise enough to
merit official and popular consideration
among those who have TO deal with the red
skins.
Gan Indian, said he, sis good deal like 6
hiSl spirited, sensitive dog. Treat him wei
aid he'll most likely be a good friend, but
devil him until you get a sense of injury into
his mind and he becomes savage, liable to eat
anybody he can get at. The last time was
on a coach up in that country was coming
down from the Sawtooth range There was
a tenderfoot inside-a chap from the east,
speculatin' around-who had a Winchester
with him. As we were going slowly up a
long, steep incline, that fellow sighted an
Indian good little ways off in the bushes.
He didn't know whether it was friend or foe,
or even buck or squaw. All he saw was an
Indian. wrapped in a blanket, and he
cold bloodedly ups and fires, and kills that
Indian. Of course know'd nothing of what
was going on until heard the crack Of the
rife, being busy with my horses. But a:
soon as l found out knew what the conse
quences would be. 1t was an unprovoked
deliberate murder, and, as 1t turned out, IL
was squaw he had killed told the fellow
what thought of it, and was mad enough tc
,,SEhip him if he'd have stood up like a man.
ZAn ne had to say for himself was that be
didn't think he'd hit her while moving along
at that distance, and, besides, he'd often
heard that the only good Indian is dead
Indian When we got to the end Of the
route laid down the lines and told 'em &c
tut somebody on the box that wanted the
Dob don't suppose I'm more cowardly thar
most other men, but I didn't see any cali fol
me to be mixed up with the proceedings like
ly to ensue. And it turned out that had {
level head. The tribe that sGuaw belonge:
to had befor" been peaceable, but they wer'
Lound to get even. The next stage load that
went over that route was massacre i, driver
and all, and the horses Threats were cut"
J. II. Connolly.