The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1889-10-04

U@0"O-0@ o -0 eA
the direction Of the echo, we soon
reached the land aud 'coasted' home.
The boatmen expressed great surprise
that they had been on the river all
their lives, and had never thought of
80 simple and easy o plan to find the
shore when lost in q fog. During. o
fog the air is SO saturated with moisture
that it is q much better conductor of
sound than when dry. Two results
follow-irst, sound travels faster, aud
hence the echo returns more speedily;
and, second, the sound is heard moro
distinctly. Remembering these two
facts, a person with q little practice can
soon determine the approximate dis
lance to tue nearest land or woods"
EARLY WESTERN JOURNAAIsM.
When Mr.. William N. Byers, tho
Colorado pioneer of journalism, first
started to print the Rocky Mountain
Netcs he had q pretty tough time of il,
and experiences lively enough to suit a
Ute Indian agent.
News was plentiful enough. and it was
not generally supposed that tho press
would make any editorial attacks upon
the citizens of Auraria, as Denver was
then called; so IL day when Dyer,
found fault cditorially with tl:e killing
of q Mexican by Charles Harris, a gam
bier, the ~latter's friends, fully armed,
gathered about and made an attack
upon the log house occupied by the
News. The editor and his reporters
and typesetters were SO surprised a.
the suddenness of the attack tllat they
did not have time to make any resist
ance.
Editor Byers was taken a captive to
Harrison's saloon, caliedthe "Criterion."
The crowd wanted to kill him on the
spot. and knives and pistols were flour
ished in his face. Harrison had once
been a Mason, and knew that Byers was
a member of the fraternity, SO under the
pretence of taking him into a side room
to talk, he got him out of the place alto
gether.
Byers was plucky enough, for lie ran
for his office and, arming oil hands, laid
low for the enemy, who came fast
enough, and q lively combat took place
and IL man was killed.
1t was just about this time that the
Hon. Joseph Wolff, of Boulder, Col,
who was q good printer and a handy
man about an Office. arrived in town
from Omaha UiG IL freight train.
He was dead broke, and he made ct
once for the Ners Office and asked for.
the boss. Byers, seated OH a barrel,
was pointed out to him.
want any hands?" asked Joe, lean
ing against the door.
"That depends" said Byels, without
looking up.
Depends on what?"
"Can you shoot?"
"You bet"
will you?"
sOf course"
@Well, them" said the editor, getting
off the barrel, "here's a rifle and there's
a case-go to work"
"Whatll I do FIRST" asked Wolff;
kill somebody or throw in a case?'
Byers went to the window, leaned
we'll out, looked up and down carefully,
and then turning back said:
II guess you'll have time to throw in
a handful"
just about this time the office was in
a state of seige and to write and print
what Byers wrote and printed at that
time required an amount of moral cour-
age, or what is more commonly called
nerve than is possessed by the journal
lists of the present day.
Many threats were made and more
than one combat took place, but the
editor came out ahead, and always
stuck to the paragraph in his salutatory
which read: "Our course is marked
out. We will adhere to it with stead
fast and fixed determination to speak,
write and publish the truth, and nothing
but the truth, let it work us veal or
wOe."-EEcLanOe.