The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-01-11

fine. We went ~N KH
together to his @
camp on the ridge w 1T
that divided Ea- 49,:
gle Creek from
Rebel Greek, Bill Hou,Uood
where he got his
rifle and we started around the
summit toward a clump of scraggly
poplar trees. There was a thick
underground of manzanita.~ Point
ing to big flat rock on one side
of the wood, he handed me his rifle
and said, "You go there. l stay
here few minutes. Then go
through, maybe deer come out" l
walked over and climbed up to the
flat rock, from which I had clear
view of all that side of the woods.
Presently I heard the crash of I'M
dergrowth, and out burst a beauti-
full big stag with splendid antlers.
| stared at him amazed, when he
turned and bounded down toward
the bed of the creek, heading into
the brush again. In a short time
the Basque came Flooding through
the manzanita over to where / was
sitting and asked me: 'Did you see
deer?" 1 told him that l had and
started to explain what big buck
it was. He interrupted me by ask
ing, "Why you no shoot?" Only
then the thought struck me what a
splendid shot 1 could have had at
that buck! tried to tell the Basque
that / had forgotten to shoot, but
he took his rifle and marched off
without a word. l must have had
an attack of the "buck-ague." If
I had scared up the deer and left
the Basque to do the shooting we
would have had venison for supper.
One morning as l came out of
the dry gulch on my way to the sta
ton l saw bunch of saddle horses
and a crowd of men in front of
Andy Kinnigers place at the mouth
of Willow Creek. l hurried on, and
heard that Kinniger had been shot
and the surgeon from Fort McDer-
mitt was then trying to find the
bullet. 1t was somewhere in the
dead mans skull. I marveled at the
skill with which the surgeon had re-
moved the top of the skull to probe
down the spinal column where the
bullet had lodged. Kinniger had
been shot some time the previous
evening while he was seated in a
chair leaning back against clump
of willows. Later it was proved that
Kinniger was killed by One Arm
Jim, Piute Indian, who was ar
rested, tried, and sentenced to hang.
No one could find any motive for
the Indians action, and every one
believed that he was an accessory.
A petition was circulated and the
sentence of One Arm Jim was COM
muted to life Imprisonment in the
Carson Penitentiary. 1 saw him
there many years afterward, when
visited the pen to see Preston and
Smith, who were serving life SEN
fences. These were two miners
from Goldfield whose story I will
tell later. / recall an interesting
feature about the penitentiary yard,
which had been made by excavating
into the mountain side. A rough
half circle was dug out, leaving
sheer walls, in places sixty to eighty
feet high. On the floor of the yard
were the imprints of what must
have been an elephant or mastodon
of prehistoric times, also the foot
prints of man which were half
again as large as an ordinary mans
footprints. These impressions were
made in mud apparently, but had
hardened to solid rock. Involuntar-
lily one followed the footprints as
they led to the wall. There one-half
of the animals track was left ex-
posed, the other half was covered
by eighty feet of solid rock and al
luvial soil. One realized that it was
just little too late; the animal had
passed by, perhaps two hundred
thousand years before. The wall of
time had arisen to prevent our fol-
lowing.
People were sociable in the from
tier country. A dance was quite an
event. It would be planned some
weeks ahead, and people would
gather from thirty to forty miles
around. 1t was not unusual for
some of the ranchers with their
families to drive forty miles to a
dance, dance all night and all next
day, then drive home. AS for dane
ing partners, there were girls and
old women from the ranches, and
sometimes Indian squaws would
take part. At an impromptu dance
at Kinniger's place Mrs. Snapp
from the station at Rebel Creek
played the dance music on three
stringed fiddle, accompanied by Tom
Melody, who had contrived a tam
BOURNE by putting beans in an
empty cigar box.
But more interesting were the In
dian donccs, where, in circle
! cleared on the sa~e-hrush flat, the
indians would gather for their pow
WOW and dance sometimes the