St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-05-19
ROUGHING 1T.
Camp Life of the Early Pioneers
of ST. Paul.

Many ludicrous incidents occurred
while thus roughing it, but one must
suffice. After supper one night all re-
tired to rest but myself and faithful
watchdog. Standing before the fire, l
heard the heavy tramp of what l sup
posed was a COW OF cali coming near,
and looking across the fire in a westerly
direction a pair of eyes CLEANED across
the flames, and the dog began to groWl.
Hastily graSped my gun standing near,
came to ready and started the dog out
TO drive the intruder away, which he did
in this way: With loud growl and
bark he rushed to do my bidding. Sud-
denly his bark changed to whine, and
he came back bowling, and running
with such force between my legs that
myself and the gun came down with
fearful crash, the gun being
discharged while falling, and the boys
jumped to their feet in dreadful alarm.
of course explanations followed, but
alarm took possession of all; no more
sleep that night. not knowing what ami
NAL it was prowling around, or how
many of them. However, daylight
brought relief, and on examining the
tracks of the animal, it proved to be
that of wild bear of considerable size
who was the intruder and caused so
much trouble and fear. There is but
little doubt but the discharge of my gun
in the way described was the means of
driving MI Bear off, and my dog should
have some of the credit in causing its
discharge and the retreat of our unwel-
come visitor. My acquaintance with
Henry McKenty soon ripened into
friendship which continued I'M
broken up to the date of his
and In, ch
were engaged i'll the business of
itinerant land iObbers in st. Paul. A
small frame office on Third street, be-
tween Cedar and Robert. was the rem
devious, from whence each of us could
be seen emerging daily with a town
plat under his arm, plying our business
on the public streets, selling town lots
to eager purchasers which were to
make them millionaires, or at least we
told them SO. Our business thrived so
fast that rivals sprang up, prominent
among whom were Charles Rice, Will
lam S. Combs, DR.. Kinney, Wilbur M.
HeyWards, William II. Shelley and
others.
About this time, while carrying on
the real estate business as before de-
scribed, | met my friend George Ris-
dOrf. of apple notOriety, who Informed
me that he had sold or traded the ap-
pies to the Indians for cranberries.
out of which he had' taken his
pay, and the balance were
left at RandalPs warehouse on the
lower levee, where | Immediately went,
instructing them to ship below for cash.
The result was that they realized, after
all charges were paid, just about what
the original cost was of the sixty bar
rels. Ii is only sufficient to say that l
never traded in apples afterwards.
My itinerant land-jobbing business
brought me in contact with many of the
old pioneers, among whom remember
Judge Aaron Goodrich, territorial judge,
learned in the law, Biblical scholar,
sarcastic and witty, who was known to
leave the bench while case was being
tried before him. walk the floor of the
court room, and eat apples for pas
time. He boarded at the Merchants
hotel "a different structure from the
+. present one), and while at dinner one