Daily camera., 1898-12-06
PERILS SUFFERED IN OREGON.
It Was Cold and They Had Only
Three Matches-A Story with
Strange Ending.

said the tall man of stalwart build,
who looked as if he had passed the
most of his life outdoors, but The pi-
oneers there have not to contend with
savage men as well as savage nature.
l am not forty-niner, but pretty near
it, as | went out to California in So
''And struck it rich?" said the short
man with muddy complexion.
well, no; not to any great extent.
Nor l didn't have any great shakes in
the way of perils until after had given
up mining and settled down to keeping
store in Oregon"
Amy peril keeping store in Oregon?''
asked the man who had been helping
himself to cheese.
Nothing worse than bankruptcy,
with fellers helping themselves to
things" replied the tall man, with a
glance that might have been withering
if the cheese helper had been looking.
This particular peril came on me while
l was out hunting with party of four
in the mountains"
"There's where the Indians swooped
down on you and you was the only one
that escaped" observed small man
with vinegary visage, pushing his
way to the front.
''If you was telling this story per-
haps you could get it straighter than
me-" retorted the tall man, "but be-
ing's it's me, you'll have to let it go
at that. The party of four of us were
all experienced hunters and we had
provisions for a week, but somehow
we lost our bearings and the first thing
we knew we were all tangled up in the
mountains. That wouldn't have made
much difference, only just about that
time"
Here comes the Injuns!" said tho
small man.
mo, they don't. 1t was snow
storm. Crickets! what storm! Gen
tlemen, you don't know what a snow
storm is until you 60 to Oregon"
"Pooh!" said the vinegary man.
"A foot an hour, should judge, and
at the end of the first day we were
buried out of sight. But we pushed
on, had to do it, until we came to a
place that we recognized, and there
we halted to rest. 1t was absolutely
essential that we should have rest and
warmth before continuing the struggle
for home and safety"
The small man grunted contemptu-
ously and loudly.
Fire" continued the tallman, trag-
ioally, 1--WE must have, so with incred-
ible labor we dived into the snow and
brought forth enough tVigs and
branches to make at least blaze
Gathering them in the lee of a rock"
"Gathering them in the what?" de-
manded the man with the muddy COM
plexion.
l"Where there was no wind. Gentle
men, l almost regret telling this story.
Gathering the wood in sheltered
place we started to make fire. Care
full search revealed that there were
just three matches in the party. We
struck the first and, to our horror, it
went out. The Oldest man in the par
.ty tried the~next one, andwe watched
him with fear and trembling, as we
knew too well what failure meant.
Well, gentlemen, he was an old cam
paigner and not likely to make breaks,
but on this occasion his hand trembled
SO that after he had the match in a
blaze he dropped it on the snow, and
of course it went out. There was only
one match left, and they passed it to
me, while they stood around looking
on with eyes that foreshadowed death.
Holding my overcoat SO as to shield
it from the wind. L"
Gentlemen" said the small man
with vinegary visage, "this has
gone far enough. We have heard this
story ever since we were, put in pants.
We know what is. going to happen.
The third matcb-thank heaven-after
three or four agonizing spurts, blazes
up, the fire is lighted and the party is
saved, saved, saved!"
"No, SIR" thundered the tall man,
towering up about nine feet in the
air. The match went out, and we
were discovered next spring, frozen to
death! Chicago Times-Herald.