The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-05-12

miners stove and few battered cook
ing utensils. had some thought at thu
time of camping for the night on thu
Bar, but this desolate cabin and its asso
Citations of former days, contrasted will
the loneliness and sohtude.of the present
proved too much for me. I feared thu
possible ghost of the dead librarian, anc
left for populated camp Poor fellow
While living dyspepsia and he were il
close embrace. A long course of com
bined reading and eating ruined his di
gestion. One thing at time; what Z
man does he wants to do.with all hi:
might.
Eggs in the early days were grea;
luxuries. Eggs then filed the place OF
oysters. A dish of ham and eggs was
one of the brilliant anticip atoms of the
miner resident in some lonesome gulch
when footing it to the nearest large
camp. A few enterprisi,ig and luxuri-
Gus miners kept mems and raised chick
ems. The coons. coyotes and foxes were
inclined to ''raise" those chickens too.
! There was one character on Hawkins
Bar whose coop was large and well
stocked. Eggs were regularly on his
breakfast table. and he was the envied
Of many. Generous in disposition, oft
he made holiday presents of eggs to his
friends. Such gift was equivalent to
| that Of turkey in older communities.
One foe to this ge,atleman's peace and
the security of his chickens alone exist
ed. That foe was whisky. For when
ever elevated and cheered by the cup
which does ineoriate he would, in the
excess of his royaanature, call his friends
about him, even after midnight, and
slay and eat his tenderest chickens.
Almost so certain as Kip got on spree
there came feast and consequent mid
night depletion of his chicken coop-a
depletion that was mourned over in
vain when soberer and wiser counsels
prevailed The pioneer beefsteaks of
California were in most cases cut from
bulls which had fought bull fights
all the way up from Mexico. Firm in
fiber as they were, they were generally
made frmer still by being fried in lard.
The meat was brought to the table in a
dish covered with the dripping in which
it had been hardened. To certain ex-
tent the ferocity and combativeness of
human nature peculiar to the days of
40 were owing to obstacles thrown in
the way of easy digestion by bull beef
fried to leather m Land. Bad bread and
bull beef did it. The powers of the hui
man system were taxed to the uttermost
to assimilate these Articles. The assi1ni-
lation Of the raw material into bone,
blood, nerve, MUSCLE, sinew and brain
was necessarily imperfect. Bad whisky
was then called upon for relief. This
completed the ruin. OF course men
would murder each other with such war
ring elements inside OF them.
The ideas of our pioneer cooks and
housekeepers regarding quantities, kinds
and qualities Of provisi ons necessary to
be procured for longer o shorter periods
were at first vague. There was an Ar
gonaut who resided at Truetts' Bar, and.
in the fall Of 1850, warned by the dollar
a-pound-for-four experience Of the past
winter, he resolved to lay in few
months provisions. He was lucky
miner. Were there now existing on that
Bar any pioneers who lived there in 40
they would tell you how he kept a barrel
OF whisky in his tent on free tap. Such
men are scarce and win name and fame.
Said he to the Bar trader when the No
vember clouds began to signal the COM
ing rains, 81 want to lay in three
provisions "WFell, make out
your order" said the stor,ekeeper. This
troubled G.. At length he gave it
verbally thus: 81 guess I'll have two
sacks of -four, side of bacon, ten pounds |
Of sugar, two pounds Of coffee, pound
Of tea and-and-a barrel of whisky"
My own experience taught me some
things mconsideTed before. Once, while |
l bought an entire sack
Of rice. | had no idea then of the elastic |
md durable properties of rice A sack |
looked small The rice surprised me by |
It's elasticity when put On to boil. Rice |
'wells amazingly. My first pot swelled
Up, forced off the lid and oozed over
Then shoveled rice by the big spoonful
INTO everything empty which l could find
n the cabin. Still it SwelAed and oozed.
Even the washbasin was full of half
BOILED rice. Still it kept on. saw then
hat l had put in too much-far too
much. The next time l tried half the
quantity. That swsaled, boiled up,
,oiled over and also oozed. l never saw
UGH remarkable grain. The third
ime put far less to cook. Even then
t arose and filed the pot. The seeds
ooked minute and harmless enough be-
ore being soaked.
At last became Disguised with rice.
looked at the sack. There was the
nerest excavation made in it by the
quantity taken out. This alarmed me.
With my gradually decreasing appetite
or rice, / reflected and calculated that
would take seven years on that Bar
re l could eat all the rice in that sack.
saw it in imagination all boiled at
nee and filling the entire cabin. This
determined my resolution. l shouldered
he sack, carried it back to the store, and
aid: See here! want you to exchange
his cereal for something that won't
well so in the cooking. l want to ex-
hange it for something which can eat
p in reasonable length of time" 1
The storekeeper was a kind and oblig-
ng man. He took it back. But the
equation, the sting of buying an entire
ack of rice remained. The "boys" had
spotted the transaction. The mer-
liant had told them of it. was re-
minded of that sack of rice years after. ,
Tard. PpRSrcE MULFoRp.