?. rr 'W .n'v j . jt --Kip. j. THE PITTSBURG DISPATCH. THIRD PART. ft PAGES 17 TO 20. i .... i.i i i W tf-V IT PITTSBURG, SUNDAY, JUNE 2, 1889. f iTfiE MIGHTY GM3-ES. '-India's Famous Holy Eiver and Its f " ' Thousands of Worshipers. . - THE PEOPLE'S BATHS AT BENAKES. 'How tie Ganges Fertilizes the Extensive Wheat Plains of India. f Av EICH COUKTEI ASD POOR PEOPLE ;COEEESPOME2CKOFTintDISPATCa.l BENARES, April 8. Dur ing the past three weeks I have traveled 600 , miles around the 'holy Ganges riv er and the click of my typewriter now falls upon '' the air in unison with the prayers ; and the splashing jof the thousands 01 pilgrims wno are bathing in A. Hindoo Princess. its water. Ben ares is the Mecca of the Hindoos and the Ganges is to the Indian more than the Jor dan is to the Christian. On the top of a house boat, with six red-tutbaned, black faced and bare-legged rowers, I slowly drifted past the bathing ghats this moraine. The sun was just rising, and over fields of green extending for miles away on the left of the river its rays came to gild ihe brass jars which each pilgrim carried. It turned the semi-bare brown skins of the men, women and children to a rich mahogany and brought out the shadows in the fort like walls of the temples lining the other tide of the river. It was a scene for a painter. The wonderful colors of oriental wmm "feSfBHI v -v- tering throng just above the water were square benches covered with umbrellas as large as the top of a summer house, and under these sat wrinkled old priests with boxes of red paint beside them. .Each wor shiper came to those priests as he finished his bath, and the priest, dipping his finger into the paint box, made one, two or three marks upon his forehead. These marks were to remain on until the next day's bathing, and they were the signs of the gods. Among the bathers were peddlers of Ganges water. These carry the holy flnid in jars to vil lages far out in the country, and each pil grim who comes takes a load home to his relatives. The Ganges Holy Its Entire Lenctli. But it is not alone at Benares that the Ganges is holy. Prom its source in the Him alayas, where it is supposed to flow from the big toe of the god Vishnu, all along the winding 1,800 miles of its course, its waters are sacred and purifying. I found thousands bathing at Calcutta, and many Hindoos make a six years' pilgrimage from the source of the river to its month. There are hun dreds of places upon its banks which, like Benares, are especially sacred, and there is an island at the mouth which is annually visited by a vast number of pilgrims. This is known as the island of sugar. At Alla habad the Hindoos say there are three rivers which come together. One of these is the Jumna, the other is the Ganges and the third comes direct from heaven and is invis ible to mortal eyes. The Geocraphr of India. It is a wonderful river, and how wonder ful it is, it is impossible to know without understanding the geography of this semi continent of India. If you will take your map of Asia you will find that India is much the shape of an equilateral triangle, the base of which is the Himalaya moun tains and the apex of which rests in the Indian ocean. Each-side of this triangle is nearly 2,000 miles long and two sides of it are almost bounded by water. It is a coun try of magnificent distances. From Calcut ta to Bombay is as far as from London to Naples, or about the distance that New York is from Denver. The distance between Iceland and Spain is just about as far as a straight line from the Himalayas to the ' i "WORSHIP OF DUEGHA, DBA-WIT BY A NATIVE JLETIST. J VT " humanity, mixed with the glorious red of nature, filled one almost with a feeling of worship, and the muttering of the prayers ot thousands, with their strange incanta tions and mysterious postures, threw an in describable weirdness over the scene. Fantastic and foolish as some of the actions seemed I could not forget that this spot is to one-sixth of the human race the holiest place on the surface of the whole world, that out of evervsixmen, women and children on God's good earth one believes that if he washes here his sins float away on these waters to the sea, and that if his ashes are here buried his soul goes straight to heaven. If the Hindoo in accents of prayer utters the name of this river within 100 miles of its banks the act atones for the sins of three previous lives, and if he has his head shaved at a point which lies two hours ride by train from where I am now writintr. and the hairs fall into the strewn, for every hair that floats away he will have a million years in paradise. This place is at Allaha bad, where the river Jumna flows into the Ganges, and here at certain times of the year thousands of Hindoos may be seen on the banks of the river holding" their heads over the water and allowing barbers to shave them, as it were, into heaven. Faith and Works Hand in Hand. And do the people really believe this? I assure you they do, and their belief is a -practical one, too. It is not a faith without works by any means. This town of Benares has a population as big as that of Pittsburg, Cincinnati or "Washington. Jnst now the mornings are cold and the air is raw and piercing. It is the duty of everyone of these people to come before their breakfasts and bathe in the Ganges. I found the banks of the river filled with them this morning. The citT lies close to the river and for three miles along its banks are great temples, from the walls of which stone steps lead down into the Ganges, going under the water and out into the bed of the stream. Each of these temples has perhaps 100 of inese steps irom its Dase to the water, and these three miles of such steps were filled with worshipers. All were Hindoos and none "Were clothed in anything but the thlnest of cottons. There were shriveled old men and women wrapped around in the single breadth of dirty white cotton, standing up to their waists in water and holding their long, thin, bony arms upward while with chattering teeth they muttered prayers to the gods Siva, and Vishnu. Now and then they ducked down into the water and as they came up they gasped and looked colder than ever. There were plump girls, whose nut-brown skins glistened as the water trinkled down them and whose bright eyes flashed a half rongish glance at me between their prayers. As they raised their arms I noted that each had gold and silver bracelets upon them, and some of the country maidens had bracelets one after another from the wrist to the elbow and from thence on to the shoulders. Many wore great nose rings, and as they threw back their heads I could see that their ears were punctured with many holes and that each hole contained a bit of gold or silver. Most of them, how ever, hid their faces, and not a few were high-caste Hindoo maidens. As they stepped out of the water their bare limb's shone under the sunlight and against the dark brown background flashed heavy sil ver anklets. Ihey did not bathe with the men, and as a rale they huddled up in little groups by themselves. At many of the temples there were ledges built out over the river, and here men gathered up water in their hands and muttered prayers over it Each man and woman naa a brass jar, and as they left their bathing they carried some of the holy water to aid them in their wor ship in the temples. There were thousands of maid servants carrying great bowls of Ganges water on their heads and steadying the burden with one brown, bare arm as they walked up the steps. The costume of the Hindoo is a picturesque one. It is one long strip of cloth wound about the person so that the legs and arms are bare. Some times bright colored shawls are added by Jthetwealthier. and a bright tnrban or can apex ot the triangle and the area of the whole is equal to the size of Europe with out Russia, or nearly one-half of the United States. It is a country of mountains and valleys. The lower part and the greater part of the center is an immense tableland and between this tableland and the Hima laya mountains there is a wide strip of vast plains through which the mighty Ganges runs And the bulk of which has been made by the rich fertilizing earth which she has brought down from the mountains. There is no doubt but that in the far dis tant past the greater part of India was an island, and it you could sink these Ganges plains 500 feet downward the sea would rush in and the Himalayas would be divided from the plateau of South and Central India. These plains are the richest part of India. They are the most thicklv popu lated, and it is from them that the great bulk of the rice and wheat of India comes. The wheat area of India is increasing year by year. It is no w about equal to the wheat area of the United States, and its product competes with the American wheat in the markets of London. Por this reason these plains are double interesting to Americans, and the influence of he Ganges is felt more and more every year in the Stock Exchange of Chicago. Egypt the Glit of the Nile The Ganges not only made but she nour ishes these plains. She is well called by the Hindoos "Mother Ganga." From her source in the Himalayas to her mouth in the Bay of Bengal she has a fall of more than 2 sunk, but at the distance of 481 feet the auger broke. At this point the end of this rich soil had not been reached. The amount of fertilizing material brought down by the Ganges has been lately estimated and scien tific investigation shows that some distance above the point where it unites with the Brahmaputra its yearly burden is the enor mous amount of 355,000,000 tons. A thousand-ton ship is by no means small, and a fleet of 350,000 such ships could not carry this burden. The average freight car is 34 feet long and it takes a strong car to carry 50 tons. Sup pose our freight cars to be each 16 feet longer than they are. Load upon each car 50 tons of this fertilizing mud and it would take a train of more than 7,000,000 such cars to carry tne yearly fertilizing outnnt ot this great river. If these cars were on a single track the track would have to be 67,400 miles long. It would reach twice around the earth and leave enough cars over to run two continuous trains through the center. The most of this silt comes down during four months of the year and if there were daily fleets of 2,000 ships each containing 1,400 tons ot mud during these four months they would just carry it Irrigation aa It Is In Egypt. " But this is the work of the Ganges alone. It is five times as much as is carried by the Mississippi to the gulf, and further down the river where the great Brahmaputra joins it and flows out into its hundred mouths the silt output is still greater. D ur ine the rainy season alone the river here carries out enough silt to load 13,000 ships with 1,400 tons each every day for four months. During this rainy season this whole delta of the Ganges is covered with water to the extent of about 30 feet Ton see only tops of trees, and villages which are built .upon the hills; and the river fur ther up the country is diverted by canals from its course to every part of these vast plains. The best ot the wheat is irrigated and the water being allowed to lie upon the land drops this fertilizer and enriches it All over India, or through the part which I have traveled, I see this irrigation even now going on. Much of it is done in the most primitive way. Two half-naked men stand fust above the river with a basket hung by long ropes between them. This basket is water tight, and by a swinging motion they scoop it down into the river and lift the water up into a canal above, from whence it runs off into other canals over the fields. Here at Ben ares bullocks are largely used. The water is stored in great wells and it is drawn irom them in skin bowls, each 'of which holds about a bushel ot water. The bowl is a pig's skin kept open with a hoop of wood and to its top by four strings is fastened a rope. This rope runs over a rude pulley at the top ot the well and at a dis tance of 20 feet trom it, it is tied to the yoke of bullock, which, led by a man, raises the bucket to the top of the Well. Here it is pulled over into a trough. I am told that this mode of irrigation is faster and cheaper than any of the machine methods employed, and J. seen everywhere. Of late years the English have been spend ing immense sums in irrigating India, and millions of acres of new land have been brought under irrigation. In 1882 more than 825,000,000 were spent "in Bengal alone, and the wheat lands are found to produce best in those provinces which can be irrigated. I do not remember the average wheat pro duction of the United States per acre, but I think it is larger than that of India. Here it is only 13 bushels per acre, and the wheat is not more than a foot high. The heads of the grain, however, are well filled out, though it is not worth as much in Mark: Lane as the better classes of Australian or California wheat NYE AND BASEBALL William Attends the Opening Game at the Hew League Grounds, LOOKING TflEOUGH A KNOT HOLE. Borne Other Thoughts Which Are Kow Used for the first Time. STATEN ISLAND IK THE EET0LUTI0H" 11 rWBITTEK 70S TUI filSrATCH.'! STATEN ISL AND, where the New York League games will be play ed this season, is an oblate Bpheroid where the Demo crats, last fall, were flattened at the polls. St. George, which is 25 minutes from New York, via the Statute of Liberty, is the point where the disemboweled umpire may be found. St George is not really a town. It is not even a postoffice; it is only a name. It has a fine base ball ground, however, a bank, a bright and handsome paper called the Staten Isl ander, and a telephone, by means of which one can converse with parties in New York, but it has no inhabitants. I desired one evening to converse with Mr. Chauncey Depew upon a normnril matter, so I asked for the New York Central ofiice. I got it Elce Not the Only Food. I had always looked upon India as a rice eating country. I find that a great number of the people here eat wheat and grain. In Northwestern India only about 10 per cent of the people eat rice, and in the prison at JW-mh yli L J I ijP TyOaTyjrTTTtl fit k I 1 Mfi The Royal Equipage. tor. Me Labors With ihe Telephone. Ganges Pleasure Barge. VEBHafioven th h1 HHbtedgiUsiKaMiaingsMj miles, and as a fertilizing bearer she sur passes any river on-the face of the globe. Egypt is the gift of the Nile. You conld lose Egypt in these plains, which are the gift of the Ganges. The mighty Nile, with its unknown source, does not carry down as much water as this holy river of the Hin doos, and her maximum discharge at a distance of 400 miles from the sea, with many of her tributaries yet to hear from, is one-third greater than that of the Missis sippi. "Where the Ganges rises bursting from a Himalayan glacier it is 27 feet wide. It falls 3,500 feet in the first ten miles of its course, and it has an average depth of 30 feet 500 miles from its mouth. Its delta is as wide as the distance from New York to Washington, and hundreds ot months run from this width back in a sort of a parallelogram for 200 miles more, where they unite. The water of the Bay of Bengal is discolored for miles by the mud brought down by the Gangesnd the whole country is fertilized by it An Excellent Fertilizer, The water is the color and thickness of pea soup and the silt or mud is so rich that these vast plains use no other fertilizer. The crops are harvested by pulling the stalks out of the ground. No cows or horses are allowed to pasture in the fields and their droppings are mixed with straw and mud and then dried and used as fuel. In this Ganges valley nature is always giving, but never getting. Every atom of natural fer tilizer, save this Ganges silt, is taken from the soiL Still the land is as rich as guano and produces from two to fonr crops every year.' Abont Calcutta tbe'Jalluvial deposit is ay leec aeep anajuuexperimentwas late- i?1 thread of ityATjreUE Agra I found that the prisoners were fed upon grain. Everywhere the mass of the people seem to be underfed and the leanest, scraggiest specimens of humanity I have ever seen I find in this rich valley of the Ganges. Where nature has done everything the people are starving, and yon can' have no idea of the skin and bone men and boys, whom I see daily by the thousands. The costume of the people is such that the arms ana legs and often the breasts and waists are bare. There seems to be nothing but skin, bone and sinew, and the average thigh is not bigger than a muscular Amer ican biceps. There are no calves whatever, and the joints at the knees and the ankles are extraordinarily large. Nearly every man you meet, if he be poor, has wrinkles all over his body, and at every ranroau siauoa you una gaunt, GarK- faced, piteous, lean men, who slap their bare stomachs to show that they are hollow and ask for backshish. Wages are misera bly low. Farm laborers get from 6 to 8 cents a day. Even travelers, who have to pay the highest wages, can get good English speaking servants who will travel with them and feed themselves for 33 cents a day and less than that if taken by the month. Too Hany People to Support. This valleyof the Ganges has more people than it can support, and it is probably the most densely populated part of the world. The people live in villages, and the average country town consists of one-story mud huts too poor and illy-ventilated for American pig pens. You would not think of having such outhouses as the residences of the majority of this vast popnlation wonld make, and in a large part of India, and es pecially in the best part of this Ganges country, the holdings average from two to three acres apiece. At four to the family, this represents a half acre per perspn, or over 1,200 persons per square mile. When it is remembered that these people live by agriculture, it will be seen that this condi tion is far worse than that of China or any part ol Europe. And still the people are bright. They are brainy, too, and you will find few sharper business men. better cut faces and more polite people than these people of India. Their faces in this part of India have much the same char acteristics as those ot tne Anglo-Saxon. Those ot the higher castes are more like those of the Greeks and I see faces every day which, if the skin were white, any American might be proud to own. They belong to the same race germ that we do and under the same training and Christian in fluences they would be strong competitors with ns. But what can a man do on 6 cents a da, or how can a man learn when he has to struggle to exist? The population of India is continually increasing. England eats the lion's share of the products of,the country, and though the people are perhaps better off under her jt..t.imAnt iTian IllAV liavo Koan in tliA vioat it is the same old story of her wealth going J to tne ruiers aau lue people wording meir flesh off their bones to support them The Governor General of India, who, by the wav. is the rich Marquis of Lansdown, gets $100,000Na year. , Quite a contrast with the wages of the masses at 6 cents a day! Isn't "Tr miMli juia n..vtiyiA.tii:r.M xbjs. promptly, and after revealing a large quan tity of secrets of the order, includinggrips, pass words and signs of distress, a voice at the other end of the line made the statement "Eats!" I then learned that I had laid bare my most precious thoughts to the N. Y. Cen tral Ofiice of the telephone, not to the N. Y. C. & H. E. R. K. S., I contributed to the laughingstock of the telephone company instead of utilizing the rolling stock of the road. Back of St. George landing the ground rises rapidly bjr means of a series of beautiful terraces, along which may be found the abode of wealth and beauty. PLEASING EEATUBES. Erom these terraces the game of ball may be seen readily it anyone will step to the window overlooking the harbor. The rent of houses goes up every summer along the terraces, because spectacular shows and baseball games may be seen freely by means of a glass from those residences. Laat year Sig. Blondin gave an exhibition at these grounds on the tightrope or wire. Those who did not care to see him were almost compelled to pull down the blind. I went down to witness the opening game oi ball at St George this season, but was pained to notice that the magnanimous elm trom which I had heretofore witnessed the outdoor spectacles, on these grounds, had been filled full of sharp spikes. This course will not only hurt the management, but others who would be glad to foster and en courage, by voice and pen, all manly nth letio sports of an outdoor nature. I spoke to the doortender abont it and said I was a great hand for snort and would like to see the noble American game this summer from time to time on those grounds. He said not on those grounds. Possibly on some other grounds, bnt not on those grounds. I then pulled a cork out of a knothole in the fence by means of a corkscrew which I had ifiiTIl Hye Views the Sail Game. brought with me, not knowing what might happen, and through the aperture I saw the game, though, of course, imperfectly. When I left the hole, there was a ring worn around its circumference quite distinctly, where I had chafed the board with my nose while trying to follow the course of the lofty fly. HOW HE ENJOYED IT. Early in the afternoon De Cappa's justly celebrated band played some overtures, in terspersed with interlndes. The disad vantage of a knothole as a lorgnette is that one has to look through it with his ear while the band plays, or miss the melody. I do not know much about baseball, and for that reason, I have been repeatedly called upon to umpire the game. People are apt, in choosing their umpires as in choosing their juries, to confuse ignorance and impartiality. j.ne game was piayea Detween our own JSew xorfc club and that of Cleveland, O, First our club wonld swat the ball and run around the goals for awhile and then the other would do so. This was kept up until Cleveland had five and the New Yorks had J jusi wnai mey started with. Speaking of Cleveland reminds me that I saw Kim- the other day walking up the street with ex-Secretary Fairchild, between 5 and 6 o'clock, going home like a plain American citizen from his work, scorning the horse cars, the elevated road and the cabs. I had heard that Mr. Cleveland was very rarely recognized on the street here and so I kept my eye on the two men for several blocks. They were absolutely unrecognized to all appearance and the ex-President actu allr finds more solitude on Bmadwav than he did when he quietly went away on his bridal tour to a secluded place where he J coma commune witn nimselr, and woke pp in the morning to find the front vard full of 'artists, correspondents and telegraph in struments. I presume that nothing makes a newly married President madder, as Imav wy,T,taaa twtille strolling about the'grouadfl I at eventide, looking up into the clear and quiet sky when the full orbed honeymoon scoots across the heavens, suddenly to stum ble over a telegraph wire, connected with a great paper. NO PLACE TOE POLICEMKK. But we were speaking of Staten Island. Probably Staten Island is, to the majority or the residents, even in New York, a terra incognita. It is also a terra to the police sometimes for being 13J miles long by 1 miles in width. Nine policemen have great difficulty in being on the ground when tronble occurs, especially when the roads are bad. So the Staten Island policeman's life is not one of luxurious ease as one might suppose. My heart has hot been so touched for years as last autumn while strolling through the beautiful woods which are en gagedin clothing the hillsides of the island. The air was crisp and exhilarating; the blue sea glimmered through the red and gold of the autumnal foliage. Suddenly I thought I heard a sob. Ever ready to comfort the distressed, provided it does not cost anything; always on hand to ask the suffering if it still hurls, and if so, where it hurts, and engage the sufferer in pleasing conversation, I climbed the fence and penetrated still further into the woods, wnere jl lound a policeman. Tears were in his eyes. I can bear anv thing better, than the sight of a policeman bathed in tears. i. inquired the cause ot his anguish. He said that it was so quiet and lonely on his beat that he had strolled off into the woods, and in an unguarded momenthe had thrown his clnb into a chestnut tree to knock down a few nuts, not having. had a chance to knock down anything else for a long time, and the club had remained up there. He dared not go home or bacK on the beat with onthis clnb, for It would be a disgrace, and besides that, hejnight be attacked by some one on his way home and have no means of defending himself. It was a sad case. Later on, however, a bad boy, by turning State's evidence and getting a promise from the policeman that he should be free from arrest for five years, went up the tree and returned with the Billy do. HE BECAME HEALTHY. Staten Island has 19 postofSces and a fort Port Wadsworth has an excellent site for a iort, but there is so little fighting to be done lately, and. there is such close competition that it is not self-supporting. I am told that if influential friends at Washington did not do something for it everv vear it would have to be abandoned. South Beach is now getting to be the Coney Island of the approaching season. Excursionists can ride from Harlem to South Beach for 15 cents, which, on the round trip, gives each excursionist 20 cents advantage over Coney Island. This amount, which is carefully invested in beer, will, in one season, yield large returns. Added to all this, South Beach has a water front, a large number of msrry-go-rounds and fresh baked peannts. Beer can be had by ap proaching only authenticated parties in the proper way. Many people are benefited every year by sitting at the seashore where they hear the billows burst upon the strand, while they quaff some more beer. I knew a man once who went to the seaside a living skeleton, but by patiently and regularly 'ForForty-Eight.Days; A ROMANCE OF A MAIDEN ' -AND- A HISTORY OF A WAR. WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH BY JOAQUIN MILLER. WWESt Silent and Unobtrusive Sympathy. watching the other people bathe every after noon, his pores were opened, and by drink ing beer at odd times whenever the idea oc curred to him, he became so healthy that it was almost impossible to make the lid of his coffin stay on. But those who ride to the ball game or to South Beach do not see the best part of Staten Island. The hundreds of beautiful 'walks and drives through the most wonder fully diversified wealth of verdure, the com bination of land and sea, the old homes, the broad grounds, the continual change and surprise at a new style of landscape with the sea in the distance, are not understood by those who skim the borders of the island and follow the crowd. The crowd is what Staten Island has fought against for years, and although it does not invade beyond the lines of transit and the beach, the tide of hot humanity from the populous kilns of the city has set in toward South Beach. A TORY STEONGnOLD. Staten Island in Revolutionary times was extremely Tory in its politics, but is now friendly to the United States with the ex ception, perhaps, of a slight bitterness still felt toward Constable's Hook. Constable's Hook is like Adams and Jefferson. Though dead, it still speaks. A man who had lived for a long time at Constable's Hook might blow out his gas at night and wake up bright and refreshed in the morning. Asphyxia would be a pleasant relaxation for him. The time is coming,and at no distant day, when Staten Island and Manhattan Island will work together more harmoniously, and as business picks up and trade is encour aged, many Staten Island business men will have quiet homes in New York, The feel ing of rivalry, though keen and active, is a, purely friendly one, and there is no bitter ness at all. There is no reason why New York and Tompkinsville should not walk together hand in hand in the great march of progress. Each has her sphere of action. each her allotted task, each her field ot work. While some classes of merchandise may be bought cheaper in New York, owing to railroad competition between the latter and Chicago, other lines .oi goods are cheaper at Tompkinsville. Though I live on Staten Island I have not allowed my prejudices to influence me in any way in what I have said. I have tried to be fair and truthful iu what I have said, for I have the kindliest feeling toward New York and always have had, and after a hard and active dav in the busy marts of trade at Tompkinsville, nothing rests me or builds me np like an evening's romp or a straw ride on Fifth avenue. BILL Nye. CHAPTER I. A PBEFATOEY trKDEESTAITDnrO. There are Indians and Indians. A man may fight for some Indians and fight against other Indians, and yet not be at all in the wrong. At Wa terloo, France and England were not friend ly. But in the Crimean War, less than half a century later, they stood shoulder to shoulder. If conditions fof this sort can exist among the most civilized J nations it ought not to be counted so very inconsistent if a boy. thrown among sav ages, should in the course of his duty, or even desire, or perhaps in the course of what might really be called diplomacy." be found fighting at one time for and with a certain tribe of Indians and at another time against another tribe of Indians. And yet an ungrateful and forgetful world will perhaps continue to insist that for four years the writer of this sketch was a savage among savages, and only there for blood and plunder. How cruelly wrong 1 Let it be said in a single paragraph that the hand which Dens these lines has been raised in several campaigns for the white men against the Indians; that the writer was three times terribly wounded in these wars. Some of these battles were fought in Oregon, some in Idaho, some in Calitornia. Some are matters of record; but for the most part they are perishing from the memory of man as the pioneers who bore part with him are perishing from the earth. However, if is one brief record which bears the great seal of the State of California. It is given here because it is brief; not at all because it shows the writer to the best advantage a fact for which he cares not the snap of his finger! Headquarters Adjutant General's Oitice, State of California, SacrAMENTOjCal., December 15, 1883.. loaqnin jauier, new iois.: Dear Sir: In answer to yonr letter ad dressed to General, now Governor, Stonetnan, I have to say that I find, on examination ot the records on file in this office, that you served as a volunteer In one of the early Modoc wars, tnown as the "Pitt River expedition." from March the 16th, 1857. to May the 2d, 1857. for 43 days. It also appears that you furnished your own horse and equipments. It farther ap pears that you ars tho only one who took part in said expedition that never received any compensation lor nts services, ins lame is probably your own. in not applying tor It. Bnt Pitt Biver Valley, as before narrated, found excuse for their bloody work. Of course, I was greatly elated at the splendid results of the grand elk hunt which I had organized and led to a finish, and I at once sent back a runner to bear the good news and to bring the famishing tribe to devour the tons of meat where it lay. It was the return of this runner, with hun dreds of hungry Indians creeping on after him up the mountain and through the dense woods, that bronght me my first news of the fearful massacre. It seemed incredible. It seemed utterly impossible that I should now be the only living white person in a place that only the season before was teeming with happy and hopeful settlers. I took two fine and taithfnl young Indians, and descending almost with the rapidity of shot op our snowshoes to the flames and green grasses of the far off valley, I found only dead bodies and burned ruins. Let us hasten on over the peril and the pain of the tedious return through the melt ing suns to my own camp. Believing my self to be the first white man to leam of the massacre, I hastened on alone to the nearest white habitation. This was the now famous Soda Springs, the property of perhaps the wealthiest man in the world, Senator Stan ford. I was part owner of the springs at this early date. We had a little mountain hotel my partner and myself and took stock to winter at our ranch deeper in the mountains. And this was what I was do ing at the time of the massacre away over the spurs of Mount Shasta to the east I chose to take care of the stock, and live with . of broken manhood feebly tottering back toward the little city and whisky. The army had had two days to make tha distance which I must cover in one or sleep without my dinner in the snow. But they had. made a wide trail, these men with nn steady feet, and it was not hard to lollow. As the stars began to glitter over tha steep and stupendous walls of snow which I was now slowly climbing, I caught tha cheering light ot many campfires under tha somber boughs of pine and fir and cedar trees that dotted the mountain slope. My splendid horse soon had his nose In a barley bag alontr with others, and I broke breai with as motley a set of men as ever grouped about any campfire on this earth. Conld Shakespeare have but seen that gangl De scription at my hand would be impossible! Perhaps 25 of 'these men had lost brother, father, friend, fortune, in the massacre. These were sober and quiet enough. Per haps a like number had lost nothing, having; had nothing to lose, and were now merely adventurers; on their way out to plunder the dead possibly. Perhaps a like number were of the lowest form of humanity; for tha, jails had been given a holidav. Janns and thejaill The old Bojnan deity, the god of battles and the Yreka mining camp in Cali fornia. The world is round and history keeps on reading the same old page in tire less repetition t janus and the open jail J' And these men were to be my companions through a campaign of long and savags warfare I CHAPTEKUL X IIAIDEX ASD A LETTXE. The braying pack mules, the bellowing, cattle, the impatient horses pawing in tha hard, deep snow, and over and above all this the yelling of wholly drunken or half sober men, who now for the first time were con fronted by the fact that they had to either cook or go hungry all this along with tho many bright, big camp fires flashing over tha mountains of snow under the dense and somber pines, made a scene Miltonic, demoniac, majestic To forecast the entire annihilation of this mob, calling itself tha "army of Northern California," had not been a hard task. Most of the men had - now, after the lapse of more than a quarter of a centurr. therB 18 no money in the Treasury for the payment of such claims. Tour remedy is by special a of California. Is by special act ot the Lecialature of the State Ueoeoe B. Cbosbt, I Before the Launch, w -12 Lanty, the Boatman Now, Bill, yon get her by the head an' I'll git 'round behind her, an we'll have her in the water quicker'n scat. Aunt Hepsy (sketching)- tUOf H-e-llll-pl- ' i" Respectfully yours, Adjutant Goneral for the State of California. (seal of uaiuorma. As if I had asked for a certificate of this record for the money there was in it. Still let some young financier who is apt at arithmetic stop here and calculate how much this one State, to say nothing of Idaho, Oregon, Arizona and the Federal States also might be owing me now in gold coin. For I never, from any one, or Irom any sonrce whatever, accepted 1 cent for my services. Take this one account of Califor nia, which she frankly says, under the great seal, is due me, and see what it would amount to at annnal interest for more than 30 years. The pay allowed was S5 per day for horse and equipments; the same for a man. But compute and compound, after ascertaining the amount dne at the rate of ?10 per day "for 48 days." You will find that a certain great State is owing to a cer tain humble person not only all the gold on the great glittering dome of her Capitol, but the Capitol itself. Aye, the very State itself. Let her people then, her strong, new people, who are pushing us older ones off the globe, not be too eager to accuse and find fault with the work I have done until that work is in some sort paid for. And now let us look into the campaign "for 48 days." We will have only the plain, true story of an expedition against the early Modocs through the gleaming snows and nnder the somber pines of majestic Mount Shasta. And why this expedition? Because in February, 1857, the Modoc and Pitt river Indians rose up one night and jmassacred every white person, with the single excep tion of myself, in all the vast region now comprised in Modoo county. CHAPTER IL THE EXPEDITION. . I was not at home, that is, not in my own cabin, at the time the Indians rose up and massacred all the people in what is now Modoc county, California, but had taken a party of young Indians and gone a day's journey deeper into the mountainous wil derness on a grand annual elk hunt Pos sibly my absence from home bad something to do with the sparing of my lite. But I think not. As before said, my insignifi cance, both as a boy and a holder of prop erty, saved me, perhaps. Yet let it be re membered, I had friends amongthe Indians- excellent, true and brave friends. And they are as faithful to their friends as any people on earth. Yea, let me say this now at last over the graves of these dead red men: 1 owe .them, much; I owe no white man anything at all. Looking back over the long and dubious road of my eventfnl life, I can say this and snap my finger at the rebuke it may bring. But surely I owe no white man for favor or iricudship or les son ot love or forbearance of any sort Yet to the savage red men that gathered about the base of Mount Shasta to battle and to die I owe much, much, much all that I am or can ever hope to be. Our great elk hunt had been wonderfully successful. We had pvertaken a band of elk in a dense wood, where they had gone into winter quarters with the snow walled in around them higher than their high-lifted and splendid antlers. We had plunged in upon tnem nere, wnere tney and their an cestry had been secure forperhaps a tfiou sand preceding winters. We had poured in upon them with such impetuosity that the antlered ranks of the huge bulls, as they stood on the outer edge ot the vast herd, were broken up as we rushed right in among the cons and calves, while the bulls took to tho hard-crusted snow and wallowed away as best they could. This left us a perfect slaughter yard 1 The bulls were'not desira ble; but the cows and calves even at mid winter, with the snow breast deep and with nothing but the bark of willows and birch and vine-maple to feed upon, were fat. My excuse for killing 13 huge cows with my own hand at that time is found in the fact that a friendly tribe of Indians down the mountains near my own home was literally starving. The gold hunters had made the water in the rivers so muddy that the fish, on which these Indians had 'largely depend ed for centuries, had either died or forsaken the streams in this region. And in this iact the Indians who auwwwrsd Has, people fof I STORMING THE ISLAND. - , , only Indians about me, simply because I liked solitude; and the silent dignity oi the Indian was always more decent than the garrulous white men. Besides that, the white men seemed constantly to seek some advantage of me. Beyond all that, I had heen badly wounded in a battle with hostile Indians near Soda Springs only the sum mer before, and was not strong enough, to say nothing of my extreme youth, to do the work about the springs. And you may be certain that my penurious and selfish "pardners" were glad to give me the place of peril and stay where they could handle the money. And no'w, having crowded a whole col umn into a few paragraphs, let us hasten forward. Beaching Soda Springs at early dawn, after a moonlight walk, or rather run, of singnlar grandeur under the solemn pines on the hard crusted snow, I hastily told the terrible news; and then threw myself into the saddle, arms in hand, and set out through the tortuous and tedious mountain trail for Yreka. This city of Yreka was at this time a sort of capital of Northern Cali fornia; a popnlous and most prosperous min ing town, with banks, miles of brick houses, hundreds of hotels. A great city was Yreka in the days of old. I had a ride before me of more than fO miles. The narrow snow bound steep and stony trail was simply ter rible. But I was splendidly mounted. My horse had all the gathered strength of a win ter's rest in his long and supple legs, and he continually bounded along like a ball. At twilight I struck Yraka. I found the citv already on-fire with the terrible news, it had reached them through a man who had escaped the massacre; and a hundred men had only that morning, after a single night ot preparation, set out tor the scene ot death and desolation. A wild strange crowd was that which had journeyed forth from the now drunken and half-crazed town. I entered the place at a gallop, plunging through a herd of bellowing cattle which some howling and wholly drunk men were trying to drive out after the little army that had set face for the almost impassable mountains or snow that lay between it and the valley of flames and death. I fell from my horse into the arms ot Mr. Irwin, the editor of the paper. This Irwin was afterward governor of Cali fornia, a good, wise man. He topk me at once to the judge of that district, Jndge Boseborongh. Hastily I told him all I knew. This same Judge is now a neighbor of mine here in Oakland, California. 'You must stay in here," said the Judge. I was too worn, too nearly dead, to qnite understand. "They will kill you in the streetl They thought the Indians had killed you and burned your place also. But it seems that they have not even taken any of your cattle. This may be all right but the city is mad and it is drunk also. Yon stav here to-night" I slept on the floor of that little bricjc law office, my feet against the door and a pistol in my hind. Ah, a queer reward was I having for my perill What a world this isl The next morning tne jnage ana the future Oovernorof California aroused me early. We breakfasted in the cold, bright morning on the office table from ham and eggs and other good" things which the Jndge had ordered from his residence. Looking out ol the window I saw that my horse was already saddled, and was being led up and down in the sharp, frosty air. "Everybody is killed,'" said the Judge as we finished breakfast, "except yourself. There is not even a guide left to head that little army that lelt here yesterday through the snow over' the mountain. Ike Bodgers, the banker, has been out there, but that was in the summer time. He will not know the road with ten feet of snow. Besides, his father is among the murdered and he is half insane over it Sam Lockbart Is the same, for he has lost his brother, and all his splendid property there is In ashes." "Well, Judge, what must I do?" "Mount that horsa instantly and follow, find them over the mountains down into the valley. There you will meet volunteers and also some of the regular army, coming ud from San Francisco to help destroy these bloody savages." The man's cool good sense and confidence in boy nnd a stranger made me suddenly proud and strong and resolute. I rode out of town at a gallop, as I had entered. But the town was quiet now It seemed like Sunday. I saw two men only, and these two were bathing their heads at a pump in the crisp and frosty-air. A few miles ont I began to meet stragglers coming from the little army of volunteers. One day and one night bad been quite enough tor(them. And ,i asy loss x loaait wm iragiaeswry dim pistols in their belts; bdttheir gunsleaned in hopeless neglect, wet and empty, -against the pines. The Indians could easily glida in on the rusted snow fromVtlie darkness that environed us and tomahawk the last man! T But the next morning, brilliant with snow and sunlight, found the men aleepig '" peacefully. One by one they crawledSfbrth from their blankets, now sunken heavily in the snow from theweightand warmthof from two to tea half drunken forms of humanity, and stared hopelessly about. The great roaring fires of the night before had sunken deep down in the melting snow. Only here and there the embers of some huge pine loj still held fire away down in the smoke blackened pit that yawned at the feet of tha California volunteers in their blankets. Erom under the low bonghs of a dwarf yew tree where I, along with my horse, had spent the night apart from the tumultuous crowd, I could see little groups of men gathering on the side next toward the little city, away below the snow and a day's journoy behind us. These little groups would accumulate like rolling balls of snow, and then break off and silently, but speedily, turn their backs on the half-awakened camp of California. They had had enough of the first great campaign against the murderous Modocs. There remained at informal roll-call onlv two classes, the best and the worst Tha worst cared not, or dared not, to return to prison fare, and the best of the men who had gotten up the -sudden expedition felt that the eyes of the State were on them; besides, that they had the massacre to avenge, to re cover lost estates; to reclaim once more tor The Captive Maiden. civilization a region as large as all New England. These men could not desert now. Bnt what a dismal, smoky, donghy, dread ful breakfast! The "jail-birds" were bribed, bullied, beaten into doing the cooking. And there were two big fist fights before it was hair over! As we sat or rather stood at breakfast, a tinenn of coffee in the right hand and a sandwich of dough nnd burnt bacon in tha other, two tall and comely Indian warriors stood over like silhouettes against the rising sun on the crest of the snowy mountain be fore us. Instantly I knew tliem for my two young friends who had gone down into tha valley of death with me when we had firsts heard of the massacre. Take a map and trace the route of my travel since leaving my own camp, and you will see that in three days I had made almost the entire cir cuit of tho grandest and sublimest snow peak in all the world. I was now not 40 miles from my own camp, my own Indians, my own cattle and horses. These swift aad splendid young fellows had kept promise and were coming to tell me bow thin? row stood. Their iniormation, who'e'ver it might be, was of the greatest importance. Did tho compact with the Modocs still hold good? Was Pitt Biver and Modoc and Shasta still friendly; or had they quarreled, over tha plunder, after the fashion of Thite nations? All, this was. important to know. But such a panic! Pistols in the air in stantly! A dozen. 40,' CO shots! The two -tall and shapely figures melted back and away as fhev had come. And that was all; oil except a "stampede" of hones, cattle, mules, men I The cattle first took fright at this apparition, those two shapely and shadowy savages on the steep deep snow nn der the pines that lifted before us, and they, like the men in the early morning, started ' Tor the world below Then the mules, madly braying, followed the bellowing cattle. Then the horses. Then the men dashed bravely down tha ihountain after ttieii. horses. And they never came back, cattle,1" nones, mnies or ment Ike Eodgers, thet banker, whose1 father. ud fallea In tmyw swore, palled Lt! rem- :. - v. T b. jij . 1. .. , i J ta -j-r .