Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1894-06-07
A LONE FISHERMAN.
Tranquil Fishing Donkeyback. His
Years of Adventure.

The picture of man sitting on
burro in mid-stream, in the heart of
the southern Sierras, miles from any
where, has nothing remarkable in it,"
said the nat uralist; "but when you con-
slider the burro as asleep, and the rider
holding a fishing line with one hand
and a well-thumbed copy of Edipus
with the other, which he is reading
through clouds Of smoke from a we'll
phase.
''Such a man I met one day in the
great river of verdure known as the
Arroyo Seco, that winds away from
Los Angeles up through the San Gabriel
valley, entering the Sierras at Pasadena
and for miles passing through a region
OF varied delights.
"'Senor - began.
Sebastian he replied, without
looking up.
Senior Sebastian continued, 4
regret, in these solitudes, to be obliged
to inform you that you are infringing a
patent right of'mine.'
GLOW so?' retorted Senior Sebastian,
glancing up from the book, which he
now dropped into the pocket of his COR
duroy coat.
"'In this: l was the originator Of
fishing on horseback
"'Ah!' said the senior, you may be
the inventor, but l am the improver,
see" And for the first time l noticed
that the line was fastened to hole in
the tip of the burro's ear If you have
ever Observed said the fisherman, the
habits of the burro or we will say his
head, you will have noticed that the
ears are always moving back and forth.
It's just the motion want in fishing,
SO adopted it, and see
LAS he spoke the line stiffened out.
the burro's ear, or, to be exact, his
right ear, bent forward suddenly, and
the burro himself awoke with a start.
Watch him. said the fisherman.
The burro's eye had first settled on me
in an inquiring way. then realizing
that something was Juggling at his ear,
he drew the member up to the hori-
zontal, at which the trout, for such it
was, left the water with a bound, and
in its return drew the ear down again.
The burro now seemed to concentrate
all his energies in the contest, and the
ear gravitated between the upright and
the horizontal You see,' remarked
Senior Sebastian again, the burro plays
the fish, and H. suiting the action to
the word, pull him in And, with the
air of the philosopher he was, the
speaker unlocked the trout, dropped it
into pocket Of his coat, and having
impaled fresh worm and cast the line,
the fisherman felt for his Edipus, and
the burro fell asleep.
"I deem it, continued the senior,
after relighting his pipe, the privilege,
if not the duty, of man to take life at
the normal angle, or as near it as pos
sible; in other words, take solid COM
fort l have seen the hard side Of it
right in sight Of these mountains. l
came here forty years ago, when the
whole country was sheep ranch. l
walked across the Mojave desert in Au-
gust, and l see now they find men dead
who have tried it. Yes, I was after
gold and adventure, and got both.
lit came about in this way and the
senior, getting no further bites, rolled
up his line and joined me ON the trail
up the arroyo. 4 was living in Santa
Fe in the fifties, trading mostly, and
one night a man rushed into the saloon
where was and said man was dying
and wanted to see a priest. l was
Catholic and the next best thing, SO
went along. You know where tn e old
palace is to-day in Santa Fe? Well, he
took nae down a street back Of that,
and in an old adobe l found man,
half breed, with death in his face. He
had been sta bbed in brawl an hour
before, and was so near gone that l
didn't have the heart to tell him l was
not priest. He sent tire others out
of the room, then babe me lock the
door, and with his mouth to my ear
told me to remember what he said. He
had been bad man, had killed sew
eral men, and wanted to do something
to expiate his crime, SO told his secret
to the church. He told me to pull off
his belt. which l did, and in it was
row Of some of the biggest chunks
OF gold | ever saw in this coun-
try. In another part was an old piec e
of sheepskin, and on it map, rude.
but good enough, Of these very noun
tains He said that he and two others
had discovered valuable placer in the
mouth of canyon where you could
pick up pieces like those, and confessed
that he haa killed his partners to get
control of it all. The murder was
done on the desert at Coyote Springs,
and after he had covered the bodies in
the sand he started back to the placer.
He got there at night. Said he: I
don't know how it happened, but the
next knew found myself in a herd
er's cabin. and he said he found me
crazy on the desert. I got better and
I never went back to the place, but l
want to leave the gold to the church.
! took the map then wrote down the
directions, and to prove his story he
told me where he had buried the men,
and made me promise to erect cross
over them.
"'Well,' continued the senior, after
a short pause, the man died, and few
days later started for the Sierras
across the desert I found the place
where the bodies were as it was near
water didn't waste much time there,
but pushed on, and in three days, as
near as l could reckon, was somewhere
near the spot The map called Tor sew
eral mountains to be in line, then the
mouth of canyon, marked by a big
sycamore; and there were other direc-
tions. My friend, to make q long
story short, I'm hunting that placer yet,
and II there is one, from Mojave to
Warmers ranch, that ] don't know I'd
like to see it. That was forty years
ago. and I've made up my mind that
the man was mad That he had killed
the men there could be little doubt,
but the placer must have been in his
imagination. But here is my shanty.
I'll show you the map.
1.-THE shanty was rough board at
fair set back against the mountain, and
SO partook of its general color that it
might have been passed unnoticed by