St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-01-29
Trips With the Noted Jehus
Along the Pacific Coast
Roads.
From Truckee to Lake Tahoe
Under the Charge Of
Mr.. Church.
How He Plotted Mr.. and Mrs
HayeS--Clark Foss' Queer
Ways.
Ride Behind Buffalo Jim's
Runaway Team - Gen.
Banning.

one OF the best-known stage drivers
on the Pacific coast is Mr.. Church, who
Tor more than twenty years has driven
from Truckee to Lake Tahoe in the
morning and back in the evening from
May until October. says the Chicago
Tribune. 1t Is fourteen-mile drive,
up all the way from Truckee to Tahoe.
Mr. Church makes the up trip in about
four hours and the return in three. This
Is one of the most delightful short drives
on the continent. The air is pure and
lnvlgoratlng, aud the summer sunbeamS
play hide-and-go-seek in the snowdrifts,
which may be seen all the way. The
warmest days are tempered by the
breezes that chase each other from the
snow banks in the Sierra canons, which
always "linger in the lap of summer"
TheE you have the Truckee river
with you all the way-that match
less mountain stream of pure ice
cold water. True, bush and flower
stand up in perfection on either side
and little bird, with a throat like
thrush. MARBLES sweet canticles from
Trnckee to Tahoe. There are also quail,
grouse and deer to be seen, and twenty
years ago 1t was not infreQuent that
grizzly blocked the way. Mr. Church is
a married man and has an interesting
family at Truckee. He has carried a
good many thousands of people I'D the
Iruckee river in his life and has never
had an accident. He is stout, strongly
built man OF about five feet ten and is
getting along toward sixty years old.
he is temperate in all things, smoking
one or two choice cigars each way, and
taking good horn at the end of each
trip. He has never been sick
or intoxicated in his life. He
knows every tree and rock on the
road, and could make all the
turns blindfolded. He is as gentle as a
young maid. and Invariably sees to it
before he starts that wagon, seats, I'M
dergear, pole, Single-trees and double
trees, and harness are in good order.
he always carries an ak, oil, wrench.
rope, and washers, and is ready for any
emergency after the agent gives the
words, ''All SET" 1t is fair to presume
that Mr.. Church receives a good many
presents i'll ways Of hats and gauntlets,
as he has driven hundreds of such lib
eral men as Stanford, Newton, Booth.
Joe Redding. Jones. Fair, Mackev,
Capt. Kohl, Charley FELTON,. Jim Ayers,
Cnarlle CrOcker, and others.
The last time saw Mr.. Church he
was in ecstasies over what he considered
the event of his life. He had been carry
ing President and Mrs. Hayes up the
Iruckee to Tahoe. Mrs. HAYES was
such a sweet, pretty woman" said Mr..
Church, land | knew she was person
OF rigid temperance principles, and so l
told her about the ice-cold water that
she should have where | watered NV
team. Then all of sudden it occurred
TO me that all there was to drink from
was an old oyster can, and l would have
given months salary for nice cup.
broke the matter gently to her. and
she said that she would rather
drink from the can at such place
than from a White house glass
or cup. But when we got there
even the old tin can was gone. I lust
wanted to die right then and there. |
fell over a rock in my confusion, took a
back seat in my mind, and | also took
about ten or fifteen minutes longer than
usual to water my team, hoping that
some one from Tahoe would come along
with can, or cup. or something to
drink from. but at last | was compelled
to tell Mrs. Hayes that the can had been
taken away or had fallen into the river.
And then dipped up some water and
rlnsed the bucket, as [ often do. and
then dipped up some more and drank
from it. And just as l set it down
Mrs. Hayes said, I must have
want it out of that bucket l nearly
had the staggers. Was it the wife of
the president of the United States who
had said this or had l suddenly become
crazy? Well, / dipped up third of a
pallfull and she took it up, as | had
done, and drank from it. and then the
president and all the other passengers
followed suit. and then we all laughed
and had right good time over 1t. All,
Sne was nice, well-bred, lovely wom-
an. l can just see her now drinking
out of that bucket. But, out of respect
to Mrs. Hayes and her husband, no
morse nor no human being has ever
drank out of that pail since. Mrs.
Church and 1 consider 1t the most pre-
cious thing we have got in our house
next to our children"
Probably no man who ever drove a
stage over the coast spurs was so we'll
known as Clark FosS, who drove from
CallStOga to the geySerS, distance of
twenty-five miles, it being sixty-fiye
miles by boat and train from San Fran
cisco to CaliStoga, part of the route be-
ing through one of the most exquisite
valleys in the world, with sweeps of
vineyards, orchards and grain lands for
more than thirty miles on either side,
walled in 10y spurs of the coast range
called the Napa mountains on the right,
and the Sonoma mountains on the left.
Clark FosS was six feet two inches,
big correspondingly, and weighed 26O
pounds. He owned a hotel five miles
from Calistoga, where his passengers
took dInner,and dinner that has never
been eXcelled at a wayside inn. There
were always lamb, chicken, game, fresh
ana preserved fruit, numerous vegeta-
DleS and the incest of deserts, also cof-
fee, tea, milk, buttermiik and pure
mountain water. Mrs. Foss, who will
be loved and remembered by all who
ever knew her. had charge OF this never
to-be-forgotten accessory.
Old Foss, as he was called ten years
preceding his death, to distinguish him
from his son Charlie, was a lineal de-
scendant of the son of NimshI, who, as
IS we'll known, drove furiOusly down
the grades of Samaria. Twenty-six
years ago Old Foss was the most reck-
less driver on the Pacific coast: and,
before making the grade over the
mountain, would chain the hind wheels
and then whip his team into a canter.
He was superior driveT still, in those
days the person who went with Clark
FOSS TO the geyserS took his life in
his hands. And it was not until he
had killed and injured number of per-
sons and at last turned over his stage
and broken fourteen bones in his own
body that he concluded that there was