Catoctin clarion., 1894-07-05
A Race With Idaho Robbers.
joaquin Miller Relates an Exper-
ience Of His Youth.

IOUOO VI IJv SO~u
l was lying ice bound at Lewiston,
Idaho. Men wanted to send money
below to their friends or families; mer.
chants, anticipating the tremendous
rush, must get letters through the snow
to Walla Walla. Would / go? Gould
I go?
The snow was deep. The trails,oyer
open and monotonous mountains, were
drifted full. Gould any living man
face the drifting snow and find his way
to Walla Walla? At first the merchants
had tried to hire Indians to undertake
the trip and deliver their letters. Not
one could be found to 90. When the
s'orm abat d a little, the men who kept
the ferry across the Shoshonee river
scraped off the snow, and cutting down
the upheayed blocks of ice made 1t
possible to cross with horse.
1t first meant to carry only letters.
But haying finally consented to take a
little gold for one merchant. / soon
found l should lose friends if l did not
take gold for others. The result was
that had to take gold worth nearly
ten thousand dollars.
A few muffled up friends came down
to the rlyer bank to see ME of. 1t was
a great event. For two weeks we had
not had line from the outer world.
And meantime the civil war was rag
ing in all its terrible fury AS I set
out that bic * and Icy morning, after l
had mounted my plung1ng pony saw
in the crowd several faces that did not
like. There was Dave English, who
was hung on the spot with several Of
his fellows, not 40 days later there
was Boone Helm, hung in Montana /;
Cherokee Bob, killed in Millersburg
and also Canada Joe. This last lived
with some low Indians a little way
down the river. So when he rode
ahead of me l was rather glad than
otherwise for I felt that he would not
go far. kept watch Of him, however.
And when saw that he sulked al ound
under the hill, as if he were going home
and then got back into the trail i knew
there was trouble ahead.
But the "Rubicon' was now behiud.
My impetuous horse was plunglng
in the snow and l was soon tearing
through the storm up the hill. Once
fairly on my way | looked back below.
Dave English and Boone were bidding
good by to two mountain cowboys at
the ferry house. Ten minutes later as
l looked back through the binding
snow | saw that these two desperate fvl.
lows were following mo-
True, there was nothing criminal in
that. The two hlghwaymen had a
right to ride behind me if they wished
And Canada Joe had just as good q
right to ride ahead of me. But to be
on a horse deep in the binding snow
and loaded down with gold was bad
enough. 10 have desperate blocking
and narrow trail before you with hls
two friends behlnd you was surely fear
full.
had two six shooters close at hand
under the bearsKin flap Of my saddle
bag where the gold was. l kept my
left hand in my pocket where lay {
small six shooter warm and ready. Once
as the drifting and binding snow broke
away up the mountain, I saw Canada
Joe with his head bent down in the
storm still pushing on ahead of me at {
safe distance. A few moments after, al
l crossed and climbed the farther bank
Of an ugly canyon, the two robbers
came close enough to hail me. One o.
them held up a bottle. They evidently
intended to overtake me if they could
and profess to be friendly. THIS must
not allow. urged my ambitious horse
to his best, but to my dismay. as l has
toned up a narrow pass I found that
was not tar behind Canada Joe. This
low browed black fellow was reported
to be the worst man in all that country
and that was saying he was bad indeed
! was in tight place now and had to
think fast. My first plan was to ride
forward and face this man before the
others came up. But ! was really afraid
of him. It seemed a much easier task
to turn and kill the two rear men and
get back to town. But no, not all this
was abandoned almost as sooH as
thought of. In those days even the
most desperate had certain rights which
their surviving friends would enforce.
/ was now but a few hundred yards
behind Canada Joe. So far as l could
find out, the robbers were closing i'll on