The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1890-08-15
IN THE GOLD COUNTRY.
AN OLD MINER TALKS OF THE EARLY
DAYS IN THE BLACK HILLS.
An Interesting Talk Over n Camp Fire.
Bueiskin Jacks Hunt for the Indian.

How wild Dan Brought I'm a Coach
Load of Dead Passengers.
AS was travelling through Colorado
and Montana on a trip for my health
struck the town OF Big Sandy, M- T.
The little city was all excitement over
the reported discovery of gold and silver
IN the Sweet Grass hills, distance of
sixty miles northwest of Big Sandy. and
the town was filled with prospectors of
all descriptions. from the old timer OF
49 to the youth fresh from the east in
search OF his fortune, all bound for the
new gold and silver fields
AS had plenty of time on my hands
and wanted little excitement, Joined
a prospecting party. We started for the
promised land the next day. and on the
second day out we were In sight Of the
East Buttes.. | rcde on In advance OF
the party. and as IL was getting dark
was looking for some shelter In which 10
pass the night. After riding haphazard
for nearly an hour l saw the welcome
light of prospectors' camp fire and rode
/ toward IT,
TRAILING A PEsEY INDIAN.
The camp proved to be q party OF
bluff, good natured miners, who had
been In this section and the Black Hills
for a number of years. In answer to my
inquiries as to securing place to put up
with them. one of them said:
"Wal, stranger, our Communications
are purity poor. but l reckon if you kin
stan it we kin"
After eating a supper of jerked beef.
hard tack and coffee the boys began to
tell stories of their experiences in the
days of the frontier. One of them, who
went by the uame of Buckskin Jack.
said:
wal, boys. this ere rush makes fel-
Ter think of the early days ef the Black
Hills. The Indians wur purity goll
burned mad and wur maxim il middlin
lively for the boys. Their wuz eight in
our party when we struck camp in
gulch in the west part of the Hills The
first night we thot II would be a purity
good plan TO set guard We drew cuts
ter see who would be 'iected, an OF
course wuz ther lucky man.
AS we wur not bothered that night
an had saw no signs of any of the pesky
Indians we did not set any guard the
next night We all turned In purity
early an as we wuz all purity tired wuz
soon asleep Bout l2 O'Clock. as near as
| could reckon. wuz walked By noise
as If some one wuz movin' bout ther
camp. | got up purity easy an took
look round At last thot seed some
| thin movin' | thot | wouldn't 'sturb
the boys until foun' out what the rack
! ct wuz An, takin' my rifle, walked
to'ards the place whur | seed the thing
movin. an as ther wuz only one
thot | would foller him an fine out whar
ther camp wuz, so that we could come
down on them an sterminate ther whole
/ outfit
"Wal, ter make long story short,
| follored ther pesky Indian, as thet. fur
bout an hour. an ! found myself in the
cinity of our camp again. an Ill be goll
burned If won't be kicked into the
middle of next summer if my Indian
didn't turn out to be one of our boys
who wuz a-walkin' in his sleep | wuz
purity mad, but sneaked inter my blan-
ket, an hev never sed a word bout il
until ter-night."
DAN DRIVES THE OLD sHEBANG.
"Wal, gass it WIZ purity good thing
that you didn't say anything bout il or
else you'd never heard the last of it,
said Wild Dan. 'but CESS I'll tell yer
"a lot of us boys came in from the
range ter blow oursers an paint the town
red. an gass we did it in fine style.
was paralyzed fur bout two days, an
when finly tumbled ter myself found
l wuz busted an didn't hev a penny an
that would hev ter go back on the
range fur six months, an wuz kickin
myself fur bein' such a chump. just
/ Al. r,I
ther Cheynne and Deadwood stage orfice
an joined ther crowd The stage wuz
drawn up before the orfice an the six
broncos were chawing ther bit an a
wantin' ter be off. The driver of the
stage he'd refused ter go. as ther road
agents an Inguns he'd stopped an robbed
every stage fur a week, an not q driver
ever turned up ter tell how it wuz done.
| Their stage agent wuz wild. AS ther
wuz the Wells-Fargo treasure box an six
passengers thet wanted ter go thro' to
Deadwood he offered $500 ter the man
that would drive the stage thro' to Dead
wood.
81 tho't ter myself, Dan, old boy,
here's your chance an stepped out
from ther crowd and sez, Say, mister.
| Wild Dams the man thet kin take yer
old shebang thro' ter Deadwood. With
that jumped inter the boot and yelled.
Get in here, you fellers thet's going
with me, an the agent an six fellers
jumped inter the coach. ! picked up
ther lines, cracked the whip an we wuz
off on our journey. Just as we started
some one hollered, Three cheers for
brave Dan. an they wuz given with a
i will
Things went all right until we struck
Deadman's Gulch, when out from be-
hind some trees twelve men jumped
with rifles pointed at us. an ordered me
ter halt.
"'Not by burned site,' sez l.
IAN / gave ther horses a cut with
ther whip. an pickin' up my repeating
rifle | opened up on them, an in less
time than it takes ter tell il six road
| agents he'd bit the dust. | he'd not been
hurt. but my hat he'd been shot off'n my
| he'd.
81 picked up my lines an tried ter
stop ther horses, but there wuz no stop
ter them, an they run until they pulled
up in front of ther orfice in Deadwood
They opened ther stage door, an ther
stage agent stepped out. an looked in
ter see If ther passengers wer safe. an
ther they wuz, every one of EN- dead
killed by the road agents bullets.
THE stage agent sez: Three cheers
for Dan, ther only man that's brot
stage thro fur week.
There's the idear,' seq /; If can't
bring 'em alive I'll bring 'em in dead. -
New York Herald
Insolence Rebuked.