Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1913-05-16

leesstul campaign against their an.
eient enemies, the Arappahoes and
Cheyennes. Sealping and scalp dances
were more popular then than now,
so the old order has changed. The
aRyado recalled a peculiar exper-
Rayado recalled a peculiar exper-
walking down from Cimarron, a dis
tanee of eighteen miles, to the ranch
where my brother and | was passing
the summer, and / stopped at a Mex
lean house for supper The Mex
cans were always hospitable, so |
would not like 10 think was pois-
oned, but in about an hour | was lin
agony, and my one thought was to
get home, had to ford the Rayado
near its mouth, and just as | was de-
scending the bank it seemed as If the
earth came up softly to meet me. 1t
was hours afterwards when re-
gained consciousness and began TO
stagger along the trail toward the
cabin, about three miles distant. On
the trail | met an enormous skunk,
and he did not want to give me the
right-of-way. l was too weak to make
the circuit, so l wrapped my Navajo
blanket about me and laid down to
take a nap. When | awakened he
had given me the right-of-way.
When We reached Springer, at the
crossing of the Cimarron, | looked up
the valley to the place where we
farmed that summer, with no neigh
bors except prairie dogs and rattle
snakes. Now that whole valley, one
of the richest in the state, is under
irrigation and is being rapidly set
tied. The Maxwell grant has passed
into the hands of an English COM
pany and the title has been long in
litigation in the United States courts,
but it has finally been decided in ia
vor of the company, and the whole is
on the market. This seems to me
the richest and most desirable part
of New Mexico, and will, some day
support an immense population.
DO you know this country?" |
asked young man across the aisle.
81 have lived here all my life was
his reply. Then | poured into him
torrent of questions. He was sur
prised when l asked him about the
old Rock Ranch" on the Fort Leav-
enworth and Santa Fe train, about
Maxwell, the Bents and other old
timers. When | told him had lived
there forty-fve years before he sat
up and began to take notice. Say,
he said, "If you will stop off at Max
we'll | will take you all over the
country. You will find men who
have lived here for the past sixty
years, and you can have the time of
your life"
Perhaps | may, some time, but
would it be pleasant? Maxwell, the
feudal lord is gone. Kit Carson,
Maxwell's crony, a man whose life is
interviewer with all that is of inter-
est in the early history of the state,
has passed away. Bent, the prince
of freighters, and Dick Wooten, as
we'll known as the mountains where
he lived these have all become but
a memory to the oldest inhabitant.
And more than that, the brother who
slept beneath the blankets with me, !
who shared with me hunger and
thirst, heat and cold; the brother
who was always so much |
more than brother that no man
could come between, would not meet |
me there, for many years ago he went |
to dwell on the banks of that river
that, clear as crystal, proceeds out OF
the throne of God and the Lamb.
1t may be that some day | shall
stop off, but not yet. My work does
not call me to stop there, and | am
not sure that the cowboy and the
would just hitch pleas
antly.
Today at luncheon | sat beside
Rev. Mr.. Honeywell, the evangelist,
and he was speaking of the great
difficulty he experienced in reaching
he men of this state. replied that
had he known the state as I knew it
IN that long ago, he would not won
Ter at the hardness of heart of
which he complained. | have trav-
lied in many lands, but the New
Mexico of forty-five years ago for
awlessness surpassed anything
nave ever seen.
The hope of the state is in the
and they are to be trusted.
The Sunday schools marched in pro-
,ession from the railroad to the Tab
,rnacle one day last week, and a man