The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1898-02-23
A DUEL TO DEATH
PIUTE INDIAN AND HALF-UTE WE'RE
THE FIGHTERS.
Something Pathetic in the Way They
Faced Each Other-The Trouble
Caused by Yellow Tan, n Brand of
Very Bad Mountain Whisky
MOrmOns Invented 1t and the
Indians Quickly Caught On"

High up In the Henry mountains the
Mormons make what the cowboys call
valley tam which is only poetic
name for very bad liquor In these
high lands of Utah live utes, piutes.
coyotes, and cowboys. and here and
there in narrow vale you see the
squat cabin of a settler. Occasionally q
wandering trapper may be seen walk
ing the river the Lord knows what he
traps) stopping at night with the placer
miners who washing flour-gold from
the sands of the Colorado. Sometimes
in the narrow canyons you meet strange
bands of men who only nod in silence
glance at your mount and trappngs,
and pass peacefully down the wind
ing trail Among these bands of home
less men you nearly always see men
with dark faces, Mexicans and Indians,
with enough white blood" to make
them ambitious and enough red to make
them kill a man for saddle. writes
Cy Warman in the New York Sun.
Five hundred miles of wilderness and
desert lie between these hills and the
railway station on the green river, and
it's good hiding for desperadoes and out
casts, who have burned all the bridges
between them and civilization. Ten
years ago you would not meet a man in
a days travel who had less than two
six-shooters hanging to him, and often
a rifle resting lightly across his saddle.
1t was long and tiresome journey
across the desert to court, and so the
men who lived down there in the wlds
had fallen into the habit Of settling any
little differences that might arise with
pair Of six-shooters. Fortunately,
there being no politics, very little re-
ligion and no women, there was not
much to quarrel over. SO the disputes
We're few and far between. 1t was so
at least until the Mormons began brew
ing valley TAM" and then there came
a change. Wherever red liquor runs
blood will run. A small moonlight dis
tillery can create more crime and gen
eral disturbance than all the politicians
and women in whole state. These lit
tie liquor mills were especially democrat
izing among Indians. who are. always
looking for something that will make
drunk quick"
A couple Of half-breeds who had, with
the help Of a rawhide rope and branding
iron, accumulated a bunch of cattle on the
San Juan, traded the herd for a small gin
mill at the head of Windy Gulch, near
Tickab DO canyon. They made whisky, under
the guidance of a Mexican expert, regard
less of the laws enacted by Congress for
the regulation of the liquor business Also
they made money and many drunkardS.
BY and by the revenue department got
wind. for the thing had begun to smell to
Washington. A couple of moonshine detect
course of fortnight found themselves in
the wilds of Henry Mountains. They reach
ed Windy Gulch late in the afternoon of
a day upon which both the proprietors
with "a number Of friends of rarious shades
of character and complexion, had imbibed
freely of the new rum. One of the
prOprietOrS, half-Ute, and one of the
guests. a Piute, had Quarreled and emptied
their revolvers without settling the diff
Guilty. When the Piute had run out of am
munition he swat the still-man with a
stone, climbed his cayuse, and galloped
away.
Now it was all right for the proprietor
of a distilery to be shot at, or even shot
but the sluggng of a man with a rock
was a thing an Indian might not do with
impunity. After reloading his firearms
the still-man mounted cayuse and lit
out after the insolent Indian.
A little way down the gulch the fleeing
Piute met a cowboy, who supplied him
with cartridges, and having reflled his
guns. he rode swiftly down the trail.
The two detectives, riding slowly up the
canyon, heard the clatter of a ponys feet
upon the stony TRAIL anG, refining their
horses into a side canyon. waited the COM
ing of the stranger. A moment later they
saw the Indian sailing past, his knees cock
ed high, as an Arabian rides, but with his
heels digging vigorously into the TANKS OF
his thin cayuse. At every jump of his
broncho he glanced his shoulder with
quick. nervous glance, and wriggled his
quirt constantly above the curved back OF
his half wild horse. The two officers let
him pass, and as they turned to ride back
to the trail the scar-faced half breed came
down the canyon, riding like the wind, but
| looking straight ahead. Like the Piute, he
was wriggling his quirt above the back Of
his horse, but he was making good time
The other Indians horse was thin and
spent, and in little while the still mar