The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1910-10-14

there is no dust and no sun bOnnetS
needed. The children OF Roseburg |
have roses in their cheeks and they
are healthy, happy lot. One is es.
ecially impressed with the city and
almost forgets the drawbacks as they
linger and are luath to leave.
Yreka, Calf, Sept. 25.--Special to
The News: The ride over the South
ern Pacific railroad, through the glens,
gorges, canyons and passes of the
mountains, over the lofty Siskiyou
range is delightful to the mortal who
has soul enough to appreciate sub
lime and wonderful scenery. AS you
near the summit the train climbs the
mountains in spirals, loops and grace
rul curves, and crawls through a tun-
mel on the summit said to be a mile
in length. When you emerge you be-
hold the sun shining on the snowy
slopes of Mount Shasta. ! stopped at
Montague and boarded the motor car
| that runs up the stub line to Yreka.
| When you alight in this city you pass
| from the new to the old, back to the
middle of the last century. Yreka has
population of 2,000 This queer and
quaint old town owes its existence
to the gold excitement of 1S49 There
are many interesting and weird stories
told of the accidental discovery of big
mines and it is a fact that like other
great discoveries in art, science and
| invention, most of them are found
when least expected. Gold was found
by an ordinary chap named j. j. Poole
| in 1S49. He got a painful of dirt on
/ Yreka flats which looked good to him
and found some nuggets about the
size of buckshot. Th glad tidings
spread on the wings of the wind and
miners by the thousands proceeded
to tear up the ground about Yreka.
Yreka has two weekly newspapers.
We made a fraternal call on each
and got the glad hand from the boys"
in both Offices. This city is the coun-
ty seat of Siskiyou, a county about
the size of the state of Massachusetts.
The first newspaper established here
was the Mountain Herald in 1851.
We were shown the files of the pa
per back to that date. Although yel-
low with age it was wonderfully well
printed and there were no Topographic
cal errors. The files are bound in
book form which represent a history
of the town, county and state extend
ing over period of nearly sixty
years. The Herald was changed to
the Yreka Journal in 1860, and from
1854 remained under the manage
ment of Robert Nixon for nearly fifty
three years. Mr.. NiXon's record can
hardly be paralleled in the history of
journalism. The subscription price of
the Mountain Herald was $40 year.
the price for advertising being cor
respondingly high. The subscription
has been gradually reduced to the
customary rates.
While gold by the million was being
produced in this part of California
the Journal was big, seven column
semi-weekly. Since the gold fields
have been well worked out, it became
again a weekly. The first type and
press were brought over the noun
ldlllS Ou lIt DdChS vi Ddth DlultS Iht
freight being fifty cents per pound.
Some of the largest poster type that
had been in the Office since 1851 was
used last week in the job department
in printing a placard for one of the
candidates for a state office and it is
fairly well preserved. The present
editor of the Journal is i'll with con-
,1Ntfn nd nhr ir,
er is in charge during his absence.
The file of this paper is replete with
accounts of the stirring events of the
pioneer days, of Indian uprisings and
massacres, crimes, mobs and doings
of Judge Lynch; finds and failures
and periods of starvation when the
hungry gold seekers seized and ate
provisions. This county being noun
famous it was an ideal place for In
dians to hide in and the redmen were
!, hard to catch. For more than twenty
years one Indian war followed an
other.
In the year 1878, Captain Jack, chief
of the Modoc Indians, refused to stay
on his reservation. He hiked to the
east part of the county among the
lava beds, a region of volcanic forma-
ton, and defied the soldiers to cap
ture him. BY this time the Indians
had armed themselves with rifles and
were expert marksmen. General Can.
by and Methodist minister from
Yreka with an Interpreter met the
Modocs under a flag of truce, in a
cave within Captain Jacks stronghold,
for the purpose of negotiating terms
of surrender. At signal from Cap
tain Jack the party of white men were
cruelty murdered, General Candy be-
ing killed by Jacks own hand in the
most treacherous manner. The re-
mains of the murdered white men
were brought to Yreka and laid in
the Masonic hail. where they were
embalmed and shipped east by stage
lines. The old building where the
bodies laid in state, is now used for a
cafe. Fifty of the dirty Modocs de.
fed a regiment of troops for several