The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-05-04
BIO SANDY. THE TERROR.
The Giant Outlaw King Of the shasta
Foothills.

al Shasta, 20 years ago, says the New
York Press. He was the dominant force
in a region las large In extent ms the state
Of Delaware, and he has left a name be-
hind him to which stories cling and about
which q host of wild frontier myths have
grown.
The first time ! ever saw Big Sandy was
when i was teaching school in log cabin
on the Saltwater. One noon there was n
sudden furry and excitement among the
school children scattered about under the
pines and oaks. They dove out of sight
as II a grizzly bear had charged them.
and ran in every direction, some OF them
screaming with terror and Others crying
out:
Here comes Big Sandy, git into the
bushes Quick!'
In a moment not a single boy Oh girl
was to be seen, and ! walked out on the
slope of the ridge to discover the mean
ing Of the excitement.
Big Sandy, the "Terror of Cow Creek"
was on horseback, riding slowly over the
unfenced hills that bordered the shot
toms,' and he turned into a bride path
leading past the school house. He looked
at the children hurrying away, n per-
maps heard their cries, but his face was
perfectly exprcssionless. As he rode up
stood under a pine by the school house
door; he stopped his horse and we looked
at each other for q minute.
At first sight there was nothing danger
Gus about Big Sandy. He vas n man of
immense size, but Of quiet and almost
sleepy demeanor. His head was round,
his chest very deep and solid, his whole
body in fact like nothing else so much as
the trunk ofa huge oak, SO round, solid
and strong 1t seemed. Any one who has
read Lorna Doone," and has heedfully
considered the physique Of John Rid,
the wrestler m fighter, can be said to be
nrana rod tn realize the muscular hniId nf
Big Sandy. When I first saw him APP
preaching across the hollows of the
hill and through the pines i
thought he was q man OF medium
ON a pony. When he rode up close
10 me I saw that the animal he rode was
really N OF great size n strength;
j saw then was a huge, red-bearded
John Ridd, mounted on a square-shoul-
dered Percheron or Norman saddle horse;
hut his look was not the look of the kindly
hero of Lorna boone - no man could
help feeling nervous under il, for il
seemed to say: II am the fellow that runs
this region whenever / take a notion" He
wore an old army cloak. but neither coat
nor vest underneath. In a leather belt
about his waist were a pair OF revolvers
and "a huge bowie.
One would suppose that something es-
under the pine in front of my school
house. But his remark, in a slow and
deep-chest voice, was:
"Thcm's skittish children. Reckon
they know who i be-"
He lifted his eyes and took i'm the scene
the open door, the blackboard beyond,
h~alf-covered with diagrams and figures.
the lunch pals, and the soft murmur OF
children's voices in the grassy openings
Of the manzanita thickets.
"Teachin' are We? Big contract in this
neighborhood. Whar do ye board?"
John Blunt's, up on Clover Branch"
"Yaas, / knowed Blunt onct. S'pose We
tell Blunt we seen me. Them's Blunt's
gals that run off first when l rode up.
was goin' down to call on Blunt on a
matter between us, but I'll let him of
this time, you tell him."
Big Sandy laid his immense hairy fist
on the saddle, and smiled a grim smile.
Every motion was that of a man who had
never met his physical equal. Blunt, too.
was a giant among men, a tall, sinewy
hackwoodsman, accustomed to swing the
frontiersman's AK all day in the pineries.
but he would nav had little chanc i'm a
wrestle with Big Sandy.
The outlaws glance fell upon, an In.
dian bow and arrows which ] had bought
some days before, and which the older
boys after practicing archery awhile had
left on the doorstep. To my surprise he
asked for the bow, examined il carefully,
and at once proceeded to talk very intel.
ligently and Interestingly OF the difference
between the arrows OF the various north
California Indians.
He put his hand in his pocket, pulled
out several Indian arrow heads and gave
them to me, saying that he had found
them on the hillsides. Riding up to the
door. he looked about the schoolroom.
.'Big Sandy, as they call me, never went
TO school a day in his iife,"' he remarked
Afternoon, teacher" and SO rode slowl,
down the creek, and at the forks tool the
road to Bald gulch, leaving the branch Il
Blunt's far to the right. ] rang the bel
and called the children in from theil
incoming.
Though I had never happened to hear
Of Big Sandy before, ] soon discovered
what n terror the red-bearded mountains
Ger spread near and far when he rode
forth with such n calm and confident ali
through villages and scattered camps ,ant
past settlers lonely cabins. IL was said
though such stories are never capable o
legal proof, that a secret band OF noun
taineers were engaged in horse stealth,
and robbery on a large scale over severa
counties and thai the real headquarters
Of the band were in a great log house oil
a promontory of rock overlooking the up
per valley Of North Cow creek. a %tributar.
Of the Sacramento. Here Big Sandy an,
his brother, with their servants, associ
ates and hangers-on terrorized the who'll
region.
II was also whispered from cabi &c
cabin. and told by men and women owe
the great oak fires, when the childrei
tory contained many dark pages; that Ia
had beer n slave driver in the palmy day
Of his business. and had a bad reputation
ever among slave drivers. Early. in th
fifties, il was said, he came to this stat
from a Louisiana sugar plantation, an
after narrowly escaping lynching in
mining camp settled down on Cow creek
Big Sandy, burly. stolid. clumsy. BRAY
as Old Hereward's 'Cornish GIANT rod
lonely and self-contained as n grizzl
bear, wherever he pleased with an arscna
Of guns, pistols and knives on his awe
inspiring person. Many a time after ou
first meeting ] nave seen him reign hi
horse before the chief saloon in the mour
tain town that he most frequented an
stride in to take a drink with the crowt
But, though all his motions seemed SLOT