The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-02-09


e stroke of warming, there doomed up
before me, dreadful as De Quincey's
Vision Of Sudden Death a vast moving
pile, six mules, a Carson wagon ore laden
to the brim, a sleepy driver nodding on
his seat-and tearing into that mass Of
wood, iron, STONE and animal life was a
tired horse with a heartsick rider.
simultaneously the discovery came
upon us all. The driver awoke with a
loud, affrighted cry. the snorting mules
sprang back in a wild group; / heard
whifaetrees and harness snap and a sud-
den fash of lightning lighted up the dark
hollow between the hills to the very feet
of the frightened animals. OF myself /
could do nothing. so narrow was the
space between, 30 brief the time left for
thought. But the instinct of the horse
l rode was my salvation. On one side of
the road was a shallow ditch, on the
other a steep wall of rock. Major gath
cred himself up and made a leap side
ways, screaming al he sprang, and we
landed safely below, clearing by a few
inches the tangled leaders and the great
wheel Of the ore wagon. Wild with ter
ror still, Major began to run as he had
not run before. He climbed the bank
again, and resumed his tearing pace
along the roadway, his long nan blown
over my face by the wind of his terrible
fight.
"That night in the village the team
ster told his cronies that aferocious look
ing Mexican highwayman had ridden
down upon him, frightened his mules
and fired several shots as he galloped
past. The sheriff heard the story and
gathered up a posse Of pioneers to look
for Joaquin Murietta and his desperate
gang, and for weeks the miners up in the
hills sent a guard with their ore wagons.
81 reached Bemonts in safety only to
find that the doctor had returned to the
valley by another road, and was already
far past anv chance of being overtaken;
for the conaition Of my horse o began
TO warn me that / must slack the head
long pace. I hired a rancher and sent
him on a fresh horse after the doctor,
while / took the shortest way back across
the wide ~unfenced country.
"When l reached home Mary had
been dead an hour. No human power
could have prolonged her life. She re-
vived a little once after / had gone and
asked if brother Tom had come home.
mo one exceptmyself ever rode Major
again. found it very hard to bear the
thoughts of my little sister that came
up when l was riding over the hills with
the mustang, so turned him LOOSEN the
pasture, and he never had saddlemark
but once since, though have had dozens
of men come to me and offer to buy him
at any price. 1t wa a great ride we had
the longest and hardest gallop on rec
ord in this part of the country, and
though l never said much about it, the
horse had his reputation.
when was he ridden again? 1t was
about four years afterward, when he
was at his best. There came word from
Caliente that a MERGED horse had beaten
every mustang in the San joaquin val
ley. The boys along the Kern county
cattle ranges for twenty-five miles tried
to beat the MERGED mustang, but all
that summer he swept the stakes at ev-
cry sheep shearing and rodeo. One day
a dozen Of them came for my mustang,
and l lent him for one race, TO save the
credit of the county. He busted them
all, and for months after horsemen came
to see him and get him on the race
track. but l never let him go again. One
time and another l have been called a
great many different kinds of a fool for
letting the best horse in the valley rest
in the pasture.n-