El Reno Daily Eagle. (El Reno, Okla.), Vol. 1, No. 238, Ed. 1 Monday, July 8, 1895 Page: 3 of 4
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THE LAST OF HER KIND.
Bod Jacket, Who Was Onco the
Terror of Nebraska.
In Her Death There Pasned Away the Re-
malnlng SurvlTor of the Frontier
Dance-IIouso Crowd- She Died
an a Mendicant.
The (lance house, which used to keep
up with the trail of civilization as the
latter pushed its way to the sundown,
will soon be a tiling of the recollcetion.
A traveler from Chadron, Neb., had
been talking on the changes in the
west and incidentally spoke of the
dance house.
‘*Tlie last one in our town disappeared
some years ago,” he said, “and the last
noted character in connection with the
institution died and was buried the day
before I left home. She was known in
that section as Red Jacket. She was
the terror of the country. Her nick-
name grew out of her wearing an old
red jacket, which she always put on
when she started out on the ram-
page. From underneath the fringe of
the jacket there usually hung from four
to six navy revolvers and she rode a
broncho as a man would ride. Her body
was put in a pine box, and that was
placed on a dray, and one man with a
shovel accompanied it as a grave-
digger and pallbearer. She looked as
haggard in death as she had for the last
ten yearsof her life. She was not more
than 50 years old. She looked 75.
“She had run the gamut. She had
fallen from the summit to the depths.
She vfent to Minnesota from New
York state. She was born in the latter
state, and when she left it as the bride
of a banker in Minnesota she was a
handsome, intelligent and contented
woman. Iler husband died three years
after the marriage, and she lived with
her daughter for some time after until
she met another man whom she mar-
ried. lie was an adventurer. He gal-
loped through her fortune and left her
penniless. Then she met a real estate
man in Sioux City who pretended to
pity her. The woman was in need of
that, and before she realized it, per-
haps, she had compromised herself, and
then he left her with the shame upon
her. Just then they were constructing
the Elkhorn railroad and a hard crowd
followed up the tracks. This woman
went along. One night she killed a
man in a dance house, and this hard-
ened her more than ever. She was not
UaV
“fire away; the RED JACKET IS nUL-
LET rnooF.”
arrested. Soon after she killed another
man at Valentine. She was not ar-
rested for that, although the cowboys
tried to teach her a lesson by stripping
her garments, putting a rope around
her body and dragging her through
the streets.
“A man who claimed to be her hus-
band settled in Wento River valley,
near Dakota Junction, near what
is now Chadron. She advanced
him money to prove up his land,
and then she came on and made
her entr’acte in the town by riding
through the main street, shooting
right and left, until every store in
town closed up. Then she rode away
to the ranch where the man who
claimed to be her husband had settle .
“One day she was out looking over her !
possessions when she saw a character
known as Arkansas John herding
horses. The range happened to be her
land. She galloped toward him and as
she was gaining on him rapidly lie dis-
mounted and disappeared in the thick-
et. She sent a volley after him and
then turned and drove his herd to her
place. Later Arkansas John overtook
her and remonstrated at her taking
away his stock. She drew her gun on
him and made him climb a tree, lie
finally got his horses, but it cost him
considerable money and more trouble.
“She defied every one whom she met.
Once she encountered a man who held
his pistol leveled at her until she cried:
‘Fire away, the red jacket is bullet
proof,’ and that he dropped his pistol
and ran. The last man she killed was
an unknown; that was for bixity. She
robbed his wagon. She was arrested
for that and confessed tho crime. The
trial was continued frequently, and
finally she got a jail sentence. Her last
husband, or the man she claimed as
such, disappeared long before. Their
old shack was burned. She became de-
mented and was sent to the Nor-
folk insane asylum. She recovered and
then had a relapse and was sent back
again, and again partially recovered.
Her last year was passsed as an old,
broken down mendicant. She lived by
beggary, and eked out a desolate and
miserly living, if such it could be
called. At times she was almost
starved, and he had grown as haggard
and hideous as a witch in ‘Macbeth.’
Rut she had two redeeming traits. She
was good to the sick and kind to ani-
mals. She was the very last of that
crowd which cursed the west.”
A l’arullar Suit nt l.aw.
Queerer suit at law was never brought
than that of II. Magill ugainst the
Osage council. Magill was going
through the reservation when the In-
dians caught and tied him, cut his hair
and held a war dance around him. lie
sues for $10,000 and tho council offers
$500 to settle.
A Hint for Voters.
When the wicked hold office Hie
devil rules the town.
QUEER PREDICAMENT.
Sawbones Wa* Polishing a Stolen Skull
When He Had » ('alter.
One hears some weird and ureanny
stories among the people that pass
through the Union depot from (lay to
day, says the Atlanta Constitution. “I
once knew a doctor who had a very
thrilling experience,” said a great, tall
man in the waiting-room. “The doctor
friend of mine when he was a young
man practiced medicine in one of tho
towns of the west. A very beautiful
daughter of one of the wealthiest men
of tlie little town—and the family was
a cultured and refined one, too—was
taken sick with some sort of disease,
and gradually tottered down the hill
till she died. This young doctor at-
tended the case from the beginning.
He didn't understand tho disease a bit.
IN STEPPED THE FATHER.
The young woman simply began ti
fade, growing paler every day, amt
finally becoming so weak that she had
to have assistance to raise herself the
slightest bit from the pillow. It was a
disease that puzzled all the doctors.
None of them could tell what it was
that was preying on her vitals so, and
finally when she died this young doc-
tor, being ambitious in his profession,
and wanting to learn all there was to
be learned, determined to rob the
grave and make a post-mortem exami-
nation of the subject, this having been
refused by the young woman’s parents
while she was alive. One night he
took t is ofiice boy and another person,
whom he employed to help, and dug
the body from the grave. He made a
study of the ease, and perhaps learned
something more about it than ho
would have ever known from simple
diagnosis while she was alive. Rut
that wasn’t all. lie decided to make a
skeleton of the subject—as he had
none—and was one day scraping the
skull and polishing it when in stepped
the father of the girl to pay the doctor
his bill for attending his daughter dur-
ing her illness. His agitation and dis-
turbance of spirits can more easily be
imagined than told when he arose to
face the father of the woman whose
skull he held in his hands.”
FLORIDA ADVENTURE.
Two Ilunt-rs Hitvo a Deupprate Itattlo
with a Furious Panther.
William Curry and John Crawford,
young men who have been spending
the winter at Juno, Fla., hunting, were
attacked by a panther the other even-
ing. Curry received wounds which are
thought to be fatal, while Crawford
will lose an eye. The young men were
out hunting and their (log “treed” a
young panther, which they shot, not
suspecting the presence of the mother
panther. The young men laid down
their guns und began to skin the ani-
mal. They had hardly begun work
when the mother panther, which was
crouching on the limb of a tree over-
head, sprang upon them. The hunters
were crushed to the ground and for a
few moments were at the enraged
beast’s mercy. The animal planted its
claws in the loft side of Curry’s fiiee
and tore it open. The unfortunate
man rolled over, only to receive an-
other blow from the razor-like claws.
In the meanwhile Crawford tried to
rise, but the panther struck him in tho
right eye, almost tearing it from tho
HE DEALT THE 11KAST 11LOW AFTER IlLOW.
socket. Crawford, although in agony
and half-blinded, began to strike tho
beast with ins hunting knife, lie dealt
it blow after blow, the fight taking place
over Curry’s body. Finally the knife
found the panther’s heart and it dropped
dead on the unconscious Curry.
Crawford was so exhausted that he
could not go for assistance and the
mangled men lay there till about night-
fall, when they were rescued by an-
other party of hunters and brought to
town. Curry was found to be fright-
fully wounded, and the physicians say
that the stroke which the panther dealt
across the abdomen will likely prove
fatal. Crawford’s principal Injury is to
the right eye, which will have to be re-
moved. Curry eamo to Florida from
Illinois and Crawford is from Pennsyl-
vania. The panther is the largest ever
killed (»n Lake Worth.
Ilrm’ii Thin for it Potato?
“How is this for a Wyoming potato?"
usUs the Douglass (Wyo.) News. “A
short while back the Hulil brothers
cooked a potnto weighing four pounds
and nine ounces, which was grown on
W. II. Duhling's runeh, and four men
made a good meal off of it, ami yet
there was enough left for the pig.”
WHAT THE DOCTOR SAYS. [INDIANA AND OHIO OIL WELLS.
Prnnsylvaniii Not tho Only Statr of Cush-
rm F ii t >r in on m I n v»‘Ht int-nt*.
People who know very little about
oil wells take it for granted that most
of these interesting holes have been
sunk in the state of Pennsylvania, but
there are others. Ohio anil Indiana
('areleKHurss of People With CohU Anno)*
Him Very Much.
Sometimes when a woman comes to
see ine with her complexion the color
of ashes, her eyes as bleary as if she
had been running in the teeth of a gale
for a week without vail or glasses, and
her lips a pale pink-blue combination
of tints, I feel very much like ordering
an ambulance and sending her to a
hospital, for there and there only will
she be kept in bed and have the care
which she needs. A specimen of this
type of woman came to ask my medi-
cal advice a few days ago. She cough-
ed like a person in the lust stages of
consumption, her tongue was yellow,
her skin was hot and dry and she said
cold cliilds were chasing each other up
and down her back. To begin with, I
ordered her home to bed and she at
once rebelled. I asked why. “Well, I
have been so busy going out every day
that I have hardly had a moment even
to come to see you, but I have come
Simply so that you will give me some- | {our ho and it lms bcen
thing to take for my cold and brace
me up for my afternoon tea to-mor-
COLONY DESTROYED BY BEARS.
An IhImikI Whrrp a Settlement of RiimbIau*
Wan Wiped Out.
From the quarterdeck of the United
States revenue cutter Corwin, lying off
Hall's island, at the northerly end of
; St. Matthew’s island, in Rehring seu,
| the captain and several officers were
, , , ,, , | looking toward the shore. Douglass,
havo come to the.front us oil producers „u, ^ hud just pointC(, out somc.
during the past ten years, and the ......i.,H n,a rtiwfc
extent of this industry in
“And you will receive your guests in
i nightgown, madam, or be a dead
woman to-morrow night,” I said. Of
course she took offense and called me
a most ungracious and harsh thing,
and started to go. Finally she calmed
down and told me how she had caught
cold. She had had it for nearly three
weeks; she had taken a hot bath,
changed her heavy flannels for light
ones, and gone to the house of a friend
I during
enormous
i these two states is not generally
i known. The year just ended lias been
a banner one for the^e oil fields. In-
diana is the newer field of the two, and
it is just opening up in good shape.
The first crude oil discovered in Ohio
was a well sunk in the city of Lima by
R. C. Faurot, formerly a banker of that
city. Since that time the growth of
this industry has been rapid. During
the past year 3.001 wells were com-
pleted in Ohio. The largest of these is
the Kirkbriee gusher in Sandusky
county. It produces 310 barrels per
hour or 7,440 barrels perdayof twenty-
mint for
its owners. The company that owns
this well were almost as fortunate in
another which was sunk not far from
it, and which averaged 1,200 barrels a
day.
in nineteen counties in Ohio there
have been drilled 17,401 wells, of which
2,730 are worthless for oil, but many of
the lutter are good gasers. Wood
county has proved the most profitable
oil field. The first well drilled there
for gas or oil was sunk in the corpora-
tion of Rowling Green in 1885. It was
thing under the cliffs that looked like
low, half-fallen walls, and said they
were ruined barrabaros. The harra-
bara is the Aleutian house, built half
underground. Some of the gentlemen
wished to explore the interior of the
island in hopes of finding signs of val-
uable minerals.
“Mr. Douglnss, how about going in-
land here?” inquired the captain.
“Well, I don't know, sir,” said the
pilot. “1 wouldn’t care much to go at
this time of year, unless the party was
large and well armed. Any one can
see from here what a forbidding coun-
try it is, and it’s sure to get worse
when you reach it. It’s chock full ol
bears, and in the breeding season
they’re mighty ugly.”
“llow does it happen that there are
so many polar bears on St. Matthew’s
and Hall’s islands?" asked the captain.
“This must he about the southern limit
of their range.”
“Well, I suppose, sir, they fome
down from the arctic on the field ice,
following the seal and the walrus. The
winter puck reaches way south of here,
and the hears make homes on the is-
land among rocks and caves. They
breed here, and as many more come
abW alTay to attenll plaice. She t ^ HT
had walked there with only a long
loose wrap around her besides her
evening gown,
ward North Raltimore and Findlay.
,. . . . , •. | From 1885 to the present time 0,111
htfh, evening frown, because it was ; have becn ,iriircd in Wood county
such a short distance. The next day . . . .
alone, which at an average expendi-
she had a cold in her head and chills
and fever; so she took a dose of quinine
nnd went out to make calls. She had
spent three weeks of activity, which
makes me exhausted to simply think
of. Halls and dinners every night,
calling and shopping by day, thin
clothes anil light shoes, wet feet and
no lunch! Oh, such a list of misde-
meanors! Such crimes against health
as she had committed! And now she
refused to obey my orders!
1 was very much out of patience. I
scolded until I was in a fever. I wrote
a note to her husband. I stood over
her while she indicted notes cancelling
all her engagements for the coming
three weeks. 1 sent her home, and said
I would go to see her that evening. I
did, and of course she was in a raging
fever and only half conscious. She
didn’t get pneumonia. How she es-
caped is a marvel, but it took a good
month to make her look anything like
a normally wholesome woman!
I have no interest in the woman who
sends her child to school when he
coughs and has a sore throat, and 1 am
turc of $2,000 to each well represents
an outlay of $12,222,000. There are in
this country now 240 miles of two-inch
oil lines, costing $300,000; 70 miles of
three-inch oil lines, that cost $150,000;
125 miles of four-inch oil lines that cost
$375,000; 00 miles of six-inch oil lines
that cost $350,000; 00 miles of eight-
inch oil and gas lines that cost $950,-
000, and 00 miles of ten-incli gas
lines that cost $1,425,000. This
shows that the wells and pipe
lines alone in Wood county represent
an expenditure of $15,773,000. In addi-
tion to this there are located in this ter-
ritory 260 storage tanks that cost $8,000
apiece. Then there are the expenses
incurred by bonuses, rentals, labor and
building. There are over a dozen
pumping stations in Wood county, in-
cluding the famous No. 8 at Cygnet,
which alone sends 45,000 barrels a day
to Cleveland. The last report from
Wood county shows there are over
8.000. 000 barrels of crude oil in her
tanks, representing a cush valuation of
54.400.000. During the past four years
the oil output at Wood county has
sorely tempted to blister the woman I, ,
who parades the streets this weather j been Tl.StJO.OOO barrels, t hese r.re the
without rubbers, and then wants to
know how she got a cold. The
first law of health and sense is
to keep the extremities warm.
Wear woolen mitts and thick stock-
ings and shoes. All the fur around
your neck or pads of unwholsome stuff
on your chest will not keep you from
getting cold if your hands are frozen
and your feet wet. And while grip
and kindred insipient horrors are ram-
pant in the land have good, hot, plain
food, warm clothes and keep regular
hours.—N. V. Advertiser.
NOT ALWAYS BECOMING.
Hut N'evprtheleHH »ii«* llig Kn*ptt«* How* at
the Throat Mu*t He Worn.
Why will women with full faces and
chubby throats persist in wearing the
statistics for one county only, and they
indicate the wealth that the oil fields
has poured into the state. The pro-
portion of wells in other counties of
Ohio is as follows: Hancock, 2,723;
Allen, 1,410; Auglaize, 2,297: Sandusky,
2.620; Lucas, 160; Mercer, 1,150; miscel-
laneous counties, 880. Prior to 1890
there had been completed in Ohio ter-
ritory 7,335 wells; since that time 2,151
were completed in 1890, 1,572 in 1891,
1,405 in 1892, 1,877 in 1893, 3,001 in 1894.
The Palmer Oil Co.’s well near Cyg-
net has produced over 000,000 barrels.
The Denver well in the same territory
had a daily output of 3,000barrels fora
long time. Most of the large finds dur-
ing the past year were made in ter-
ritory that had heretofore been consid-
ered as useless. Hancock county was
ally got plenty. So long as they find
enough to eat they won’t trouble any-
body unless cornered, and once food
gets scaroe they’ll tackle anything.
One look at what’s left of those bnrru-
baras has always been enough explora-
tion for me in these parts.
“There’s a sail story about those old
houses, sir,” continued the pilot. “A
good many years ago the Russians
thought they would form a settlement
here. So they sent a ship with 1 don’t
know just how many people to make a
start. No doubt the settlers were
a hard lot—convicts of one sort or an-
other—the Russians often made such
use of their hard citizens. Rut that’s
neither here nor there. T hey were
human beings and were put on shore
right here, and they built or dug,
whichever you like to say, these barra-
baras. Provisions for a year were giv-
en them, and they were told to skirm-
ish around and see what they could do
in the hunting line. Then the ship
sailed away, promising to call round
next year and see how they were get-
ting along.
“And so she did, hut the settlers
were not doing anything that the vis-
itors could see. They hoisted no sig-
nal and made no sign of life at all, ami
when a party from the ship landed a
grewsome sight it was they saw. The
tops were ripped off the barrabaras,
and everything was knocked about,
not a living thing could they find.
Some moldy provisions were left and,
worst of all, some human bones; not
whole skeletons lying as though the
people had been starved or had died
of disease, but just human bones
spread about the floors, and some of
’em outside on the ground.
“Not a bit of writing was found;
nothing at all to say how or when the
trouble came. Water was plenty and
provisions, too, and only the bears
could account for the wiping out of the
little colon}'. They must have cor-
raled the settlers in the dead of win-
ter, when the pack ice is all around the
island, and hunger makes ’em fierce,
and then they must have torn off the
full rosette bows and tabs and flaring at one ^1C greatest gas-producing r0ofs of the huts nnd made short work
ends, to say nothing of the crush eol- j territory in the world, but its fuel is - - ..........
lars and mailings now so popular? i constantly running lower. 1 lie main
What with tiie overpuffed sleeves.elab- | °‘> field of Indiana, as developed, bor-
oratelv trimmed bodices, hats trimmed j ders the northwest extension of the
at right angles, and these varieuated gas belt and comprises the major por-
arrangements about the neelc and ears; ! “™ °f ^he foliowing counties: Wells,
the middle-aged woman with
woman with more
than a suspicion of double chin bears a
strong resemblance to a setting hen
whose feathers have been ruffled from
untimely interference. A symmetrical
throat, one rounded like the base of a
column, which supports a delicate oval
face above, looks well with outstand-
ing bows and rosettes of chiffon, lace
or ribbon, with masses of crepe lisse
and velvet crushed and crinkled about
its circumference,but the chubby-faced
girl and buxom matron (who doubtless
look their best in decollette gowns),
had best beware of all these fuss}'
fixings and fichus designed for house
and reception toilets. By tho way,
does not all this exaggeration of orna-
ment about the neck, this reaction aft-
er the plain Puritan collar so long in
vogue, portend a return to the quad-
ruple plaited ruches of the Elizabethan
era, the kind one sees in pictures of
the velvet-robed, much-married, mar-
tyred Mary of Scotland when dressed
for her execution. The same elabora-
tion and accentuation of the much-
puffed sleeve prevailed then as now.
If women accept the bows, rosettes
and quillings, whv not the high-stand-
ing. much-stiffened ruche? With the
advent of the ruche era, the double-
chinned dowagers will be lost indeed.
Rut. then, a thing being the fashion is
a much more potent argument for
adopting it than its fitness or becom-
ingness.—N. Y. Post.
-—An accident recently occurred in
England which was identical with
Rlackmore’s awful climax in Christo-
well.” Service had just begun in St.
Colurab Majorchureh, near Truro,Corn-
wall, when a flash of dazzling bluish
light and a deafening crash like the
explosion of a bomb filled the church
and put the congregation to flight.
The lightning had struck the belfry,
nnd, going down into the church, a
huge ball of fire ran up the middle
aisle. The windows were blown to
pieces, the inside walls rent, and a
bell ringer was thrown over the rail-
ing twenty-five feet into the church.
—Serviu has 19.000 square miles, and
is as large as Massachusetts, New
Hampshire and Rhode Island com-
bined. ________
—The proportion of salt in sea water,
is largest where the water is deepest,
but does not increase with the depth.
with 913 new wells for 1894; Rlackford,
with 92; Jay, 345; Adams, 214; Grant, 50;
Huntington, 35; and 152 new wells
scattered through adjoining counties.
—N. Y. Sun.
A Hint to Would-Be Orators.
Apropos of Lord Randolph Churchill,
an incident may be related which is in-
teresting as showing his pluck and
vigor. It relates to the noble lord’s
early parliamentary life. He was de-
termined to make an impression upon
the house of commons, but some of his
friends doubted the wisdom of his
resolution. He said littl^*, but he left
London and took up his quarters at an
of the people. The ship sailed away
nnd the Russians never tried to colon-
ize the island again."—N. Y. Sun.
Hit hunt Labor.
Mr. Spriggs was complaining because
so much effort was required in succeed-
ing even so poorly ns he did.
“Well,” exclaimed Mrs. Spriggs, “(lid
you ever get anything without work-
ing hard for it?”
“Yes, I have,” he said, discontent-
edly.
“Oh, I guess not,” insisted Mrs. S.
“Rut 1 know I have.”
“What was it. I’d like to know?”
“A bad cold,, my dear,” and Mr.
Spriggs took heart again and smiled.—
Detroit Free Press.
A Trifle FmharrnMfiliig.
Gus De Smith There are a couple of
inn in Rutlandshire. Here he spent twin sisters in Harlem who areso much
nnd nitrhfs fnr n. nprind nf.i*lallk« that they are continually being
taken for each other.
Dudely Canesucker—That must be a
trifle awkward for the fellow who hap-
pens to he courting one of them.
Gus De Smith—Well, I should say so.
They are so much alike that he has to
tell them everything together, for it is
impossible to tell them apart.—Texas
Siftings. _
his days nnd nights for a period of six
weeks, with only an occasional trip to
“town” for a day, in writing and de-
livering speeches. He practically went
into training upon every possible sub-
ject of debate. The landlady could
hear her lodger hour after hour, day
after day, walking about his room de-
livering speeches, now loud and angry,
now soft and persuasive. Perfected by
practice, Lord Randolph Churchill left
for town, seized his opportunity, made
a big speech, and henceforth became a
man to be reckoned with. Only to his
intimate friends did he ever refer to
his rural training in parliamentary
oratory, which has been of such splen-
did service to him.—Tit-Hits.
The Mimical Prodigy.
“It strikes me that he has a good
deal of assurance to call himself a boy
pianist. He must be all of twenty-
five.”
“Guess he is: but he plays like a boy
of nine.”—Indianapolis Journal.
In Hard Luck.
Jones—How’s Wheeler getting along
since he bought a bicycle?
Brown—On crutches, I believe.—
Life.____
—Wiggles—I know just what to take
| for seasickness. Waggles (eagerly)—
Do you? What is it? Wiggles—An
ocean steamer.—Somerville Journal.
—Power exercised with violence has
seldom been of long duration, but tem-
per and moderation generally produce
jiermanence in all things.—Seneca.
—The blind never would find out
that they were blind, if somebody with
eyes didn’t tell them so.—Rum’s Horn.
Just k Topper.
Lady (widow)—Do you know that
my (laughter has set her eyes upon
you, Herr Muller?
Gentleman (flattered) — Has she
really?
Lady—Certainly; only to-day she
ivas saying, “That’s the sort of gentle-
man I should like for my papa.”—
Tacgliche Rundschau.
—A Roston Aggravation.—“How dis-
couraging it is to get off a pertinent
quotation only to have your interlocu-
tor inquire in asterotyped way, ‘What’s
that?’ For instance, on a cold, bracing
morning you remark quite glibly, ‘It is
nn eager and a nipping air.’ ‘What
say?’ asked the dull-eared idiot, and
then you have to content yourself with
some such commonplace as “It’s a cold
day” or “Is this cold enough for you?”
Sometimes it really seems as though
there is no use in being bright and in-
telligent.”— Roston Transcript.
—“Did you tell Mr. Snobberly that I
was not in?” Bridget—I did, ma’am;
but he looked so doubtful I don’t think
he’d a’ believed it if you’d ’a’ told him
wid your own lips.
—The lazier a man is the grenter
things lie is going to do when to-mor-
row comes.- Ram’s Iioru*
WINTER IN THE SIERRAS.
Twenty Feet of Snow-Drifts Higher Than
the IlnuftcH.
Julian Ralph, writing in Harper’s
Weekly, thus recounts some of his re-
•ent experiences in tho snow regions of
die Sierras:
“Tired of the cars, which were then
led up at Emigrant Gap, 1 left them
inder a great snow shed, and plunged
lown a steep hillside into the village
below, which was hut faintly indicated
by a few chimneys that here nnd there
broke through the beautiful undulating
blanket that lay high and thick upon
the mountains, the knolls and valleys
ill around me. The trees, cumbered
with deep white snow upon every pro-
jection, rested their middle branches
upon the soft bedding of snow, so that
they looked dwarfed and misshapen.
In places great granite bowlders sat in
hollow wells scooped out by the wind,
and on the tops of such stones rested
nightcaps of snow that were taller
than the rocks themselves. Drifts roso
in cork-screw shapes that ended in fan-
tastic curls upon their tops. The way
to some of the houses was by tunnels,
but looking straight down from above
them there could only be seen a little
wliite-walled shaft opposite the door,
is if a hole had bcen dug there to let in
breath to the people indoors. The
snow had banked against the bouses
up to the roof-line, and then had
mounted upon itself and grown in
weight and depth until there was dan-
ger that the roofs would be crushed in.
That was why I saw men on Norwegian
mow-shoes walking over their own
-oofs and stopping there to shovel snow
into battlemented walls beside them.
Thus they walled their houses in eacli
day, only to find them submerged on
the morrow, ns tho snow continued to
fall.
My short walk to the nearest tavern
was a chain of lively adventures. Safe
inside tho tavern door, 1 saw a row of
Norwegian snowshoes dripping against
lie wall. I found that upon them the
v illagers travel in the winter, and that
without them they would be jailed in
heir homes. Canadian net-work shoes
would not serve. The snow is too fine
and dry. Therefore the shoe in use is a
board four inches wide and from nine
to a dozen feet long. The women go
shopping and visiting upon them. The
doctors travel twenty-live miles ut a
time upon them on their rounds. Tho
girls coast upon the roofs and smaller
knolls upon them. The venturesome
young men actually race down the
mountain sides upon them at twenty
miles an hour, and even jump ravines
and leap over cabins and houses with
those shoes in the course of their wagers
and their dangerous fun.
That and nightly dances in the snow-
bound villages are all the fun the peo-
ple get. There is too much winter in
the Sierras for carnival frolics such as
arc had in Canada. Winter on theso
California terraces is too severe to be
trilled with or turned into the basis of a
long roll of sports. In the larger towns
the people dig tunnels from house to
house and house to store, and at one
station I went into supper by way of a
tunnel from the ears to the depot restau-
iant. I saw no horses or sleighs, but L
was told that when the snow depths
cease to deepen and the trails are
pressed hard down, horses are often
used. When they step aside from the
trails nnd sink all but out of sight, their
owners find that they tiro of struggling
and desire to resign themselves to
death. Then the plan is to choke them
with a slip-noose around their necks
when they light so frantically for
breath that they can be led hack to tho
trail. It sometimes happens that a
horse that sinks beside the trail slips
down through the snow upon the roof
of a buried house. Then there is great
danger that he will continue downward
through the shingles and into some
one’s parlor or bedroom.
In all the United States there is no
other winter and no other snowfall like
this. Five years ago it lay twenty-
three feet on tho level in these moun-
tains. _
NOT DEGENERATING.
Mmiklml In No Dan^r nf Hemming n
C Hare of lMr>»rf».
It appears from the results of scien-
tific measurements recently made in
Franco that tho avorago stature of
man is neither increasing nor decreas-
ing. The skeletons of tho men who
inhabited Franco at a period when Eu-
rope was the homo of lions, elephants,
rhinoceroses, hyenas and reindeer are
of very nearly the same size as those of
the French people of to-day.
Yet, says Youth’s Compnnion, the
surroundings amid which these early
men lived were remarkably different
from those enjoyed by their suc-
cessors. Their best abodes were caves,
and to hold possession of them they
had to wage warfare upon such fierco
beasts as the saber-toothed tiger and
the cave bear.
Without our modern weapons it
would seem that they should have pos-
sessed superior bodily powers, but
there is no evidence that they did.
They had human cunning, however,
which always prevails over brute
strength.
Later camo tho ancestors of tho
Gauls and Franks, ami thev seem to
havo slightly exceeded tho cave men in
stature, and also to have been a trifle
taller than their modern descendants.
One interesting fact shown by tho
measurements is that there has been a
perceptible gain in the stature of
women as compared with that of men
since the days of tho tiger fighters in
Franco.
Taken as a whole, this evidence
shows that there is no danger that
mankind will become a race of dwarfs,
and no likelihood of their developing
into giants._
An Extraordinary Ointment.
The Irish “weapon salvo” was an
ointment supposed to possess the most
extraordinary virtues in keeping with
its most extraordinary ingredients.
One of these was a powder made from
tho moss which had grown on skulls
lying exposed on battle fields. Unless
the skull was of a person who died a
violent deuth tho powder wus supposed
to loso its virtue.
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Diven, William H. El Reno Daily Eagle. (El Reno, Okla.), Vol. 1, No. 238, Ed. 1 Monday, July 8, 1895, newspaper, July 8, 1895; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc911823/m1/3/: accessed March 29, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.