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diff --git a/30320.txt b/30320.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b41d198 --- /dev/null +++ b/30320.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3199 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Trail Tales, by James David Gillilan + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Trail Tales + +Author: James David Gillilan + +Release Date: October 24, 2009 [EBook #30320] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRAIL TALES *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: J. D. Gillilan (signature)] + + + + +TRAIL TALES + +BY + +JAMES DAVID GILLILAN + +THE ABINGDON PRESS + +NEW YORK--CINCINNATI + + + + +Copyright, 1915, by + +JAMES DAVID GILLILAN + + + + + DEDICATED AFFECTIONATELY + TO MY MOTHER, + TO MY WIFE; + LIKEWISE TO + THE PREACHERS OF + UTAH MISSION + AND + IDAHO ANNUAL CONFERENCE + + + + +CONTENTS + + PREFACE 9 + GOD'S MINISTER 11 + THE WESTERN TRAIL 13 + THE LONG TRAIL 19 + THE DESERT 31 + SAGEBRUSH 39 + THE IRON TRAIL 47 + A Railroad Saint in Idaho 49 + An Unusual Kindness 59 + INDIANS OF THE TRAIL 63 + Introductory Words 65 + Pocatello, the Chief 67 + The Babyless Mother 72 + Mary Muskrat 76 + Bad Ben 79 + A Three-Cornered Sermon 82 + Three Years After 87 + Chief Joseph and His Lost Wallowa 92 + The White Man's Book 96 + LIGHTS AND SIDELIGHTS 99 + THE STAGECOACH 107 + AMONG THE HILLS 117 + The Mother Deer 119 + The Shepherd 121 + The Feathered Drummer 122 + MORMONDOM 123 + The Trail of the Mormon 125 + Some Mormon Beliefs 131 + Weber Tom, Ute Polygamist 138 + Polygamy of To-Day 145 + GREAT SALT LAKE 149 + ARGONAUT SAM'S TALE 157 + THE WRAITH OF THE BLIZZARD 167 + THE GREAT NORTHWEST 175 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + J. D. Gillilan _Frontispiece_ + Chief Joseph, Nez Perce Indian 64 + Wallowa Lake 94 + End of the Trail 183 + + + + +PREFACE + +In his young manhood the writer of these sketches came up into this +realm of widest vision, clearest skies, sweetest waters, and happiest +people to engraft the green twig of his life upon the activities of +the mountaineers of the thrilling West. + +At that time the vast plains and the barren valleys were silvered over +with the ubiquitous sage through which crept lazily and aimlessly the +many unharnessed arroyo-making streams waiting only the appearance of +their master, man. Under his scientific, skilled, and economic +guidance these wild waters, lassoed, tamed, and set to work, taking +the place of clouds where there are none, were soon to cause the gray +garden of nature to become goldened by the well-nigh illimitable acres +of grain and other home-making products. + +The West has an abundant variety of life of a sort most intensely +human. Life, always so earnest in Anglo-Saxon lands, seems to have +accentuated individuality here in a wondrous and contagious degree. + +These few stories, culled from the repertoire of an active life of +more than thirty years, are samples of personal experiences, and are +taken almost at random from mining camp, frontier town and settlement, +public and private life. + +As a minister the writer has had wide and varied opportunities in all +the Northwest, but more especially in Utah, Oregon, and Idaho. Many a +man much more modest has far excelled him in life experiences, but +some of them have never told. + +This little handful of goldenrod is affectionately dedicated to them +of the Trails. + + THE AUTHOR. + + + + +GOD'S MINISTER + + _Dedicated to the Mountain Ministers_ + + As terrace upon terrace + Rise the mountains o'er the humbler hills + And stretch away to dizzy heights + To meet heaven's own pure blue; + From thence to steal those soft and filmy clouds + With which to wrap their heads and shoulders-- + Bare of other cloak-- + Transforming them to rains and snows + To bless this elsewise desert world: + + So, he who stands God's minister 'mong men, + High reaches out above all earthly things + And comes in contact with the thoughts of God; + Conveys them down in blessings to mankind-- + Richest of blessings, + Holiest fruit of heaven-- + Plucked fresh from off the Tree of Life + That springs hard by the Lamb's white throne, + And bears the plenteous leaves which grow + To heal the wounded nations. + +THE WESTERN TRAIL + + And step by step since time began + I see the steady gain of man. + --Whittier. + + + + +THE WESTERN TRAIL + + +"An overland highway to the Western sea" was the thought variously +expressed by many men in both public and private life among the +French, English, and Americans from very early times. In 1659 Pierre +Radisson and a companion, by way of the Great Lakes, Fox, and +"Ouisconsing" Rivers, discovered the "east fork" of the "Great River" +and crossed to the "west fork," up which they went into what is now +the Dakotas, only to find it going still "interminably westward." + +In 1766 Carver, an Englishman, went by the same route up the "east +fork" to Saint Anthony Falls; thence he traveled to Canada, to learn +from the Assiniboin Indians the existence of the "Shining Mountains" +and that beyond them was the "Oregan," which went to the salt sea. + +As early as 1783 Thomas Jefferson wrote to George Rogers Clark to tell +him he understood the English had subscribed a very large sum of +money for exploration of the country west of the Mississippi, and as +far as California. He even expressed himself as being desirous of +forming a party of Americans to make the trip. + +Twenty years later, under the direction of _President_ Thomas +Jefferson, General Clark was made a member of the Lewis and Clark +Expedition, which went up the "great river" and ultimately crossed +through Montana and Idaho to the Columbia (Oregan?) and the "salt +sea." + +Zebulon Pike was turned back by the imperious Rocky Mountains in 1806. +A few years later Captain Bonneville braved the plains, the plateaus, +the mountain passes, and the deserts, and saw the Columbia. Then +continuous migrations finally fixed the overland highway known from +ocean to ocean as the Oregon Trail. + +The Mormons followed this national road when they trekked to the +valley of Salt Lake in 1847--a dolorous path to many. + +Because the Oregon Trail was nature's way, man and commerce made it +their way. Road sites are not like city sites--made to order; they are +discovered. For that reason the pioneer railway transcontinental also +followed this trail. The Union Pacific marks with iron what so many of +the emigrants marked with their tears and their graves. From the mouth +of the Platte to the heart of the Rocky Mountains and beyond is a +continuous cemetery of nameless tombs. + +The next few pages will give some sketches of fact depicting scenes of +sunlight and shadow that fell on this highway in days not so very long +agone. + + + + +THE LONG TRAIL + + Those mighty pyramids of stone + That wedge-like pierce the desert airs, + When nearer seen and better known + Are but gigantic flights of stairs. + --_Longfellow_. + + + + +THE LONG TRAIL + + +The Old Overland Trail from the Missouri River to the Willamette is a +distance of nearly two thousand miles. Before Jason Lee and Marcus +Whitman sanctioned its use for the migrating myriads of Americans +seeking the shores of the sunset sea, trappers and adventurers, good +and bad, had mapped out a general route over the wind-whipped passes, +where the storm stands sentinel and guards the granite ways among the +rough Rocky Mountains. They had followed the falls-filled Snake and +the calmer Columbia, which plow for a thousand miles or more among +basaltic bastions buttressing the mountain sides, or through the lava +lands where cavernous chasms yawn and abysmal depths echo back the +sullen roar of the raging rapids. + +In the early forties of the nineteenth century restless spirits +from Missouri and eastward began to filter through the fingertips +of the beckoning mountains of the West and locate in the land where +storms seldom come and where the extremes of heat and cold are +unknown--Willamette Valley, Oregon. + +In these early days, a farmer, whom we shall name Johnson, with wife +and son, hoping to better conditions and prolong life, thus sought the +goal toward the setting sun. Starting when the sturdy spring was +enlivening all nature, they left the malarial marshes of the +Mississippi Valley, where quinine and whisky for "fevernagur" were to +be had at every crossroads store, and in a couple of weeks found +themselves west of the muddy Missouri, where the herds of humped bison +grazed as yet unafraid among the rolling, well-wooded hills of eastern +Kansas. + +Barring a few common hindrances, they went well and reached the higher +and hotter plains in midsummer; they were out of the sight of hills +and trees--just one weary, eternal, unchangeable vista day after day. +Mrs. Johnson had not been well, and after a few weeks that promised +more for the future than they fulfilled, she began gradually to lose +strength. + +But she was made of the uncomplaining material pioneers are wrought +of, the ones who so lived, loved, and labored that the hard-earned +sweets of civilization grew to highest perfection about their graves, +and proved the most enduring monument to their memory. She never +murmured other than to ask occasionally: "Father, how much farther? +Isn't it a wonderfully long way to Oregon?" + +"Just over that next range of hills, I think, from what the trappers +told me," was the reply, after they had come to the toes of the +foothills that terminate the long-lying limbs of the giant Rockies. +But he did not know the stealth of the mountains nor the fantastic +pranks the canyony ranges can play upon the stranger. A snowy-haired +peak, brother to Father Time, wearing a fringe of evergreens for his +neckruff, would play hide-and-seek with them for days, dodging behind +this eminence and hiding away back of that hill, only to reappear +apparently as far off as ever, and sometimes in a different direction +from where he last seemed to be. + +After a few more days: "Father, how many more miles do you think?" + +"O, not many now, I am sure!" cheerily and optimistically would come +the answer. + +As they climbed, and climbed, and climbed, the ripening service-berry, +blackened by weeks of attention by the unclouded sun, and the pine-hen +and the speckled beauties from the noisy trout-streams, added to their +comforts, and for a little while appeared to enliven the tired and +fading woman. A frosty night or two, a peak newly whitened with early +snow, put an invigorating thrill and pulse into the blood of the man +and the boy, but she crept just a little nearer to the camp fire of +evenings and found herself more and more languid in responding to the +call of the day that returned all too soon for her. At last, rolling +out on the Wahsatch side of the continental backbone, they encountered +very warm but shortening days, while the nights grew chillier. Having +passed to the north of Salt Lake by the trail so well and faithfully +marked by Mr. Ezra Meeker in recent years, they began to realize that +they were with the waters that flow to the west. + +One evening, after the tin plates, iron forks and knives, and the +pewter spoons had been washed and returned to their box, and as they +were getting ready for their nightly rest, Mrs. Johnson said, wearily: +"Father, it just seems to me I would be glad if I never would waken +again. It seems I would enjoy never again hearing the everlasting +squeech, squeech of the wheels in the sand, and see the sun go down +day after day so red and so far away over those new mountains. O, I am +so tired!" + +"Never mind, mother, we are not far from our new home now;" and moving +over to her side as she sat leaning against the wagon-tongue, the man +slipped his own tired arm about her shoulders and let her rest against +him, for he was indeed weary, and the trail _was_ wonderfully long. + +The following morning he purposely lay still just a little longer than +was his custom, although he was most prudently desirous of making as +much speed as he could while the weather continued so good; he knew +the rains might soon set in and make travel over unmade roads much +worse than it already was. + +When he arose he noiselessly crept away from her side and quietly +called the boy to go and bring up the horses and the cow, cautioning +him to take off the horse-bell and carry it so as not to arouse the +mother when he came to camp. Quietly as possible he made the fire and +prepared their breakfast of fare that was daily becoming scantier. +Then, when all was ready, he tiptoed through the sand to where she lay +under the spreading arms of a little desert juniper, such as are +occasionally found in the deserts, and where she had said the night +before she wished she could sleep forever. She looked so calm and +restful he hesitated to wake her; it seemed like robbery to take from +her one moment of the longed-for and hard-earned rest. Yet it was time +they were on their road, and the day was fine; so after a few minutes +he called, gently, "Mother, you're getting a nice rest, aren't you?" + +She did not stir. He then stooped to kiss the languid lips--they were +cold. She was dead. They had been seeking a home by the shores of the +sunset sea; she had found the sunrise land. + +It is a sad, solemn, and sacred thing to be with our dead, but to be +alone, hundreds of miles from the face of any friend, in such an hour, +is an experience few ever have to meet. Pioneer-like, the father scans +the horizon, locating all the prominent features of the landscape. He +makes a rude map, not forgetting the juniper. As best he can he +prepares the body for the burying. And such a burying! No lumber with +which to make even a rough box; nothing but their daily clothing and +nightly bedding was to be had. The unlined grave was more than usually +forbidding. The desert demon had trailed that brave body and was now +swallowing it up. They made the grave by the juniper where she last +slept, and, sorrowing, the father and the son went on, firm in the +resolve that the loved one should not always lie in a desert grave. + +Forty years later a man past middle-age, riding a horse and leading +another, to whose packsaddle was fastened a box, went slowly along +that old trail in Southern Idaho, now almost obliterated by +many-footed Progress. He was scanning the hills and consulting a piece +of age-yellowed paper, broken at all its ancient creases. It was the +son obeying the dying request of the old father--going to find, if +possible, the spot where the tired mother went to sleep so long ago, +and bring all that remained to rest by his side. + +It was no easy task. Fertile fields, whose irrigated areas now +presented billowy breasts of ripening grain; mighty ditches like +younger and better-behaved rivers; a railway following the general +direction of the old trail; ranch-houses and fat haystacks indenting +the sky-line once so bare of all except clumps of sagebrush--these all +conspired to make the task next to impossible. + +Man may scratch the hillsides, but cannot mar the majesty of the +mountains; they were unchanged. The map he carried was the one his +father made on the spot more than a generation before. It had been +well made and the specifications were minute. After a long while, +carefully measuring and comparing, he found the spot to him so sacred. +The juniper tree, so rare in that section, had not been disturbed by +the new owner of the land, and as the precious burden, secured at +last, was borne away, it still stood on guard--as if lonely now. Like +father, like son. Both were faithfully bound by the strongest tie in +the universe--love! + + + + +THE DESERT + + Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, + And waste its sweetness on the desert air. + --_Gray_. + + As geographers, Sosius, crowd into the edges of + their maps parts of the world which they do not + know about, adding notes in the margin to the + effect that beyond this lies nothing but sandy + deserts full of wild beasts, and unapproachable + bogs. + --_Plutarch_. + + + + +THE DESERT + + +Much of the Old Overland Trail lay across the "Great American Desert," +as it was named in the earlier geographies. Irrigation and progressive +energy have made these wastes in many instances literally to "blossom +as the rose"; but until that was done these stretches were weary +enough. + +He who knows only the desert of the geography naturally conceives it +an absolutely forsaken and empty region where nothing but dust-storms +are born unattended and die "without benefit of the clergy." But the +desert has character and is as variable as many another creature. + + +THE SAND STORM + + +An experience in an actual sand storm is food upon which the +reminiscent may ruminate many a day, being much more pleasant in +memory than in the making. First come the scurrying outriders, lithe +and limber whisking gusts, dancing and whirling like Moslem +dervishes, coyly brushing the traveler or boldly flinging fierce +fistfuls of dirt into his eyes; then off with a swish of invisible +skirts--vanishing possibly in the same direction whence they came. +They go leaving him wiping his astonished eyes disgustedly, for the +act was so sudden and tragic as to excite tears. Before he is aware of +it other and stronger gusts duplicate the dastardly deed of the first +wingless wizard of the plains, and the hapless voyager is left +gasping. Almost immediately there are to be seen the regular "desert +devils," as they are called, bringing a dozen or more whirling columns +of yellow silt rapidly through the air, each pirouetting on one foot, +assuming meanwhile all sorts of fantastic shapes. + +Now for the fierce onset. Like blasts of a blizzard, the shrapnel of +the desert is hurled into eyes, face, ears, and nostrils; little +rivers pour down the back and fill every discoverable wrinkle and +cranny of the clothing with their gritty load. + +If in summer, buttoning the clothing is suffocation, and the +perspiration soon makes one a mass of grime; if in winter, it is not +so unbearable, for a comfortable fencing can be made against the sand +and the cold. + +The whole landscape is obliterated by and by, and the trails are so +often drift-filled that unless one is himself accustomed to such +methods of travel or has an experienced plainsman as his driver and +guide, there is danger of becoming lost, or so out of the way that +night may overtake him and compel a waterless camp for himself and +team. + + +TWILIGHT AND DAWN + + +But to see the morning slip off its night clothes and step out into +daylight, or watch day don her night-wraps and snuggle down into +twilight on the quiet sand-ocean! In summer it is a scene of splendor, +often coming after a day or an evening of sandy wrath. + +At early dawn, lining the eastern horizon, are the soft pencils of +bashful day over-topping the jagged sawteeth of the yet sleeping +mountains, fifty or more miles away. A faint hinting of the lightening +of the sky only deepens the blackness of the snow-streaked peaks. The +cowardly coyote's yelp comes more and more faintly, the burrowing +owl's "to-whit, to-whoo" falls dying on the moveless air, and the +white sparrow of the sagebrush starts up as if to catch the early worm +he is almost sure not to find. The loping jack rabbit slips softly to +his greasewood shelter and the prairie dog bounces barking from his +snake-infested haunt, noisily preparing for his day's digging and +foraging. + +The stubborn mountains begin to let the sun's forerunning rays glide +between them; the sky, now old gold, is fast transforming into +kaleidoscopic crimsons and other reds, while the swift arms of the +day-painter are reaching from between the peaks of the precipitous +crags and dyeing the scales of the mackerel sky with hues and tints +the rainbow would covet. + +In the opposite direction a morning mirage inverts an image of a +stretch of trees along the far-away river and blends them top to +top till they seem greenish-black columns supporting the dun clouds +of the west, while the belated moon peers through the half-unreal +corridors. + + +SUNSET + + +The sunset is far more gorgeous; it often reaches grandeur. Let it be +a winter evening. A suggestion of storm has been playing threats. The +western hills have reached up their time-toughened arms and carried +the burnt-out lantern of day to bed, tucking him away in gold-lace +tapestry and rose-tinted down. Then the blue, black, and brown clouds +change quickly to purple, pink, and red by turns, and the opaline sky +itself forms a background for the dissolving community of interlacing +filaments of priceless filigree, till in time too full of interest to +compute by measure, the whole heavens are aflame with a riotous orgy +of color, a prodigality of shifting scene, making one think of the +descriptions essayed by the writer of the Apocalypse. + +We think of Moses who wished to see God "face to face," but was told +he would be permitted to behold only the "dying away of his glory." No +wonder the man who was forty years in the wilderness before that grand +exode, and forty more through the unsurveyed deserts, was enabled to +write the majestic prose-poems that have lived unaltered through all +these thousands of critical years! He was in the region where +inspiration is dispensed with hands of infinite wealth. God is the +dispenser. + + + + +SAGEBRUSH + + This is the forest primeval.--_Longfellow_. + + The continuous woods where rolls the Oregon.--_Bryant_. + + + + +SAGEBRUSH + + +Frequently within these pages mention has been made of the commonest +of all our native plants on the Trail--sagebrush. Botanically, it is, +_Artemisia tridentata_. The new Standard Dictionary defines sagebrush +as "any one of the various shrubby species of Artemisia, of the aster +family, growing on the elevated plains of the Western United States, +especially _Artemisia tridentata_, very abundant from Montana to +Colorado and westward." The leaf ends in three points; hence the +adjective tridentata--the three-toothed artemisia. + +There are several varieties of sagebrush, and a person not well +acquainted with the desert might easily mistake one for the other. +There are the white sage, a good forage plant for sheep, and the +yellow sage, which, when properly taken, can be made useful for +cattle. Then there is the common variety, the sort named above. This +is not to be mistaken for the prickly greasewood which infests the +more alkaline regions; nor the rabbit-brush with its blossom so like +the goldenrod, but with a very disagreeable odor. No man who knows +will ever buy land where the greasewood grows thickly; it is +unproductive because of the large percentage of alkali. But the +ancient-looking sage is a pretty sure indication of fertility of soil. +Mother Nature is sometimes hard pushed to find dresses for all her +poorer areas; of course the better portions of the land east or west, +north or south, care for their clothes better than do these arid +stretches and the clothing is a richer vegetation. + +This ever-gray, little hunger-pinched pygmy among trees looks about as +much like an oak as does a diminutive monkey like a grown man. + +A peculiarity of this individual in treedom is that it keeps its +ash-colored leaf until it has a new set to put on in the spring, so +that all winter long it presents the same color as it does in the +summertime. Its bark is loose and shaggy, being shed rapidly, and +gives one the thought of the old grape vine; hanging in bunches, the +bole has always a ragged appearance. It is truly the dry-land plant, +always found where the alkali or water is not too abundant; but in +favored spots where there is only a little dampness and not too much +fierceness of the summer heat it grows eight or ten feet high, making +a body large enough for fence posts. This is extraordinary, for +usually these Liliputian forests do not attain a height of more than +four feet, and often much less. So diminutive are these solemn woods +that the ordinary gang-plow can walk right through them, turning the +shrubbery under like tall grass, although every tree is perfect, just +like the dwarf creations produced by the resourceful Japanese. + +The seed of this tiny tree grows on stiff, upright filaments like the +broom-corn straws. These stems are very bitter and are often used by +the range-riders on long rides or roundups to excite the flow of +saliva when thirst overtakes them too far from water. Because of its +bitterness it is often called wormwood. + +Not many uses have been found for the wood of these primeval forests. +In many sections the people have nothing but sagebrush for firewood. +The whole tree is used, special stoves, or heaters, being made to +accommodate the whole plant. It is gathered in the following manner: +Two immense T-rails of railroad iron are laid side by side, one +inverted, and securely fastened together; to the ends of these are +hitched two teams of horses or mules, which pulling parallel to each +other, are driven into the standing fairy forests and the swaths of +fallen timber show the track of this unnatural storm. Its roots have +such slight hold on the soil that it easily falls. Wagons and +pitchforks follow, and the whole of the felling is hauled untrimmed to +the home for hand-axing if too large; and it is all burned, top and +root. There is so much vegetable oil in this queer plant that it makes +a fine and very quick fire, green or dry. + +After a summer rain there is no aromatic perfume surpassing that of +the odor of sagebrush filling the newly washed air. The mountaineer +who has had to make a trip East gladly opens his window, as his train +pushes back into the habitat of these aromatic shrubs, to get an +early whiff of the health-laden, sage-sweetened atmosphere of the +beloved Westland and homeland. + + + + +THE IRON TRAIL + + There are hermit souls that live withdrawn + In their houses of self-content; + There are souls like stars that dwell apart + In their fellowless firmament. + There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths + Where highways never ran. + But, let me live by the side of the road + And be a friend to man. + --Sam Walter Foss. + + + + +A RAILROAD SAINT IN IDAHO + + +The "railroad saint" was a locomotive engineer. His life was ever an +open book, yet while careful and almost severe in his personal +religious habits, he did not criticize the manners of his associates. +He simply let his well kept searchlight shine. + +Though born in Ohio, his boy life was spent mainly in Nebraska, when +it was just emerging from the ragged swaddlings of rough frontierdom; +and during his young manhood he lived in Wyoming, at the time when men +"carried the law in their hip-pockets," as he graphically expressed +it. + +Early becoming an employee of the Union Pacific, he was a permanent +portion of its westward intermountain extension, and he did his life's +work among the scenic cliffs and clefts of the picturesque crags and +corrugated canyons of the wrinkled ridges in the Rocky and the Wahsatch +ranges. Opportunities for literary education were very limited to one +so engaged, and little more than what was absolutely necessary to the +railmen did he receive. But he was not ignorant by any means. In later +years he read extendedly and with careful discrimination. He had a +poet's soul, but was not visionary. + +His mother had been a careful and sensible Christian. The indelible +impress she left upon him was like to that given by Jochebed to her +son Moses. He never wholly escaped from her hallowed influence, +although he descended into vicious living and became a notorious and +blatant blasphemer, sceptic, and drunkard. + +Once when attending a national convention of railway engineers in an +Eastern city he noticed a little flower boy vainly attempting to +dispose of his roses. Our engineer (who always had a feeling for the +"other fellow") paid the lad for all he had left and directed him to +carry them to the hotel where the delegates were stopping, and give +them to the ladies in the parlor. This act was repeated on successive +days. It attracted attention finally, and one of the delegates asked +him if he were a Christian. Characteristically he blurted out: "Do +you see anything about me that indicates it? If so, I will take it off +at once. Why do you ask such a question?" + +"Because," said the questioner, "your kindness to that pale-faced +little flower boy makes people think you are." + +"Nothing at all queer about that," was the quick reply. "Common +humanity should dictate such deeds. If I myself wanted a favor, I'd +not go to any Christian for it; I'd rather tackle a bartender or a +gambler." + +"Well, Dr. T----, of the Methodist Church, has heard of you," remarked +his questioner, "and he says he would like to meet you for an hour or +so before you leave the city." + +"But I've no desire to meet any preacher, though if it will afford the +gentleman any pleasure, I will gladly do it for that reason and no +other. What do you suppose he wants?" + +The intermediary arranged a time of meeting, and after introducing the +men, left the "eagle eye" in the pleasant study of the minister, a +pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. After a few minutes +of easy conversation, the minister abruptly cut all Gordian knots and +said: "Mr.----, are you a Christian?" + +"No, sir, not so you can notice it." + +"Why are you not?" + +"Why should I be?" + +"It gives to every one who embraces true religion a better, broader, +worthier view and conception of life." + +"Wherein, mister?" + +"It puts purpose into his life and interprets the end to which he is +tending." + +Then came up from the keen intellect-quiver of our Rocky Mountain +engineman all the stock phrases, replies, and arguments of Voltaire, +Rousseau, Ingersoll, and others whose writings he knew perfectly. + +With Christian and cultivated patience the minister listened and then +said with captivating and sympathetic tenderness: "But, my dear sir, +that is all speculation on the part of those scholarly and eloquent +men whom you quote so accurately. They know no better. The religion of +Jesus is not speculation; it is practical knowledge. Would not you, +sir, like to know personally as to its truth?" + +"Yes, but how can I?" + +His foot had been taken in the snare of the wise trapper. + +Said the preacher: "You can; and this is the way. As you leave this +city for your return to the West, get a cheap New Testament; indeed, +here is a copy; please accept it. Tear it in two in the middle, +retaining only the four Gospels--Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Read +them; you will by yourself and by this means find the way to perfect +knowledge." + +He of the throttle, hungry for the deepest knowledge, did as directed +and advised. + +Back to his cab and engine he went, under the deepest conviction. Yet +he declared that he needed no extraneous assistance to be as good as +any Christian; Jesus he considered a superfluity, and said so. The +negative influences of the atheistic authors yet warped him. He said: +"I dare any of you to watch me. I can and will be as upright as any +Christian on earth." But after a short time of exemplary conduct, he +would wake up some morning only to discover to his hearty disgust that +he had been on an extended period of dissipation. Later he would +attempt another straightening-up and try to "be good" without the +necessary becoming so, only to fall again and harder than before. + +Once, after such humiliating debauch, he entered a saloon which +contained the only barber shop in the village, the railway division +point where he had his "layovers" for regular rest. He sat down for +his daily shave. It was the morning after pay-day among the employees, +and, as he stated it to the writer, "everybody, even the barber, had +been drunk." Cigar stumps, empty bottles, cards, and other plentiful +signs of the previous night's carousals covered the floor with +bacchanalian litter. Lying there, eyes shut, an Armageddon was taking +place on the stage of his perturbed soul. His story is this: + +"While lying there that morning a voice said to me, 'You are not a +square-dealer.' I opened my eyes on the barber, only to see a bloated +face with impassive and mute lips; he had said nothing, I could easily +see. I closed my eyes again, only to hear, 'You do not treat me as you +would a gentleman.' I now knew that the voice was that of an unseen +person, and I replied mentally but really. 'Who are you, and what do +you want?' 'I am Jesus, whom you deny without having known, and +condemn without having attempted to prove. You have been saying all +the while you can succeed without my assistance, and you know you have +failed every time. All I want is a chance in your life that I may +prove myself to you.' Then I replied, 'If this is what you want, just +come in and we will talk it over.' He then came in never to go out +again. I went to my little shack-room and, locking the door, took out +of a little old hair-covered trunk a Bible my mother had given me; it +had lain there for thirty long years untouched. I opened it and read a +while and then got down on my knees to pray. What I said was about +like this: 'Lord, if it is really the Lord who was talking to me (I +have my doubts), you know I am a man of my word, and you can trust me. +I want to make you a proposition: I'll do the square thing by you if +you'll do the same by me. Amen!'" + +"This," said he, "was the beginning of the struggle for rest to my +soul; and I found it." + +An incident leading to his immediate, possibly ultimate safety, was a +conversation in a saloon. It does not always transpire that we are +benefited by the act of the talebearer, but in this case it was highly +salutary. One of his engineer friends, drinking at the bar, said: +"Never fear about H----. He will soon get over all this and be along +with us as usual." + +Hearing it, he became very righteously indignant and said: "By the +grace of God, never! I'll go up to the church my wife attends and join +with her, and when they know I am a church member they'll let me +alone." He did so at once. He was saved. He lived for many years, +always happy, always helpful, and without fear he ascended the snowy +hills of old age, with their enveloping mists. + +Afflicted with a creeping paralysis, he lingered long, ever cheerful, +and interested in his friends, to whom he sent many messages. To his +brothers of the Odd Fellows he sent this message: "Boys, I'll not see +you any more. I am just like a boy at Christmas Eve, who with +stocking hung up, is anxious for daylight. The shadows have come over +me. My stocking is hung up by the Father's fireplace and I am almost +impatient for the morning. I haven't the remotest idea what I will +get, but I am sure it will be something good." A few days before his +translation he was visited by one of his old-time railway associates, +who said to him: "H----, you are now up against the real thing, +according to your belief; and it looks to us the same, just as if you +would have to go some one of these days. How does it seem? What is it +like?" + +Looking at the questioner lovingly, the dying man said, "Charley, +you've worked for the railway company a long time, and never had many +promotions, have you?" + +"Yes, about twenty years--and no promotions." + +"Well, Charley, suppose there'd come to you to-day a wire from +headquarters saying there's a big promotion waiting for you on your +arrival, and at the same time a pass for your free transportation. How +do you think that would seem to you?" + +"My soul, but that'd be fine," said he. + +"Well, Charley, that's just my case exactly," said the radiant man. +"I've been working for God and his company for about that same length +of time and never had much promotion so far as I could see, and now I +have a summons direct from the glory land telling me there's a big +advancement for me, and it sounds mighty good." + +He was dressed for the wedding, the Christmas morning, or whatever +awaited him, and was anxious that the couriers of the King should +come. When the moment came the old engineer's headlight was undimmed, +the switch signals showed green, and when he called for the last board +at the home station the signal came back: "All's well; come on in." + +He had received his coveted promotion. + + + + +AN UNUSUAL KINDNESS + + + That best portion of a good man's life-- + His little, nameless, unremembered acts + Of kindness and of love. + --Wordsworth. + +The Methodist locomotive engineer had died joyful. "I am so glad to +go," he said. "I am like a boy when there's a circus in town; I've got +the price, and my baggage is checked clear through." + +I was holding a memorial service for him in his old home town, and at +the close a big, broad-shouldered man came forward to the altar rail +and quietly said, "You did not know that man." + +The remark startled me a little, for I had been acquainted with him +for many years; in fact, had once been his pastor. + +"I thought I did," replied I. + +"No, you never really knew him," was the insistent rejoinder; "let me +tell you something about him. Years ago I was not living as I ought, +and I had all sorts of trouble. My wife was very sick, and we were +living in a bit of a shack back here a little way where she finally +died. I was down and out. The fellows wanted to be good to me, and +they were--in their way of thinking--but it did me no good. They would +say, 'Come, brace up, old fellow, have a drink and forget your +troubles.' But there are some troubles drink will not drown; mine was +one of them. + +"One night our friend came up to my shack, and having visited a while +he said: 'Old man, you're up against it hard, ain't you?' I replied, +'Yes, I am, just up to the limit.' 'Well, let's pray about it.' I told +him I didn't believe in prayer. 'All right,' said he, 'I do, and I'll +pray any way.' You should have heard the prayer he made. It was about +like this: 'God, here's my friend, Charley; he's in an awful fix. +We'll have to do something for him. I've done all I can; now, it's up +to you to see him through. Amen.' + +"Then he arose from his knees and, handing me his check book, he said, +'My wife and I ain't got much, only a couple o' thousand in the bank; +but here's this check book all signed up; take it and use it all if +you need it, and God bless you!' + +"But," added the narrator of the story, "I couldn't use money like +that." + +The tears were fast falling over his bronzed cheeks as he told with +tenderness the story, and as I looked into his eyes I knew that +through knowledge of the dead engineer's kingly kindness had come to +him the knowledge of the new life. + + + + +INDIANS OF THE TRAIL + + Man's inhumanity to man + Makes countless thousands mourn. + --_Burns_. + +[Illustration: CHIEF JOSEPH, NEZ PERCE INDIAN] + + + + +INTRODUCTORY WORDS + + +Indian character is human character because the Indian is human. Being +human he is susceptible to all human teaching and experiences. None +yields more readily to love and kindness. + +Few can speak of the Indian with absolute propriety, for very few know +him. To the mind of most Americans, I venture to say, the very name +"Indian" suggests scalpings, massacres, outrages of all kinds and an +interminable list of kindred horrors; all too true. But it must be +remembered that the Indian presented to his first discoverers a race +most tractable, tenderhearted, and responsive to kindness. He was +indeed the child of the plain, but a loving child. + +The chevaliers both of Spanish and English blood taught him in the +most practical manner the varied refinements of deceit, treachery, and +cruelty. He was an apt scholar, and the devotee of social heredity, +which has here so striking an example, cannot curse the redman if the +sins of the fathers are meted out to succeeding generations. + +Under definite heads I am giving some very brief sketches of living, +down-to-date aborigines, such as have come under my own observation in +Utah and Idaho. + + + + +POCATELLO, THE CHIEF + + + The nodding horror of whose shady brows + Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger. + --_Milton_. + +Fort Hall Reservation, until 1902, embraced a large territory of which +Pocatello was the center. These Idaho red people are the remnants of +the once powerful tribes of the Bannocks and Shoshones, which ranged +from the Blue Mountains in Oregon to the backbone of the Rocky +Mountains. The compressing processes used by the aggressive white +people have encircled, curtailed, and squeezed their borders so that +now they are centered at Fort Hall, half way between Pocatello and +Blackfoot. Here the government has a school for them, and the +Protestant Episcopal Church a mission. + +Pocatello is named for a wily old chief of that name, who became an +outlaw to be reckoned with. He once led a cavalcade of his sanguinary +followers against the newly made non-Mormon town of Corinne, Utah; +but a Mormon who had been notified of the proposed massacre, by a +coreligionist, likewise told a friend among the Gentiles, and a +precautionary counter plan was formulated. Nothing more came of it +than an evening visit from Brigham Young and his staff, who, as +reported, pronounced and prophesied an awful and exterminating curse +upon the town and people. However, because of the warning, his curses +went elsewhere. + +Until recently there lived in the region of the city of Pocatello an +old squaw-man (white man with an Indian wife). His home was within the +borders of the reservation, and he had been there since before the +time when the boundary line between the United States and England +(Canada) was settled. The old man was called "Doc," and once when +visiting him I said, "Tell me about old Pocatello, Doc, and what +became of him." + +The old man, half reclining on the pile of household debris in one +corner of his shanty, permitted me to sit by the door--for there were +no chairs in the place. The four corners were occupied as follows: in +one were his saddle and accouterments for range work; in another the +accumulation of rags and blankets on which he slept (for he lived +alone now, the wife being dead); in another was his little stove, and +the last held the door where I sat. The air was fresher there, I +thought. The veteran of eighty or more years, bronzed by the winds and +roughened by the sweeping sands of the desert, lighted his pipe and +said: "It war in the days o' them freighters who operated 'tween +Corinne an' Virginny City when Alder Gulch was a-goin' chock full o' +business. The Forwardin' Company hed a mighty big lot o' rollin' stock +an' hosses to keep the traffic up. The hull kentry was Injun from +put-ni' Corinne to that there Montanny town. The Bear Rivers an' the +Fort Hall tribes, the Bannocks an' the Blackfeet uste to make life +anything but a Fourth-o'-July picnic fer them fellers an' their +drivers. Right h'yur was the natterelest campin' place fer the +Company, or, ruther, a natterel spot fer the stage-station, where they +could git the stock fresh an' new an' go on, as they hed to do, night +an' day, so's to keep business a-movin', ye see. Fer 'twas a mighty +long rout fer passengers. + +"Now, Pocatello an' his bunch o' red devils got into the habit o' +runnin' off the stock, an' sometimes the Company'd haf to wait half a +day to git enough teams to go on north; or to wait till the fagged +ones'd git a little rest an' then push on wi' the same ones. Mr. +Salisbury, of Salt Lake, was the head o' the Forwardin' Company, an' +he an' his people got mighty all-fired tired o' that sort o' business. +Hosses was dear them days, but Injuns was cheap; so he told a lot o' +us'ns he'd like tarnation well if this sort o' thing'd stop kind o' +sudden like; an' we planned it might be done jist that way too. + +"We kind o' laid low, an' nothin' happened fer quite a while; but one +night a fine bunch o' hosses was run off jist when they's a big lot o' +treasure goin' over the line, an' the management was sure mad. They +told us 'uns agin somethin' had to be done, an' despert quick this +time. So we got busy. We begun to round ol' Pocatello up, an' he +seemed to smell a rat or somethin' wuss, an' started up Pocatello +Crick yander, that there canyon, see? He went almighty fast too when he +got started; so did we, now I tell you, an' we jist kep' a-foller'n', +an' foller'n', an' foller'n', we did--a hull lot ov us--an'--an'--an' +Pocatello never come back." + +Then the old squaw-man tapped the ashes from his pipe, and rising +said, "Well, I guess I'll cinch up the cayuse an' ride some this +a'ternoon." + + + + +THE BABYLESS MOTHER + + Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, + because they are not.--_Saint Matthew_. + + +One of the many signs that the Indian is human is his slowness to +learn. Ever since 1492 the whiter man has been trying to force some +supposedly useful things into the mind of him of the darker skin. One +of these is that he of the blanket has no rights that he of the dress +coat is bound to respect. The Indian rises in practical debate to this +question. His arguments are not words, but the rifle and the +scalping-knife. The whiter man demurs when he receives his justice +dished up to him in redskin style. + +It is unreasonable to the Indian that the white man should take from +him his hunting grounds and limit his access to the very streams +whence his people for ages uncountable filled their pantries for the +winter. He has learned to his disgust (without place for repentance) +that equivalents are equivocations, and that the little baubles the +fathers of the tribes had for their broad acres were mostly worthless. +The civilized trick of procuring the mystic sign manual known as +signature had fastened on them the gyves of perpetual poverty. + +In addition to this, the nation demanded they should send their +children to the white man's school in the far, far away Eastern land, +where they could not see them and from which so many of the red-faced +lads and lassies returned with that dread disease, pulmonary +tuberculosis. But they were only Indians, and what rights had they? +When boys and girls were not promptly surrendered, the soldiers were +sent to chase them down. It would not seem good to us to have big, +brawny Indians on horseback give chase to our children, and catch and +tie them like so many hogs, to be carted off to a land unknown to us; +but then these are only Indians. That makes all the difference +imaginable. + +Some years ago the Fort Hall Indians went on their usual trip to the +edge of Yellowstone Park--Jackson's Hole--for the purpose of laying in +their annual supply of elk and bear meat. The government had forbidden +this, yet they went, with their indispensable paraphernalia and camp +equipage, taking the squaws (and papooses, of course) to dress and +care for whatever of provision fell into their hands. + +When it was discovered that the Indians had gone in the face of the +prohibitory order the soldiers were sent to drive them out. Such +racing and chasing! "Wild horse, wild Indian, wild horseman," as +Washington Irving puts it. Every man and woman for himself now. +Papooses were slung on the saddle-horns of their mothers' horses, a +loop being fastened to the back of the board to which every little +copperfaced tike was strapped. In one of the hard flights through the +thickly fallen and storm-twisted pines, firs, and chaparral a mother, +pressed too hard by the soldiers and cavalry, lost her baby. + +Her tribal friends ventured back after all was safe, and with an +Indian's trail-finding tact hunted high and low, far and wide, but no +trace was ever found of the wee baby. + +"But, then, what mattered it? It was nothing but an Indian baby, and +its mother only an Indian squaw! Who cares for a squaw any way?" + + + + +MARY MUSKRAT + + Now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of + these is love.--_Saint Paul_. + + +When the "teacher" first went among the Indians at Fort Hall her +reception was neither cordial nor cold, for she was not received at +all. She had not been invited and she was not welcome. For the +first eighteen months after reaching the fort she could often hear +in the nighttime the movement of a moccasin, as some tired Indian +spy changed his cramped position, for she was religiously watched +and irreligiously suspected. They could not understand why she, an +unmarried white woman, should leave her home and spend time among +them. + +The braves strode by her in sullen silence, eloquently impressing +their contumelious hauteur. The no less stolid squaws, who observe +everything and see nothing, disdainfully covered their faces with +their blankets or looked in silence in the opposite direction when +the teacher met them or lifted the tent-flap. + +After a long time she won her way with some of the wee ones, and thus +touched the hearts of the mothers, through whom she made a road broad +and wide into the affections of the tribe. They trusted her with the +secrets of the people, and she was at home in every teepee in the +reservation. Gathering the girls together, she taught them the +beautiful words of the Bible, and for many years she lived, loved, and +labored there. + +Mary Muskrat was one of the Bannock girls in the mission school. The +little shrinking, more-than-half-wild papoose of the desert had been +toilsomely but surely trained by the teacher, that bravest of little +women. + +Pulmonary consumption is the bane of the civilized Indians. It carries +them off in multitudes. Despite their outdoor living, it seems that +few, if any, ever recover from an attack. The dread disease had +fastened itself upon Mary and she was sick unto death. Her little +shack was no fit place for a living person, and here was one dying. +Frequent visits from her teacher afforded the dying maiden her only +relief. Once, after watching her through a severe paroxysm of +coughing, it seemed that life had gone completely. Removing the +squalid bunch of rags which served as a pillow, and lowering the head, +the devoted teacher stood watching the supposed lifeless form. But she +saw the lips moving, and, bending low, she heard the dying girl +whisper, "What time I am afraid I will trust in Thee." Continuing, she +breathed out, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.... Yea, +though I walk through the valley and the shadow of death, I will fear +no evil." Pausing, while the heart of the white woman was praising God +for his goodness to the dusky child, Mary opened her beautiful eyes, +and, seeing her protectress and benefactress standing there, said, "O, +dear teacher, the Lord is my shepherd." + +Then the Shepherd came and took her to dwell in the house of the Lord +forever. + + + + +BAD BEN + + A little child shall lead them.--_Isaiah_. + + +Ben's daughter, Mary[1], was the delight of the old man's heart. She +had been taken most unwillingly, so far as both were concerned, and +placed in one of the Eastern schools for Indian youths. Ben had +objected strenuously, but the stronger arm prevailed. + +The teacher at the mission had never in all her many years in that +place felt fear until after Mary was taken away. When the father would +come to the school to ask for news of her, he had his face painted +black, indicating madness or war--"bad heart" he called it. The little +woman who had won the hearts of the people did not know what the +enraged man might do or when he would do it. Once, after many such +terrifying visits, he volunteered the information that he was making +him a house and a farm "all same witee man." He had built it of some +railroad ties he had found and had begun to cultivate a garden and cut +some wild hay. "Me makee heap good wikiup, all same witee man; Mary he +all same witee squaw, by 'um by." + +The white plague is the only disease the Indian fears or calls +sickness. Once, when Ben went to the school where a dozen or so other +happy-faced little girls were being taught and prepared for the +Eastern school, Miss F---- was obliged to tell him Mary was sick. For +a while his savagery was apparently renewed. He became wild again. His +visits increased in frequency, and all the time the teacher was in +mental torture, for he seemed to feel that the white woman was in some +manner connected with his child's going away and her present +condition. + +The dread day came when she must tell the loving father that there was +now no hope for his "lil' gal," as he affectionately called her. Then +another more dreaded day rolled round, and the last story must be +told: Mary had died. She would be buried in the far east. Poor old +father! He could not even see her then. How could he be made to +understand? + +The only solution of the problem was the holding of a memorial service +for her. One of the Pocatello pastors went up to hold such a service +at the Agency and Ben was present. He was told that if he lived with +his heart clean, "no have bad heart," he would see his Mary again. No +one could tell to what extent this message found place in his mind +until later. One day he was seen approaching the mission school slowly +and apparently sorrowful. Miss F---- met him at the door. On entering +he said, "O, Miss F----, bad Injun no liky me have hay, no liky me +have wikiup all same witee man. Bad Injun burn me up; all me wikiup, +all me hay, all me everyt'ing. But me no have bad heart [that means, +"I do not hate them"], me no have bad heart, Miss F----; me no have +bad heart; me want see my lil' gal some day." + +So the lonesome man went away to his one-time home to try to live +among the unchristian and unprogressive Indians without having any +hatred toward them, for he wanted to meet his Mary. + +----- + + [1] Mary is a very frequent name among the Bannocks of Fort Hall. + + + + +A THREE-CORNERED SERMON + + So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not + return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, + and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.--_Isaiah_. + + Thy word, Almighty Lord, + Where'er it enters in + Is sharper than a two-edged sword + To slay the man of sin. + --_Montgomery_. + + +A peculiar wireless telegraphy has ever been in vogue among the +aborigines of many lands. The interior tribes of Africa have it and +use it to perfection. The plains Indians and those of the mountains +know its use, and messages are sent which cause much wonderment to the +white man. + +In 1899 the ghost-dancing was in progress among all the Indians of the +United States. All Indiandom was excited to the highest degree. +Disturbances among them were watched and feared by the government. The +Bannocks and Shoshones of Fort Hall were nerved to a high tension and +quickly athrill to any new movement. Hearing that an unusual interest +was being displayed among the Nez Perces of the north, a committee of +the Fort Hall men was sent to ascertain what it was. It proved to be a +revival of religion conducted by the Presbyterians. The committee was +composed of heathens, but they saw, were conquered, and came home +reporting it was good, and requested that there be similar meetings +held among them. It was so planned and arranged. A Nez Perce +Presbyterian minister was to be their visitant evangelist. + +The various Protestant churches in Pocatello had been by turns +supplying preaching to the people of Fort Hall's tribes, and to the +whites who were the residents at Ross Fork, the seat of the Agency. On +the particular evening when the special meetings were to begin it was +the turn of the writer to preach. The Rev. James Hays, a full-blood +Nez Perce, was there as evangelist. But he could not speak a word of +the Bannock-Shoshone mixed jargonized dialect. He had been educated in +English and could understand me so as to interpret, rather translate +into Nez Perce, but who could reach the people to whom we had the +message? There was present a renegade fellow, Pat Tyhee (big Pat, or +chief Pat), _not an Irishman_. He was a Shoshone who years before had +gone to live among the Nez Perces and had married a woman of them. He +could interpret Hays, but could he be trusted? He was a very +heathenish heathen. The missionary teacher, Miss Frost, consulted with +Mr. Hays and myself as to the wisdom of asking Pat to play interpreter +for the momentous occasion; after fervently praying we concluded to +take the risk and trust to God's leading. Pat, the heathen, was +chosen. It was a queer audience. There were some whites, some Indians. +It was odd to see Gun, the Agency policeman, there with his only +prisoner. There were Billy George, the tribal judge; and Hubert +Tetoby, the assistant blacksmith, as well as others of local +importance. To add to the excitement of the evening, it was the night +before ration day at the Agency, when all the Indians from the entire +Reservation were present--fifteen hundred of them--for their share. +It was a wild time--the raw blanketed man was there for a Saturnalia. +He knew no law but his desires. The unprotected young woman had no +security from him. Indeed, while we were gathering in the mission +house for this service, I noticed a slight stirring at my feet, and +looked, and there was Mary, a young widow, who had scuttled in silent +as a partridge and was snuggling down on the floor just back of my +feet, successful in getting away from some red Lothario who had +pursued her to the door. + +The service began. I preached from the words of Martha to Mary, "The +Master is come and is calling for thee." It was an attempt to show +that Jesus needs us as living agents to work with him. Mr. Hays, I +suppose, and always have believed, translated to Pat in Nez Perce what +I said. Pat in turn interpreted to the assembled band of mixed +Indians. To be sure, I understood not a thing either said: but when I +looked at the earnest, love-ridden, and sweat-covered face of the +yearning Nez Perce, I believed that what he was saying was all I said +and more. And Pat--he was a sight! Had his hands been tied, I really +believed he could not have expressed himself at all. He is about six +feet six in his moccasins, and those long arms accompanied the lengthy +guttural expressions in an intensely effective manner. At the close of +the three-cornered sermon the question was asked, "How many of you +from this time forward are willing to follow Jesus and be known as his +assistants?" Among the most prominent and enthusiastic replies that +came were those of Hubert Tetoby, Billy George, _and Pat Tyhee, the +heathen interpreter_. Looking me straight in the eyes, swerving +neither to the one side nor the other, these madly-in-earnest men of +the mountains held their hands up high as they could reach them. And +in six weeks from that date there was a Presbyterian church there +composed of sixty-five members, of whom only one, the teacher, Miss +Frost, was white; and Pat Tyhee was made one of the elders. There had +been no Christians there at all before those meetings. It was an +Indian Pentecost. + + + + +THREE YEARS AFTER + + Father of all! in every age, + In every clime adored, + By saint, by savage, and by sage, + Jehovah, Jove, or Lord. + --_Alexander Pope_. + + +Some hypercritical person, and possibly some sincere soul, may ask: +"Did such revival do any permanent good? Does not the so-near savage +easily backslide?" To this may be given this partial reply: It depends +somewhat on the sort of white folks there are in the immediate +vicinity. As elsewhere stated in these pages, the pale face has been +the great undoer of the red man. "Civilization" in some garbs is worse +than savagery. The white skin has been the password for some awful +systems of debauchery among the aborigines of America. An Indian +speaker, and chief of police of one of the Indian reservations of +Oregon, said at the Second World's Christian Citizenship Conference in +Portland, 1913: "Before the white man came the Indian had no jails or +locks on their doors. The white man brought whisky; there is now need +of both jails and locks." + +About three years after the meeting at Fort Hall, where the +three-cornered sermon was delivered, Mr. Roosevelt made a visit to the +West. Major A. F. Caldwell, Agent of Indian Affairs at Fort Hall, told +the fourteen hundred red natives that if they would turn out in their +handsomest manner, he would give them all a "big eat" after the visit. +Promptly on the day designated the famous rough rider and the desert +riders were in evidence, the latter in abundance. They went far out +along the railway to meet the train, and then galloped their wiry, +pintoed ponies along by the side of the car, performing many feats of +daring horsemanship, throwing themselves from the flying bronchos and +remounting without a pause, and other stunts which they invented. +After the "pageant had fled" the expectant and hungry Indians were +herded into a large vacant lot in Pocatello, where all sorts of +provisions had been collected for the feast. I was anxious to see +them, and so were many other equally bold and possibly a wee bit +impolite people, for when they had assembled a great crowd of curious +white folks was there gazing. + +The Young Men's Christian Association secretary and I overlooked the +scene from a hotel whose wall formed one side of the enclosure where +the long tables of loose planks were laid. All was hurry, bustle, and +confusion, not much unlike what everyone has witnessed at the ordinary +picnic. + +The Christians and the non-Christians had divided as though not of the +same tribe or blood. These had their tables on one side, those on the +opposite. When all was ready the savage part of the divided company +fell to with vim, vigor, and haste, just as white people often do at +outdoor dinners; but see the others! After all had been carefully +spread, odorous cans of tempting viands opened, and everything +adjusted, the hungry horde was seated. A low word of attention was +given by some one; every head was bowed, quiet was absolute, and Billy +George in guttural tones said something the Lord of all could +understand. When he was through these also fell to with an +unmistakable zest and the day ended merrily for the Indians and +profitably for some of the onlookers. + +This Billy George was crippled by the bullets of some of the +reservation Indians who did not like his progressive ways. He had lost +one leg for this reason. One night, as he was fastening up his +animals, he stooped to lift one of the bars of his corral. Just as he +raised himself, a shot that was doubtless meant for his lowered head +struck his leg and it had to be amputated. + +On the night of his conversion, when he had raised his hand high as he +could reach, he in the after meeting mimicked the white folks who had +slowly and with many side-lookings so slightly moved their hands +upward. He said, "Huh, white folks heap scared, do this way;" and he +imitated them grotesquely. + +Often when leaving his teepee for the hills in order to haul his +winter wood, he would go to the home of Miss F----, the missionary, +and tell her he was going away, and at the same time asking her to be +sure to care for his squaw and papooses if he did not return; for, +said he, "Bad Injun ketchy me some day; no liky me; you savy me liky +whity man." + +So fair of mind was he, and so humanely progressive, that the +government had chosen him as one of the men before whom petty cases +among the tribe were taken. If he could not solve the problems, they +were then carried to the Agent; then on up if not there adjusted. + +When the Presbyterian Missionary Board assisted these Christians to +build a neat house of worship it was, and still is, known far and near +as Billy George's Church. + + + + +CHIEF JOSEPH AND HIS LOST WALLOWA + + Land where my fathers died.--_Smith_. + + +A Cornishman was once asked why there were no public houses (saloons) +in his town. He replied, "Once a man by the name of John Wesley +preached here, and there have been none since." + +Once a man by the name of General O. O. Howard passed through eastern +Oregon and northern Idaho, and the country has not been the same +since. The occasion was the uprising of the Nez Perces Indians in +1877. Ridpath, the historian, tells of the long chase of the red men +and the weary pursuit of "sixteen hundred miles." It was truly a +Fabian retreat on the part of Chief Joseph and his band, but General +Howard was dealing mercifully with them; at a dozen places he could +have given battle, but he spared the useless slaughter, avoiding the +needless scaring of the white settlers and the complement of dire +scenes and death that would necessarily follow. + +The story of Chief Joseph is one of the most interesting unwritten +chapters in the history of the great Northwest. The fact of the +capture of this wily Indian leader with most of his band is well +known. They were banished from the Alpine regions of eastern Oregon +and compelled to make their home across the marble canyon of the Snake +in the State of Idaho, far from their loved Wallowa. + +The valley of Wallowa (an Indian name) is one of the most beautiful +spots imaginable. At its southern end stand pillared peaks, eternally +snow-crowned, rivaling the finest to be seen in Switzerland. Here lies +the limpid, glassy Lake Wallowa, near the busy town of Joseph, so +named in honor of the great chieftain. This emerald valley nestles in +the lap of the Blue Mountains, and was from time immemorial the +favorite home of the exiled natives. When Bonneville passed through +that remote region in the early thirties they were in the enjoyment of +that valley and the rugged recesses of the Imnaha between Oregon and +Walla Walla. The famous red fish, the yank, and others possibly +peculiar to the place were found in abundance in the lake. It was +their treasure house for finny food, and the hovering hills furnished +flesh of deer and bear. + +At a point in the valley twenty miles north of the lake, Old Joseph, +father of the more famous son, lies buried; his bramble-covered grave +is to be seen by the roadside to-day. For this reason something more +than an instinctive affection dominated the heart of the younger man. + +Not long before his death, accompanied by guards, Chief Joseph was +taken into the valley on some sort of errand, and was thus permitted +to see again the enchanting beauties of his birthplace and early home. +How hungry were his eyes as he viewed the great opaline pool which +reflected the sinewy cedars and pointed pines; as he looked upon the +surrounding glen, the ancient game-range, the distant dissolving +plain, the hills heightening through their timber-covered sides up to +the very sky! His bursting heart cried out, "I have but one thing to +ask for from the White Father: Give me this lake and the land around +it, and some few acres surrounding the grave of my father." + +[Illustration: WALLOWA LAKE] + +The white man's ax had cleared the timber about the old man's grave; +the white man's plow might menace the sacred sod above the mute dust +of his honored sire. He wished to protect that place hallowed by +love--his own father's grave. But his plea was denied. He was not +permitted to have what in all reason seemed his very own. + +He was now an old man, with eyes that had never shed tears, a soul +that was unacquainted with fear, and a heart that had never weakened +in the presence of danger. But at the thought that he was no more to +see his lovely Wallowa his eyes melted, his soul sank, his heart +broke. + +Chief Joseph died near Spokane not many years since, wailing out the +one great desire of his life, a final glimpse of the land of his +birth, the hunting ground of his manhood and the graves of his +sires. + + + + +THE WHITE MAN'S BOOK + + The book--this holy book, on every line + Mark'd with the seal of high divinity, + On every leaf bedew'd with drops of love + Divine, and with the eternal heraldry + And signature of God Almighty stampt + From first to last--this ray of sacred light, + This lamp, from off the everlasting throne, + Mercy took down, and, in the night of time + Stood, casting on the dark her gracious bow; + And evermore beseeching men, with tears + And earnest sighs, to read, believe, and live; + And many to her voice gave ear, and read, + Believed, obey'd. + --_Pollok._ + + +Having heard the early explorers speak of God, the Bible, and +religion, and knowing that on Sundays the flag was raised and +work suspended, the Indians wanted to know more about these +things, and two chiefs, Hee-oh'ks-te-kin (Rabbit-skin Leggins) +and H'co-a-h'co-a-cotes-min (No-horns-on-his-Head) set out to find +the white missionaries who could inform their troubled minds. +They did not reach Saint Louis until 1832, where they found General +Clark, whom they had known. The messengers were of the Nez Perce +tribe. General Clark took them to the cathedral and showed them the +pictures of the saints and entertained them in the best and most +approved Christian style; but they were heart-hungry and went home +dissatisfied. One of them made the following speech to the kindly +soldier, General Clark: + +"I came to you over a trail of many moons from the setting sun. You +were the friend of my fathers who have all gone the long way. I came +with one eye partly opened, for more light for my people who sit in +darkness. I go back with both eyes closed. How can I go back with both +eyes closed? How can I go back blind to my blind people? I made my way +to you with strong arms, through many enemies and strange lands, that +I might carry much back to them. I go back with both arms broken and +empty. The two fathers who came with us--the braves of many winters +and wars--we leave asleep by your great water and wigwam.[2] They were +tired in many moons, and their moccasins wore out. My people sent me +to get the white man's Book of heaven. You took me where you allow +your women to dance, as we do not ours, and the Book was not there; +you showed me the images of the good spirits and the pictures of the +good land beyond, but the Book was not among them to tell us the way. +I am going back the long, sad trail to my people of the dark land. You +make my feet heavy with the burden of gifts, and my moccasins will +grow old in carrying them, but the Book is not among them. When I tell +my poor, blind people, after one more snow, in the big council, that I +did not bring the Book, no word will be spoken by our old men or our +young braves. One by one they will rise up and go out in silence. My +people will die in darkness, and they will go on the long path to the +other hunting grounds. No white man will go with them and no white +man's Book will make the way plain. I have no more words." + +It was the rumor of this address that started Jason Lee and Marcus +Whitman westward over the old Trail. + +----- + + [2] Four of their number had died, and only one reached home. + + + + +LIGHTS AND SIDELIGHTS + + I love thy rocks and rills, + Thy woods and templed hills, + My heart with rapture thrills. + --_Smith_. + + + + +LIGHTS AND SIDELIGHTS + + +The Old Oregon Trail takes bold way through some of the very finest +scenery of the West. These new ships of the desert, the passenger +trains, glide gracefully down from the aerial highways of the mountain +passes into the heart of our fertile oases. Whichever way the traveler +turns he sees something absolutely new, and often in strange contrast +with what he has just been beholding. Stately, snow-crowned giants of +the lordly hills, fir-fringed up to timber line, stand motherlike, or +bishoplike, crozier-cragged, shepherding the verdant uplands and the +velvety valleys whose billowy meadows bend beneath the highland +zephyrs or fall before the scythe of the prospering farmer. Now he +beholds the ruggedest of capacious canyons where the rollicking rivers +and rhythmic rills have cut great gorges deep into the rocky ribs of +the tightly hugging hills. Another turn and he sees the hearty herds +transforming themselves automatically into gold for their happy +owners; another turn shows the lazy rivers arising from their age-long +beds and mossy couches to climb the hot hillsides and to toil and +sweat at the command of the lord of this world, as they irrigate his +arid acres. Yet another turn and the wrathful river is carrying on its +breast the tens of thousands of winter-cut logs dancing like straws on +its frothy surface on their way to the busy mills; and the turbulent +streams, their wildness tamed and harnessed, serve the needs of man +like trusted domestic servants. + +But this is not the way to view mountains; it is only surface sights +we get in this manner. He who would know the beauties of the hills +must become acquainted with them personally _and on foot_. Anyone can +enjoy the lazy luxury of the cozy precincts of an upholstered, +porter-served car. He may travel horseback or donkey-back, if he cares +to visit only where such sure-footed animals can go. However, when I +want to see the stately things among the unchiseled palaces and +temples where Nature pays homage in the courts of the Divine +Architect, I dismiss all modes of conveyance, and with well-nailed +shoes, rough clothes, a staff, and a lunch, I take the kingdom by +force. When once in, I am royally entertained; for though coy and +apparently hard to woo, Nature is a most delightful companion when +once you are acquainted. + + The distant mountains, that uprear + Their solid bastions to the skies, + Are crossed by pathways, that appear + As we to higher levels rise. + +So sang Longfellow. Bishop Warren said that every peak tempted him as +with a beckoning finger, daring him to a climb. + +To those who have never been nearer the unlocked fastnesses of our +eternal American hills than by the too common means above mentioned, +the far-away cliffs of marble or white granite, with their areas of +unmeltable snows and ices, look temptingly down on us in August, +together with the smaller and less inspiring crags. But when we +approach them, even those nearest, how they appear to recede--almost +to run away! The high peaks that looked as though climbing up and +peeping over the heads of the lower ones, either jump down and +bashfully run to hide, or the little ones rise up to protect them. So +it seems as one approaches. + +Entering the mountain side by way of a yawning canyon we soon come to a +sheer precipice lying in a deep gorge with perpendicular sides, while, +leaping from the top of the declivity high above our heads, as if from +the very zenith, a stream of crystal water cleaves the air. It is +dashed into countless strands of silvery pearls before it reaches the +deep bed of moss spread down to receive it, and where it lies resting +awhile for its downward journey toward the moon-whipped ocean. + +Ah, Longfellow! You have taught us how to climb some mountains, but +here we have to construct our ladders, for anyone less sure of foot +than the chamois or the mountain sheep must stay at the bottom of the +falls. Scylla and Charybdis are stationary now, and the gaping chasm +has swallowed us upward, where we reach an opening into a wide park, a +veritable fairyland. On the top of one of those ponderous laminations +tilted edgewise is the king of the gnomes of the new glen. We call +him Pharaoh. How archly he looks out over his wide domain! His kingly +cap is adorned with a cobra ready to strike, yet out on his ample +breast floats a most royal but un-Pharonic beard. This is one of the +ways the quondam haughty hills have of providing entertainment for the +bold questioner and visitor. + +The scenery is always new. High rocks, whose rugged faces look as if +their titanic architect had been surprised and driven away while as +yet his task was not half completed; long gaping gulches lined with an +evergreen decoration of spruce, cedar, manzanita, and mountain +mahogany, are some of the sidelights to be found in a day's journey in +the realms adjacent to the Old Oregon Trail. + + + + +THE STAGECOACH + + My high-blown pride + At length broke under me and now has left me, + Weary and old with service, to the mercy + Of a rude stream, that must forever hide me. + --_Shakespeare_. + + Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens.... When I was at home I was + in a better place; but travelers must be content.--_Shakespeare_. + + + + +THE STAGECOACH + + +At frequent intervals throughout the widening West may be seen the +relegated ship of the desert standing forlorn, friendless, forsaken. +The merciless claws of summer and the icy fangs of winter are +loosening the red paint, and the white canvas cover and side curtains +are flapping in the winds. The tired tongue, dumb with age and years +of use, still tells tales of hardships by the silent eloquence of its +multitude of unhealed scars. + +This class of carryall was at once unique and supreme. It was the +one indispensable link in the endless chain of evolution popular and +powerful, the only public agent of the Trail and the plains until +the unconquerable initiative of the lord of the world had time to +steel a highway with trackage for more rapid transit. What a living +link was that old overland stage! To look upon an isolated and +abandoned relic of earlier pioneerdom is like standing at the marble +monument of some human pivot in the mighty march of man's progress. +Before the bold and bustling railway noisily elbowed its way into the +affections of travel and commerce and pushed aside the patient wagon +of the nation-builders, the tens of thousands of hurried travelers +enjoyed (or endured) the hospitality of its rocking thorough-braces as +they, hour by hour, day after day, and night after night, and even +week after week in the longer journeys, sat atop or inside this +leviathan of the sand-ocean making the most rapid trip possible and +under safe guidance. + +Could such old hulk tell its story, could that dried-up old tongue but +begin to wag again, what tales! First would come those of the men too +often overworked and underappreciated, like our modern railmen, the +drivers of the stage. These, as the ancient Jehu, were compelled to +drive furiously on occasion, in order to keep a cramped schedule or +make up for the loss of time brought about by a breakdown, a washout, +or some Indian depredation. Few drivers there were who did not love +their work. It came to be a saying, "Once a driver, always a driver." +The coach-and-four, or more, with booted and belted man on the throne +of the swinging chariot, made every boy envious and created in him a +desire to become great some day too. Eagle and Dick, Tom and Rock, +Bolly and Bill understood the snap of the whip, or its more wicked +crack, as well as they did the tension of the line or the word of the +chief charioteer, who, with foot on the long brake-beam, regulated the +speed of the often crowded vehicle down the precipitous places which +to the novice looked very dangerous. But Jehu is no longer universal +king. A Pharaoh who knew him not has heartlessly and definitely +usurped some of his places. + +In the boot of this old seaworthy craft was hauled many a load of +treasure, for the gold-hungry prospector without sextant and chain +surveyed the fastnesses of the hills as well as the illimitation of +the prairies, and a care-taking government made a way to his camp to +send him his mail. Express companies joined their traffic to that of +Uncle Sam, and he of the pick and shovel became the lodestone to +popular convenience. With many a load of treasure went a man known as +a messenger, who sat beside the driver, carrying a sawed-off gun under +his coat, ready to meet the gangster or holdup, who so often robbed +both stage and passenger. + +In the hold of this old coach have ridden governors, statesmen of all +grades, men and women, good and better (some bad and worse); here were +bridal tours, funeral parties, commercial men and gamblers, miners and +prospectors, Chinamen and Indians, pleasure-seekers and labor-hunters, +officers and convicts. + + Men of every station + In the eye of fame, + On a common level + Coming to the same-- + +is the way Saxe punningly puts it; but more of a leveler was this old +coach, for there was of necessity the forceful putting of people of +the most heterogeneous character together in the most homogeneous +manner as the omnibus (most literal word here), made up its hashy load +at the hand and command of the driver, whose word was unappealable law +as complete as that of another captain on the high seas. Prodigal, +profligate, and pure, maiden or Magdalene, millionaire or Lazarus, all +were crowded together as the needs of the hour and the size of the +passengers demanded, to sit elbow to elbow, side by side to the +journey's end. + +Huddled thus, they traveled unchanged till the stage station was +reached; here the horses were exchanged for fresher ones; the wayside +inn had its tables of provisions varying and varied as the region +traversed. If in the mountains, there were likely to be trout, saddle +of deer, steaks of bear; but if through the sands, there was provided +bacon or other coarser fare. Usually these crowds were joking and +jolly, unless tempered by something requiring more sobriety, but +always optimistic, for the fellow who became grouchy the while had +generally abundant occasion to repent and mend his ways. + +One day, on a road not far from where this is being written, the old +coach was toiling up a long mountainside; the driver was drowsy and +the passengers had exhausted their newest repertoire of stories and +had lapsed into stillness such as often seizes a squeezed crowd. The +horses were permitted to take their time; the dust was deep, the sun +hot, and all possible stillness prevailed. + +"Halt!" ordered a low voice very near the road. + +The driver, Tom Myers, did not understand the command, and simply +looked up, half asleep, and said to the horses, "Gid-dap!" + +"Halt!" came the words again, louder and unmistakable. + +Myers halted. Standing at the end of an elongated bunch of pines where +he had been invisible until the heads of the horses appeared stood the +highwayman, with menacing gun covering the head of the driver. + +"Throw out your treasure and mail!" came the command. + +"I have mail, but no treasure," said my friend Tom, as he afterward +pointed out the spot and told the story. "Come and get it." + +The lone robber rifled the sacks, turned the pockets of the travelers +inside out, and bade them drive on without imitating Lot's wife; he +was never caught. + +To be sure, this is a tame story, and many readers doubtless can tell +one more thrilling; but this one is true. + +The stagecoach is a thing of the past, but we still have the hardy, +dust-covered, mud-daubed teamster, who yet must haul the freight far +back into hills where for ages there will be no railway. To these, +Godspeed and good cheer! They live by the Trails; they eat at the +wheel; they sleep under the wagon; they are kindly and obliging even +when their heavily belled teams of six to fourteen or more head of +horses meet another loaded caravan in some narrow pass where the +highest engineering ability is needed to get by in safety; and they +never leave a fellow-traveler in distress. + + + + +AMONG THE HILLS + + To him who in the love of Nature, holds + Communion with her visible forms, she speaks + A various language;... + The hills + Rock-ribbed, and ancient as the sun. + --_Bryant_. + + Not vainly did the early Persian make + His altar the high places and the peak + Of earth-o'ergazing mountains, and thus take + A fit and unwalled temple, there to seek + The Spirit, in whose honor shrines are weak, + Upreared of human hands.... compare + Columns and idol-dwellings, Goth or Greek + With Nature's realm of worship. + --_Byron_. + + + + +THE MOTHER DEER + + + The ragged sky-line high in air + Sits boundary to sight + And seems to end the world; + But topping it by way well worn by braver + pioneer, + A fertile, home-filled dale is found + Where love holds warm, + And schools and churches dot the land. + But while the slow-drawn old stagecoach + With load of dust-clad travelers + Crawls over jolting, stone-filled ruts, + The puffing beasts, sweat-covered, + Winding in and out among the stately + pines + (Where friendly Nature spreads her yellow + moss + O'er bleaching arms long since deprived of + life), + May now be seen a mother deer + Half hidden 'mong the sloping boughs; + Alert, ears high, eyes wide, body so tense + And motionless. In silence all + The passengers admire the instinct-love + Which not affrights the spotted babe + Fast sleeping at her feet. + "There are no guns aboard!" says one. + "But if there were, how could one's heart + Be hard enough to murder mother-love?" + Said I. + + + + +THE SHEPHERD + + The tired shepherd stands among his ewes + That with their lambs are unafraid + Of him and keen-eyed dogs; + They crouch close in about his feet + Whene'er the coyote's cry + Or bear's low growl + Falls tingling on the timid ear. + Himself thrusts gun to elbow-place + And peers amid the dust-dressed sage + And scented chaparral so dense, + To glimpse the fiery eyeballs + Of the prowler of the hills; + While all awatch the faithful collies stand + Prepared to fend e'en with their lives + The young and helpless not their own. + + + + +THE FEATHERED DRUMMER + + + The wooded thicket holds a drum. + The air in springtime afternoons + Is filled with sharp staccato notes + Whose echoes clear reverberate + From precipice and timbered hills. + No fifer plays accompaniment; + No pageant proud or marching throng + Keeps step to this deep pulsing bass + Whose sullen solo booms afar. + + A double challenge is this gage, + A gauntlet flung for love or war; + As strutting barnyard chanticleer + Defies his neighboring lord: + So calls this crested pheasant-king + For combat or for peace. + The meek brown mate upon her nest + Feels happy and secure + While thus her lord by deed and word + Displays his woodland bravery + And guards their little home. + + + + +MORMONDOM + + That fellow seems to possess but one idea, and that is the wrong + one.--_Samuel Johnson_. + + Utah is harder than China.--_Bishop Wiley_. + + Utah is the hardest soil into which the Methodist plowshare was + ever set.--_Bishop Fowler_. + + + + +THE TRAIL OF THE MORMON + + +By the Trail had gone Jason Lee, in 1834, to plant the sturdy oak of +Methodism in the Willamette Valley and the north Pacific Coast. His +task was nobly done; the developments of to-day attest the wisdom of +the church in sending him and his coequal coadjutors, Daniel Lee, +Cyrus Shepherd, and P. L. Edwards. + +Over this same track went Marcus Whitman, in 1835, to found the +mission at Waiilatpu, near the present site of Walla Walla, and to +find there the early grave of honorable martyrdom at the hands of the +people he was attempting to save. The call to these two intrepid +equals, Lee and Whitman, came through the visit of the two young +Indian chiefs who, immediately after the expedition of Lewis and +Clark, had gone to Saint Louis to obtain a copy of the "white man's +Book of heaven." The names of these two, as previously stated, were +Hee-oh'ks-te-kin and H'co-a-h'co-a-cotes-min. + +On the sixth day of April, 1830, in Kirkland, Ohio, Joseph Smith, Jr., +had organized the body best known as the Mormon Church. Fourteen years +later he was mercilessly, and unjustly, mobbed at Nauvoo, Illinois, +and after three more years of drifting about from pillar to post, the +Latter-Day Saints prepared to emigrate to upper California under the +absolute domination and guidance of Brigham Young, who was often +styled the successor to the "Mohammed of the West," as Joseph Smith +was sometimes called. This cult had some queer traits. W. W. Phelps, +one of their more prominent members, thus characterized the leaders of +Mormondom: Brigham Young, the Lion of the Lord; P. P. Pratt, the +Archer of Paradise; O. Hyde, the Olive Branch of Israel; W. Richards, +the Keeper of the Rolls; J. Taylor, Champion of Right; W. Smith, the +Patriarchal Jacob's Staff; W. Woodruff, the Banner of the Gospel; G. +A. Smith, the Entablature of Truth; O. Pratt, the Gauge of Philosophy; +J. E. Page, the Sun Dial; L. Wright, Wild Mountain Ram. + +Expelled from Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri, the trembling Saints +sought less turbulent surroundings by immersing their all in the wild +conditions both of men and wilderness in the untamed lands of the +great West. They were not able to sustain the physical cost of the +trek of more than a thousand miles under the hardest of circumstances. +The Trail was the home of the Sioux, the Cheyennes, the Arapahoes, the +Otoes, Omahas, Utes, and others, who knew neither law nor mercy. The +waters were often alkaline and deadly as Lethe. A thousand miles afoot +was the record some had to make. They appealed to the government, then +at war with Mexico, to permit a number of their men to enlist as +soldiers to be marched over the ancient Santa Fe Trail, and thus be +able to draw wages on the journey. This was granted. These recruits +had little, if anything, to do, but they are known in history as the +Mormon battalion. They went to California, 1847-49, and were present +when James Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill. + +In 1847, July 24, Mormondom threw up its first trenches in the valley +of the Great Salt Lake, as that saline body was then known and +recorded. In this salubrious region was planted the analogy of the +harem of Mohammed, and the seraglio of Brigham became the center of +the sensual system of the Latter-Day Saints. So blatant was the +apostle Heber Kimball that he said he himself had enough wives to whip +the soldiers of the United States. + +Evangelical Christianity waited almost twenty years before an attempt +was made to plant the high standards of Christendom in the Wahsatch +Mountains. In the sixties went the denominations in the order here +named: Congregational, Protestant Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal; in +1871 the Presbyterians went, and then the Baptists. It was dark. +Mighty night had beclouded the intellect and obscured the spiritual +senses; civilized sensuality swayed with unchecked hand the destinies +of the masses. The blinded people groped for light in the pitchlike +blackness of the new superstition. + +"None but Americans on guard" in such a night! Hear the roll call. +None but tried and true Christian soldiers were mounted on those +ramparts: Erastus Smith, the heart-winner; Thomas Wentworth Lincoln, +the scholarly but quiet Grand Army man, who always kept his patriotic +fires banked; George Ellis Jayne, another veteran of the Civil War, +tireless evangelist who possibly saw more Mormons made Christian than +any other pastor of any church in Utah; George Marshall Jeffrey, +eternally at it; Joseph Wilks, methodic, patient, sunny; Martinus +Nelson, weeping over the straying of his Norwegians; Emil E. Moerk, +rugged and steadfast; Martin Anderson and Samuel Hooper, both of +whom died by the Trail, falling at the "post of honor." Last, but not +least of these to be named, stands the energetic and "Boanergetic" +Thomas Corwin Iliff, that Buckeye stentor and patriot, who with +heart-thrilling tones has raised millions of dollars in aiding and +in establishing hundreds and hundreds of churches in these United +States. For thirty years he commanded the Methodist as well as the +patriotic redoubts of Utah and bearded the "Lion of the Lord" in +his very den. + +But there were never truer watchmen on the high-towered battlements +of the real Zion than the Protestant Episcopal Bishop, Daniel S. +Tuttle; the knightly Hawkes of the Congregationalists; the truly +apostolic Baptist, Steelman; the Presbyterian leaders--who surpasses +them? See the saintly Wishard, the polemic McNiece and McLain; the +scholarly and tireless Paden! + +They were loyal to the core, commanding the Christian forces as they +deployed, enfiladed, charged, marched, and stormed the trenches of +religious libertinism in the fertile and paradisaical valleys and +roomy canyons of the Mormon state of Deseret. These never surrendered, +compromised, or retreated. + +Glorious Brotherhood! Permit us the honor of saluting you. Your like +may never march abreast again in any campaign! Living, you were +conquerors; dying, you are heroes. + +Of these above named Messrs. Hooper, Anderson, Steelman, and McNiece +have entered the "snow-white tents" of the other shore. + + + + +SOME MORMON BELIEFS + + His studie was but litel on the Bible.--_Chaucer_. + + Imaginations fearfully absurd, + Hobgoblin rites, and moon-struck reveries, + Distracted creeds, and visionary dreams, + More bodiless and hideously misshapen + Than ever fancy, at the noon of night, + Playing at will, framed in the madman's brain. + --_Pollok, in Course of Time_. + +The abode of the dead, where they remained in full consciousness of +their condition for indefinable periods, or even for eternity, has +been the theme of many a writer both before and after the advent of +the Saviour of men. Annihilation is repugnant to the common +intelligence. Homer sends Ulysses, Dantelike, to the realms of the +dead, where he converses with them he had known in life. The Stygian +River, the dumb servitor, Charon, the coin-paid fare, are all well +known in the classics of the ancients. + +In some later religio-philosophic studies the names are different; +some have tartarus, some purgatory, some paradise. The last is the +name adopted by the Mormons. + +The heroes of Homer seemed never to hope for a release from the bonds +of Hades. Voluptuous Circe, the Odysseyan swine-maker, told the hero +of those tales he was a daring one: + + "... who, yet alive, have gone + Down to the abode of Pluto; twice to die + Is yours, while others die but once." + +Many well meaning minds have tried to discover in the Bible, or +otherwise reasonably invent a second probation for the unrepentant as +an addendum to the final resurrection of the just. Not a little has +been made of the term "spirits in prison" (1 Pet. 3. 19, 20), and of +"baptism for the dead" (1 Cor. 15. 29). In the intensity of zeal, or +as a proselyting advertisement, the Latter-Day Saints proclaim the +possibility of all the inhabitants of the grave (paradise) being saved +in heaven. To this end, early in the history of the organization, +there was implanted the doctrine of preaching to the departed and that +of proxy ministrations. + +From their Articles of Faith I take these two: + + 3. We believe that through the atonement of Christ all mankind may + be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. + + 4. We believe that these ordinances are: First, Faith in the Lord + Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for + the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of + the Holy Ghost. + +Now, since without immersion there is no remission of sins, and since +they who are in prison (paradise) are eligible to salvation, therefore +some one must be baptized for them and have all the other rites of the +plan likewise administered in their name. That "all things may be done +decently and in order," there was received a "revelation" to the end +that temples must be built, recorders and other officials appointed, +and all the paraphernalia necessary for the work prepared. When these +rites are consummated some elder of the church who dies goes to the +spiritual prison house and tells the people therein confined that +these most meritorious works have been done for them on earth; in +fact, this is the chief reason for their going thither. They who will +believe this story and repent of their sins are then and there +entitled to "a right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the +gates into the city." + +Not only are the people redeemed from all their sins by the pious +ministrations of the many temple-workers, who, like Samuel, +continually serve and minister therein, but as marriage relations are +to continue throughout the endless ages of eternity, and children are +to be born forever and ever, these dead have the hymeneal ceremony +performed "for eternity"; this act is known as the "sealing" process. +Men are here married--by proxy--to others than the actual living wife, +sometimes with her consent, sometimes without it. One old gentleman, +whose name is not to be mentioned, was sealed thus for eternity to +Martha Washington and to Empress Josephine. It sounds farcical and +foolish in the extreme; fit only to be counted as a silly joke, +unworthy the attention of a sane soul for a minute; but it is terribly +sober when it is remembered that there are hundreds of thousands of +innocent, honest, and unsuspecting Mormons who really and truly +believe this to be the only road to eternal life and exaltation. + +Added to this is the doctrine of the deification of men. All the true +and faithful Mormons are to become gods by and by, and create and +populate new worlds; hence the value of polygamy; in fact, this world +is but one of the samples of this truth. Adam is the owner and ruler +of earth, and to him we pray. He is our God. As such he is only one in +an endless procession of such beings. + +"There has been and there now exists an endless procession of the +Gods, stretching back into the eternities, that had no beginning and +will have no end. Their existence runs parallel with endless duration, +and their dominions are limitless as boundless space."[3] + +Possibly the most popular hymn among these people is the following, +written by one of the wives of Joseph Smith, Eliza R. Snow. It is in +their collection and now in use: + + HYMN TO FATHER AND MOTHER + + O my Father, thou that dwellest + In the high and glorious place! + When shall I regain thy presence, + And again behold thy face? + In thy holy habitation, + Did my spirit once reside? + In my first primeval childhood, + Was I nurtured by thy side? + + For a wise and glorious purpose + Thou hast placed me here on earth, + And withheld the recollection + Of my former friends and birth; + Yet ofttimes a secret something + Whispered, "You're a stranger here"; + And I felt that I had wandered + From a more exalted sphere. + + I had learned to call thee Father, + Through thy Spirit from on high; + But, until the Key of Knowledge + Was restored, I knew not why. + In the heavens are parents single? + No; the thought makes reason stare! + Truth is reason; truth eternal + Tells me, I've a mother there. + + When I leave this frail existence, + When I lay this mortal by, + Father, mother, may I meet you + In your royal court on high? + Then, at length, when I've completed + All you sent me forth to do, + With your mutual approbation + Let me come and dwell with you. + +----- + + [3] New Witness for God, B. H. Roberts, 1895. + + + + +WEBER TOM, UTE POLYGAMIST + + Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor'd mind + Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; + His soul proud Science never taught to stray + Far as the solar walk or milky way. + --_Pope_. + +When Mormonism was no longer compelled to maintain the defensive it +quickly assumed the offensive. This was apparently deemed necessary +for the existence of the system. Two kinds of preaching were indulged +in by the elders on their missions, home and foreign. At home they +declared the beauty of the Smithian gospel, including the doctrine of +polygamy, a sweet morsel for the blood-thirsty Utes. They were trying +by every means, Machiavellian or otherwise, to gain the Lamanites, as +Indians were called by the Mormons, at least to an extent which would +allow them to remain undisturbed throughout the territory of Utah. Old +Kanosh and other leaders were immersed for the remission of their +sins, but they were permitted to multiply unto themselves as many +squaws as they cared for. It would take water stronger than the common +alkaline pools contained to reach the morals of a heathen Ute. + +Very many of the Indians thus were made Mormons and white men were +appointed as their bishops. Brigham Young used to make visits to them +to try to instruct them in various things. For a considerable period +he was the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Territory. He was +such official at the time of the lamentable Mountain Meadow Massacre, +in 1857, and for which crime Bishop John D. Lee suffered death. + +Possibly it was the influence of Mr. Young that kept the most of the +red men from the warpath and thus saved the scattered settlers in the +earlier days when there were so few to guard the isolated homes in the +far-away nooks and canyons of the mountains. + +The other sort of preaching in which the elders indulged was that of +an absolute and unqualified denial of polygamy in Utah. Such was the +plan of the elders who went to Europe. The public denial of John +Taylor, later president of the church, is abundant evidence. When they +deny polygamy now they have the consistency of definition to back +them; to their manner of explaining, polygamy is the act of taking new +wives; to the non-Mormon, polygamy is the possessing of more than one +wife. For this reason we are very bold in saying that polygamy is +publicly practiced in Utah--witness Joseph F. Smith as chief example. + +Although we may read of it, none can comprehend just what it means to +a girl-wife, two thousand miles away from her parents, to be treated +as an alien, in a land under the flag of the free. This was the case +in the strictly Mormon settlements in Utah thirty years ago. Reason +only kept the Giant Despair from the threshold of the mind. The +bravery of these women can be compared only to the English women of +the Sepoy Rebellion days of 1857 in India, or to those of our American +sisters who accompanied their valorous husbands to their isolated +posts on the Indian frontiers, resolved to share equally in the +dangers, and to die lingeringly and cruelly if necessary. Retreat and +surrender never grew in the hearts of such women. It was so in the +times that were called the "dark days" in Utah--the time when the +government applied its functions to the stamping out of polygamous +practices, 1883 to 1893--ten terrible years for the Mormon as well as +the non-Mormon. + +Add to this the fact that, unannounced, a brawny, stalwart Indian +might walk in at the door. More than once has it so occurred in our +home. One day the door was suddenly opened and in walked a grinning +brave, armed with a long knife, and followed by his squaw; extending +his empty hand toward the far-from-home girl-wife, alone in the house, +he said, "How-do!" In telling us of it, she said: "I was scared to +death, I thought, but I would have shaken hands with him if I had died +in the attempt. I would not let him know I feared him." But this was +not Weber Tom. + +It was in those fearsome days when the leading men of Utah--farmers, +bankers, stockmen, church dignitaries, all sorts and conditions of the +Latter-Day Saints--were being arrested and haled to the courts almost +daily, that one morning there rode up to our door the battle-scarred +old warrior, Weber Tom, chief of the Skull Valley Utes, or Goshutes. + +If perfection is beauty, this Indian was most beautiful, for he was +the ugliest creature imaginable, ugly even to perfection. One eye had +been gouged out, a knife-scar extended from his ear down across his +mouth, and he was Herculean in physical proportions. I am a large man, +but once when I gave him an overcoat he tried vainly to button it over +his vast frontal protuberance, looking at me and saying, "Too short, +too short." + +This giant chief dismounted, and, seeing my wife standing near, +reached the reins of the bridle to her and said, "Here, squaw, hol' my +hoss." + +She said, quietly, "Hold your own horse if you want him held." + +Having had to accommodate himself to the rudeness of a civilized +woman, he made other provision for his cayuse and then asked her, +"Wheh yo'man?" + +She told him I was down in the field, and he then proceeded to find +me. He was in the depths of trouble. He had several squaw-wives and +feared he was to be arrested for it. + +Now he approached me. It was dramatic; it was high-class pantomime. +It is too bad the kinetoscope, cinematograph, or some other +moving-picture machine had not been invented. He seemed awed by a +presence, yet so emboldened by the needs of his case that he +walked stoically to his quest. + +Squaring his Atlaslike shoulders, he began: "You heap big chief. You +talky this way" (at the same time extending one finger straight from +his lips). "Mormon he talky this way" (now extending two fingers, to +show he understood them to talk with double tongue). "Mormon telly me +sojer men ketchy me, put me in jug [jail]; me havy two, tree, four +squaw. You heap big chief. You telly me this way" (one finger). +Continuing, he said: "Me havy two, tree, four squaw. Mormon he telly +me, me go jug; one my squaw he know dat, he heap cry, _heap_ cry, HEAP +cry, by um by die!" + +This was accompanied by gestures, throwing his body backward in +imitation of the dying woman whom fear had killed, according to his +dramatic story. + +I told him something like this: "No, heap big lie. You go back Skull +Valley, you stay home, no sojer ketchy you, you be heap good Injun!" +Upon this he grunted deeply, shook hands cordially, went back to his +many-wived tents over across the creek, and soon we saw them filing +off through the sagebrush toward their Skull Valley home, many miles +over the Onaqui range. + + + + +POLYGAMY OF TO-DAY + + The man that lays his hand upon a woman, + Save in the way of kindness, is a wretch + Whom 't were gross flattery to name a coward. + --_John Tobin_. + + A baby was sleeping, + Its mother was weeping. + --_Samuel Lover_. + + +Polygamy _may_ die in Mormondom, but has never yet done so. Cases are +often reported, and from the manner of their finding it is a certainty +that new alliances are being formed continually between married men +and unmarried women. + +Not long ago a very bright conversion was made in one of the missions +of an evangelical denomination. The convert was a young woman of more +than average intelligence. Some of her relatives had been polygamists, +but she repudiated the whole cult and creed. For a while this decision +made it necessary for her to find other residence than her rightful +home. + +Some time after she permitted herself to be persuaded that a young man +of her acquaintance loved her more than he did the polygamous tenet of +his church--he was a Mormon--and that he never would attempt to woo +and win another woman while she remained his wife. She consented, and +was happy in her home life. Not for a moment did she suspect him of +double-dealing. Her honest heart was above entertaining such suspicion +had it entered. Serenely she saw her children growing to useful +womanhood. Not a cloud of anxiety appeared on the calm sea of life; +all was fine sailing. One day she was making some repairs in one of +her husband's garments when a letter fell from a pocket. It bore the +postmark of a city where they both had relatives, and it was quite +natural that she should look into its contents. + +What despair and agony seized her when she read therein the statement +from the "other woman" telling her "fond" husband of the birth of the +child! + +The poor, heart-stricken, and hitherto trusting wife immediately rose +to the dignity of outraged womanhood and insulted wifehood and +compelled the polygamist to choose at once between her and the +concubine. He did so, choosing the younger woman and leaving her who +had trusted him too fondly. + +This is not a tale of the ancients in Utah, but a living, festering +story of the vivid present. + +One way of avoiding prosecution by the law is the surreptitious, +clandestine rearing of children, whose mothers lose no prestige in the +community; for it is well understood "among the neighbors and +friends." "Public polygamy has been suspended," but the requirement of +the doctrine remains unchanged. + + + + +GREAT SALT LAKE + + So lonely 'twas that God himself + Scarce seemed there to be. + --_Coleridge_. + + This is truth the poet sings + That a sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering + happier things. + --_Tennyson_. + + + + +GREAT SALT LAKE + + +Many stories, weird and lurid, true and untrue, have been told of this +body of saline water lying imposed on the breast of the beautiful and +scenic State of Utah. Although one of the transcontinental highways of +ocean-to-ocean travel has extended its bands of steel directly across +its wide bosom for many miles, it is still a spot where mystery +lingers. + +Private as well as public legends are handed down from lip to ear +rather than from page to eye. For that reason there are tales of this +wonderful salt sea to be learned only by residing in the vicinity. Its +natural moods are unlike the ocean, and its individual characteristics +would make a book. + +The briny pond is but a wee thing as compared with its gigantic +dimensions in the days when its waters were sweet and had an outlet to +the north. Then its arms spread far south into Arizona, over into +Nevada and into Idaho. It was 350 miles from the northern end to the +southern, and 145 miles across from east to west. The area was 20,000 +square miles. This greater lake stood 1,000 feet higher than does the +present one, although this one is 4,280 feet above the level of the +sea. Geologists have named the earlier one Bonneville, in honor of the +intrepid soldier-explorer whom Washington Irving has so well fixed in +American literature. + +By some as yet unknown cataclysm a great break was made at the north +end of this inland ocean and its pent volume was poured into the canyon +of the Port Neuf toward the ravenous Snake. This reduced the level +four hundred feet, but the old beach line may still be easily noted. +Gradually this diminished body became smaller and smaller until it +reached the present stage of desiccation. + +So impure is this heavy liquid that after evaporation there is a +residuum of twenty-eight pounds of solid matter in every hundred. This +is composed of salt, magnesium, and other elements carrying three +dollars of gold to the ton; the gold is not made a matter of trade or +of industry because facilities are lacking for its handling. Very +little animal life is found in this brine, and none of vegetable; in +fact, at every point where the water touches the shore vegetation +vanishes utterly. The animal life is that of a very small gnat which, +mosquito-like, lays its eggs on the surface of the water. The larvae, +when driven shoreward, collect in such quantities as to cause a +strong, unpleasant odor observable for miles to the leeward. Myriads +of seagulls here find a dainty feast. + +Salt Lake affords the finest and really the only beach-bathing resort +in the whole interocean country. The bathing is attended with little, +if any, danger. In thirty years only two persons have been lost. These +strangled before assistance reached them. One body was found after +four years, lying in the salty sand at the south end of the lake, +whither the high winds from the north had drifted it. All the parts +protected by the sand were perfectly preserved and as beautiful as if +carved from Parian marble. + +The tops of a number of sunken mountains still protrude above the +surface and form islands: such are Fremont, Church, Stanbury, +Carrington, and others. Some of these are habitable, possessing fine +springs and irrigable land. Very few people live on these islands, but +some brave spirits dare to face the semiprivations of such isolation +and stay there with their herds. + +Doubtless, many tales of heroism and devotion could be told of those +who have lived on these islands. One of the best known is that of Mrs. +Wenner, who, a few years after her marriage, went with her husband and +little children to live on Fremont Island. Her husband's health +failing, the oversight of the herds fell largely upon her, but she +cheerily took up the burden, the while she trained her little ones, +and was ever a true companion to him whom she daily saw slipping +away. + +The end came on a dread and fearsome day, while the faithful man who +worked for them was detained on the mainland by a raging storm. The +children and an incompetent woman could give her little assistance or +consolation. There on the lonely, storm-lashed island, with +faint-whispered words of love, the dear one closed his eyes forever. +Tenderly she cared for his body, and sadly she kept her vigil, +replenishing through the long night the two watchfires intended as a +signal to those on the mainland. On the night of the second day, the +man made his dangerous way back to the island--and with his help she +laid the loved husband in his island grave, with no service but the +tears and prayers of those who mourned. + +This is but one story of desolation and sorrow--but the deep, briny +waters and the barren, forbidding shores hold in their keeping many +suggestions of mystery and of tears. + + + + +ARGONAUT SAM'S TALE + + I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word + Would harrow up thy soul. + --_Shakespeare_. + + + + +ARGONAUT SAM'S TALE + + + "I panned him out over and over ag'in, + But found nary sign of color," + Said Argonaut Sam one evening, when, + As sitting atop of a box, to some men + He was spinning a yarn of the gold-trail. + + And then, + With arms set akimbo, he straightened his back + And said: "'Twuz one night in the fifties I know; + Ther' kem up the trail frum the gulch jist below + A youngish-like feller; but steppin' so slow + I heartily pitied him even before + I saw his pale brow and heerd the sharp hack + Of his troublesome cough, and plain enough lack + Of more'n enough power to bring to my door + That tremblin' young body. + + + "He hed a small pack-- + A blanket an' buckskin--but that wa'nt no lack + In them days when notions an' fashions wuz slack; + When all a man needed, besides pick an' pan, + Wuz a wallet o' leather to tie up his dust--'R + a place to git grub-staked (that means to git trust + Till he found a good prospeck); an' then he'd put in + His very best licks; fur in them days 'twuz sin + Fer a man strong o' body, o' wind an' o' limb + T' hang erround loafin' all day, 'twuz too thin. + + "Well, this puny feller hed grin'-stunlike grit, + But wuz clean tuckered out when my cabin he hit; + 'N fell down a-faintin' jist inside my door-- + His eyes set 'n' glassy--he seemed done fer, shore. + So I straightened him out, couldn't do nothin' more + + Than to put back his hair an' t' dampen his brow, + An' to feel fer his pulse--joy! I found it--slow + An' flickery though, stoppin' and startin', an' now + Gone ag'in; then it revived, but so faint, don't you know, + That minute by minute I couldn't hev said + Whether the feller wuz livin' or dead. + + "All night I watched by him; an' 'long a-to'rds light + I seed that a change hed come: so, honor bright! + I made up my mind that I'd save that young life + If it took me all summer. I'd fight + With grim death to a finish fer him. + + "An' so I begun. + I quit workin' my claim + Where I'd git on an average ('pon my good name) + An ounce or more daily of number one gold. + An' in them days we thought nothin', you see, + Of layin' by stuff fer a rainy day; we + Hed plenty; the diggins wuz rich, an' wuz thick + Scattered over the kentry. Most every crick + Hed plenty o' gold in nuggets or dust-- + An' the man who wuz stingy hed ort to be cussed. + So I shouldered my task. + + "It wuz wonderful how + The new life appeared to come back to my boy; + (Fer that's what I called him--'my boy') an' the joy + O' perviden fer suthin' besides my lone self + Made me happy. Y' see, th' experunce wuz new; + Fer I'd lived all alone ever since forty-two, + When, back in Ohio, I'd buried my wife + An' baby. Since then I'd looked on my life + As a weary, onfriendly, detestable load. + So that's why I lived all alone, don't you see? + I didn't love nothin' and nothin' loved me. + + "But now of young Josh--his name wuz Josh Clark-- + He'd come frum ol' York State--could sing like a lark-- + Wuz finely brung up, an' that mother o' his, + A sister he tol' me, an' a girl he called Liz. + 'D a give the hull earth if they only could know + If he wuz alive; but so hard-hearted, he + Would never be grateful to them nur to me. + Though I had no claim on him, yet it would seem + After all I hed done fer him, shorely some gleam + O' thankfulness somewhere might some time be seen. + 'Sides spendin' my all I hed broken down too, + Wuz a shattered ol' man, though but then fifty-two; + Fer I'd give up my health an' my strength to pull through + My boy--fer I loved him, if ever men do. + But, no; it appeared that he hedn't no heart. + Not once did he thank me, and never asked why + I nussed him to life, 'stid o' lettin' him die. + + + "His wants wuz demands, his wishes commands, + An' once in the dusk, as we set on the sands + Of a stream that run by, he reached with his hands + So quick an' so blamed unexpected, you see, + Grabbed me by the hair an' out with a knife, + An' demanded my gold. I thought fer my life + He wuz jokin'; but no, when I seed that fierce look + Of murder an' pillage, I knowed what I'd done; + I'd thawed out a viper upon my hearth-stun + An' now wuz becomin' its prey. + + "But, I'd none: + I'd spent all the surplus I hed to save him. + I'd missed all the summer an' fall to nuss him + Who now like a tiger wuz takin' my life. + 'Hol' on, my dear Josh! Hol' on, my dear boy!' + No further I got, fer his hands clutched my throat-- + I squirmed myself loose, but grapplin' my coat + He throwed me ag'in, now a madman, indeed. + His dirk-knife wuz raised. I said, 'Do yer best. + I've give you now all that I ever possessed + But life. Take it now if you like!' An' he struck. + + "How long I laid there in the dark, I don't know; + But when I kem to I wuz layin' in bed, + An' the people wuz talkin' so easy an' low, + An' I knowed by the bandages too on my head + That I hed been nigh to the gates o' the dead. + + "An' 'Where wuz Josh Clark?' did you say? I don't know. + He never wuz seen in the diggins below, + Ner heerd of in them parts ag'in, fer I know + He'd a-swung to the limb that come fust in the way; + Fer the boys in them days hed little to say, + But wuz mighty in doin'. So he got away. + + "So it seems that some people is jist so depraved + There ain't a thing in 'em that ort to be saved. + 'Twuz jist so with Josh, who I loved as a son; + He lived fer hisself an' fer hisself alone. + 'N' 'at's why I remarked at the fust of this yarn, + The thing 'at it's cost me so dearly to larn--'I panned him out over + an' over ag'in, + But found nary sign of a color.'" + + + + +THE WRAITH OF THE BLIZZARD + + The night it was gloomy, the wind it was high; + And hollowly howling it swept through the sky. + --_Southey_. + + What matter how the night behaved? + What matter how the north wind raved? + --_Whittier_. + + + + +THE WRAITH OF THE BLIZZARD + + +We dread the unseen. Fear is always enervating; sometimes even deadly. +Who has not fearsomely anticipated that which never came and wasted +valuable energy and time in building bridges none are ever to cross? +The surgical patient actually suffers more at sight of somber +white-clad nurses, and the thought of the operation, than he does from +the ordeal itself. It may be that we subconsciously dread the helpless +state of unconsciousness into which the anaesthetic plunges us, and +hesitate at a trip, no matter how short, into death's borderland, +preferring to keep our own hands as long as possible on the helm of +the ship of life. + +I wonder why we become terror-stricken at the thought of ghosts. The +untutored child needs only a hint to make him shy at the dark; and a +lad has to be pretty large before he can walk far at night without +once in a while looking behind him, just to be certain there is +nothing following. + +Thus spirits, spooks, bogies, wraiths, and other uncanny apparitions +are unintentional inheritances of the race; a race that knows little +more about the impending and impinging unseen than did the Saxon +fathers who gave us our spooky speech. + +I once had an experience which grows in interest as the years pass by. +I had no fear or thought of fear that night, and the scenes of the +evening were absolutely unannounced; they entered upon the sleety +stage for whose violent acts I held no program. + +One afternoon I was to go to one of my appointments, a mining town in +Utah. In order to relieve home cares I took with me my four-year-old +son, who thus would get some novel entertainment as well. To the buggy +I hitched Jenny, the strawberry-roan cayuse, and started for the +distant point. It was a little stormy all the way, and by the time we +had well begun the service it had thickened so that a hard snow was +setting in. It was dead in the north and continued with such strength +that soon there appeared no slant to the falling columns. By the time +church was dismissed the blizzard was on in full force, and the roads +were already so filled with the new drifts that to return with the +buggy was hardly thinkable. I borrowed a saddle, and leaving the +little lad with friends, started for home, where I was under +appointment to preach that evening. My way lay in the north, in the +very teeth of the raging storm. With head tucked down, I trusted the +reins to Jenny, who had never disappointed me in many a mountain trip, +but I had not gone far until I found the storm was at my back. Peering +sharply through the fast falling darkness, I discovered that the +mountains were on my left instead of on my right, as they should have +been. Jenny had turned tail to the storm. Feeling herself unwilling to +face the arctic onset, she was retreating. + +Only the dire necessity of the occasion made me compel her to face the +torturing attack of the icy shafts that were hurling themselves on us +like steel points. + +We were forced, Jenny and I, to abandon the only road, now drift-filled, +and take an unbroken way through the sagebrush, junipers, buckbrush, +and other tangled chaparral, where there was no trail at all, and +farther to the right, that I might keep an eye on the mountains and not +get turned around again. I felt the force of Cardinal Newman's +immortal hymn, + + ... amid the encircling gloom, + Lead thou me on! + The night is dark and I am far from home; + Lead thou me on! + +We had not gone far until I began to hear the sweetest music. I could +not imagine from whence it fell, as I knew there was not a human home +in all that plain between the two settlements. Then I heard personal +conversation; in fact, the night was full of pleasant travelers. The +awful storm seemed not to affect them in the least. They seemed to +have an open road too, while we were plunging through deep snowdrifts, +my feet already dragging along their tops. + +When the first carriage load came up I saw it was only a desert +juniper. The boreal gale sweeping through its shivering branches made +converse in the music of the wild, Jenny and I being the only +seat-holders in that grand opera. Soon another caravan of belated +folks drove up; but it was only a load of hay that had been +over-tipped. Others came, but they were only bushes or some inanimate +object. There was little life out on that perishing night. + +After hours of fearsome and benumbing travel, Jenny stumbled with me +into the little home town. A good feed of oats and a warm shelter +doubtless ended the story happily for her. But for me--the ghost of +the desert and the wraith of the blizzard had become real. They spoke +to me that night and I understood. + +THE GREAT NORTHWEST + + God had sifted three kingdoms to find the wheat for this + planting.--_Longfellow_. + + Westward the course of empire takes its way.--_Berkeley_. + + In the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the + desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the + thirsty land springs of water.--_Isaiah_. + + + + +THE GREAT NORTHWEST + + +Possibly there are those who find themselves thinking that Western +tales are travelers' tales and must be taken with "a grain of salt." +Some also say that the man who crosses the Missouri never is able to +tell the truth again; this is crude, I know, and in some cases true, +but they who are so afflicted were just the same before they ever saw +the Missouri. + +Our waterless areas were considered by Captain Bonneville (as told by +Washington Irving) utterly barren and forever hopeless wastes. In +Astoria--chapter thirty-four--these words are used: + +"In this dreary desert of sand and gravel of the Snake here and there +is a thin and scanty herbage, insufficient for the horse or the +buffalo. Indeed, these treeless wastes between the Rocky Mountains and +the Pacific are even more desolate and barren than the naked, upper +prairies on the Atlantic side; they present vast desert tracts that +must ever defy cultivation, and interpose dreary and thirsty wilds +between the habitations of man, in traversing which the wanderer will +often be in danger of perishing." + +So thought Captain Bonneville; so wrote the matchless American +_litterateur_, Washington Irving, of "Sunnyside," author and +authority, creator of The Life of George Washington, and the Broken +Heart, which made Lord Byron weep. The doughty Captain Benjamin L. E. +Bonneville, who died as late as 1878, obtaining leave of absence and a +furlough, endured the pleasure of hardships common to the explorer, +and through his happy biographer added the Trail to literature; but +his eye of vision did not see these great stones of the commonwealth, +Utah, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. The very region so +carefully pictured above as the dreariest of deserts, a veritable +Western Sahara, is the exact location of Idaho and a large portion of +Oregon; a region perfectly adapted to the sustenance of immense +population and intense development. + +Moses understood all the wisdom of the Egyptians. We do not, but we do +know that the biggest thing in an arid country is the ditch. America's +triumph to date in the twentieth century is the completion of the +Panama Ditch. The ditch is in Idaho more valuable by far than the +land, for without it the parched soil is practically worthless, being +an area of shimmering sand, where the ash-colored and dust-covered +sagebrush breeds the loathsome horned toad, the rough-and-ready +rattlesnake, and the slinking, night-hunting coyote, which preys on +the lithe-limbed, loping jack rabbit. + +The modern Western American is rapidly learning a modified wisdom of +the ancient irrigators of Egypt, and already knows how to drain the +irrigated acres and leech these old alluvial plains. From the days +when the frosty glacial plowman ran his deep basaltic furrows for the +majestic Snake and other streams, these gorges of nature had been only +mossy beds over which lazily slid the unmeasured volumes down to the +western and "bitter moon-mad sea." Now man, the mightiest of all +magicians, has lured the liquid serpents from their age-long couches, +cut them into thousands of smaller streams, and sent them bravely +abroad on the face of the protesting desert, drowning its death and +making it to bloom and blossom. + +As a concrete instance of the artificial possibilities of Idaho and +contiguous regions, I will here instance a statement made for me by +the Rev. H. W. Parker, superintendent of Pocatello District, and +resident of Twin Falls, under date of October, 1914: "Where ten years +ago this very minute there was not a fence nor a furrow (only the +conditions above described by Washington Irving) there are now such +municipalities as Twin Falls, Filer, Rupert, Burley, and others soon +to be as fine. As pastor in 1904, my first official trip to Twin Falls +was made on July 14. I found one or two frame buildings and some tents +stuck around in the sagebrush; some streets had been marked out, but +no grading had been done. Dust, heat, and sagebrush were the main +features of the place. In October I preached the first sermon ever +delivered by any minister in the new village. The congregation +numbered forty-one. On February 5, 1905, I organized the first church +with seventeen members; on May 23, 1909, we dedicated the present +edifice at a cost of $18,000, exclusive of the lots. + +"To-day this church has a membership of more than five hundred. This +youngster has turned back into the treasuries of the denomination in +regular collections more than $3,000. The city has to-day seven thousand +people. There are between four and five miles of asphalt-paved +streets, a perfect sewer system, and cement sidewalks throughout the +whole municipality. An investment of $120,000 has been made in two +splendidly equipped grade school buildings, besides a high school +costing a quarter of a million dollars. These combined schools have an +enrollment of over two thousand pupils with a teaching force of above +sixty; the high school graduated forty-eight last commencement. There is +not a saloon in the entire county." + +Surely "progress" is here spelled in large letters. + +Years ago, with the narrow strip along the Atlantic in mind, +Longfellow wrote, "God had sifted three kingdoms to find the wheat +for this planting." And as the mighty empire took its course toward +the West of limitless opportunity the good God kept the sieve running +full time, so that to-day + + The best of the best + Are in the Northwest. + +[Illustration: END OF THE TRAIL] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Trail Tales, by James David Gillilan + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRAIL TALES *** + +***** This file should be named 30320.txt or 30320.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/3/2/30320/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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