Year: 1877

Capt0l0 JOnN MOSS mas q wOnQeTIul
history, especially VIII he is permitted
to relate it himself. Moss has lived alter
nately among the Indians and whites for
over thirty years. He is not lawless un-
less lying is lawless, and nobody ever &C.
cuscd him Of lying with malice afore-
thought. He spins big yarns just for the
fun of it. Most of Moss time was spent
in prospecting for gold. Along about
1862, Just ct the time when there was
such a furor on the Pacific. coast over min
eral discoveries in Arizona, he struck some
grecnhorns, whom he induced to shell out
s12O,000 for half interest in mine
which he had opened up on the Colorado
river. When he had got the cash for his
mine he started on an Eastern tour, TAX
ing along with him as his friend and trav
cling companion, Aratoba, chiettain Of
the Mojave tribe, who had great inf1u-
ence among his own people. Tho Indian
had never seen moro than few hundred
white men together at time, and his
notions Of Eastern civilization were very
crude.


Moss and his companion went from
Lower California to San Francisco on
steamer, and when the city and its ship
ping opened before Aratoba's vision he
became unmanagable from amazement
and excitement, and attempted to jump
overheard. When they boarded train Of
cars east Of the Rockies, and the thing
was getting down to thirty or forty miles
an hour, the old chief tried to throw him.
self out Of the window, and during the
remainder Of the first day Of their jour-
ney by rail it took two men to prevent
him from breaking his neck. He got
used to travel, however, and liked it to-
ward the last; but the more he saw of
city life the greater his amusement grew.
Moss end his friend lived at the best New
York hotels for week, faring sumptu-
ously, and when he got ready to visit
Washington and Baltimore they took the
train from Jersey City in the evening, en-
gaging bcrths in sleeping car. During
the night run whenever the train halted
at town Moss made Aratoba get up and
look ont ut the gas lights. The object Of
this was to make the Indian think he
was riding through New York. They
arrived in Philadelphia before daybreak
and remained there until night, when the
Quincy was resumed to Baltimore, Moss
still practising his deception on the In
dian by waking him up at every town to
convince him that they WIRE still riding
under the gas light of New York.


The game was played upon the unsus-
pecting and bcwildcrcd aboriginc until
the trip ended in Washington. When
they returned to the wilds Of Arizona old
Aratoba feared to relate his experience, for
he knew that his people would think he
was lying, or that he had been bribcd to
deceive them. Finally he consented to
tell his story, and On certain day tho
whole tribe assembled to hear it. When
he described his journey by rail, and told
about riding two whole nights under the
gas lights Of one city, the untravclcd Mo-
javcs denounced his narrative as a mon
strous ''stiff," and they nearly mobbed
the old chief then and there. A council
was held, and it was decided to Danish
Aratoba from tho tribe as u chronic old
liar, and he was accordingly stripped Of
his Eastern made clothes and abandoned
| on an uninhabited island in the Colorado
river, from which he was afterward res
cued by his old friend Moss.


| Last fall Moss took up his residence in
the San Juan country of Colorado. He
lived in county which is nearly as large
rs the State of Illinois, and which has q
population Of about two hundred. Moss
was elected to the Legislature. and after
taking his seat and attending one or two
days, went Oft to San Francisco, where he
has remained ever since. leaving his isc-
lated constituents to take care OF their
own interests.