Mexico weekly ledger., 1898-05-12

W. ASAk t.S t ~N
at noon within a few miles of
he headwaters of the Humboldt river.
That stream was formerly called st.
river, but the great traveller
and world-renowned scientist, Baron
Travelled down it in 1921 and
1t now takes his name. There the
grass was tall and luxuriant as far as
the eye could reach and our captain
said that he would stop there two or
three weeks to fatten the cattle and
then take the northern route and
cross the mountains through Beck
with Pass. There was an old man
named Horn with us whom we had
picked up on the road several weeks
before and Horn told me that he did
not want to 60 that route. He said
if / would 60 with him we could cross
the mountains far ahead of the train
and strike a better part of California
than they were going to. He also said
that we would find trains all of the
way and have no trouble In getting
from them all the gruhwe would need,
and, as the sequal proved, we did 80,
Sin a horn"
Now, If I had known then what was
really before me on that eventful trip
I might have hesitated about under
taking it, but / had heard about
the terrible tragedy at the foot Of the
in 1s46, when the unfortu-
nate Bonner party were caught in a
frightful snow storm and many of
them lost their lives by starvation.
1t did not take me many minutes to
make up my mind that I would cross
those mountains before any snow fell,
and after dinner was over I took my
carpet sack and a light rubber over
coat-I did not take my rifle, it being
too heavy to carry-bade the boys
and Horn and I struck out
on Wade and Walkers Line. We
walked about eighteen miles that after
noon and the next day we travelled
about forty, We camped the second
night on the bank of the river and
here we found two more tramps who
were travelling on the same line. One
of them, whose name was Henry Ben
son, was from Ohio, and the other,
Alex. -, was a brawney Scotchman.
On the third day we travelled nearly
fifty miles, much of the way being
through loose sand and alkali dust and
through a dense growth OF artemesia,
or, as 1t is commonly called, sage
brush. When we camped on the
river that night old man Horn was
completely"played out" and I was not
much better off myself. We had had
nothing to eat since leaving the train
except a little bread and bacon that
we carried in our pockets, and that
only lasted one day. When I got up
the following morning I found that
the tendons of my limbs had 80 con-
tracted during the night that I was un-
able to walk, as they caused the most
ex~cruciating pain that I ever expert
enced every step I took. Neither
Horn, Benson nor the Scotchman
would wait a moment for me and I
naturally felt pretty blue over the
prospect of being left there alone down
in a deep canyon, the emigrant road
passed on the other side Of a hill, a
mile away, and no one likely to ever
pass that way.
After my fellow tramps had left me
/ knew that 1t would be certain death
to remain there alone SO / tried to
hobble along the best 1 could, and
after l had gone a hundred yards or
SO my limbs Strengthened out all right
and the terrible pain left me. 1 soon
overlook Benson and the Scotchman,
but 1 never laid my eyes on Horn
again until the following winter, when
I saw him at work In a tin shop in the
city of Sacramento, and then my con-
tempt for him vas 30 great that I did
not speak to him. / shall make no
attempt here to give a detailed &C
count of that terrible trip down the
river, for even unto this day
1t makes me shudder to recall 1t to
mind. On the second day, after leav-
ing the train, 1 became aware of the
fact that ! possessed a stomach, and,
matter how clamorous that stom-
ach might be in its constant craving
for food, / had no means of satisfying
it, for when I would ask the people of
q passing train for something to eat
they would nearly always have the
same cold blooded story to tell
"short of provisions, not enough left
to carry us through and not a morsel
to spare" Some may have told me
the truth, but I know that many of
them told me cold FLOODED lies. Was
you ever hungry? Well, I doubt very
much whether you have the faintest
conception of what the word hunger
means. Try tramping fifty
miles a day through burning sand and
alkali dust with a red-hot August q
blazing down on your head, for two
weeks and not any more to eat dur
ing that length of time than You could
get away with in two square
meals, and then you will know what
real hunger means. At night I would
dream of ham and eggs, fried chicken,
butter and hot biscuits, pie, cake and
good things galore, but when I would
wake up In the morning there was
nothing to be seen-but dry sagebrush,
alkali and sand. One Sunday after
we passed two men who were
digging a grave near the road and
when we stopped to ask what had
they informed us that o
young man, whose name was Rhodes,
had shot some ducks in q slough that
morning and in an attempt to swim to
where they we're he got his feet tan.
gled among the tall weeds that were
In the water, and was drowned.
Rhodes had returned from
to Missouri the previous
year, got married and was on his way
back to the mines with his young
bride. On the day that We passed Bat
tie Mountain we started at daylight
In the morning and walked through .
of IS miles Of loose sand by 10
o'clock, and when we came to the end
of the sand we found q spring of