Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1899-08-10
PER1Ls SUFFERED IN OREGON.
1t Was Cold and They Had Only
Three Matches-A Story with
q Strange Ending,

"You may talk about the klondike,"
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.
am not a forty-niner, but pretty near
it, as l went out to California in So"
''And struck it rich?" said the short
man with n muddy complexion.
swell, 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"
"Any peril keeping store in Oregon7"
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
glance that might have been whitening
if the cheese helper had been looking.
"This particular peril came on me while
I 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 a 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-
iruso S%sc %o 1o%
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 the
small man.
mo, they don't. 1t was snow
storm. Crickets! what storm! Cen
tlemen, You don't know what snow
storm is until.you go 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 tall man, trag-
ically, I'VE must have, SO with incred-
ible labor we Owed into the snow and
brought forth enough tVigs and
branches to make at least 4 blaze.
Gathering them in the lee of rock"
'Gathering them in the what?" de-
manded the man with the muddy COM
plexion.<
where there was no wind. Gentle
men, I 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, and we 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
o<rh 1af%
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 vinegsry 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 match-thank HEREINAFTER
three or four agonizing spurts, blazes
up, the fire is lighted and the party is
saved, saved, saved!"
mo, SIR" Numbered the tall man,
towering up about nine feet in the
air. 1.-THE match went out, and we
were discovered next spring, frozen to
oeath. lineage IlmeS-Herald.
Fled from a Rat.
A Larkin street restaurant in San
Francisco was nearly wrecked recently
by most peculiar incident. AS it was
the noon time, business was lost for at
least one day. The proprietor, who
had been out on the street somewhere,
went to a closet, donned his black
alpaca coat and started to wait on a
couple of ladies. He drew napkin
from the coat pocket to brush crumb
from the table cloth, when out jumped
rat nearly as big as ground hog.
The women were on the table in Sec
ond. Men upset chairs and tables try
ing to stamp on the animal, but it
escaped all the blows aimed at it and
chased around and around the place
looking for some avenue of escape for
fully five minutes. BY the time the
restaurant cat woke up and caught the
rat the place was a sorry wreck and
half the rafrnps had lie.