San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-04-28
OWYHEE JOE'S STORY.
BY RouNsEvELLE w1LDmAN.

Inc iaSO VIC Vi Nhe InlgnJy UnlOn racine
was the first tic in the march of civil
cation into the great west"
With the thunder of iron wheels and
the revcrberent screech of the whistle,
the Indian, the buffalo, the desperate
fed, the overland coach became men,
DRY and the cowboy changed his buck
skin for New York shoddy. Later, as
the gigantic Pacific system stretched
out its arms to the north and south and
absorbed the allSali bottoms of Wy
oming, the sage brush plains of Idaho
the pine forests of Oregon, even the
lava beds of northern California, the
pioneers of 40 and the miners of SO be-
came curiosity, and the men who had
subdued the wilderness from the back
of an untamed mustang were styled
moss backs by the tourist coach"
emigrants and relegated to the back
ground.
Little more than a decade has passed
since the Oregon Short line pushed its
way along the great valley of the
Snake and laid Idaho tributary to it's
sovereignty; yet, in so short a time,
became an ''old timer" and, as looked
out on the crowd that had taken the
places of those who greeted me as a
''tenderfoot," mentally repeated the
motto of the new ''west:" Keep
up with the band wagon or fall in the
rear"
Typical of the Brobdingnagian
strides of this new order of things,
thirty rotting skeletons cumber ram
shackle row of sheds on the suburbs of
Boise. Sun and wind, rain and snow
find their way down and through the
neglected roof upon their bodies, and
as year after year goes by they answer
to the age and the elements, and fall
away into dust and oblivion.
Yet they deserve a better fate. On
their weather-beaten forms are the
marks of rifle bullets; within their pro
tecting sides came the best blood of
the east, to find new homes and extend
the empire of the great republic.
These thirty leather-springed, steel
ribbed overland stages were for years
the one connecting link between the
hardy miners and pioneers of southern
Idaho and home" Their very sight
recalls Indian fights, highway rob
berries and daredevil flights. In them
lives the essence of the fast dying
wild West" Their day is past; their
past is but tale; their present is for
gotten.
asked Owyhee Joe about them once.
0wyhee Joe had been famous driver.
Wild stories are told of his daring trips
up from Winnemucca or out from Boise
with coach well loaded with gold
dust, prospectors and government
mail Like Ben Holiday and Yuba
Bill, his achievements live in the men,
DRY and on the tongues of the Oldest
inhabitants and grow in luster as the
years pass.
1t was a hot, sultry afternoon. had
sent in copy" for the outside page of
the Statesman and felt free to lounge
back in my chair and listen to Joe's
stirring, If at times mendacious, ac-
count of an Indian fight he had been
in near Euna, when unaided he had
driven off ten Bannocks and saved the
gold bricks in the boxes of Wells,
Fargo & Co.'S express. l smiled patron
izingly when he had concluded. And
how about the time when you were re-
lieved of your bags without even an
if you pleasep' A shade of annoy
ance and ehagrin passed over his
bronzed face and he shifted uneasily in
his chair. The click-click-click of a
job press in the adjoining room sound
ed a running commentary to our
thoughts, while from the opposite cor
ner the splash-splash-splash of an ir-
rigating wheel seemed to be rehears-
ing its version of the incident that SO
weighed on the drivers mind. The
sun beat down on the tin roof and
adobe walls of the old Office with a
fierce, white intensity that awakened
the man from his Illumination.
at was a hotter day nor this out
there on the mesa, when that young
chap stepped out from behind little
cluInp of greasewood and as'd me per-
lite ernuf ter throw up my hands. No
argument in the face of that thar
shootin' iron, Mister Editor. He took
over four thousand clean dust and
made for Salt Lake on the back OF my
bes' leader. Never hearn tell how we
caught him? No? Wall, We see, 1
took my wheel boss and made for
Boise. Found Bill Mcconnell, gov
ernor and senator since, the same,
Col Robbins, Jim Agnew an Hank
Fisher. We made a bee line cross
country to head him off. Changed
HOSES three times. We struck his
trail, found whar his boss had broke
down an he'd stolen another. That
stolen boss meant a necktie party.
Sabe?
SIN twenty-four hours we came in
sight OF him. Hoss played out. Game
up. Nothin' but sand and sage brush
fur miles, except one lone tree. Kinder
placed there by Providence, Mcconnell
said. Thar tibet young Teller set-one
leg over the horn of his saddle. Fine
locker. Stood six in his stockings.
knew him the minute l sot eyes on
him. He knew me, but never twigged,
Bill Mcconnell war ahead, and he
opened the meetin' without singin'.
''Good morning, stranger.
! "'Good morning.
1 g Seen ANYTHING of q man about