The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-09-11

the entire camp outfit packed on the
backs of the bmTos.
The start was made at day-break.
All led their horses, it being too dam
gerous to ride. It was terrible place
for men to travel, and worse for the
horses. They would fall down repeat
edly and became so terror stricken
that we could hardly urge them along.
The burros did pretty well until, as
we were moving along on the top OF a
smooth egg-shaped bowlder about
twenty feet high, Jerry Simpsons feet
flew out from under him and, with q
terrified squeal, the namesake of the
Medicine Lodge statesman bolted into
Fay Templeton and the two went end
over end off from the big rock. You
can't hurt a burro by throwing him
off from anything, and ours were no
exception to the rule. Jerry's pack
consisted of bedding and was not In
iured, but Fay was laden with an as
sortment of table delicacies, 80 that
for the next week or two our Chinese
cook spent all his resting time sitting
broken glass out of the coffee and sep
arating the syrup from the potatoes.
1t only needed this one disaster to
start the trouble, and in ten minutes
more half dozen men were pulling
and prying George Francis Train out
of a big crevice. And so the fun went
on through all that long day and when
darkness settled down we had gone
about half the distance,-eight miles
i'm twelve hours. 1t was impossible
to camp in such place without wood,
water or grass, SO the procession NOV
ed along. I have been out few dark
nights in my time, but never saw one
to equal this for muddy, inky black
ness. During the forenoon we had
joked over our predicament and taken
it all rather good naturally, but hui
man patience has its limit, and very
little was said toward the close of the
day other than the continual yelling
at the animals of the pack train. But
after dark our troubles were multiplied
and the WORKOUT, hungry and exas-
perated men began to snarl at each
other and to make some rather inter.
esting remarks about the plan of
things in general and this canon In
particular. We had in our party one
meek-faced, squeaky-voiced little fell
low whom none of us thoroughly UNI
derstood. He never talked shout him.
self and all that we knew of his past
history was that he came from some
place in New England; but we agreed
among ourselves that he was theo-
logical student taking a year off and
roughiug it for his health, and it was
further agreed that none of us would
ever say anything in his presence that
might tend to hurt his feelings. Those
of the boys who were in the habit of
swearing little when angered, did
so under their breath when in the Vi
cinity of "Brer Calvin" as we called
the New England youth, for fear that
individual would burst into tears and
have to be assisted to his bed.
Well, it happened that "Brer Cal
vim" was in it at the ascent of john
ston's Canon. He had been quiet as
usual during all the day and well into
the night, but about midnight, while
picking his way over the slippery
rocks he fell into crevice about the
size of the one that George Francis
Train had graced the morning before
The clumsy big horse that he was
leading fell in on top of him. Al that
the rest of us heard was a little girl
voiced shrek and a few pitiful groans.
Rushing to the spot a torch was hasti-
ly improvised from magazine that
one of the party had in his pocket.
Not sound came from the bottom of
the crevice and we agreed that the
Massachusetts brother had gone to
his reward. BY main force We lifted
off the horse and then began hunting
for the lad, whom we found about ten
feet down, pretty tightly wedged in.
Two of US went down and, having got
him loose, tied a rope about his waist
and the others hauled him up. We
thought he was dying and some of the
boys began to clear their Threats to
sing something appropriate like "Rock
of Ages" But soon he began to re-
cover his breath, and was hastily ask
ed the address of his parents. He did
not say word until he had got all
the wind he wanted, and then we
found that we had been fooled in
'Brer Calvin" Lying there on a rock
that youth unburdened his mind in
way that was simply horrifying to q
mild, everyday criminal to listen to.
All the swearing that he had not done
In the twenty years of his life came
then between gasps and groans in
five minutes of time. 1t was wonder
full and artistic and as we'll put up as
if he had written it out beforehand
with typewriter and committed it to
memory. He recovered. We chang
ed his name from "Brer Calvin" to
"Mephistopheles." 1t is only fair to
state that we found out afterward that
he was not a theological student.