Omaha daily bee., 1909-01-24

mon and passengers we had a force strong
enough to stand off most any band OF
Indians.
"They rarely attacked In force and skir-
mishing ana bushwhacking were our chief
troubles. The Indian. on the whole, though,
was not a source Of evil unless some OF
the ranchmen had filled him with whisky.
These ranchmcn were a mad lot-French-
men, half-breeds and renegade Americans
who had turned into 'sduawmen' The title
ranchmau can only be given them by cour-
tcsy. for their places were simply trading
posts which supplied the Indians with
whisky and beads and more whisky. OF
course there was a limit beyond which n
ranchman did not dare sell the noble red
man, on account Of the danger to the seller
himself. The ranchman did, as a rule.
stand pretty well with the Indians, for
often they had showed an appreciation OF
the copper-colored skin by taking a suuaw
for a wife. These squawmen sometimes
were devoted to the children which ensued
and brought them to Omaha to be schooled.
amt so on. In too many other cases, how
ever. when the ranchman had grown we'll
TODD he gave the Indian partner OF his
Joys and sorrows the slip and returning
east made a more legal marriage with a
woman of his own race.
Il never saw a white woman in thoss
days-the early '6Os-west of Kearney or
east of Denver. The indian women were
about the only representative of the sex
feminine whom the ranchmen could marry.
so far as that goes, unless they had made
a trip to eastern Nebraska. Unmarried girls
were not so plentiful here then as now, for
that matter.
zone memorable trip 1 took was when
we freighted a quartz mill from Omaha to
Boulder, Colo. That took us far into the
mountains and it was a. stiff proposition
carrying heavily loaded wagons over the
mountain trails. But "a few inches TO one
side and the cliff would descend abruptly
for 1000 or more feet. A heavily loaded
wagon could slip down pretty easily too.
This reminds me of the dialogue between
a woman and the conductor on the cog
wheel road running up Pixies Peak. She
asked the conductor:
If those little cogs did not catch, where
would we landl"
The railroad man peered out OF the
window. His eye swept down a sheer
landscape which stretched seemingly to the
center of the earth, and replied:
That depends, madam on what kind
of lives we have led
LAS you see," added Mr.. Evans, I'VE
hh liON AlNNN avn NA1 'NNH
although several times we were within a
thin hair sbreadth of It.
( Denver was a lively town in those days.
l was there before the vigilantes had or
ganlzed and an average of a man a night
was killed in the gambling hells. Why,
they never played poker without first slip
ping their shooting irons from the scab-
bard and laying them handy beside the
stack of chips. Arguments as to rules or
whether a man had or had not cheated
were not apt to be protracted with mere
words very long. when a man had been
shot-specially at night-they threw his
body into the alley with as little compunc-
ton as IL 1t had been an animals car
cass. l never played myself and always
avoided trouble with the bad men, still,
IL l had TO fight l generally gave a good
account of myself and you don't see any
holes in me, do you?
1--WE made the trip to Denver in about
six weeks on the average. We could come
hack of course. faster than we went, for
there was nothing in the wagons returning.
Passengers, of course, paid for the mere
pleasure of our company, though maybe
they figured it out as protection. There
was good money in the freight. 1t went
az high as $40 the 100 pounds. That Is a
little more than the railroads get now
adays, l guess.
water was often hard to get, particu-
larlv in the summer time. Nothing on earth
could he more disappointing than to pound
all day through the sands, with the air full
of alkali dust, and arriving at a spring
toward nightfall find it had gone dry IL
was worse in this respect on the other side
of the mountains, l suppose, but we had It
bad enough.
business was an uncertain venture at
hest in those days, even though we got
high rates for freight. Every village had
it's bank issuing scrip as fast as the print
ing presses could turn it out, sometimes.
Money from one town was at a discount
and a big discount, In every other town.
The farther away you got from the point
of issue the less your paper was worth. 1t
was a discouraging consideration that the
faster a man Travelled during the day the
poorer he was becoming. one of these Mar
athon runners would have nearly pauper-
lied himself. There is a building still stand
ing in Florence, ! believe, where they is
sued a fair share of scrip, but this was
very far from being the only bank that did
this.
II remember the panic of 81 extremely
well. We were then living In Kansas. Most
people were already so poor that you would
not have thought a panic could hurt them
any, but, of course, as a matter rof fact, 1t
did.
THE worst trouble with the Indians we
experienced during the year 1854. You know
there was a big uprising then. Many a
family was wiped out, and many a stage
coach load Of passengers was annihilated.
There were some big massacres, too. of
course
Denver, when Mr.. Evans first visited II,
was an even smaller place than Omaha.
The Colorado capital had been founded In
1858, but a few years before Evans first
trip there. Some miners had really founded
the city, which was named In honor OF
General John w. Denver. then governor of
Kansas. It's Incorporation came the next
year. but 1t was reincorporated in 1851, and
was not the capital OF the territory until
1867.
For a short time Mr.. Evans family dwelt
NJ at Golden, fifteen miles out OF Denver and
A. at the foot of the pass NJ to Blackhawk,
Central city, Idaho Springs, Silver Plume
d and Georgetown. The mining machinery
10 which Evans carted up this pass was car
2s ried over the exact country which II was
p 90 difficuIt IN huIld "a railroad through