Los Angeles herald., 1892-08-14
AMONG THE BIG HORNS.
RecOllections of an August in
the Blue Mountains.
Looking Across the Snake River
into Rugged Idaho.
An Old Frontier Journalists Expert
ences ir Lands 6O0O Feet
Above the Level of
Father Ocean.

have been great wanderer, and !
fear that my love of Dame Nature in her
manifold moods has materially inter-
fered with my success among the money
getters. Younger men have come in
alongside of me, and accumulated their
small fortunes, only to break down at
45 and 60 off to the cemetery, while
linger here in my rugged and hearty
way, skimming the lee shore Of sixty
pretty closely, but as fond of my camps
in the woods as ever. Take that little
bundle of nerves, Col. Harry /. Thorn
ton, forinstance. Had he not gone out
to the head of the Kern river, last year,
he might not have been alive today.
But when he came back from his great
trout-6ehing spree, he was as brown as
nutmeg and
THE OLD LIGHT OF BATTLEl
Flashed out from his eyes as though he
were once more marching with Sydney
johnston at Shiloh, or endeavoring to
stem the torrent of slaughter under
Jubal Early at Winchester. So it is
with mel should have been planted
twenty years ago, but for the rough fare
OF camp life and the glorious hardship
which necessarily follows in its train.
l spent twenty years in the northwest,
OF which every summer saw me visitor
to some new haunt of the red deer.
never was biped hog of any sort.
never caught bigger creel of trout than
my camp could consume, nor have /
ever killed deer of whose flesh did not
utilize every possible pound. 1 have
been taught to hate the Hkin-hunter
as do any other coward.
II these men are such Nimrods, why
did they not go out and shoot pumas
and bears? Why did they slaughter
buffaloes till there are less than 200
head left on the entire continent? Why
was it necessary for the California legis-
lature to enact law prohibiting the
killing of deer in 1S91-92? Simply to
give them a chance to increase and fill
up the depletion caused by the rifles of
a lot of God-forsaken white men, living
kill deer for their aidSs and hprns. &c
the devil with all such hunters as
those say I, for one.
FOND MEMORY LINGERs e4
with faithful longings. to retrace foot
eteps by woodland paths now oyergrown
with grass. My initials, cut on theacin-
namon- -colored bark of the lofty pines,
are nearly obliterated by the flight Of
time and the wearying waste of care,
but the ears listen in vain for the bab-
bling of the crystal brook loved so well, !,
and the roar of the breeze through the
boughs OF some ancestral pine tree. Yet
the heart whose strings are tuned to the
KEYNOTE of natures anthems will never
refuse to play. It will ring out in full
accord to the worship of nature 80
long as
"The ocean looketh up to heaven,
And mirrors every star"
And go my heart goes back to the half
forgotten camps of my long-age years, as
call back the days when my figure was
wiry and active, and my tawny yellow
hair had not a streak of gray. In those
days had for running mate,
A VILLAGE BLACKSMITH,
Whose name was "Dan." He was one
of the handiest men ever born into the
world. and, whether it was with ham
mer, jack-knife or buck-saw, he was a
born mechanic. Ii you wentto camp,
who put UP the tent? Dan, of course
and he could do it in half the time con-
sumed by anyone else. Suppose that
the wagon broke down before you
reached. camp, who was there to fix it ?
Nobody but Dan. If a horse lost shoe,
who was to replace it? Dan, of course.
Facile princeps was Dams motto. And,
no matter where we went at other times
oft he year, and we were sometimes hum
edreds of miles apart, the midsummer
Ale fotrr,1 tanafhox Ixxo
years ago this summer, travelled 200
miles by stage to meet Dan, and, at the
gray dawn. he was standing on the for
ward wheel of the coach and shaking me
up as / sat on the box beside the driver.
"Hey! Wake up there, Abs0lomln
What contrary little devil he was,
to be sure. He called me Absolom be.
cause l was bald headed. / got down
off the coach and wentto his little cabin
where slept heartily till noon. / goi
<up then and sat down to what waf
breakfast for me and dinner for Dan
He has just
TIED TWO BIG WHEELS
4 On a teamster's wagon. and turnet
around to his helper: II shall be gone
two weeks, Harry, and whatever iror
you use or coal, / shall expect you tx
pay for it. Outeide of that, everything
that comes in belongs to you" tliwal
o'clock in the morning when VIZ
streakedsit up the road towards Straw
berry Butte. 1t was cool and frostlike
but we knew it would be hot enough a
noon to make up for it. But by noon W.
had halted in dense forest of tama
racks on the middle fork Of tbs
Jshn Day river; and while Dan wat
getting the water hot for some coffee
and bacon, was standing waist deep il
the cold stream and pulling out two
trout to Tony's one. Charley, tall anc
lathy, was feeding the horses while WI
fished. Twenty fat little trout for din
ner, and twenty more laid away in we
grass for the evening meal, was the sun
total OF the first days sport ToilinS
along that exqu;sitely beautiful road vi
reached the north fork about an hou
before sunset. Here was hot sulphu'
bath equal to Paso Robles, the waite
running through series Of littl
troughs. After the hot and dusty rid
every one OF us was ready for bath
and then came the supper Of huckle
berries and milk, baked potatoes frie'
trout aud with ham, and last, but no
least, big pan Of corn bread
After that the pipes and thel