The Helena independent., 1892-04-15
MADE Rain WITH A GUN.
The Strange Discovery Of Uncle
Jess Slade, the Boss Rain
Maker.
He Went Up on High Mountain
and Brought Down the
Clouds.
Great Work with . &hotgnn-Trying to
shirk Responsibiiity-How His
Life Was Saved.

''Yas. yas, let 'em 90 on with their
racketv' cried old Uncle Jess Slade, looking
up from his newspaper. Let 'em 90 right
along with their poppin', banRin', OK
plodin' of dynermite an maxim Of kim
ickle smokes, but I'm the boss rainmaksr
AZ far an heerd from, an I'll bet on it all
the time.'
"You 4 rainmaker, Uncle Jsss2 Why.
you're about the last man I'd have sus-
pected," said !.
"Well, jist by lookin' at her you can't
tell how fur cat kin jump. don't 20
about blowin' an advertisin' myself as
sich like them fellers over in Iulary. New
erthelegs, I'm the boss of all the rain
makers an cloud busters. ! onct per-
formed feat in oloud-bustin' never ekaled
before or sinct by mortal man."
"What2 Did you actually produce a
storm, Uncle Jess?"
"Perjuos a storm? Well If didn't per-
juos q reglar out-and-out storm astonished
natur most damnably!'
"Got hold Of one Of the old DANES se-
crets, eh? How came you to hit on it.
Uncle JESSE"
"Well jist by accidin'-ist by a sort Of
fool oaper, as YOU may say. 1t were bout
ten year ago in the high Sierra-away up at
the very head Of the headwaters of the Mid
die Tuollerny. Il were on the old Walker
river trail. There wur bout ten of us up
there on the very backbone OF the old
range. We all had mules, burros or soms
kind OF pack animals an were strung out
injun Gle on part Of the trail high above
the timber line. 1t were away up on the
trough Of pass between two bare granite
peaks. Castle peak were to the north
and to the south wur Mount Dana and
Mount Lysll. In the main the skv
wore clear. but there were aoatin' about
tolerabls numerous = lot OF them sort of
kind that some people calls thunder
heads They wuz all sizes. from hay
stack up to good chunk of a mountain.
They wur goin' through the pass in kind
of procession. follerin' the current of air
that drawsd through the notch in the
current in the ocean,, Some wore draRgin'
right along on the ground. some wur tive
foot high, some twenty and some fifty foot
hight.
''We wur travlin' west, meetin' these
masses of cloud. and SO thick wur they
GDat Wu0u u ln1u Vf uObN ttuOoN W0AO AIAuS
ono of 'sm he disappeared Same as II he'd
gone inter the side Of ! solid mountain.
You stepped right out of sunshine into
midnight darkness.
',rhese big piles of cloud stuff had .
smell and taste Of swsmps and tutes, and
bringin' up the rear OF the train. leadin'
my donkey and carrying my shotgun on
my shoulder. Well, sir, finally along
comes one of them big fat clouds, ono
about as big as meetin'-house. 1t were
'bout ten feet 'bovs my head, and jist
big No. 8 shotgun and let drive right enter
the middle of it with both barrels. Well,
sir, blast my buttons, didn't / git aston
ished! At the crack of my gun every
particle of that cloud vanished. Down
upon me fell a shower of snow and out
flashed the bright sunlight. On my hat
and on the pack on my burro's back we @
'bont four inches Of snow, and the whole
ground were whitsned for space of forty
feet in every direction.
'You brought the whole thing down at
your first shet, Uncle Jess?''
"Yas, and blast my buttons If | wasn't
skeered For bout three seconds thought
I'd busted q hole in the roof of the heavens" :"
"Your old No. 8 WAS powerful strong
shooting gun"
"Pow'ful, sir! You may grin, but I'm
only tellin' facts. | spose I'm the only
livin' man that ever tried the like. 1
reckon most anybody might do tho sams
thing, but so far as heard from Pm the
boss rain-maker."
But Uncle Jess, you made snow"
.'Yas, did, an lots of it, considetin' the
small patch Of cloud had to work on. /
made snow because it were nigh on to the
fust of November, and that were the nat'ral
thing to make at that season and at that
altitude
"Well, Uncle Jess, I'm willing to admit
that it wasn't bad as beginning
mo, sir, it weren't, and it were only
bekinnin'. You hain't hesrd all; the wust
is to come.''
What! More cloud bursting?"
MY God, yes; thing to ha'nt me to my
dyin' day. But it was owin' to my mex
perisncs. After I'd got over my fust skeer
busted number more of clouds of vari-
Gus sizes as I travelled along. 1t wur big
fun to see the snow tumble down, so let
go old No. 8 inter every cloud that come in
reach. But the last time turned loose on
one l awfully overdid the business.
WED left the Tuollermy and turned
south, the trail leadin' down tremenjus
gorRe to Lake Tenizer, three thousand feet
below. All my party wur long ways ahead
down the big canyon when got to the top
pf ii. I'd been foolin' along so much at
cloud bustin'.
"Well, sir, jist as got to the head of the
gorge along comes cloud SO big that it
Isemed to fill oil the space between the
Mountains. 1t was so heavy that it dragged
long on the ground, and inside of it wur
black as night. let her move on, my hair
n whiskers drippin', till l thought were
bout the middle of her, then I
cts go both barrels to once
n busted her wide open. She hit
ack at me with fash of lightnin' an
lap of thunder, then she tumbled. Talk
bout your eloudbusts and vaterspouts,
his we're tho boss of 'em all. 1t were iist
ke I'd knocked tho bottom outer Lake
ahoe. | tuck hitch of my lead rope
bund big tree when see what I'd done,
n' then me an the burro held ON, but
ouldn't have held my ground half mint
I'd been down in the gorge.
"All were ever in a second or two and I
1rther l went the more sksirt 1 got.
oWldsrs, sils, trees and all clst in the oan-
pm to hight of fifty feet on both sides
I'd been swept as clean as a shotgun.
dy Gode cries |. why didn't l hsv sense
hough not to fool with the clouds when
bowed were gittin' down below the snow
ne'
II felt purity sure I'd killed my whole
rty, and for time were jist a bout orazy.
ut after n bit ono after another como
mbiu' down the rocky sides of tho can
pa. though every hoss. mule and burro
- gone, with all the pervisions and traps
ey carried. This wete bad enough, but
ion we come to count noses We found
or Bob Gilehrist Rone-swept away inter
Ike Tsnizsr along with the animals. the
sss and tho other dsbrAy.