Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-21
TALK OF THE TOWN.
Going West in the Old Days-Not a Very
Pleasant Growth With the Country-A
Pedagogue Tortured - Short Tales Of

Going West in the Old Days-Not a Very
Pleasant Growth with the Country-A
Pedagogue Tortured = Short Tales OF
the Day.
you talk about roughing it in the West
nowadays; why, it's all eider-down and
molasses compared to what 1t was twenty-five
years ago." said E. L. Barring, a Minnesota
farmer to me yesterday. "Just to illustrate
what mean let me tell you story, by no
means an extraordinary one, of life in Colo
rado in the sixties. A few years ago l was
in the Gunnison Valley, and man named
Richardson, who kept a drugstore there,
drove me one day to Mt. Carbon, where
wanted to see anthracite and btu
minous coal which, strange to say,
is found on opposite sides of the
same mountain. 1 notice6 Prof. Rich
ardson, as he was called, had neither
eyelashes nor eyebrows, which gave his face
most peculiar expression, and as delicately
as could finally got around to the cause
of this deformity. The story he told lasted
all through our drive of half n day.
Richardson: it appeared, left his farm in
W1scOnsin-Originally he had come from the
East-to try what the air of Colorado would
do for his wife, who was ailing, and arrived
IN Denver early in the sixties. He had very
poor luck in Denver, and his pile had
acquaintance, a ranch owner, told him he
was going to raise q company of cavalry and
fight for the old flag, and that if Richardson
liked ne could under certain easy conditions
run his ranch till he returned. Richardson
prospered for u year or 50 on the ranch, but
one day horseman galloped up to the door
shouting: The Indians are coming! Fly for
your liyesr Richardson lost no time, but
fled with his wife and child to Denver. The
Indians burned the house, and ran off all the
stock, and when Richardson returned with
posse day or two later he found nothing
but smoking embers.
A Terrible Journey.
"a SECOND time Richardson started in
again in Denver" continued Mr.. Barring,
''and with q little money he had saved from
the wreck of his ranching experience,
bought some oxen and went to freighting.
In the course of business he entered into
contract with the Government, through
commissariat officer in Denver, to
haul q quantity of flour from Denver
to the military station at Uncompoghre,
some 200 miles away, in Ouray county. After
he had signed the contract, obligating him
self for all he was worth to fulfill 1t, the
teamsters he hired refused to go with him.
He could induce nobody to take their places;
so he started alone in midwinter to make
the journey with twenty ox-teams. The ex-
tried him more savagely than all his life in
the West put together. After he started the
weather got colder and colder; the snow
drifts got deeper, and the luckless oxen were
continually stalling Finally starvation or
death from cold stared him in the face. and
in despair he took as much coffee, hard
tack and bacon as he could carry and left
the oxen behind. Twenty-Five miles he
walked, afraid to rest moment, lest he
should fall asleep. never to wake again, in
the snow.
Tried by Fire.
"THEN he happened upon a little cave
filled with brush where he thought it safe
to rest continued Mr.. Barring. "He kin
died fire to make some coffee, and as he
was about it he fell asleep, exhausted. He
awoke to find himself amid flames; the
brush had kindled from the fire; and his
clothes were on fire. His whiskers, eye
brows and eyelashes were all consumed be-.
fore he escaped. He was near Uncompoghre
by this time and he reached the post at last,
but with his feet frozen and delirous from
suffering. The fever that followed almost
killed him, and he lost all the nails of his
fingers and toes. When he had recovered he
exchanged the oxen, which the soldiers of
the post had found where he had left them,
for some Texan steers, and with them he
started back to Denver. The keen-scented
speedy Texan steers saved his life on this
journey. They gave him timely warning of
the approach of a party of Indians, so that
though fired at by the treacherous redskins
he escaped. He met an ambulance contain
ing an army officer and his wife and far
rier of, Of the regiment shortly aftsryard, and
thus avoid an Indian ambush. They
laughed at his advice, and were found, days
after, scalped and mutilated by the savages.
Richardson went on and arrived in Denver
without further adventure. His wife had
given him up for dead.
AFTER that the story of his life ran through
to-day dare Say people point to him and
say: You see that man-came out West an
grew up with the country-it's the only
way But it was hard way, you'll admit"
Too Faithful Imitation.
THE boys in a rural school in this county
got into the habit OF rushing into the room
in a boisterous, unseemly fashion, to the
great annoyance of the teacher, who was of
a highly nervous temperament. Finally one
morning when the boys had been exasper-
atingly noisy on their entrance the teacher
raped for silence and read them a lecture
on manners. To impress them the more he
offered to show them how a decent boy
should conc into school, and walked from
the door to his desk in slow, solemn style as
q sample. This would have had better
effect had not the teacner mad club-foOt,
which he dragged after him with consider
able awkwardness. But still nobody laughed
when the teacher concluded by desiring
them to enter school as he had the next
day.
The boys were unusually punctual next
not one was late. They gathered
before the school door, and after the teacher
had entered, went in in body. The first
boy was the most unruly boy in school, the
leader in all mischief. The others followed
in single file, and in this order they marched
around the room, every boy dragging his
left foot exactly as theipedagogue was won't
to do. The imitation was too faithful. The
object of it decided it was not fiattery.