The Arizona sentinel. [volume] (Arizona City [Yuma], Yuma County, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1872-1911, 1890-02-08
LONG-HAIRED SAM.
Sketches of Life in Nevada in the
Sixties.
Doing Up Cowardly Desperate with a
Double-Barreled Shotgun-It Wasn't
Just Fair, But 1t Was
His Deserts.

Just Fair, But 1t Was
His Deserts.
Sam Brown, or "Long-Haired Sam,
during the summer of 1859, the first year
of the ''Washoe' excitement, rode over
the mountains from Mariposa to Carson
City. Where he hailed from originally
or what were his antecedents nobody
knew or cared. His sole companion was
the animal he rode-a gray mare, fleet
and powerful, which he called Betsy. 1t
was the opinion of nearly every body
that Brown had not a spark of affection
for any living thing except this pet
horse. / am not so sure of this; but at
any rate, in the winter of 1S59-6O, when
neither hay nor grain could be had in
Virginia City at any price, he bought
crackers for the mare at dollar pound
and fed them to her without stint. He
was, nevertheless, quarrelsome, over
bearing, bloodthirsty brute in heart,
and by repeated killings a murderer.
On the whole he was a coward, though
on one occasion, when every body else
was panic-stricken, he was cool and dis
played genuine ''grit"
He wore an Indian-made buckskin
coat with double fringes around the
bottom ard car~ied . icr~ rife or his
sa53lo-how and two large rev0lvers and
q knife stuck in his belt. When YOU
add to this striking equipment lUXu-
RANT growth of fiery Whiskers and long,
taEnv hair hanging loosely over his
necE and shoulders. like strands OF
1sded Taru- Tou get some idea of Sans
personnel OF course. he had a bad
eye.
He made his first stop at Genoa and
spent a week or ten days among the
short-card fraternity of that place, at
the end of which time he had made him
self so obnoxious that there was not
gambler who could be induced to play
with him. He went away to Carson,
where he had not tarried long before he
shot and killed an Italian over a game
of cards. The, murdered man, Belboa,
might have been somebody's darling
over in Italy, but in Carson City no one
loved or cared for him, and his slayer
got off without even an examination.
After this killing Brown went up to
Virginia, New, and spent the winter
disreputably.
1t was long, hard winter, and as
soon as the spring opened the Piutes be-
gan raiding the outside settlements of
Carson valley, numbering men, burning
stage stations and running off stock.
After they had reduced Williams sta
tion to ashes and killed the five white
men there Major Ormsby called for
20 Hlcgare .r go with GLlr and E-IH =
Ind -us al Pyramid 'a'za. Among the
one hundred and sl1 mga- "-a who
responded TO his CaIt-a ha. .=aHeous
rlass Of pioneer humanity mo ono
looked more fa-uItah r- ..ltar able
-r cope with savs-.s .. .r--EairaG
-a Those who had not been able TO
see any thing DuJ unmIAeu Jew AZ UI.s
desrerado denied that he knew the
meaning of the word ''friend," but he
must have had ''sort of liking for
John L. Blackburn, who was Captain of
his company and sheriff of Carson Coun-
t Whe- - Tgl' rathc lle
slaughter. began, Bl1Ea ~a- .v Cap
.-n Blackburn side. an tho first
-1ny of the volunteers fell
a- .a- hands Of the indians
.--rE -r5m the rocks
.ore lsa. and The ccst were thrown
INTO the widest confusion. 0rmsby
knew nothing OF Indian hghting; mis-
men had no leader, and they stampeded
as hopelessly as cattle in a corral. In
their miserable efforts to escape from
the canyon into which they had been
enticed they were nearly all shot from
their horses or dragged to the ground
and butchered. Blackburn's horse had
been shot from under him, and he was
left in the struggling mass afoOt and
helpless. 'Brown," he said, ''for Gods
sake catch one of those loose horses for
mel" Riderless steeds were plunging
about wildly in all directions. ''No
time for horse hunting now," answered
Brown, ''we must trust to Betsy"
Quickly stripping her of his heavy Mex
ican saddle and roll of blankets and
breaking the stock of his rifle before
casting it away, he leaped upon
the mares bare back and
blackburn got up behind him.
They galloped of, pursued by mob of
yelling redskins but their ponies were
no match for Betsy, handicapped though
she was, and she bore her two riders, at
least $50 pounds, from the Truckee to
the Carson river, and thence across the
twenty-six-mile desert to Miller's sta
ton in safety.
When the second body of volunteers
marched to the Truckee under Colonel
Jack Hays big Sam Brown and Betsy
were with them and helped to punish
the savages on the same ground where
Major Ormsby and his followers had
been butchered. The Hays expedition
settled the Piute business for the time,
and when the volunteers were disbanded
Brown returned to his old haunts to
drink, gamble and bluster, In Virginia,