Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-02-21
THE RED WING.
By DAN De QUILLB.
Copyright. lS.3 by American Press Assoeia-
tiou.l

THE WRECKED EMIGHANr FAMILY.

CHAPTER |.
THE WRECKED ESIItiiANT FAMILY.
! One scorching hot day in October,
1850. left the little town of Dayton on
he Carson river for Carson City. now
the capital of the state Of Nevada. 1t
t,;.s is hot as in midsummer. The road
was at that time Il dreary one TO travel.
1t was the regular old Emigrant road
the road leading from the sink of the
| Humboldt across the great Humboldt
desert to the Carson river, thence over
the Sierra Nevada mountains by way
If the PlacerVille route to California.
W.; Oh foot and had before me IA tramp
of over IL miles with not Il human hab-
itatiun in sight. My road lay through
astcrile waste of alkali lands that spread
away ON almost Il dead level in all di-
rectiOus to distant ranges of barren and
rocky hills.
YEARLY toiled through the sand and
alkali dust-the same sand and dust
| through which had tuiled during that
! summer and every summer since 1919
long cmigrant trains from the states
cast of the Missouri river. At the time
of which | am speaking thousands of
| emigrant wagons were still rolling in
across the "plains" every summer, and
for some years later-until a railroad
was built across the continent-they
continued to pOur in across the noun
tains and deserts But as | tramped
| along | saw neither trains nor single
wagons. 1t was late in the season for
! emigrants to he abroad. Most of those
on the plains that year had reached and
crossed the Sierras in September. Even
| the traders at the posts out near the
| deserts had folded their tents and re-
| turned to California, considering their
trade over for the season.
| Though no wagons We're in sight on
! the road. signs of the great stream of
| emigration were to be seen on all sides.
| The trail along which had moved the
! great annual procession was well mark
! ed. The carcasses of hundreds and thou
sands of cattle, horses and mules strew-
ed the ground for several hundred yards
| on each side of the road. Some of these
| carcasSes wcrU those of animals that
had died only the week or the month
before perhaps, while others We're those
of animals that had there fallen and
died is carly as 1919 or 1850. Here on
lLt~t GAhStll lLtAI4Lo bCtt'' dI14lllSA4o bC-
come mummics. They do not decay as
in Other places, but dry up.
1t WIS about on that portion of the
road over which | was travelling that
such animals as had received deadly
doses OF alkali ON the Humboldt, the
Twenty-Five Mile and other great des-
crtS succumhed and fell to rise no more.
The early settlers made miles of fences,
Isuth in town and country, out OK the
skins of the mummificd animals that
strrwcd this road, for at that time there
was 10 lumber in the country. Twist
cd thongs made of the skins were
stretched between posts as we now see
wire fences made in many places. In
this way both town lots and ranches
were inclo>ud.
As | was pIuddinS along | had sew
cral times caught glimpscs through the
Pickering heat waves that lowered over
the alkah whitencd plain of an object
that looked like Il small tent pitched in
the midst Of the brolling desert At
last w;l5 able to make out that the
white object WAS a small covered wag-
on. standing directly i'll the road.
Finally, as l approached, l could see
several persons seated on the roadside
near the wagon. Il small two horse af-
fair. Then | saw that one of the horses
WAS down. while his mate stood by
with dropping head.
Here Is trouble" said |. Evil
IDENTIFY q sick horse
When l pulled up alongside the ship
wrecked family, not one of them said
word. They were the most woebegone
and forlorn party had ever seen on the
plains. They hardly raised their heads
to look at me. All seemed utterly de-
jeCted- given over to some inconsolable
grief.
y hasty survey of the scene before
me showed small and light two horse
wagon, looking very shaky about the
wheels. broken about the box and sur
mounted with a cover stretched over
bows of very unequal height. The coy
er was of hOmespun linen, was patched
in places with pieces of butternut col
ored jeans and had painted on one side
in great sprawhng letters the defiant
warwhoop "Caleforny or Bust. A
large water cask was slung underneath
the wagon, and red feed trough. near
ly Srawtd in two, hung behind.
In front of the rickety wagon stood
an old bald faced horse, still attached
to the vehicle by the trace chains and
his end OF the neckyoke. Poor old fell
low. Such another angular, harness
CALLED, sunken eyed, melancholy beast
| had not seen in many day.
Near by his mate lay dead" aka
lied. He seemed to have dropped
down III his tracks and died-dicd with
DO greater struggle than to throw his
head and neck ont across the foOtpath
summing by the side of the wagon track.
On fragment of rock near the dead
horse sat a mana man about As years
Of ase-looking as though hope had ut
terly forsaken his breast. His feet, in
cased in alkali Redeemed and torn bro
gans, were half hidden in the dust of
the road in which they were listlessly
planted. His head was bowed until it
almost reached his knees, and the wilt
ed brim of his home wrought straw hat
almost concealed his sun Drowned and
unshaven face.
Near to this mantle head of the
family-sat a bundle-a bundle which
1 should not Immediately have recog-
nized as a human being had | not OBJ
served a pair of shriveled, clawlike
hands clasped across what seemed the
knees. There was something so weird
about this object in its shapelessness
that, after | had discovered it to be
alive and evidently human, it quite fas-
cinated me. | found myself constantly
turning to watch it. a rather star
thing phenomenon was that the bundle
continually rocked to and fro and occa-
sionally gave out some kind of mutter-
ings, during the delivery of which It
rocked quite violently. As the face
and all the upper part of the body were