Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-03-10
THE DOPE NOT YET BOILED OUT

DR.. Q. B. Whitford of Butte, Mont. il
at present stopping at Hot Springs, Ark.
DR.. Whitford is n of the pioneer ply
sicians of Butte, and has had an event
full history. Any one who allows his ayes
to rest upon the sturdy old Westerner
would size the 6~5-year-old practitioner as
being a man with a history. DR.. Whit
ford admitted, in an Offhand way while
talking to a party Of friends the other
day, that his lot had fallen among STIR
ring scenes incident to a pioneer of the
West. During the talk he said:
Il bear several arrow scars on my an
atomy which were presented to me b. a
band of Cheyenne Indians at ulesberg
Col, in 1859, but the narrowest squeak
I had was at the hands of a Methodist
preacher, who was with a company of
%argonauts crossing the plains in Eastern
Colorado. | am an agnostic, and I
guess I aired my opinions too freely. At
any rate, a lynching bee on the tongue
of a prairie schooner was one day in
augurated, with your humble servant as
star performer; as a result, l had to
cache myself for a few days.
The pioneers real historical epoch.
however, commenced when he reached
Pixies Peak, where he INDUCED in min
ing. and. to use his own words: Jim
Beckwith, DR.. J. B. McClelland and my
self owned half of the site of Denver. but
I sold and moved out.
I'm those days I used to go out on
Cherry creek and pick up mica for gold
uuSI anu Seuu IL DdCk EAST IN goose
quilts, until l learned better. The men
were crazy in those days. I travelled
with old Major Bridger then, with a
train of 1,50O men; old Bridger was the
damnedest liar I ever knew. He would
fill them up with yarns about icicles of
gold hanging on the rocks on the banks
of the creeks, and when we struck mica
In the sand they would go crazy. I had
a wagonload of tools with me, and on
those occasions would sell the picks at
8Q oyiaon VTThan ft,a n n 1oN-,,l l.-,~
they would want to hang Bridger, and
then I had to do the cache act and keen
him out of harms way for a week or so.
The boys would throw their tools away
in disgust. and I would buy them in at
two bits each, to sell out again on the
next Strike I made quite a little wad
that way"
DR.. Whitford claims to have been one
Of the first men into Alder gulch, now
Virginia City, Mont, and tells some in
teresting yarns regarding the way the
men used to throw the dust around In
those days. For two years during the
time I was there" said the doctor, there
were 5000, COG, 600 of gold dust taker
Preacher Col. Woods, who at one time
was taking out $70,0 900 of placer gold pei
week. I have seen him take his wife and
two daughters up to the dance saloor
at the door, with gold dust until it rip.
ped and the dust ven on the floor fol
the poor. Less h a three years aftel
he couldn't pay my bill for medical serv.
} ices.
''Talk about times! Why. I have seer
5000 men drunk at n time in Alder
gulch, throwing their stuff around in
handfulls for the poor. I remember wei
one fellow, a blacksmith by the name OF
Dump, who tied two $1,000 sacks of dusi
to the pommel of his saddle. cut hal
a dozen holes in the bottoms of the bags
and went ripping and rearing through
the town, scattering the gold, shooting
) and yelling like a devil. Ten years late
!, we gave him a pauper's funeral. Very
) few of those fellows kept their money.
The old pioneer went on to relate the
, circumstances of a reunion of old timer!
| held in Virginia City re.tntly, and TO
the edification of those around him re
cited an epic poem composed by himsel
for the occasion. He said that those oil
timers bawled like SO many babies whel
he delivered the last verse, which wa
as follows:
!. "For What is life but a ripple at sea.