davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The San Francisco call., 1896-05-03
FAMOUS INDIAN RUNNERS.
NATIVES OF THE COLORADO VALLEY WHO MAKE FORTY MILES IN
TWO HOURS.

DR.. Marc Levingston of this City has had
some curious experiences on the Western
border. This is not generally known, for
the doctor during the last few years has
been so prominently before the people,
first as Coroner and afterward in politics,
and again in connection with one of the
famous Fair wills, that it has not been
known that he ever had anything to do
with the frontier.
However, he has been interested in min
ing both in the northern and southern
portions of the State. He owns the old
Campbell mine, now better known as the
San Felipe mine, up the Colorado River
some distance from Yuma. He has been
interested in the mine six or seven years,
ana at different periods has spent two or
three months there.
81 think the most remarkable thing in
my experience down there" said the doc
tor yesterday, twas the extraordinary EN-
durance which l witnessed of those In
dians al ong the river 1 refer 70 the Yu-
mas. We used to employ them in the
mine.
"Why, have seen those great, strap
ping barbarians take their shovels and
press them down into the rock with Just
their hands-never using their feet at all
and they would keep it up, go right along
that way. The strangest thing about it
was the rock was so hard, too. They
might have done it in sand easy enough.
Anybody could do that very readily, but
to work that way right in the hard rock
was something TO me entirely novel and
in the nature of revelation.
"Ghere is another thing that those In
dians used to do that L never saw equaled,
or heard of its being eeualed. They used
to, when we wanted to send any of them
down the river for the mail to Yuma, go
right Out TO the river and jump in; some
times there would be twenty or thirty OF
them, and they just jumped in and foated
down. Didn't seem to bother them at all.
They didn't swim-seemed to stay right
in the current and float, while it bobbed
them along.
They made the whole trip down, q dis
tance of twenty miles, in about three
quarters of an hour. Then they'd start
with the letters and come back up and
make the round trip inside of two hours,
the whole forty miles.
"The Colorado River at the San Felipe
mine is about as wide as the Sacramento
is at Sacramento. 1t is a big sweeping
stream with swift rushing current. How
the Indians kept themselves up I don't
KNOW, OuI lney dld IL. mat is thelr way
of going down to Yuma. OF a. Saturday
when they would quit work every Indian
we had would jump in the river and float
to Yuma.
The trip back is no easy trip, either. A
good deal of it is up very rugged heights.
They are not so high, though, as they are
difficult of access. The Indians are ex-
tremely useful in carrying ore. They
thought nothing of putting up on their
shoulders, without any help, 200 pound
and mules and could pack like mules.
But those Cocopah Indians, down on
The San Francisco call., 1896-05-03

Singapore the one night we stopped there.
AT Singapore one can throw stones on The
Equator, so the table was placed outdoors
on the balcony and under the electric
lights of the Hotel de PEurope.
There were twenty people at the table
government officials and newspaper men
and l imagine, though tiger-huntlng
and such things are common diversions
down there, they have not often had such
an entertainment as they had that night.
Train sat at the head of the table and lit
tie was expected of the Others but to listen.
81 have been fooling the world for thirty
years with this word crank he said.
do you not know that it is crank that
moves the world? 1t is by a crank that
flour is ground and engines are run, and
light and water are furnished. Everything
worth speaking about is done with
crank. They have been calling me &C.
centric. l turned the joke on them with
this word, the real meaning of which they
do not stop to think Of | am the chief
and prince OF cranks-they have been say
ing so for years"
Now this is really the cue to Train, and
answers 10000 questions. He is impatient
of the people. His so-called eccentricities
grow out OF his contempt for the crowd.
Starting in with 1.-The brains of twenty
men," and knowing that most others have
barely enough for one. he expected "recog-
nition"-is still expecting G it. His brains
taught him the value of clothes and
courtesy. With a fascinating per-
sonality, applauded on every hand, long
series of big things done standing to his
The San Francisco call., 1896-05-03

credit at a time of life when most men are
coming, callow, out of college, he became
"the peoples" candidate for the Presi-
dency by his own motion. Proclaiming
himself 'citizen," the only citizen in the
country, there was yet always that within
him that taught him his right to NOM
mate himself-to place the crown upon
his own head
He travelled over the country making
his own canvass. Tumult followed him
everywhere. There was no doubt about
it-he was the one man of the people. he
was the citizen born to lead. The evidences
lay spread out in the daylight and cried
everywhere In the night. Ii he entered
theater to witness the play, he became the
play. The audience rose up and would
not be satisfied until he had spoken to
them. 1t was so in the North and South,
In the big cities of the East and the min
ing camps of the West.
But when the votes were counted they
were nearly all for Grant. A few of them
were for Greeley.
For fourteen years after that George
Francis Train refused to speak TO a man
or woman. Even his own family came
under the proScrlptlon-save one daughter
whom he especially loves. Ali believe
me, 1T is great story and | alone in the
world understand it.
He sat down one day on q bench in
Madison square, New York, and with a
SlISHt interruptions, Wn1cn Will tell you
about, he has been sitting there ever since,
weather permitting. He is waiting for
that crowd that he so much despises to
come back and get down on its knees and
beg him 10 lead them out of their difficulty.
he knows their difficulty. He knows the
way out He knows that nobody else does
know. And so he sits IN confidence wait
ing, perfectly happy, playing with the
children, throwing crumbs to the birds.
Some day it will come to them with the
swiftness of inspiration, and he will be
made dictator He is absolutely certain
of it. The presidency he would not have.
The president is a servant OF the people.
Train would serve but lily. The defiant
''chief," he commands himself, and all
philosophers agree that that is the first
step toward debating to nations.
The San Francisco call., 1896-05-03

there they sought Train if they wanted an
Introduction to some member of Parlia-
ment. He was on easy footing with the
government. He had reserved seat on
the floor OF Parliament. Against the bit-
Ter opposlt1on OF the cabmen-one of the
greatest OF London monopoIies-hes secured
a franchise for laying a street railway in
London, the first street railway The
track was Iald and operated but was after
Wafd torn up IN riot precipitated by the
cabmen. From Liverpool Train was sent
oy his company to Australia, where he
Immediately became the same potent fac
tor In affairs. He established stage lines
which tor the first time regularly con-
nected the widely separated settlements.
at the breaking out of the war in this
country Train was sent TO England, where
his speeches did much to check the stam-
pede OF public sympathy in favor of the
South and kept him in constant hot water
with the British authorities. His speeches
were reprinted in this country by the Gov
ernment and scattered throughout the
army as an agent to quicken patriotism.
He organized the Credit Mobilier made
the speech at Omaha at the turning of
ground for the first Pacific railroad, and
was charged with insanity in the Chinese
Mail OF Hongkong, because, in that speech
35 years ago, he predicted time when
Paris to Peking would mean fifteen days.
In a tour of the world few years after
he heard, while at Singapore, of the fall of
Napoleon, and went steamer haste to Paris,
made a speech in French in the Paris
Opera house, at the end of which he was
picked up and carried through the streets
by the excited people. Gambetta had him
kidnapped and carried by special steamer
across the Atlantic. Then he ran for
President. the rest has been told. He is
waiting for the pricking OF the conscience
of the crowd that turned from him. So.
IS. w. WALL. =.
The San Francisco call., 1896-05-03

the south near the gulf, so far as speed is
concerned, don't take a second place with
anything there is on the Upper Colorado.
In 1894 Senator Fair was down there. He
was interested in a lot of land-a bout l, ,000,-
600 acres and he went down to see it and
get braced up, his healthnot being good.
That is a very hot, dry climate, which
makes 1t one of the best places for
the cure of consumption that 20 I
know of. Well, he used to utilize
the Indians to bring up our mail
from Yuma and such other things as he
stood in need of from time TO time. The
Cocopahs are all giants. There are none
OF them that are not six feet high, and
there are lots of them that are more than
that-great big fellows. The first time
Senator Fair saw these Indians running
he was struck with surprise. why, look
at Ihem,' he said. Did you ever see any,
thing like them?' They went with
swinging run and kept it up all day in the
terribly dry heat.
1.-The distance down to Yuma from our
place was called a hundred miles in round
figures, but it was about ninety-fve. The
Indians would go down one day and come
| back the next, and come back in good
shape, too, and running right along.
Didn't seem bit tired. Why, you talk OF
men of the Stygian Alps and the runners
in other parts of the world. l never saw
mountaineers or plainsmen that could be-
GIN W approach IueSe people.
"The Government sends these Indians
long distances over the desert with the
mails. When running, the Indians are
entirely naked, with the exception of a
breech-cloth. They carry only canteen
of water and bit of food. One of the
famous runners of the desert is Indian
jim
General Guilliamo Andrade, now a resi-
dent of this City, who owns the large area
of land near the Gulf of the Colorado in
Lower California, said Of the Cocopah
runners and the tribes to which they
belong:
"These Indians are of two kinds the
valley Indians and the mountain Indians.
The valley Indians are very tame, kind
and gentle, while the mountain Cocopahs
are comparatively wild. These two kinds
of Indians hate each other. They are
well formed, big and strong,
after Thomas Blythe died, Philip A.
Roach, his administrator, Mr.. Warner and
| and one or two others went. down to
look over his great estate lying on the
Colorado. We were at the Colorado col
ony, sixtyh five miles from Yuma, anu one
evening, expecting to be there five or six
days yet, we concluded to send an Indian
up TO Yuma for our mail. The indian
was called up and he started out at sunset.
After be had gone we concluded, after
all, We wouldn't stay, and that we would
pack up and gp ourselves to Yuma. 1t
took us little while to do this, but we
finally got off. We expected to meet the
Indians away up near Yuma somewhere,
but we had barely got started when the
Indian arrived with the answer.
''He had travelled 130 miles in thirty-fve
hours, not counting the time he had to
sleep or get anything to eat.
Their runners beat all the runners of
the earth of which L have ever heard.
Their muscles seem to be of steel, and
their lungs are so good that they are sus-
tanned in their remarkable trips in way
that lays it over all the horses we have"
The San Francisco call., 1896-05-03

clothes IN summer and large boutonniere
summer and winter and writes with a red
and blue pencil, and at times vigorously
denounces people and doctrines that he
don't like. These things also go for
eccentricity.
On the other hand, he is one of the most
genial, fascinating and altogether mag
netic of men. His wit hasl es like the
sun on lake, bright and kindly and con-
slant. He enjoys his own Jokes and those
of other people as well. A laugh gurgles
in his throat over the telling of a good
story. If it be for the huIdredth time. He
IS philosopher. The fire within him
does not consume. The dictatorship is so
certain that he need only wait-not worry.
Everything is worth having. Nothing is
worth worrying about. Relinquish is
possession" That is his philosophy. And
In the meantime. as mere private citizen,
his big personality maintains him in the
public eye. So 1T cannot be said truth
fully, as it is nevertheless SO often said,
that he is growing more and more eccen-
trio" For it Is not many years since he
sat in the park. persistently sheltered by
his umbrella and refusing to speak to any
man. Now he talks necessarily, and no
man can now understand by what power
he maintained that tremendous silence
Ah, IL is a great storyl
In the very prime of life, at the moment
OF his highest fame, he stepped out of it,
closed his lips and sat in a quiet nook of a
big city and watched the hurry burly go
by. AT that time and for years before he
was one OF the central figures of his time
Hls opinion of values was quoted on
Change. His mere presence in Wall street
gave brokers palpitation of the heart
why, short time ago / walked with i'm
into the balcony of the Stock Exchange
and was myself a witness that it stopped
tnat headlong rush of business at it's 1nerid-
ian Tor hye minutes. Some broker looked
up and said. There is Train" and the
maniac yell of quotations died down as
though sunday had come. 1t was his first
visit to the place for more than quarter
of century. He had been out OF it all
that time and he is not in it again, but
those brokers have memories They re-
membered the time that he stood at the
head as the organizer of the Credit Mobi-
lier.
But from that height-to him the
heights are IN the future-suddenly and
in the full gaze OF the people he disap-
peared, so TO speak For the bench that
became to him what the tub was TO Diog-
enes, was in the very path OF Broadway.
NO, MS disappearance was not sudden
only his subsistence from activity. For he
became great card for newspapers for a
time. But as years ran on he even ceased
he faded out of view-the world forgot
George Francis Train. Fourteen years he
remained in this silence, watching the
panorama of the world through the news
papers with undiminished but speechless
interest.
Then with the same suddenness with
which he left it he stepped back into the
world again. So far as the world was con-
| cerned it was the Rip Van Wrinkle story in
The San Francisco call., 1896-05-03

sa me reason, and he usually holds an UNI
brella in reserve to lift and intervene He
intends to live 200 years, and to that end
must save his force. He has plenty of
time, therefore, and he is waiting toward
great end.
Is this insanity? Train has been saying
this great many years, and just now we
hear the first low wash of the scientific
wave repeating the same thing-that by
living thus and so eating and refusing to
eat such and such. life may be extended
indefinitely. While proclaiming his in
tention-or rather not proclaiming 1t, but
simply answering the question when put
to him-Train has also been living the life
that the scientists have discovered to be
necessary to this end. He eats fruits and
nuts, very little of vegetable, no +" dead
animals And is not handshaking, kiss
ing and the like also tabooed by the
scientists? If ali this be true then Train
is eccentric because all the rest Of US are
wrong.
Then again he wears white suit of
The San Francisco call., 1896-05-03
with his red and blue pencil while waiting
20 be discnYered for what he is

with his red and blue pencil while waiting
10 be discovered for what he is.
Such is Train of to-day. He lives in a
little garret room in the Continental Ho-
tel at Broadway and Twentieth street
The room is piled up with books and
papers, most of which are valued because
they have reference to him. He has a
small income and lives within it. He has
wonderful system of economy. He has
all the newspapers sent TO him ev cry
morning and rushes through them, alb
Sorblng the news of the whole world in
rapid fashion. He breakfasts on cup Of
coffee, few crackers and fruit, and
straightway goes to his bench in the park
and remains until the evening papers are
out. He is in frequent demand at certain
functions, for he Is even more entertain
ing after-dinner talker than Chauncey De-
pew himself and his genial personality
makes him everywhere sought after.
George Francis Train was born near Bos-
ton about 66 years ago. AS a baby his
parents took him to New Orleans. There
they died of yellow fever during vista
ton OF that plague that nearly depopu-
lated the place. He remembers how the
carts drove through the deserted streets at
night, the drivers crying, Bring out your
dead " A Mississippi steamer was to
come up the river and some one put tag
upon him by which the cliild was passed
along to Boston. He went to Harvard only
as grocer's boy, having business with the
kitchen. The head of the firm of Enoch
Train & Co. was his uncle. They were
merchants owning line of sailing vessels
and doing business with the whole earth.
AS young man George Francis Train was
sent to take charge of the firms interests
in Liverpool. He developed rapidly.
Before his majority his salary was equal
to that of the President of the United
States at that time. In London he became
a fad. When membe of Congress went
The San Francisco call., 1896-05-03
UNDERSTAND A MYSELF A

81 went through Ireland during the
period of the Fenian agitation, and the
people crowded about me and offered to
make me their king" he said to me once
"But l would not have it. / told them
that a No. crown could not be made to
fit No: head. No, it is the dictatorship
or nothing. | will have nothing OF king
ships or presidencies. And the applause
OF the crowd; oh, | am sick OF it,
Thus~the very gentlest of men. Con-
stantly surrounded by children who claim
him as their friend and companion, divid-
ing among them his everlasting package
of peanuts or bunch of bananas, teaching
them his own consideration for the birds
that perch upon his shoulder-those who
view him in this, his customary attitude,
and go away with the notion that he is a
senile old man, mere eccentric make the
common mistake. He is virility itself.
He likes the word 'vril" This long holi-
day, this wide blue sky that gives no sign
of an active volcano-it is only because a
long training has taught the monster to
rumble softly and amuse the children.
Some day he will lift the lid from the
crater and say, Now vomit; must be
busy"
This laughing, gentle old man with the
big bonbonniere, swinging a jumplng-rope
for a 6-v ear-old, Is he letting the world
slide? He has string on it-he is watch
ing it very closely. If you can catch him
some time when he is not too busy teach
ing little girl to ride bicycle or win
ming points at mum ble-peg from her
brother, Just say to him 1.-THE tariff" or
SILVER" or this new policy in Borneo," I"
or 1.-THE Transvaal," or 1.-The expected baby
in the reigning family" or any other
question that the world, near or remote,
may be thinking of and then tell me if the
indications are not all there yet of the
brains of twenty men, let them be pulling
as they may. Ah, there is so much en-
barrassing method in his madness. 1t
keeps the groundlings guessing and that
amuses HIM. These eccentricities they
talk about: 1 have said they are
born of his contempt for the people
81 am a chiefP' he says. 81 was
born on the mountain. Is it my
fault that / alone see the valleys on
the other side? See, here is the multi
tude-the bankers. the common men of
Wall street, for instance. There was one
man climbed so that he died somewhat
up the heights overlooking them. say
about half way. Here, on the summit, l
was born. So it is not strange they do not
understand me. Only and few others
understand Emerson"
So if he capers like an ape it is with the
thought that "they will understand this,
perhaps"
He will not shake hands with any adult.
nor allow any adult to touch him. He
has not done SO for more than twenty
years. 1t is because he wishes TO hold fast
his vitality. He Is reservoir of electricity
and contact with negative bodies taps
him. He will not allow any but children
to even sit upon the same bench with him
in the park, nor place a foot upon the
rung of his chair. Even the steady gaze
OF the gaping idlers offends him for this
The San Francisco call., 1896-05-03

-
The e;authoris not to be found fault with
for having: missed his estimate of Train.
Two generations have tried to guess out
Il the mystery of this man. The superficial
: view has: always made of him ''the most
eccentric man in. the world" To me, who
claim to know him better than does any
:: body, he.isthe most picturesque character
.:of the time. l have had opportunity and
interest to study him as no other man has
: had, and look forward, not with conf
dehce bat with certainty, that some morn
ing Z shall draw; back my blinds to dis
cover myself famous, having the night
before written the simple story. of his life
as I know tt:
: When Ltalk of certainty it is qualified,
OF course. by the: exactions of the news
paper grind and the also certain onset of
its incidental paresis. which in my case
must be sufficiently postponed beyond that
vague day when shall have time"
Nor while setting this intention of mine
out::in: the light am L forgetting that the
aisles' are crowded with eager writing peo-
pie. seeking themes. For no other man
can gain the end with this one ToalI 9TH
ers it is threadbare. Theywill all end with
the shallow reiteration "'The most eccen-
trie man in the world"
For sixty-seyen days I was the constant
companion of. Train in his tour of the
world. against tinae-the s&wittest tour of
. the world, To.be sure, one other man has
had that experience since then, but he is
already IN an insane asylum. For the
time being, have him at a disadvantage.
: Besides, he had only opportunity-ne
interest. application or talent.
- !, e.
. Francis Train knocked one day at the
door of the editors room of the Louisville
. Courier-Journal, and was admitted by
WILL .Nisscher, who has since developed
into one. OF the best story -teIlers and
sweetest singers of the South. Visscher
. was then. secretary to George D. Prentice,
and the story of that meeting between the
+. handsomest and best-dressed young man
he had eyer seen. and the most slipshod
and flI:looking-the latter being Prentice
is one of the best THAT he tells. After an
intertiew of twenty minutes between the
.. two, Train; with. the manners of courtier,
bowed :himself out, and Prentice, begin
ming to- pace the floor in his torn old
.dressing-gQwn. and slippers, dictated to
: Nisscher that. description of Train that
has taken .a.pernhanent place in literature
and has stood for all other descriptions
since a: paragraph without punctuation,
an engine turped upside down, its cow
= catcher. struck in a stump, its wheels turn
. :ihg a Thousand revolutions a minute; the
brains Of twenty men all pulling in differ
. ;erit directions" etc.
:: So@Train's crime of eccentricity is not
: new to him.. And out of:its reiteration he
invented this word 'crank" many years
ago. For crank is not a crank without
:. its eccentric, you know. Il remember his
telling about it at a banquet he gave at
The San Francisco call., 1896-05-03

real life. A new generation had grown
up that only knew George Francis Train
through their tireside tales. The old men
refused TO believe for long time. But no
cold potatoes were offered him. He had
not been asleep. He came back the same
dominating personality that had passed
out.
The Chicago anarchists had sent him a
round robin Just prior to the date of their
hanging, begging him to come to their as
sistance. He answered them that he
would upon one condition: that if he
should fail they must go upon the scaffold
as brave men, singing the "Marseillaise.
They promised. 1t was a dramatic con-
ception. the climax of which must be the
dictatorship. He would go to Chicago
and DEFY the authorities, overawe, if possi-
BILE, and himself get into Jail, possibly.
The condemned .men would go to their
death singing revolution IL the "Marsell-
laise. Perhaps perhaps there would be
enough who would respond, and the dream
of these years would be realized.