Trail Tales - free ebook by James David Gillilan

TRAIL TALES

BY JAMES DAVID GILLILAN THE ABINGDON PRESS NEW YORK CINCINNATI Copyright, 1915, by JAMES DAVID GILLILAN DEDICATED AFFECTIONATELY TO MY MOTHER, TO MY WIFE; LIKEWISE TO THE PREACHERS OF UTAH MISSION AND IDAHO ANNUAL CONFERENCE...

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PREFACE

In his young manhood the writer of these sketches came up into this realm of widest vision, clearest skies, sweetest waters, and happiest people to engraft the green twig of his life upon the activities of the mountaineers of the thrilling West. At that time the vast plains and the barren valleys were silvered over with the ubiquitous sage through which crept lazily and aimlessly the many unharnessed arroyo-making streams waiting only the appearance of their master, man. Under his scientific, sk

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GOD’S MINISTER

Dedicated to the Mountain Ministers As terrace upon terrace Rise the mountains o’er the humbler hills And stretch away to dizzy heights To meet heaven’s own pure blue; From thence to steal those soft and filmy clouds With which to wrap their heads and shoulders–– Bare of other cloak–– Transforming them to rains and snows To bless this elsewise desert world: So, he who stands God’s minister ’mong men, High reaches out above all earthly things And comes in contact with the thoughts of God; Conve

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THE WESTERN TRAIL

And step by step since time began I see the steady gain of man. ––Whittier. THE WESTERN TRAIL “An overland highway to the Western sea” was the thought variously expressed by many men in both public and private life among the French, English, and Americans from very early times. In 1659 Pierre Radisson and a companion, by way of the Great Lakes, Fox, and “Ouisconsing” Rivers, discovered the “east fork” of the “Great River” and crossed to the “west fork,” up which they went into what is now the Da

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THE LONG TRAIL

Those mighty pyramids of stone That wedge-like pierce the desert airs, When nearer seen and better known Are but gigantic flights of stairs. –– Longfellow . THE LONG TRAIL The Old Overland Trail from the Missouri River to the Willamette is a distance of nearly two thousand miles. Before Jason Lee and Marcus Whitman sanctioned its use for the migrating myriads of Americans seeking the shores of the sunset sea, trappers and adventurers, good and bad, had mapped out a general route over the win

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THE DESERT

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. –– Gray . As geographers, Sosius, crowd into the edges of their maps parts of the world which they do not know about, adding notes in the margin to the effect that beyond this lies nothing but sandy deserts full of wild beasts, and unapproachable bogs. –– Plutarch . THE DESERT Much of the Old Overland Trail lay across the “Great American Desert,” as it was named in the earlier geographies. Irrigation and progr

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SAGEBRUSH

This is the forest primeval.–– Longfellow . The continuous woods where rolls the Oregon.–– Bryant . SAGEBRUSH Frequently within these pages mention has been made of the commonest of all our native plants on the Trail––sagebrush. Botanically, it is, Artemisia tridentata . The new Standard Dictionary defines sagebrush as “any one of the various shrubby species of Artemisia, of the aster family, growing on the elevated plains of the Western United States, especially Artemisia tridentata , very abun

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THE IRON TRAIL

There are hermit souls that live withdrawn In their houses of self-content; There are souls like stars that dwell apart In their fellowless firmament. There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths Where highways never ran. But, let me live by the side of the road And be a friend to man. ––Sam Walter Foss....

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A RAILROAD SAINT IN IDAHO

The “railroad saint” was a locomotive engineer. His life was ever an open book, yet while careful and almost severe in his personal religious habits, he did not criticize the manners of his associates. He simply let his well kept searchlight shine. Though born in Ohio, his boy life was spent mainly in Nebraska, when it was just emerging from the ragged swaddlings of rough frontierdom; and during his young manhood he lived in Wyoming, at the time when men “carried the law in their hip-pockets,” a

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AN UNUSUAL KINDNESS

That best portion of a good man’s life–– His little, nameless, unremembered acts Of kindness and of love. ––Wordsworth. The Methodist locomotive engineer had died joyful. “I am so glad to go,” he said. “I am like a boy when there’s a circus in town; I’ve got the price, and my baggage is checked clear through.” I was holding a memorial service for him in his old home town, and at the close a big, broad-shouldered man came forward to the altar rail and quietly said, “You did not know that man.” Th

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INDIANS OF THE TRAIL

Man’s inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn. –– Burns . CHIEF JOSEPH, NEZ PERCE INDIAN...

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INTRODUCTORY WORDS

Indian character is human character because the Indian is human. Being human he is susceptible to all human teaching and experiences. None yields more readily to love and kindness. Few can speak of the Indian with absolute propriety, for very few know him. To the mind of most Americans, I venture to say, the very name “Indian” suggests scalpings, massacres, outrages of all kinds and an interminable list of kindred horrors; all too true. But it must be remembered that the Indian presented to his

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POCATELLO, THE CHIEF

The nodding horror of whose shady brows Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger. –– Milton . Fort Hall Reservation, until 1902, embraced a large territory of which Pocatello was the center. These Idaho red people are the remnants of the once powerful tribes of the Bannocks and Shoshones, which ranged from the Blue Mountains in Oregon to the backbone of the Rocky Mountains. The compressing processes used by the aggressive white people have encircled, curtailed, and squeezed their borders so t

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THE BABYLESS MOTHER

Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.–– Saint Matthew . One of the many signs that the Indian is human is his slowness to learn. Ever since 1492 the whiter man has been trying to force some supposedly useful things into the mind of him of the darker skin. One of these is that he of the blanket has no rights that he of the dress coat is bound to respect. The Indian rises in practical debate to this question. His arguments are not words, but the rifle a

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MARY MUSKRAT

Now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.–– Saint Paul . When the “teacher” first went among the Indians at Fort Hall her reception was neither cordial nor cold, for she was not received at all. She had not been invited and she was not welcome. For the first eighteen months after reaching the fort she could often hear in the nighttime the movement of a moccasin, as some tired Indian spy changed his cramped position, for she was religiously watched and irrelig

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BAD BEN

A little child shall lead them.–– Isaiah . Ben’s daughter, Mary [1] , was the delight of the old man’s heart. She had been taken most unwillingly, so far as both were concerned, and placed in one of the Eastern schools for Indian youths. Ben had objected strenuously, but the stronger arm prevailed. The teacher at the mission had never in all her many years in that place felt fear until after Mary was taken away. When the father would come to the school to ask for news of her, he had his face pai

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A THREE-CORNERED SERMON

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.–– Isaiah . Thy word, Almighty Lord, Where’er it enters in Is sharper than a two-edged sword To slay the man of sin. –– Montgomery . A peculiar wireless telegraphy has ever been in vogue among the aborigines of many lands. The interior tribes of Africa have it and use it to perfection. The plains Indians and t

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THREE YEARS AFTER

Father of all! in every age, In every clime adored, By saint, by savage, and by sage, Jehovah, Jove, or Lord. –– Alexander Pope . Some hypercritical person, and possibly some sincere soul, may ask: “Did such revival do any permanent good? Does not the so-near savage easily backslide?” To this may be given this partial reply: It depends somewhat on the sort of white folks there are in the immediate vicinity. As elsewhere stated in these pages, the pale face has been the great undoer of the re

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CHIEF JOSEPH AND HIS LOST WALLOWA

Land where my fathers died.–– Smith . A Cornishman was once asked why there were no public houses (saloons) in his town. He replied, “Once a man by the name of John Wesley preached here, and there have been none since.” Once a man by the name of General O. O. Howard passed through eastern Oregon and northern Idaho, and the country has not been the same since. The occasion was the uprising of the Nez Perces Indians in 1877. Ridpath, the historian, tells of the long chase of the red men and the we

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THE WHITE MAN’S BOOK

The book––this holy book, on every line Mark’d with the seal of high divinity, On every leaf bedew’d with drops of love Divine, and with the eternal heraldry And signature of God Almighty stampt From first to last––this ray of sacred light, This lamp, from off the everlasting throne, Mercy took down, and, in the night of time Stood, casting on the dark her gracious bow; And evermore beseeching men, with tears And earnest sighs, to read, believe, and live; And many to her voice gave ear, and read

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LIGHTS AND SIDELIGHTS

I love thy rocks and rills, Thy woods and templed hills, My heart with rapture thrills. –– Smith . LIGHTS AND SIDELIGHTS The Old Oregon Trail takes bold way through some of the very finest scenery of the West. These new ships of the desert, the passenger trains, glide gracefully down from the aerial highways of the mountain passes into the heart of our fertile oases. Whichever way the traveler turns he sees something absolutely new, and often in strange contrast with what he has just been behold

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THE STAGECOACH

My high-blown pride At length broke under me and now has left me, Weary and old with service, to the mercy Of a rude stream, that must forever hide me. –– Shakespeare . Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens.... When I was at home I was in a better place; but travelers must be content.–– Shakespeare . THE STAGECOACH At frequent intervals throughout the widening West may be seen the relegated ship of the desert standing forlorn, friendless, forsaken. The merciless claws of summer and the icy fan

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AMONG THE HILLS

To him who in the love of Nature, holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language;... The hills Rock-ribbed, and ancient as the sun. –– Bryant . Not vainly did the early Persian make His altar the high places and the peak Of earth-o’ergazing mountains, and thus take A fit and unwalled temple, there to seek The Spirit, in whose honor shrines are weak, Upreared of human hands.... compare Columns and idol-dwellings, Goth or Greek With Nature’s realm of worship. –– Byron ....

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THE MOTHER DEER

The ragged sky-line high in air Sits boundary to sight And seems to end the world; But topping it by way well worn by braver pioneer, A fertile, home-filled dale is found Where love holds warm, And schools and churches dot the land. But while the slow-drawn old stagecoach With load of dust-clad travelers Crawls over jolting, stone-filled ruts, The puffing beasts, sweat-covered, Winding in and out among the stately pines (Where friendly Nature spreads her yellow moss O’er bleaching arms lon

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THE SHEPHERD

The tired shepherd stands among his ewes That with their lambs are unafraid Of him and keen-eyed dogs; They crouch close in about his feet Whene’er the coyote’s cry Or bear’s low growl Falls tingling on the timid ear. Himself thrusts gun to elbow-place And peers amid the dust-dressed sage And scented chaparral so dense, To glimpse the fiery eyeballs Of the prowler of the hills; While all awatch the faithful collies stand Prepared to fend e’en with their lives The young and helpless not their own

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THE FEATHERED DRUMMER

The wooded thicket holds a drum. The air in springtime afternoons Is filled with sharp staccato notes Whose echoes clear reverberate From precipice and timbered hills. No fifer plays accompaniment; No pageant proud or marching throng Keeps step to this deep pulsing bass Whose sullen solo booms afar. A double challenge is this gage, A gauntlet flung for love or war; As strutting barnyard chanticleer Defies his neighboring lord: So calls this crested pheasant-king For combat or for peace. The meek

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MORMONDOM

That fellow seems to possess but one idea, and that is the wrong one.–– Samuel Johnson . Utah is harder than China.–– Bishop Wiley . Utah is the hardest soil into which the Methodist plowshare was ever set.–– Bishop Fowler ....

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THE TRAIL OF THE MORMON

By the Trail had gone Jason Lee, in 1834, to plant the sturdy oak of Methodism in the Willamette Valley and the north Pacific Coast. His task was nobly done; the developments of to-day attest the wisdom of the church in sending him and his coequal coadjutors, Daniel Lee, Cyrus Shepherd, and P. L. Edwards. Over this same track went Marcus Whitman, in 1835, to found the mission at Waiilatpu, near the present site of Walla Walla, and to find there the early grave of honorable martyrdom at the hands

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SOME MORMON BELIEFS

His studie was but litel on the Bible.–– Chaucer . Imaginations fearfully absurd, Hobgoblin rites, and moon-struck reveries, Distracted creeds, and visionary dreams, More bodiless and hideously misshapen Than ever fancy, at the noon of night, Playing at will, framed in the madman’s brain. –– Pollok, in Course of Time . The abode of the dead, where they remained in full consciousness of their condition for indefinable periods, or even for eternity, has been the theme of many a writer both before

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WEBER TOM, UTE POLYGAMIST

Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor’d mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; His soul proud Science never taught to stray Far as the solar walk or milky way. –– Pope . When Mormonism was no longer compelled to maintain the defensive it quickly assumed the offensive. This was apparently deemed necessary for the existence of the system. Two kinds of preaching were indulged in by the elders on their missions, home and foreign. At home they declared the beauty of the Smithian gospel, incl

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POLYGAMY OF TO-DAY

The man that lays his hand upon a woman, Save in the way of kindness, is a wretch Whom ’t were gross flattery to name a coward. –– John Tobin . A baby was sleeping, Its mother was weeping. –– Samuel Lover . Polygamy may die in Mormondom, but has never yet done so. Cases are often reported, and from the manner of their finding it is a certainty that new alliances are being formed continually between married men and unmarried women. Not long ago a very bright conversion was made in one of the miss

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GREAT SALT LAKE

So lonely ’twas that God himself Scarce seemed there to be. –– Coleridge . This is truth the poet sings That a sorrow’s crown of sorrow is remembering happier things. –– Tennyson . GREAT SALT LAKE Many stories, weird and lurid, true and untrue, have been told of this body of saline water lying imposed on the breast of the beautiful and scenic State of Utah. Although one of the transcontinental highways of ocean-to-ocean travel has extended its bands of steel directly across its wide bosom fo

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ARGONAUT SAM’S TALE

I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul. –– Shakespeare . ARGONAUT SAM’S TALE “I panned him out over and over ag’in, But found nary sign of color,” Said Argonaut Sam one evening, when, As sitting atop of a box, to some men He was spinning a yarn of the gold-trail. And then, With arms set akimbo, he straightened his back And said: “’Twuz one night in the fifties I know; Ther’ kem up the trail frum the gulch jist below A youngish-like feller; but steppin’ so slow I he

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THE WRAITH OF THE BLIZZARD

The night it was gloomy, the wind it was high; And hollowly howling it swept through the sky. –– Southey . What matter how the night behaved? What matter how the north wind raved? –– Whittier . THE WRAITH OF THE BLIZZARD We dread the unseen. Fear is always enervating; sometimes even deadly. Who has not fearsomely anticipated that which never came and wasted valuable energy and time in building bridges none are ever to cross? The surgical patient actually suffers more at sight of somber white-cla

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THE GREAT NORTHWEST

God had sifted three kingdoms to find the wheat for this planting.–– Longfellow . Westward the course of empire takes its way.–– Berkeley . In the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.–– Isaiah . THE GREAT NORTHWEST Possibly there are those who find themselves thinking that Western tales are travelers’ tales and must be taken with “a grain of salt.” Some also say that the man who crosses th

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