The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1908-11-17

XII Id fnIDuEh q A1A2
rs,,s once upon a time, was the
VIZ ~ a very remarkable battle. On
sat- NJ the sulphurous smells from
0Ssrous hot springs and the weird
a,a.tTcal discharges, visible at night
,',rasn its ironstone cliffs and pin
~, the kloof itself was originally
nan as Satan's Firebox. But later
,sSsn in the wal with the Macatees,
poars were routed and n night
S'arords of 100 women and children,
hotv ursued by a regiment of Kafirs,
.ssd screaming through the kloof, the
name was significantly changed to
PeticOat pass.
But, although the pass was usually
interesting, its inhabitants we're vastly
,,,,,e so. Between the southern gate
yay At s~teelpoort and its northern out
LOT near ~Leydenburg, a wonderfully
l~rtslleent race of balloons has lived
Cor centuries high up among the iron.
clad precipices. In course of time the
white hunter came along with his
deadly rife and occasionally picked
one Of them off the rocks, just for the
finn Of the thing, and when the Kafirs
took a notion to poison them for the
sake Of their teeth, then the balloons
In Petticoat pass were driven to de-
fend themselves. In a word, they be-
gan to throw stones. So long as the
wagons and the horsemen kept NOV
ing all was well, but when they loi-
tered or stopped the whirring of peb-
bles through the air, and occasionally
the appearance of enormous powders
cut loose from the crags above and
shot down through the air like can
non balls, never failed to remind the
lOiterers that they were trespassers.
In their intercourse with the out
side world the balloons made no dis
tinetiOn between black and white until
one day an event took place that prac-
tically closed the pass to the black
races forever.
At the S~teelpoort end of the pass
the Kafrs began to encroach. They
built huts and planted gardens on the
fertile slopes near the portal. With
angry demonstrations the balloons pro.
tested, but the Kafirs were Indifferent
to the clamor. But when the sugar
cane ripened the balloons in the night
time 'sWooped down from the crags
and helped themselves to what they
considered their rightful share of the
harvest, ~whereupon the Kafrs. who
thoroughly understood the peculiari-
ties OF baboon nature, played upon
them a villainous trick.
One day, in plain sight of their
enemies, who were watching them
from the heights above, the Kafrs
Drought a number of large calabashes
hled with a poisonous liquid and
piaeed them in a row in one of the
gardens. Then they went through the
iorm OF pretending to wash their
faces with the stuff, after which they
leIt the calabashes in the gardens and
departed. Watching their opportunity,
tle oaOoons came down to investigate
tle business and, being unable to re-
slraih their hereditary impulse to i'm
t'ate the proceedings of others, they
ior'nWlth washed their faces in the
POISON and scampered away again. In
SUR ume the venom began to work.
cue nesh fell from their faces. and
agony. Uiou III great
UT many days afterwards travellers
trough the kloof reported an ex-
aoiuinary state of affairs. There
much excitement and jabbering
anO, "ucn pitiful crying and calling to
aon Ouner from cliff to cliff. But
leu tne period of mourning was over
Oapoons settled down to business
sue business of war. The prepara.
IEoa, eHey made for hostilities with the
1parn We're astonishing. Balloons
~ summoned from far and near.
soon 'e population in the kloof was
gslra. uouoled. They divided them
into companies under leaders.
lonr "Orked like beavers. and before
inte,n muse cairns of stones appeared at
olaoas along the route. and at
,ernan anere the crags rose almost
,roat u'cularly from the roadway
oowlders were rolled To tbe edge
were oue precipices, and even lodges
slido uuermlned and made ready to
vaders. "nu oVerwhelm the in
na raUm the day when these arrange.
aid we're completed the balloons
a''entlon whatever to white
mat ~ : after two or three unfor-
md tor nanrs had been stoned to death
oetticoat 10 pieces the black race gave
,ertb pass an extremely wide
yatcbo,. 0ohsequently, the spider-like
s up in their Businesses had a
h hue to wait. but the whirligig of
eveOga about its opportunities for
Inns, even to balloons.
he ns. outside the Steelpoort end of
ondnct, MAX Pincus, a German trader,
a small store for the ac-
ay tbo of travellers. On the
'as ,oaooons were poisoned. Max
anne through the kloof, and
hose To- oSS a little boy baboon.
ction was terribly burned by the
as cruz lhe acid, The little fellow
i'm m 4, piteously, and Max took
lie stora us arms and carried him to
ad SON. Where Max's mother. who
red IA knowledge of ramedies doc.