Omaha daily bee., 1890-11-10
A WESTERN GAMBLER.

j
drew near, two strange spectacles might
have been seen upon different points OF
those plains OF Utah which then pre-
sented so melancholy, drear and desert
like an appearance. The advance of the
western line was being made by great
body OF Chinese. There were some ten
thousand Of them, and they were so well
drilled that their work of laying the
rails upon the previously graded road
bed went forward with the precision and
automatic promptness Of machine.
They had worked on the Central Pacific
from the extreme slope of the Sierras,
and after the tremendous engineering
and construction difficulties of the noun
tain section, railroad building on the
level bottom of the Salt Lake valley
seemed mere child's play to them.
Toward the last, when both companies
were straining every nerve to see which
should reach Promontory Point first, the
Central Pacific force actually laid ten
miles of rails in one day--a feat UNI
precedented then, and, 50 far as my in
formation serves, still unsurpassed.
There was u considerable number OF
white men on this side also but they
were skilled worllmen, foremen, bridge
builders. etc.
Strict discipline was maintained in
the Central Pacific construction cam ps,
and the more easily. since permission to
open peripatetic drinking booths was
steadily refused 10 all applicants. A
different condition of things existed on
the Union Pacific. AS that read advanced
beyond the settlements on its way west
ward its construction camps attracted
some of the most lawess and desperate
men of those who habituaAy hang upon
the selvages of civilization. There were
gamblers, rumsellers, thieves, bullies,
murdcrers and ruffians of every kind;
and they were absolutely unrestrained.
The chief attraction to this mercenary
crowd was the wages of the railroad
hands, and every payday was the occa-
fighting. more or less promlscuous, and
usually several murders. Justice, how
ever, made no attempt to control or ad-
minister the laws upon these evil birds
of passage; and as they generally killed
one another during their mad outbreaks,
perhaps it was thought iudicious to let
them save the territory expense in this
way.
In passing through the settled regions
the men employed on the construction
of the Union Pacific had given n good
deal of trouble, being pretty tough lot,
Independent of the influences exerted by
the following of criminals and outlaws
just spoken of. 1t was the practice of
these birds of prey to put up little towns
of tents at convenient points, and then
open saloons and gambling -hells. These
ambulatory villages never remained
| long in one place, but followed the con-
struction parties as closely as possible.
AS the Utah valley was traversed,
| the influx of desperadoes swelled,
and, short time before the union of
| the two lines ut Promontory, the at
mosphere of tho last of the gambling
| and drinking camps became'so prefer
| naturally sultry that even the veterans
| began to feel nervous. The place had
| received the suggestive and significant
name of Kill-Me-Quick," and the title
! was justified 1t was Il rare event for
ouity without bringing into view three
! or four stiff forms stretched on the
| scrubby sage brush about the tents. No
inquiry was ever made as to how they
| met their death, nor was it thought
| worth while to give them decent burial.
| The most that was done was to hire
some particularly out-of-elbows hanger
| on to drag the bodies out into the open,
and there they were left to the disposal
of the coyotes. No mans life at kill
| Me Quick" was ever worth two min
/ utes' purchase for not only were pistols
drawn at all hours of the day and night,
but the thinness of the tents in which
| every one lived invited stray bullets,
which frequently found 'unintended bill
lets. There were few women in the
| place, and these were of the most des-
| perate and abandoned kind: even quick
er than the men with the pistol and
knife, and reckless in all ways bevond
| conception.
Things were in this state at the
"frontn of the Union Pacific, when, in
the spring of 1869, the writer of this
sketch went from San Francisco to the
| place of junction in Utah, to witness the
laying of the last rail. Arriving some
days before the ceremony, he was obliged
to make many odd shifts to get to the
| foremost construction camp; and one
day he found himself thrown into
strange company, the only other passen-
ger on the car being "a rough and de-
termined looking man, who had with
him two singularly heavy valises. The
stranger was sociably inclined, and con-
descended to enter into conversation
with the young man, who, on his part,
welcomed the opportunity to study
new species. In a few minutes.
the man of the two valises had stated
that his name was Bill Dresser: that he
was gambler ''by profession" and that
he was on his way to rig up" some
thing, over the thought of which he
chuckled several times. Now it must be
said that Mr.. William Dresser was not
at all like the western gambler de
scribed by Bret Harte. He was not
smooth and polished and cold, with the
manners of an exquisite and the eye o1
a rattlesnake. He did not wear broad
cloth and fine linen. He exhibited nc
diamonds, his hands were not smooth
and white, and nobody could by any pos
sibility have mistaken him for gentle
man. He was red-faced, rough-sltinned
with scrubby beard, wore a coarse and
shabby suit of clothes, and a rusty soft
hat; displayed no jewelry whatever, but
was evidently we'll 'heeled," that is tc
say, he carried two big navy revolvers
at his belt and knife in one his boots
For man who, according to his own ac
count, had killed several of his fellow
creatures without the least compunction
or remorse, he did not appear formid
able. Thousands of honest farmers
wear no more innocent expression anG
are no more frank and affable in man
ner. Perhaps it was the fact that there
was nobody for him to talk to but me
that loosened his tongue. Perhaps il