USA > Oregon > The Oregon native son, 1900-1901 > Part 48
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The Hangman's Bridge, and what the Germans call the "Fleisch" Bridge. the latter a sort of a Rialto over a canal sug-
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A TOUR OF THE WORLD.
gesting Venice, are also interesting The Kathishaus, the original architecture of which is in the style of Italian Rennais- sance, with a new addition just complet- ed to correspond, is very striking in ap- pearance.
Nuremburg is replete with pensive in- terest. As seen from the castle tower it is singularly picturesque. It seems a sort of line of demarcation between the past and the present-the past, with its art, its poetry and romance ; the present, with its insistent materialism. The city is growing ; its industries being gold beat- ing, electric apparatus, Faber's pencils, toys, ginger-bread, etc. There are not lacking modern edifices; but the past, insofar as outward appearances go, than any city I have visited. While driving about, the bright sunshine lent an especial charm; particularly as I had not seen the sun for two weeks -that is, not since leaving Dresden, December 3Ist-and this probably in- tensified the sentimental glow that pos- sessd me when looking over, though so hurriedly, this famous old town.
And now to a curious and repellant peculiarity of Nurembug-its diversi- fied instruments of torture. In the manu- facture and use of develish contrivances for mangling recalcitrant humanity it at- tained a bad eminence in mediaeval times, unknown, I believe, to other Grman cities. Every conceivable device for torturing ( Including the famous, or rather infamous "Iron Maiden") is to be found in the five-cornered tower of the old Ho- henzollern Castle or Schloss of Nurem- burg, looking down from the top of a hill : and whatever may be lacking there, if anything. is to be found in the so-called German National Mueum of Nuemburg, an old monastery ( 12th to 15th century) of some eighty rooms, reconstructed in 1849 and dedicated to use as a museum by Jolin Hutsess, which contains an ex- traordinary collection of curious and ghastly relics. At the castle I interro- gated the delineator-again a German woman. as at Frankfort - "Why did Nuremburg exceed by so much all other places in respect of these instruments of torture?" "Old Spanish," came the
quick sententious reply; and this reply serves to illustrate how Spain is made a pack horse to carry the develtries of other peoples. Moreover, the same elineator naively recited four cases of inhuman treatment of of- fenders in this country - 1803 to 1846. But let none of my readers shud- der over Bavaria's henious sins. Mc- Masters tells a story or two of doings in the American collonies and states that in a different way are hardly less shocking.
Nuremburg became Lutheran about 1525 ; about which time Malanchthon se- cured the establishment of a "gymna- sium," high school or college here, in which, a hundred years later, Gustavus Adolphus had his headquarters. The city was never, I believe, captured by Tilly or Wallenstein.
MUNICH.
The trip from Nuemburg to the Ba- varian capital is over a hilly mountainous country, and was to me in the nature of "Poor Jo's Moving On,"-a force put- for the weather was wretched and dis- agreeable. The origin of Munich is lost in the mists of antiquity, but the ninth century is generally considered its ini- tial period. The city is situate along a level stretch of country on the Isar of Iser river, which rises in Tyrol and flows into the Danube near Passau, in Bavaria. The city, though lying flat, has an elevation above sea level of 2.500 feet, and now claims 420,000 population. Like all European capitals it has its full quota of public buildings of interest, in- cluding a university, but there is no "schools" or castle remaining. save a part of the palace, which has been recon- structed under various forms at three different periods in its history. The present general appearance of the city is not unlike Leipsic. which it very nearly approaches in population. The principal buildnings visited are : The "Glyptothek" or museum of sculpture; the "Pina- kothek" or gallery of old paintings. which contains many good pictures, weli up to the best in the Dresden gallery : the new gallery of paintings ; the emper. or's "Schachsche" gallery of paintings the artists' association gallery of paint-
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ings ; the Propylaeum-a sort of Arc de Triumph erected by Ludwig I; the "Siegesthor"- or gate of victory, another triple-arched gate, surmounted by a lion quadriga ; the Cathedral-Gothic, but not particularly striking ; St. Boniface Church-Greek style-like Pantheon or Madelaine at Paris. This church has two double rows of massive Bavarian marble columns, thirty-two each, or sixty-four all told. The Royal Private Chapel-in- terior richly decorated; the Royal Opera House-good, but not equal to Frank- fort; the Royal and other theatres-but time forbids extended comment; how- ever, as special to Munich, I will mention the Bavarian Rumeshalle (or Hall of Fame) of Greek style, a three-sided structure (the fourth being left open) on a slight eminence overlooking the city from the northwest, containing busts of distinguished Germans. It is a smaller edition of the Walhalla near Regensberg, commemorating royal personages-in short a Pantheon. On the fourth, or open side of the Rumeshalle, directly in front of it, is a lofty monument misnamed (I think) "Bavaria"- thirty meters high, and resting on a granite base eleven me- ters high. The collosal bronze figure (a very fat woman, 55 feet in height, by Schwanthaler ). I imagine represents Germania ; and as she hold out a laurel wreath it is evident she is in the act of bestowing her mark of commendation on the Bavarian nationality. The total height of the monument is 96 feet. I climbed it on a spiral stairway and looked out over the city through Germania's eyes. An amusing feature of the Rums-
halle is the presence there of the bust of a local brewer, Pschorr, whose family paid 600,000 marks (about $150,000) for the distinction of placing his bust therein. The money so paid goes to the support of hospitals for the poor.
The monument to Maxamillian I, elector of Bavaria, by Thorwalsden, the figure of the elector in bronze and a bronze group on the Bavarian marble base. are worthy of mention, and of special interest in those times so favorable to the "strenuous life." I also mention the im- posing obelisk, 100 feet high, of Bavarian granite, decorated with captured cannon, trophies of the valor of her sons, and com- memorating the memory of 30,000 of them who were with Napoleon's allied army in the invaion of Russia. These hapless soldiers all perished during the retreat from Moscow.
In my budget in Scandinavia (No. 14) . I mentioned that the King of Sweden and Norway was probably the last reigning sovereigns of the dynasties es- tablished by Napoleon ; but Bavaria has a somewhat similar status, and is yet gov- erned by the descendents of the Kur- fuerst, or reigning elector, Maxamillian Joseph, who was proclaimed king of Ba- varia in 1806 at the dictation of Napo- leon. This family, as my readers may remember, has been very unfortunate. King Ludwig drowned himself some years ago after killing his keeper; and King Otto who succeeded him is now confined in an insane asylum, while the government is being administered by his uncle, Prince Regent Luitpold, an am- iable old gentleman of eighty.
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THE STAMPEDE TO RED DOG.
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EARLY DAYS IN SOUTHERN OREGON.
The recent hegira to the frozen North in search of the precious yellow metal is exceptional experience for this Coast only in one respect, and that is the mag- nitude of the sudden exodus. The westward course of the "Star of Em- pire" was long ago deflected northward, and will probably never cease its move- ments in that direction until it bumps up against the North Pole, as it did form- erly against the Pacific Ocean. Frantic scrambling after new placers has been the fashion ever since Sutter dug his memorable mill race. Southern Oregon was long a "storm center" for such ex- citements, and is not, even now, and probably never will be, wholly proof against them. The best diggings were easily discovered long ago, but people go on rediscovering them, or extensions and additions to them, as the richer claims give out, just to keep their hand in. The Jacksonville diggings were the first to lead off in1 1852, soon followed by the Sterlingville and Willow Springs diggings, and live camps they were. Then came in quick succession the rich finds of Althouse, Sailor Digings and Sucker Creek to absorb some of the o'er eager seekers after the "golden fleece." Those were days of quickly acquired and quickly spent fortunes, as well as days of quickly hurrying to and fro. In the madness of their devotion to "the root of all evil," the lucky as well as the luckless wayfarers became indifferent to their own safety and fell easy victims to the treachery of savage foes. And here, in Southern Oregon, and especially in Josephine County, was "the dark and bloody ground" of our early territorial existence. As the stampede I have set myself about describing raged over a section of country thiekly studded with historical incidents relating to Indian
hostilities, I will devote a portion of my space to their rehearsal.
It was in the late 'zos (a belated era for placer excitements), that word was passed around among the sometimes sleepy settlers of Josephine County that certain parties were quietly taking out great gobs of gold on Red Dog, a tribu- tary of Briggs Creek. That simple statement, often told in a clandestine manner, was sufficient to awaken every " somnolent Van Winkle into old-time ac- tivity. Sedate old farmers, who were certainly old enough to have known bet- ter, began to gather up their camp fix- tures and camp followers and cayuses to engage in the inspiriting chase.
Not to be wholly out of fashion. a neighbor of mine and myself concluded to join the surging crowd. My neigh- bor, in addition to being an experienced miner, was a good fellow all around to be out with on such an expedition. He was one of those rare individuals, some- times met with, who insist on doing all their part of the work and the other fel- low's, too. This is something easy to submit to, where a man is mean enough to tolerate it, and some men are con- structed on that plan to a grievious de- gree. My partner also had a penchant for doing more than his share of the talking. This would have been agree- able all round, too, had he only had a better speaking acquaintance with the Queen's English. The trouble was he labored with the serious impediment of prior acquaintance with unmusical Dutch, and the readiness with which he would become entangled in the mixed intricacies of complex English was a credit to his courage rather than to his discretion. It was no use to extend sympathetic assistance to him, for he was no sooner out of one linguistical dif-
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ficulty than he was into another. But there was nothing harmful in his lo- quacity. He did not. as is the habit of too many voluable beings, burden the atmosphere with wretched profanity. His most impious form of ejaculation was embodied in the mild expression of "By Dorge." "By Dorge," however, did service on all occasions, in season and out. It was the keystone and finish to all his oral architecture.
But this is slow progress towards our intended Eldorado. Our route took us down Applegate to Slate Creek, and up that stream to the crossing of the divide known as Hays' hill, thence past the old Hays place over to Deer Creek, and down Deer Creek to its mouth, where it forms a junction with Illionis River, where we camped on a bar noted in In- dian war history. But there were other spots passed by us that deserve men- tioning first. One place on Slate Creek is sometimes pointed out by old timers as the scene of the shameful murder of two Indian women. J. M. Sutton, one of Southern Oregon's earliest and most painstaking historians, makes the fol- lowing reference to the circumstance. \f- ter describing the hanging of an inno- cent Indian boy at Jacksonville, whom he vainly endeavored to rescue, he pro- ceeds as follows: "No mob ever com- mitted a more heartless murder than this. It is only equalled by the murder of two Indian women and a child ten months old, by a private of Captain Wil- kenson's company on Slate Creek, on the 7th day of November, 1855. The women and child had been taken pris- oners and entrusted to this man and an- other to guard in the rear of the com- pany as they marched to Illinois Valley. He wantonly shot them and left them lying by the side of the road."
Further on up Slate Creek, near its forks, was the scene of a genuine Indian ambush on March 23, 1865. that proved the prelude to an attack and prolonged engagement at the Hay ranch. Mr. Ol- ney, a member of Captain O'Neil's con- pany, then stationed at Eight Dollar Mountain, started on that day to return to camp from a trip he had taken to
Vannoy's Ferry. He overtook: four other men and a boy close to the scene of the ambush with a view of having their company over the mountain. Hardly had they got through exchanging greet- ings when they were greeted in return with a sudden rattle of firearms. Fifty or a hundred Indians showed up with an evident intention of exterminating the small body of whites. It was no use to undertake to try conclusions with the foe in open fight. But Olney was compelled to dismount and try it afoot, as his horse had come to grief at the first fire. He found his movements greatly im- peded by a big pair of spurs, and in en- dleavoring to free himself from them as he ran, shed one of his boots He then got tangled up with the remaining spur in such a way that it threw him to the ground. At this the boy, a lad 14 years old named Willie Hay, cried out, "See, he is killed." One of the men named Wright and a genuine liero of the true stamp, said it would not do to leave him that way, and proposed that they go back to his aid. The boy went back with him, and Wright took Olney up behind him on his mule. The mule, thus loaded, naturally fell behind, and. . on crossing a gulch, got shot through the flank, which partially upended it, throw- ing Olney to the ground. Wright, not willing yet to give up his effort to save a newly-found companion, urged Olney to mount again; but the latter refused. and urged Wright to do his best to save himself. for it looked now like Olney's chances were nil. By desperate sprint- ing and dodging over ridges and gulches he managed to reach a brushy bottom lie was aiming for in time to overtake his would-be rescuer once more and see the latter fall from his mule a lifeless corpse. Olney now continued his single -- handed game of hide and seek with the Indians all that afternoon and tar into the friendly darkness of the succeeding night. Olnev, it should be remarked. however, did the hiding, while the red- skins did the seeking with all their cus- tomary ferocity and aleriness.
But while this part of the play was going on, the boy hero of the engage-
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THE STAMPEDE TO RED DOG.
ment, together with the rest of the men, had pushed on over the hill to his fath- er's ranch and notified the soldiers on guard at that temporary fortification of the happenings en route, giving out the report that Wright and Olney were both killed. John Davis, Shellback Smith, John Gould, Charley Abrams and J. Sar- gent, all messmates of Olnev, repaired to the summit of the long hill as rapidly as horses could carry them, and immediately plunged into the fight. Bit as I am drawing on Olney's narration of the events, I will let him do some of tlie describing in his own words: "They raise the hill and descend at a rapid pace tlie steep ridge, down which the trail ran towards the forks of the creek. Half way down and they are saluted by a hundred rifle shots from front and both flanks, accompanied by the too well- known Indian yell. Dismounting and tying their horses to the brush, with the bullets and yells growing thicker and louder, the brave little party boldly went into the fight. Taking each a tree, they loaded and fired with good effect, as was plainly indicated next day when the bat- tle-ground was visited. Louder and fiercer grew the uproar; the In- dians numbering near two hundred, soon gained the rear of the little party, and poured upon them a hail of rifle and pistol shots. 'We must get out of thus,' shouted Gould. 'They've got us in a tight place : come on.' He ran to his horse, and all followed but Davis, who, seeing a number of Indians running towards them, shouted to his compan- ions : 'Hurry up, boys, and mount. I'll keep those devils away until you are ready to start. Charlie, untie my horse and hold him until I come.' And almost in the same breath, he added: 'Go ahead, boys, I'm shot right through the tum- tum.'" With much difficulty the rest of the party extricated themselves from surrounding difficulties, and, as Olnev puts it, "holding their guns in the bridle hand, with revolver in the right, dis- charging rapid shots at the Indians, they streaked it up the hill and down the trail to the ranch. closely followed by the yelling and disappointed Indians,
who were but a few rods in their rear when they reached the gate of the pali- .ques surrounding the ranch."
The figliting, instead of being over with now. was just fairly beginning. Ol- ney's narative continues : "When Wil- lie Hay and his companions made their appearance at the ranch with the news of the Indian's attack upon them and the killing of Wright and Olney, a courier was at once sent with the intelligence to Captain O'Neil's camp, at the foot of Eight Dollar Mountain As soon as the news was received, O'Neil ordered the horses and pack mules to be immediately brought up and saddled and packed. and at once set out for the ranch, endeavoring to reach it before the Indians did. But in this he failed, as I shall now relate. Calling the roll he found he had but fitty men fit for duty, and with a pack train of fifteen heavily laden mules he must spare three or four for the special duty of attending to the packs. Forming a van- guard of fifteen men, he sent them for- ward under Lieutenant Armstrong. The mules followed, and the rear was brought up by the remainder of the company un- der his immediate command. Away they went at a sharp trot until they had crossed Deer Creek and had entered the heavy timber within two miles of the ranch, when they overtook a pack train passing which with some difficulty, they kept on their way, with the loss of two or three mules which had run into the other train and could not be easily extricated, so they were allowed to remain and come away with the train, which was put to its utinost specd, when the packers had been told that the Indians were ahead. On they go through the heavy pine woods. the bell on the"bell mare" tinkling out hasty music to the loaded train mules behind. while the "Huppah Mulah," "Cahambo," and the everlasting string of Mexican epithets calculated to urge for- ward the train, were being bellowed and hissed in hasty and excited way. They have reached within half a mile of the ranch, and they hear an occasional rifle shot. Soon comes a crash of reports succeeded by the usual rattling reverb- erations through the timber of each sep-
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arate but continuous report and the near yells of the Indians. On they go, the vanguard at a gallop, pack miles ditto ; they are too slow. "Forward faster." Another train in the road-Jimmy Low- ery and Billy Sutherland's train-Billy on the "bell mare." Jimmy driving up the train : trains at this time on the keen jump. "D-n the train," says the Cap- tain ; but it doesn't make matters any bet- ter. The train behind is making good time, and its "bell mare" has overtaken the rear guard. so there are two pack trains and a company of volunteers surg- ing together along the road through the woods towards the ranch. They are now within two hundred and fifty vards of the ranch. Volunteers have left their pack mules behind and gone pell mell through and are firing from behind every tree and bunch of brush into the very faces of the men. Each man, with re- volver in hand, velled defiance and sent shot after shot at the Indians, who, in a few minutes, turned their attention to the pack trains."
To follow all the particulars of the general engagement that now ensued would make this article unduly long. It can be abreviated by simply saying that the fight continued till after midnight, when a temporary lull was obtained by the Indians retiring. Olney showed up at the ranch in the morning, considerably the worse of the wear for his enforced ad- ventures. The remaining pack mules were gathered in and relieved of tumbled burdens. The Indians were heard of right away at Captain O'Neil's camp near Eight Dollar Mountain, where they man- aged to catch onto another pack train, this time the property of Covote Evans. A couple of battles were fought around this noted mountain that and the foilow- ing day, in which the Indians were vic- torious at first. but finally withdrew with their abundant plunder down Illinois River towards the Big Meadows on Rogue River.
Without stopping for any further long digressions we will now try and get in touch with our original themc-the trip to Red Dog. The foregoing extracts are sufficient to show the contrast between
such expeditons now and in earlier days when the redman had such a fetching de- sire not only for pack trains, but also for locks of human hair. But if the dangers have been minimized, so too have been the glittering prospects of suddenly acquired wealth.
The remainder of our route took u; down the same stream thus renowned in Indian war annals, past the celebrated copper mines and over the mineral-bear- ing hills to Briggs Creek, thence up that creek to Red Dog. A good-sized miners' village composed of tents was already on the ground. There is no mistaking the character of this sudden aggregation of adventurers-it is the old story, told and retold so often on the Pacific Coast, the same hurrah, the same banter and badg- ering, the same noisy carousal and mid- night drunkenness that are so uniformly characteristic of these wild rushes. That there were no "dead men for breakfast," or supper, as the case might be, was due mainly to the brevity of the excitement. The elements were abundantly ripe for it ; but the Red Dog furor eased up nearly as suddenly as it was started. One ac- count of its inception, as told me by J. L. Wilder, is as follows : A man (he thinks it was Melichi Baughman, though he is not positive on this point ), was rid- ing along on a mule when he saw some- thing that resembled the copper bottom of a washboiler, but wondering how it could have got up into that terra incognita sort of a'region, he concluded to investi- gate. His investigation soon developed the fact it was nothing more or less than a slab of gold that had become disinte- grated from its bed of quartz. Perhaps one of the reasons for the sudden end- ing of the stampede might be traced io thic infrequency of such findings of ~ld washboiler bottoms. Another reason-a reason that must crop out at every new discovery of mines from this on-is found in the unfair allowance of such big claims to the first men on the ground. Good diggings had been found all right enough, but with twenty acres to the man it does not take many claims to ab- .sorh a good-sized stream. Before Con- gress took a hand in regulating this mat-
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ter, claims were annortioned more in ac- cordance with common fairness through those usually turbulent assemblages called "miners' meetings." One hundred icet up or down the gulch was the maxi- mum allowance. Congress. it must be confessed, has made a bad mess of it regulating something it did not under- stand.
Finding everything claimed up and rapidly ripening into that condition when contest and lawsuits would come in fashion, my partner and myself could only re-enact the role of "a looker-on in
Venice." We had no occasion, however, to regret our trip. Ther is a fascinating excitement about these movements that
makes recompense for many of their hardships. One seems to live more in a few weeks than he would otherwise in as many months. I.et no one then seek to decry this form of hegira on general prin- ciples ; for experience has shown that it will not "down." It furnishes the necessary training for those hardy ad- venturerers who have made Pacific Coast development what it is.
W. W. FIDLER.
MINES AND MINERS.
Why do men of every possible degree . of age, education, refinement, ability and prior occupation, isolate themselves in these hills and delve in the ground for a few grains of gold.
Their reasons for leaving former as- sociations are as varied as their inten- tions and temperments. Whether from city, town, or farm, a man, young or old, enters upon an entirely new career when he starts out with pick, pan and shovel, to make for himself an inde- pendent competency, with only a com- mon fund of capital, industry and con- viction.
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