The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-11-13
GUN-CAPTAIN OF OREGON
Story of Typical American Boy
and Man.

Story of Typical American Boy
and Man.
By Martha McCulloch Wiiliamsl
He is one of the men behind the guns.
typically American. Nature gave him
a bent He himself is alone RESPONSIBLE
that natures design has not been frtls-
trated. Born in decent poverty down
in the middle south about 40 years arc,
he ,e had scarcely the poor lads, usual
half chance to develop. Whiie he was
still in arms, his father went into the
confederate army. After riding and
raiding with John Morgans merry men,
he came back to set up a market gar
den, just outside the county twon. The
son he had left namelesS, he christened
Beauregard. 1t was something of a
mouthful, SO a nickname was ineyita-
BILE Beauregard became Bud, and among
his old neighborS remains SO to this day.
He was not model boy, any more
than he was a terror. He worked when
he had to- houted lessons and played with
sible He was wild over two things
guns and machinery. He began to shoot
before he was quite as tall as a shotgun.
Close by there was a distil!ery, run
partly by steam. Bud hung about it
fascinated by cranks and rods and pis-
tons, and the glitter of brass and steel.
BY much watching he came to compre-
bend the mystery of steam. The next
thing was to apply his knowledge. Sun
GAYS when he could not go rabbit hunt
ing, he set about making an engine of
1t was a thing of shreds and patches,
curiously contrived from scraps of tin
and sheetiron. bits of old gun barrels
and brass and lead. The lead was for
the cylinder, which he cast himself, and
fitted with a piston. The triumph of all,
though, was the boiler. For it he made
tight wooden box, of inch stuff, which
he fitted with pipes for feed and steam.
The bottom he covered with tin, bending
1t over at the edges and letting it run
some little way up the sides. Next thing
was to set the boiler in brickbat fur
| mace, build a fire and get up steam. OF
| course it was in the nature of an expert
| ment. Brothers and sisters. who had
watched, jeering impartially, said over
and over it would never go-no fire he
! could make would even heat water
! through that thick plank let alone make
it boil. Bud, however, persevered. He
will hardly ever be more triumphantly
happy than he was when the safety valve
! he had rugged above the cylinder blew a
| weak, sizzling, triumphant blast.
Bud kept his engine several years, tink-
| ering it, and touching it up. as knowl-
| edge increased, until 1T would run con.
| tinuously full hour. He was a very
| happy boy-his work was not hard, and
| besides the hunting and his engine there
I was the river close at hand. He learned
| to swim, to dive, to handle oars, in fact
to be nearly as much at home in the
fiaxen lad. he stiII did not know a letter
! in the book. He had not chosen to learn
! himself and nobody had cared to take
/ the trouble TO make him.
| He began to be painfully conscious OF
| his ignorance, but school was out of the
question. He had not time from work
even If he had not been too ebashee
his S-year-old brother. One rainy day
it happened he was called on to take
the little lad to school. The teacher
knew him well--she was a young. gen
T1tl 10,
than himself. Something in his fact
moved her to ask him if he would no.
like to learn to read. He said he would
but-his silence told her the rest. The
upshot was that she offered to teach hin
| out of school hours. as a matter of neigh
borly kindness. She did teach him tt
spell and read. Unlettered as he was ht
was already singularly quick and accur
ate at figures.
Pretty soon he was his own man, free
of parental control. OF course, he gray
great wheat country. He found worl
with the owners of steam separator
which went from place to place, thresh
ing crops. The trouble was, it did no
last. Threshing extends over less thar
two months. But in course of them ono,
If no more, Bud had chance to show hi
quality.
His engine was a portable upright one
harmless if things went right, yet witt
destructive potentialitieS if they wen
wror-. Much depended on the fireman
Buds fireman was a darby, blacker thai
darkness itself. and as trusty as he wa
black So long as he was there every
thing moved as if on glass. One day h.
fell sick. His substitute had more am
bition than discretion. ThreShing is
strenuous time. There is always grea
rivalry betwixt the threshing crew prope
and the wagons which haul in wheat Tn
threshers aim to show that they cal
thresh grain faster than the wagons cal
possibly bring it. When the table is bar
the engine whistles a Keen thin blast
that without much stretch of the imag
ination does say, Wheat! Whee-ee-eat
Whee-ee-eeatn' The new fireman wante
to make it sound that call. He croWdei
in wood and coal, until the furnace fair
" roared. He was so intent on the fire
in fact. that he overlooked the water
The boiler ran down right beside the fur
mace. Somehow a valve choked-perhau
through sudden and unequal expansion
Suddenly Bud flung up his hand AN
shouted a warning that sent the Who'll
threshing crowd scurrying to O. safe dis
lance. An explosion was imminent Blu
opened furnace doors and loosene
gauges, but that did no good. He sa1
there was but one thing to be done-t
crawl underneath the engine and knoc
a plug out of the bottom of the over
strained boiler He did it. without hes
tation. though he knew he was risIdn
his eyesight and maybe his life Flat o
the earth he worked for minute-the
there came a gush of steam. Probabl
he was born lucky. He got off with
:
for a week.
In two or three years he was in "a hi
. machine shop, beginning to be noted as
specialist in certain lines. In that capa
city he worked through the great pills
bury mills at Minneapolis, installing the1
what is beyond doubt the finest and mos
perfect milling plant in the world. Her
there, everywhere, he went, whereve
there were mighty and intricate creations
needing the incest adjustment. By an
by, he drifted to the Pacific coast, whel
he helped to fit out the good ship Oregon
Ihe big guns, fascinated him, and h
shipped aboard of her.
He is with her still. She is his Las
Hove and his best Gun Captain Beaurt
gard Hiett, who sailed with her that MAJ
yelous voyage around the horn, an
fought his gun through the historic Jul
8. has gone with her to Manila 4
should be very happy-his two ruling pa
sions for gunpoWder and machinery al
, likely, aboard of her, to have the fulle
+ qualification.