[George E. Peckham, Reminiscences of An Active life, Nevada Historical Society Papers, 1917-1920 (1920)]

 

 

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NOTABLES OF LONG AGO; HONEYMOON AVENUE

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            That Huffaker schoolma'am, who so successfully helped the organ fund by her charming personality, was also a great aid in church work at Reno during the time she was teaching the Huffaker school some forty years ago. Her father had been a prominent minister in California and her early training and habits were along religious lines.

            An elderly farmer living in the Huffaker district, who belonged to the same denomination as the school teacher, was not a very regular attendant at church until after her arrival. His wife had been wanting to take a trip to California and make her relatives a visit and the arrival of the lady teacher enabled the old farmer's wife to make the trip sooner than she had expected. She left Reno for her destination in California on Saturday morning and on Sunday morning this elderly farmer called at the Norcross 

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residence, where the school teacher boarded, to take her to church. He had a nice one horse rig with a rather narrow seat and the entire space on this seat was occupied while they were on the road to church. The other members of the congregation noticed a great change in the farmer after he began bringing the teacher to church, for he was on hand every Sunday and also brought the schoolma'am to prayer meeting service. He had been irregular in attendance until he began looking after the spiritual welfare of this very attractive schoolma'am.

            John B. Williams was one of the old timers who located in Reno in 1868. Prior to the building of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad from Reno to Carson he was an agent for the forwarding of freight by teams from Reno to Virginia City and other towns. He was also manager and part owner in a fast freight line of teams. In 1874 he was elected recorder of Washoe County and was re-elected and held the office for ten consecutive terms, for he was an able and very accommodating official and was immensely popular with the people. Like a great majority of the pioneers of the '60s, he passed over the Divide to his reward many years ago.

            Christopher Columbus Powning came to Nevada in 1868 and located permanently at Reno in 1870, filling the position of "devil" on the Nevada State Journal, which paper was started at that time. In 1872, before he was twenty-one years of age, he became editor and in 1874 became sole proprietor of

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the paper. He was elected state senator from Washoe County in 1878, and in the early '80s was a candidate for congress but was defeated by G. W. Cassidy. He was one of the most energetic men that ever located in Reno, filling many responsible positions, and passed from this life many years ago, while he was yet a comparatively young man.

            John F. Alexander was another pioneer of Nevada, having been a resident of what is now Western Nevada since 1859. He was born in 1853 and attended the Glendale school for a short time in 1866, where I first became acquainted with him. He was an exceedingly bright scholar and was afterwards sent to a university in California, where he graduated with high honors. He became associated with Mr. Haydner and started the Reno Gazette in March, 1876, being only twenty-three years of age at that time. He was afterwards elected district attorney and in 1886 was elected attorney-general of the state. He also passed over the Great Divide many years ago.

            The Gridley sanitary sack of flour left Austin early in May, 1864, starting on its tour of the United States to raise money for the Sanitary Fund. Gridley had lost a wager on the result of the city election at Austin in April, 1864. A Republican mayor was elected and by the terms of the bet Gridley, who supported the Democratic candidate, David E. Buel, had to donate and carry the sack of flour about one mile at the head of a procession led by

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the Austin brass band, Gridley and the procession marching to the tune of "Old John Brown."

            When the terms of the bet had been complied with, Gridley proposed as a Union man to sell the flour, and the sack of flour was decorated with flags and sold and resold many times at Austin for the benefit of the Sanitary Fund, the total amount being four thousand, five hundred and forty-nine dollars in coin. Gridley accompanied the sack of flour on its tour, arriving in Virginia City May 15, 1864, and during the next few days realized about twenty-five thousand dollars more. I was at the sale at Galena, which took place in the school house, and a good sum was realized. The flour would always be donated back after being sold. Before being taken East, a tour of California was made where it was said about one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars was realized and a large sum was also realized in the East. The Gridley sack of flour made both Austin and Gridley quite famous. Austin was a very lively town and polled one thousand four hundred and twenty-eight votes at the election in April, 1864, when Gridley lost his bet on the result.

            The famous Gridley sack of flour which made a tour of Nevada, California and many of the Northern states during 1864 and brought about three hundred thousand dollars into the Sanitary Fund is now the property of the Nevada Historical Society on Center street near the University grounds. I saw it there a few days ago for the first time since I saw

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it at the Galena schoolhouse some fifty-six years ago, where it was being sold and re-sold many times for the benefit of the Sanitary Fund.

            It is not generally known that the lane leading from the Virginia road to Moana Springs and to the Frey and Berrum farms and to the two ranches south of Moana, was originally called "Honeymoon Avenue," which at that time was a very appropriate name, for a number of reasons. The ranches tributary to and on that lane were first located by bachelors, who were genuine pioneers. Some of them were the original locators and part owners of the Last Chance ditch and also had to fence and clean their farms of sagebrush and rock and were very successful in their work.

            Among those bachelors of that time were Enoch Morrill, who was then owner of the present Frey ranch; W. P. Nay, who was the owner of the present Berrum farm; Bob Watson, who sold his farm to William Haynes, another bachelor of that period. (Part of this farm is now called Moana Springs.) A bachelor named McConnaughey bought one of the farms south of where Moana Springs is now located. I was a bachelor prior to the 10th day of February, 1876, but lived on another road near the Moana lane. George Deremer was also another bachelor of that period, who lived on the Virginia road in the same neighborhood. We were all great chums and when I set the pace by being the first one to get married they gave me a fine serenade and

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then they began to spruce up and look around so as to follow my example. It was only a comparatively short time before these bachelors were all married and the Moana lane was adorned with a large sign, labelled "Honeymoon Avenue." The sign was located on the south side of the lane near the Virginia road. It was known by that name for a long time, but the present generation seem to have forgotten all about it.

            The near approach of another election recalls to my mind many of the stunts pulled off by candidates in the long ago. During the '70s, when candidates were making bids for the granger vote, they would make many promises and the party platforms were also favorable to the grangers. One candidate, who was very anxious to go to congress, gave vent to his feelings in the following poem, as I remember it :

            "I want to go to congress,

                        And with the grangers stand,

            A horny-fisted farmer

                        With a hay stack in my hand.

            I've bought myself a Durham ram,

                        A gray Alpaca cow,

            A lock stitch Osage orange hedge,

                        And a patent leather plow.

            My boots shall be of cowhide,

                        My pants of corduroy,

            And if I were but young again,

                        I'd be a farmer's boy.

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            "To every hardy granger's hearth,

                        Much greenbacks I would bring

            And this old tune I'll practice

                        So long as I can sing:

            I want to go to congress,

                        And with the grangers stand,

            A horny-fisted farmer,

                        With a hay stack in my hand."

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SOME WET WEATHER FACTS; COL. MAXSON'S MISHAP

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            There are many people in Reno and vicinity who think that the past few years have broken the record for consecutive dry seasons, but they are mistaken. The weather bureau has the record for precipitation at Reno since 1888 and the total precipitation at Reno for the three years of 1893, 1894 and 1895 was eighteen and two hundredths inches. In 1918 and 1919 the total precipitation at Reno was eighteen and forty-nine hundredths inches, or nearly one-half inch more precipitation at Reno for the two years of 1918 and 1919 than we had for the three years of 1893, 1894 and 1895.

            The six year period from 1893 until 1899 had also much less precipitation at Reno than the last six years before the present date, and the ten-year period for Reno, beginning with 1893, had ten inches

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less precipitation than the last ten-year period to date had, all of which goes to show that a margin of four and one-half feet on Tahoe between high and low water, or even a margin of six feet, as the government experts think about right according to their data, is entirely inadequate to take care of the surplus water from the watershed of Tahoe during the flood years or furnish enough water during the dry periods.

            Nature itself, during the past sixty years, has made a margin on Tahoe of at least twelve or fifteen feet, and if the people now living around Tahoe who think July, 1907, broke the record for high water at Tahoe, when the lake was more than five feet higher than now, could interview some of the old teamsters or stage drivers who were stranded near Lake Bigler (as Lake Tahoe was called at the time of the big flood during January, 1862) , they would be convinced that Tahoe was several feet higher in 1862 than it was in 1907.

            In 1862 no record of precipitation was kept in Eastern California or Western Nevada, but about 1863 they began keeping a record at Nevada City in Nevada County, California, and for the season of 1867-68 the precipitation was one hundred and fifteen inches, which has never been equaled in that town since that time, and the precipitation that season was far below what it was for the season of 1861-62.

            I was living in San Francisco during the big flood

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of 1861-62, and for that season the precipitation for San Francisco was forty-nine and twenty-seven hundredths inches. Of this total twenty-four and thirty-six hundredths inches fell during the month of January, 1862, and from my observation of that winter in California and from what an old stage driver told me and others when we were traveling by the lake in 1864, Tahoe must have been at least five feet higher in 1862 than it was in 1907.

            San Francisco and Sacramento are the only weather stations in California where the precipitation record has been kept since 1849, and to show that the high water mark on Tahoe of July, 1907, has been greatly exceeded during the '60s, as well as at other times, we will compare a few wet seasons of those places with 1907.

            The precipitation at San Francisco for the season of 1861-62 was forty-nine and twenty-seven hundredths inches, for 1867-68 it was thirty-eight and eighty-four hundredths inches, for 1906-07, it was twenty-six and seventeen hundredths inches. At Sacramento the precipitation for 1861-62 was thirty-six and ten hundredths, for 1867-68 it was thirty-two and seventy-nine hundredths, while for 1906-07 it was twenty-four and four hundredths inches. For Nevada City the precipitation for 1867-68 was one hundred fifteen and twenty-six hundredths inches, while for 1906-07 it was seventy and ninety-eight hundredths inches. When we consider that the seasonal precipi- 

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tation on the watershed of Tahoe is generally from two to three times as great as it is at San Francisco or Sacramento, it indicates what a tremendous amount of water could be stored at Tahoe during an old-fashioned wet season.

            The recent arrival of experts who are not familiar with the peculiar antics of the weather on Tahoe prior to 1890 is not wholly to blame for the idea that the capacity of Tahoe can be kept within a margin of six feet and take care of the surplus during wet periods and furnish the needed supply during the dry periods. The physical condition of the lake in 1890, 1904, 1907 and other years, disproves their theory by a wide margin. If these experts happen to be here when we have a genuine wet season, such as we had during the '60s, '70s, '80s, or should experience even a repetition of 1890, or a medium wet season like 1904 or 1907, they will probably correct their mistake.

            There are a few owners of resorts or lands around the lake, as well as some state officials of California, who strenuously object to the government utilizing Tahoe for a reservoir for irrigation, except within a margin of four and one-half feet between low and high water, claiming it would mar the scenic beauty of the lake to give it a greater range. As nature has made a range of about three times that amount, that contention should have very little weight with the government.

            One of the most exciting fifty-mile relay bicycle

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races ever witnessed in Nevada was the one between the Bay City Wheelmen of San Francisco and the Reno team, at Reno, on September 7, 1902. There were more than two thousand people at the track to witness the race. Neither team seemed able to open a gap, and as the Bay City team had a great sprinter for the finish, whose last name was DeMara, and who had the reputation of being about the best one in California, things looked rather bad for the Reno team. George Kornmeyer rode the last five miles for the Reno team and at the finish the two riders came down the stretch with the speed of a tornado, wheel to wheel, but just before they crossed the tape Kommeyer shot about six feet ahead of De Mara, the pride of the California wheelmen. Kornmeyer had risen to the occasion and was the hero of the hour. He was carried on the shoulders of friends off the quarter stretch to the rubbing room and received unlimited compliments, while his opponent, De Mara, with the big reputation, was so dazed he could not explain how it happened. The big crowd at the track became intoxicated with enthusiasm and yelled themselves hoarse. But it was a bitter disappointment to the Bay City Wheelmen, who received much sympathy from the victors.

            It is not generally known among recent arrivals in Reno that Col. H. B. Maxson, during his youth, was a very bashful boy and when he first began to go out in society in Reno in the early '70s he had many very embarrassing experiences which nearly caused

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him to flee from the social whirl, and for a long time he was undecided whether he would become a miner or a civil engineer. Either one of these professions would keep him out of town most of the time, where his personal appearance would not be continually subject to criticism.

            A group of the younger social set of Reno in the early days were getting up an amateur play to take place at the McGinley theatre on Virginia street, and the colonel—whom we will designate as "our hero"—was prevailed upon to take a part that required him to appear very awkward. The other members thought he was adapted for the place he was to fill, which was the "butler" in the play called "The American Cousin." He went through the rehearsals with great credit, but when the night for the performance came he peeked from behind the curtain, and when he saw the big crowd and sea of faces turned towards the curtain he became struck with stage fright. Just at that time the signal was given to raise the curtain. In some unexplainable manner he got tangled up with it in such a way that he went up with the curtain and was suspended in the air, his feet and hands hanging down, trying to reach the floor.

            It was some time before the curtain was rung down and our hero released from his embarrassing position, but the audience believed it was a part of the program of the show and the strenuous contortions of our hero as he was suspended in the air were claimed

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by the critics to be the best part of the show and well worth the price of admission. What made the situation still more embarrassing for the Colonel, he was in constant fear his suspenders would break or the buttons come off.

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SOME OLD-TIME RENOITES; VIEWS ON FINANCE

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            Among the old Nevada boys who are deserving of something more than honorable mention is Peter Dalton, who first came to Nevada in 1866 and located permanently here in 1868. He purchased a farm in the Huffaker district about 1870. Prior to 1892 he was one of the leading Democrats of that district and was a very able debater from a Democratic standpoint and had many friendly discussions during the '70s and '80s with his neighbors on those old-time issues.

            W. J. Luke came to the Truckee Meadows or Steamboat Valley in 1871, was here during the big flood of December, 1871, and has a fine memory of many incidents of that flood. He has been very active in public affairs; was a member of the city council of Reno a number of years ago and has been a member of the state legislature from Washoe County. He is still hale and hearty and resides in Reno.

            James Gault, another pioneer of the Truckee Meadows, located here in 1870, became a prosperous farmer and was one of the managers of the Orr ditch for a number of years. He took great interest in public affairs and was a state senator from Washoe County to the Nevada legislature for a term of four years. Like the rest of us old boys he was

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here in time to derive much benefit from the old time Washoe zephyrs, which acted as a long-continued tonic on those who were here during the '60s or '70s, some of whom lived to the ripe old age of from eighty-five to one hundred and twenty-two years before passing over the Divide to their reward.

            William Fraser came to Washoe County in 1872 and was engaged in baling hay and other work before he became a farmer. It took a man with great physical strength and endurance to stand the work on one of those old-fashioned Petaluma hay presses, working twelve to sixteen hours daily, often including Sundays. These long hours did not always include the time of moving the hay press from one ranch to another, which was often done during the night.

            As I have often discussed the money question through the newspapers and otherwise, including joint debate on that subject at the Athenian Literary Society of Huffakers during the late '70s and early '80s, and having debated it from its numerous angles, a brief summary of it from my viewpoint may be of interest.

            The panic of 1857 was the first thing that attracted my attention to finance. I heard it very generally discussed at that time and for many years afterwards and from the best information I could get it was caused by the money lenders of England selling some of their American securities in New York and the withdrawal of the specie from the banks to pay for these securities.

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            At that time the mines of California were producing around fifty million dollars per annum in gold but our trade and financial dealings with Europe were such that they seemed to have a bigger hold on this gold than we did and about the only way we could remain in business at the old stand was by increasing our financial obligations to Europe which was mostly to England.

            During the Civil War we had to suspend specie payment and go onto a greenback basis. England to a great extent was financing the South during the rebellion and if the South had been victorious her debt to English and other European bond holders would have been big enough to take the cotton crop to pay the interest after leaving the grower enough to feed his slaves and keep them in good working condition.

            But the South lost out and the large amount of Confederate bonds became worthless. But the European bond holders were also investing heavily in Northern securities on a greenback basis when greenbacks were worth from forty to sixty cents on the dollar compared with gold. They were financing our railroads and other enterprises on the same greenback basis and when they were well loaded up with these gilt-edged securities, they took great interest in our financial legislation and helped to maintain our "national honor" by assisting us to get onto a gold basis.

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            Our silver was demonetized in 1873 in such a cute way that we did not find it out until a few years later and prices were tumbling so rapidly and the purchasing power and value of money and gilt-edge securities had increased so fast that these cunning financiers made several times as much as they lost in Confederate bonds and other bad investments in this country.

            The panic of 1873 was the worst we have had since the Civil War when we consider the resources of the country; but the one of 1857 was worse than that of 1873. The panic of 1893, which the gold bugs started to get rid of some silver legislation that was started in 1878 and increased in 1890, got beyond their control, resulting in some six hundred and forty banks closing their doors. The big banks in the eastern cities went on a clearing house basis and prevented a complete financial smash in the country.

            The so-called panic of 1907 was no panic when compared with the others. Very few banks failed, for practically all the banks went on a clearing house basis before much damage was done and prices and values held up nearly to the pre-panic level. Prior to the recent war, many college professors and others thought there could be no more big wars on account of the supposed big war debts of Europe, which at that time amounted to about twenty-six billions of dollars.

            David Starr Jordan was one who took that view but subsequent events proved that he was mistaken

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and national debts that now total more than two hundred billions do not alarm the professors as much as did those of about forty-three billions prior to the recent war.

            The solvency of the world seems to be based on prices being maintained at a level high enough to enable the producers to do business at a profit big enough to meet their obligations and take in their share of picture shows as well as have their share of automobiles and joy riding. This being the case, Uncle Sam should lead the procession in price fixing and should remonetize silver at the old ratio with gold and then double the mint and legal value of both metals and have a specie basis large enough to preserve equilibrium between specie and paper currency and at the same time allow the gold and silver miners to get a square deal in the general rise and readjustment of values.

            Perhaps the nearest approach to the June rainfall of Reno in 1920 was that of June, 1884, when a general rainstorm occurred in both California and Nevada. There was no record kept at Reno that year but at other stations in Nevada it showed a greater rainfall in June, 1884, that of Winnemucca being considerably more in June, 1884, than the recent storm, with most of the stations in California reporting from one inch to four inches of precipitation in June of that year.

            The rain of June 29, 1920, was unusually heavy

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a few miles south of Reno. The water in the creeks south of Reno when compared with the amount flowing in the river at Reno that day would indicate that the rainfall was much heavier south and southwest of Reno than it was in the Sierra Nevada mountains to the west of Reno.

            It seems that during recent years the storms in both California and Nevada have become more local in character than formerly. The old time Washoe zephyrs that would blow a gale for two or three days continuously, seem to be a thing of the past, and the old time December or January floods, which in the early days occurred every few years, are now very far between and there has not been a December flood on the Truckee since 1871 that will compare with the one of that December, and even this was not nearly as big as the flood of December, 1867.

            Between 1849 and 1891 there have been eleven seasons at San Francisco where the precipitation exceeded thirty inches, two of which exceeded forty-five. Since 1891 there was not even one season when the precipitation for San Francisco has been as much as thirty inches.

            But our recent beautiful June rainfall should convince the weather experts that although the old-fashioned seasonal precipitation is slightly overdue, it may arrive at most any time and demonstrate to the timid experts around Tahoe that they know very little about the capacity of Lake Tahoe as a water re-

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servoir for irrigation, nor the proper margin on the lake between low and high water.

            It is a great help to young, bashful people to read the confessions of older people who had the same trouble when they were young. When I was forty-five years younger than now I began going with a young lady who was nearly as bashful as I was. One night we went to a theatre at Dyers' hall in Reno. That was the first time I ever acted as an escort to a lady in a place of that kind, and I was greatly confused before we reached our seat which was in about the middle row. I was almost overcome with stage fright or something worse for it seemed to me as if we were being watched by the whole audience and many were smiling quite freely.

            After we had been seated some little time the lady I was with made the discovery that I was the only man in the theatre who was wearing a hat at that time. This discovery added to my confusion but I managed to take my hat off without letting it fall to the floor, and that was the last theatre we went to until after we were married.

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YEARS PASS LIGHTLY; RENO WHEELMEN KEEP CHAMPIONSHIP

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            The Washoe County Bank is another old timer. Its organization dates back to 1871, when D. A. Bender and C. T. Bender first opened its doors for business. At that time it was located on Commercial Row in Reno. In 1880 it became the First National bank with a paid up capital stock of fifty thousand dollars. The stock holders and directors were D. A. Bender, C. T. Bender, A. H. Manning, G. W. Mapes, Jacob McKissick and John Johnson. In 1896 it was changed to a state bank and given its present name of Washoe County Bank. It was moved to its present location on the southwest corner of Second and Virginia streets many years ago while it was a national bank. The business of the bank grew rapidly and the capital stock which was fifty thousand dollars in 1880 had grown to five hundred thousand dollars in 1902. The building has recently been remodeled and is an ornament to the city and its interior is modern in every respect.

            I was well acquainted with nearly all of the old boys who were connected with the bank in the early days during the '70s, '80s and '90s, most of whom have departed from this life. Some of the present members or stockholders of the bank I have known for a long time. G. W. Mapes and George H. Tay-

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lor I have probably known the longest, with Fred Stadtmuller a close third. Perhaps what makes Fred Stadtmuller seem like such an old acquaintance is because I was so well acquainted with his father in that husky old town of Galena in 1864-65, but of course that was before Reno or the present Fred Stadtmuller was thought of.

            If I keep on writing about the old boys I knew fifty or sixty years ago the present generation will begin to think I am an old man, but it does not always appear that way to me and although I have some fifteen grand children, some of whom are as tall as I am, yet there are times when it seems to me that I am still one of the boys.

            A brief summary of a few of the great changes that have taken place in this country since I landed in San Francisco in 1860 may interest a few.

            The population of San Francisco in 1860 was fifty-eight thousand. There was not a street car line in the city and only a short steam railway that connected San Francisco with the Mission a few miles distant. Then there was the "Steam Paddy" and a portable railroad for leveling the sand hills and filling in depressions and swamps. San Francisco was not connected by telegraph with the east until October, 1861. The Pony Express which ran between St. Joseph, Mo. and Sacramento, was the speediest way of getting letters and news to San Francisco which generally took one week or more. The quickest time on record by Pony Express from St. Joseph

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to Carson City was five days and eighteen hours, when it brought President Lincoln's first message. The distance traveled was seventeen hundred and twenty miles.

            Sixty years ago the main travel from New York to San Francisco was by way of the Isthmus of Panama. The trip generally took around twenty-three days. The Cape Horn route, by boat all the way, took several months and the ox team route from Iowa or Missouri to California took about five months or more. Since we have had railroad connection between the Atlantic and the Pacific coast the trip from Jersey City to Oakland, a distance of three thousand three hundred and eleven miles has been made in less than eighty-four hours.

            We are now sailing through the air at high speed and it will not be long before a thirty or forty hour record will be made between New York and San Francisco.

            In the matter of light for the night time there has been great improvement. During the late '50s, I was still a resident of Fall River, Mass., which was only about fourteen miles distant from New Bedford, the leading port where the whaling fleets were fitted out to go into the Northern Pacific by way of Cape Horn in search of whales. It generally took twenty months or more to complete the voyage and land their cargo in New Bedford. Whales were becoming very scarce and people were wondering how they would find a substitute for whale oil for light.

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            To make matters worse many of the tanks of oil at New Bedford were destroyed by fire. A substitute they were beginning to use was called "fluid" and gave a light about equal to a second class candle. There was very little if any gaslight used in the homes of Fall River.

            About the time that the situation seemed hopeless, kerosene or coal oil began to come into use and was considered a grand light but of course people who have become accustomed to the electric light do not like to go back to the old fashioned kind, although it sometimes becomes a case of necessity when the electric light gets out of commission.

            There are many other wonderful discoveries or inventions since the old days of the whale oil light and among these modern improvements are the telephone, wireless, bicycle and automobile. Next to the war, the automobile is the greatest factor in the so-called high cost of living. We are spending billions of dollars each year in this country for automobiles and their up-keep. We are also issuing hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds to build roads for them to run on. But in one respect, at least, it is a great blessing; it makes an almost unlimited demand for labor and material, and has done more to prevent over-production, glutted markets and low prices than any other thing except the war itself. The automobile has been a great education for the farmers, many of whom have autos and some of them spend a little time in joy riding and sight seeing. They occasionally

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travel through palatial residence districts and swell graveyards, and view costly tombs and monuments and occasionally take a glance at the stylish and very costly clothing and jewelry worn by many people who are complaining about the high cost of farm products. But the farmers in these tours of observation begin to realize if they got the same pay for their labor as many others either the price of many farm products would have to go higher or else many of the grafters would have to get along with smaller pay and wear a cheaper grade of clothing and jewelry and spend less money on tombs, monuments and other luxuries.

            The Reno Wheelmen, who won the Pacific Coast championship for the fifty-mile bicycle race at Sacramento on July Fourth, 1900, had to defend their title to it at the state fair grounds at Reno against the Olympic team of San Francisco on the 17th of September, 1900, only about two and one-half months from the time they won the championship. It was on the first day of the fair and the grand stand was packed from pit to dome, with the largest crowd ever assembled at the track. The Olympic team had put up a job on the Reno team; their riders were to hook on to the Reno riders and trail them just close enough so as to be pulled along without much exertion on their part and the last rider for the Olympics, who was a phenomenal sprinter as well as a good five mile plugger, was to sprint out

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at the finish and win the race. For awhile it looked as if the job was going to succeed. Thompson rode the first five miles for Reno, with Kragness for the Olympics; Keddie came next for Reno with Belzer for the Olympics, then Hart for Reno and Hanna for the Olympics, making fifteen miles of the relay race without any gap being started by either side.

            While this program of the Olympics was being carried out King Ryan, the trainer for the Reno Wheelmen, saw something unusual must happen or the Reno boys would lose the championship, so he fixed up a program to out-general the Olympics. Arthur Peckham, the fourth rider for the Reno Wheelmen, whose wheel had a big gear and who had the leg power and lung power to work it, was to make a miserable pickup and let the Olympic rider, whose name was Davis, get well in the lead, and then get his big gear under full speed and pass him so fast that he could not hook on.

            When Arthur started to pick up the Reno rider, his wheel began to wobble and it looked as if he was going to fall off. Many of those at the track thought he was either drunk or had heart failure, while nearly the entire crowd thought the race was lost. But after Davis for the Olympics had got well in the lead Arthur loosened up, his wheel became steady, he got his big gear under full speed and he passed the Olympic rider at a forty-mile clip and opened a wide gap. Davis made a tremendous effort to hook on but Peckham passed him like a flash and it looked from

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the grand stand as if Davis were almost standing still. The yelling on the track and at the grand stand was deafening. The trainer was afraid Arthur would use up too much steam to continue at such a high rate of speed and told him to slow down but he had opened a good wide gap at the end of the five miles. Frazer was the next rider for the Reno team, then came Mershon, Everett, Shaver, Stanley, all of whom widened the gap, and when Jim Peckham finished for the Reno team they were one and five-eighths miles in the lead. The last one, and the crack rider for the Olympics, had to ride his last one and five-eights miles alone, as the Reno team had already completed their fifty miles.

            Russ of the Olympics was a good rider and made fast time, which acted as a mild tonic to the vanquished San Francisco team, who were very much sadder and wiser than they were when they hatched up their California program to defeat the Nevada boys.

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COMPOUND INTEREST; SOME BASKET-BALL

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            The late C. C. Goodwin had some experience with compound interest in the early days of Nevada that he did not soon forget. He had built a quartz mill a few miles from Dayton in 1861, which was washed away by the flood of January, 1862, and when he left Dayton he was in debt about one thousand dollars, which he settled with notes drawing compound interest. About nineteen years later he thought he had paid at least one million dollars on those notes and he said that he never got his head above water financially but one of those compound interest notes would come from some secluded spot and follow him like a shadow.

            Other pioneers of the '60s had a similar experience. There were only a few lenders here during the early and middle '60s although the rate of interest ranged between four and ten per cent per month, the interest payable monthly or compounded monthly, and sometimes the interest was payable in advance.

            It was during the early or middle '60s that Washoe County borrowed some three thousand dollars from a man named McFarland at five per cent per month, compounded monthly. The County also borrowed money from Lou Drexler on the same

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terms and when another public-spirited money lender offered to let the County have enough money at four per cent per month to pay Drexler off, it made Mr. Drexler so mad that he denounced the commissioners as being unfair because he had come to the rescue of the County when there was no other money lender around. If Washoe County had allowed one thousand dollars of those early day loans with its five per cent monthly compound interest to run from that time until now, the interest accumulations would amount to more than ten thousand times the value of all the property on this planet.

            The following little example in compound interest will show how a small amount at a low rate of compound interest will grow into a vast sum if it continues for a long series of years : If one cent had been put at interest at the birth of Christ with the rate of interest at six per cent per annum and compounded annually with the whole amount of interest accumulations to be paid in 1920 in standard gold of present value, it would require forty-seven figures to represent the amount in dollars, or if figured in cubic miles of gold it would take more gold than could be contained in a rope of solid gold four thousand miles in diameter and many billion times the distance of this planet from the sun in length.

            This state is paying five per cent per annum on an irredeemable Territorial bond. The interest from this bond goes into the state school fund and is used

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for school purposes. The amount of interest paid by the state of Nevada on this three hundred and eighty thousand dollar bond already exceeds one million dollars and the bond is as irredeemable as ever. However, it is a liability of the state that does not hurt, as the interest on the bond goes into the public school fund.

            Old timers of California also had some experience with compound interest. One victim had built a hotel in San Jose in 1849 and borrowed twenty-five hundred dollars to complete or furnish it. The interest on this loan was eight per cent per month, compounded monthly. The hotel man lost out in his race with the compound interest and a number of years later he was sued by the lender who got judgment for about twenty million dollars. There are many other court records in California that show millions of dollars of compound interest that were due on loans that were for small amounts. These old-time incidents in finance seem almost too ridiculous for belief, but some of our modem financial activities are almost as ridiculous. Take our so-called gold standard which has been fastened on the world by a few of the former creditor nations of Europe who forced many of the debtor nations to adopt it by methods that did not conform to the Golden Rule or a square deal. The creditors have been writing the gold clause into bonds, notes and mortgages until promises to pay gold now amount to forty or fifty times the stock of monetary gold, including gold bullion, on this planet.

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            During the twenty months I resided at Galena, I never saw an umbrella or parasol in use in that town. Those hardy lumbermen and teamsters would face all kinds of weather without flinching and if a man had been seen carrying an umbrella he would have been declared insane, and if one of those old-time Washoe zephyrs ever got a whack at anything that resembled an umbrella or parasol its career would have been over soon.

            There were some freak runaways in Reno during the '80s and '90s. There was one that impressed me so forcibly that I could not help remembering it. No one was seriously hurt, but it was intensely exciting while it lasted. It happened in October, 1886. John Wright of Steamboat Valley and I had bought some cattle to feed and had left them in the corrals at Reno while we took dinner. John Wright ate at the Golden Eagle Hotel on Sierra street, and just as he came out of the hotel and got on his horse, which was a pinto and full of life, the escaping steam from a locomotive frightened a horse attached to a cart near the track. A young lady was in the cart. The horse ran away and as he turned short into Sierra street, the cart tipped up on its side and the young lady was thrown out. The racket made by the cart, added to the noise made by the escaping steam from the locomotive, frightened the horse still more and he made a straight shoot for the horse that John Wright had just mounted, and as the pinto horse heard the loud commotion behind him he kicked his hind feet high

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in the air and gave a quick jump and was soon under full speed running up Sierra street towards the graveyard with the other runaway horse and dangling cart following at breakneck speed. At the time the pinto made the kick and the jump, Mr. Wright's hat went up in the air and he rode the rest of the race bareheaded. Mr. Wright could hear the loud racket behind him but was so busy trying to keep his seat on the horse and not lose his hold on the bridle reins, that he had no desire to look back. It was a lucky runaway, not soon to be forgotten by the writer.

            Nevada University had a fine basket ball team of girls in 1899. They won the game with the Stanford University team on the Stanford campus. The University of Nevada team of girls as published in a local paper at the time was: Miss Elizabeth Stubbs, manager; Miss Louise Ward, captain; Frances Kerby, touch center; Ethel Sparks, left guard; Ethel Peckham, home guard; Louise Ward, right guard; Bernice Worland, left forward; Stella Linscott, home forward; Winnie Strosnider, right forward; Myrtle Montrose, right center; Ida Holmes, left center; substitutes, Misses Hill and Parish. The game was played on April 10, 1899. The account of the game as telegraphed from San Francisco follows :

            "After a long, stubbornly contested game upon the Stanford campus, the Nevada State University basket ball team beat the great Stanford University

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team by a score of three to two. The game was well played throughout, the Stanford team not resorting to the rough tactics which characterized the previous games with Berkeley. The game was played upon the Stanford campus out in the open air. Both sexes were admitted; in consequence of this the whole Stanford undergraduate body was present and rent the air with college yells, songs and cheer after cheer for their team, but it availed naught. The sagebrush girls from the University of Nevada, with hardly a single shout of encouragement, fought their way to victory with that determination characteristic of young Nevadans. When it was all over they gathered together, a mere speck in all that wilderness of Stanford humanity, and sent forth with triumphant vim the college cry of Nevada:

            "Wah hoo wah

            "Zip boom ah

            "Rah, Rah, Rah,

                        "Nevada."

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SOME FINANCE; A MIRACULOUS RUNAWAY

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            The so-called financiers who are advocating contraction and the lowering of values admit that it will be very painful to many, but they are careful not to tell that it will be very profitable to the few who have salted their wealth down in money or gilt edge securities.

            There is one way to cure these selfish absorbers from advocating contraction and that is to make them stand their full share of the pain. Most of the pain they refer to comes to the people who have deferred payments to make and whose property is held as security for debt and whose equity in this property is the first to be sacrificed by contraction and falling prices; but by scaling the value of the creditor holdings down by the same percentage as the borrowers' equity is scaled down, the so-called pain would be equalized and would be painless to both. Then there would be no incentive for the selfish absorbers to advocate contraction. In place of contraction we need a little specie readjustment like the remonetization of silver at the old ratio with gold and then the doubling of the mint price and legal tender value of both metals. This is needed to preserve the equilibrium between our paper currency, credit and specie.

            I have been rather a close student of human nature

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for the past sixty years or more and have had considerable experience in a business or social way with many people of various occupations including missionaries and others and have noticed a great variety of characteristics and some very pronounced peculiarities among many of them. One little incident that happened to me in Massachusetts in the '50s when I was going to school caused me to do a great deal of thinking. The rules were very strict against swearing on the play grounds. Two boys who were older and larger than I was had told the teacher that I swore on the play ground. When school opened I was called upon the platform and questioned in regard to it. I denied it as well as I knew how for I was entirely innocent, but I was bashful and stuttered a little which was taken as a sure sign of guilt. Fate was against me and I had to be punished. The punishments consisted in my standing on the platform, facing the school children, while the teacher washed or swabbed my mouth out with about the bitterest liquid I ever tasted and it did not improve my feelings after school was out when I was told by some very sober looking children that when I died I would be burned up with brimstone because I swore.

            There was a very exciting and peculiar finish to the runaway of a horse and cart belonging to Pat Kelly, many years ago. Charles Chase and a partner had a saloon on the northwest corner of Second and Virginia streets. Next to the sidewalk on Second street was a row of hitching posts where farmers and

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others would tie their teams, and an old gray horse that I used to drive was often among those that were tied there. When Pat Kelly's horse came running up Second street there was no driver in the cart and he ran in between two rigs that were hitched near the Chase saloon and he was under such momentum when he stumbled on to the sidewalk that he slid over against the side of the building and landed the cart on the sidewalk also. It seemed like a miracle the way it happened. There was barely room for the horse to pass between the two rigs and yet neither one of the two rigs showed any sign of a collision. The way that cart landed on the sidewalk has always remained a mystery. There were a number of people standing there and thought they saw it happen but when they saw the surrounding conditions the only explanation they could give was that a miracle had taken place.

            A brief review of some of the early day business methods and markets in Western Nevada may be interesting to business men and farmers of the present generation. Prior to 1877, most of the hay produced on the Truckee Meadows was baled for shipment to outside markets, but after that date a good share of the hay was sold on the ranches for feed to live stock, including beef cattle and sheep for mutton. I had a good grade of hay and plenty of barn room and baled my entire crop of 1878 but could not sell it. The crop of 1879 I sold to stockmen and had to carry my entire crop of baled hay of 1878

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until the spring of 1880. The spring of 1880, especially the month of April, was a hard one on live stock and hay became very scarce. Bodie was a lively mining camp at that time and there was a large amount of teaming between Carson and Bodie. Hay in the Carson and Mason valleys was getting scarce in March, 1880, and I began selling my 1878 crop of baled hay for shipment to Carson for the teams engaged in hauling freight from Carson to Bodie.

            The supply of hay was also getting short at Virginia City and Gold Hill, and I sold a car load of hay to a business man in Gold Hill who had a grocery store and was also handling wood and lumber. He weighed the hay on his own scales after he had taken it out of the car. He then loaded it onto a wagon and hauled it to his barn and dumped it on the ground. There was considerable waste every time it was handled, and he sent the pay for the hay according to his own estimate of weight.  At the same time he sent an order for another car load of hay to be shipped immediately as he was nearly out. In place of sending him the hay I wrote him a nice instructive letter telling him that conditions had changed from those of 1877, when hay was a drug, and when the farmers had to stand all the loss of wastage in handling and shipping and yet accept a low price with slow pay, and when paid, had to accept a large percentage in trade dollars, which we had to discount ten per cent or more at the banks in Reno. The letter was very nice and I also wrote him that he was

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selling flour at its original weight although it was getting lighter every time he handled it, and his lumber, as it dried out, lost in width and thickness but he was selling it at its original size. Then I told him if he would send the balance due on the first car load of hay, I would send him the other on the same conditions. He complied with the request. Of course, as soon as market conditions changed for the worse for the farmers they had to submit again to low prices and all kinds of gouging which continued at least three-fourths of the time between 1881 and 1898.

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TEAMSTERS' TROUBLES; PITCHING HAY

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            A description of a few of the little annoyances that teamsters had to put up with in the '60s or '70s may act as a tonic to people who are sometimes caught in a shower while they are on their way from their nearby homes to a clubroom or picture show.

            It was during May, 1877, when I was hauling hay to Virginia City by way of the Geiger grade, generally making the round trip the same day, and repeating the trip about two or three times a week. The distance for the round trip was thirty-eight or forty miles, depending on what part of the city I had to reach to deliver the hay. It was a long

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drive for one day but if the weather was good I enjoyed the trip.

            There was one trip, though, that I did not complete in one day. Before I got half way up the grade, I got caught in a sleet storm which made the road heavy and hard pulling for the team. I knew we could not make the round trip that day so I gave the team plenty of time to rest between pulls and we finally got to the summit. But it was late in the day. I was wet to the skin and chilled to the marrow and by the time I got to the hay yard and stable near the Divide and put my team up it was after dark. By that time the water had drained out of my clothes, the wind had gone down and I was feeling fairly comfortable. I ate supper at the hotel and then went to bed without taking any clothes off except my hat and shoes. My clothes seemed to dry out during the night so they did not show much effect from the storm. I was up early the next morning and after selling and delivering the load of hay I arrived back home about one o'clock that afternoon and did not feel any the worse for the drenching and chill I got the day before.

            Little incidents like that in my early life, and I had many of them, acted as a tonic, They often improve a person's power of endurance increasing longevity and preventing stomach troubles, gout or dyspepsia. Although I have been my own physician nearly all the time during the past sixty years I would not prescribe such a remedy for the present genera- 

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tion, for under modem conditions there are not many who could stand it and survive to anything like old age. Modem civilization, style, and habits in general, seem to require that a large per cent of the people become more delicate than those of the old days when doctors and hospitals were much scarcer than now. Most of the doctors that came to Washoe County in the early '60s to practice their profession soon had to find another means of a livelihood; some became farmers, others bull whackers, or politicians and a few became poets or engaged in other literary work.

            It seems kind of nice in some respects to be able to write about events that happened sixty years or more ago and to feel that my statements will be taken as fairly accurate or as nearly so as any human agency can make them, for be it remembered that no two people can see or hear an event from exactly the same angle and, when it comes to remembering these events that happened from twenty to sixty-five years ago it seems more like an inspiration than a feat of memory.

            The following will show how great a "has been" I have been. In 1878 I was in my physical prime. I was twenty-seven years of age and believe I did the biggest summer's work of farm manual labor ever performed by one man on the Truckee Meadows. In those days the alfalfa hay was handled without derricks or loaders and was pitched onto the wagon

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by hand pitchforks, and pitched off from the wagon in the same way.

            I had four men besides myself : one man with the mower, one with the rake and three of us with the wagon. I helped pitch the hay onto the wagon and did the stacking while the other two pitched the hay from the wagon onto the stack. We put up the grass hay and first crop of alfalfa on what is now one-half of the Fife farm and all of the Weckham farm in five weeks with one wagon. I was with the wagon every load, the rest of the personnel of the crew being slightly changed before the first crop was all put up.

            One of the men helping to pitch the hay onto the wagon claimed that he won the prize for being the champion hay pitcher in the state of Maine the year before and he was going to show me how much quicker he could pitch the bunches of hay onto the wagon that were on his side than I could from my side. His intentions were good but before nine o'clock he had taken off all his clothes but his underwear and had a handkerchief tied around his neck, his shoes were getting very sloppy from sweat and he was drinking large quantities of water every load. At about half past eleven he wilted and said he was all in. I told him to rest up until one o'clock and I would do some irrigating and other chores while he was resting and would be on hand at one o'clock. The afternoon was very hot and he only lasted until four o'clock. Then he took off his hat

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and apologized for his mistake and told me that I was by far the superior of any hay pitcher in the state of Maine. In those days it was considered a badge of honor to do a big day's work and I appreciated his complimentary remarks.

            On the 12th of April, 1880, I had the misfortune to knock my knee out of joint, which kept me in bed for three weeks and on crutches for three months afterwards. This knocked me out for being a champion hay pitcher any longer, but the grasshoppers were very bad that year and crops were light. The harvesting was a short job, and my step brother, William Norcross, took my place on the farm while I was disabled.

            There were some pretty prominent people that worked on the Peckham or Norcross farm during the '80s, and among them were Jess Drake, Harvey De Hart, Joe Wollam, Sardis Summerfield, Tom Norcross, Charles Norcross, A. N. Lowe and others. Tom Hill and Jim Pollock had a hay press during the '70s and baled considerable hay on the Truckee Meadows. They came in contact with some pretty tough work around and in the sweat box, but like myself they were young and vigorous and enjoyed the exercise which gave them a splendid appetite.

            Bill Frazer was another husky hay baler and helped to bale the first bale of new hay that was hauled into Reno in 1874. It came from my ranch and was baled on the 10th day of June, 1874. It was grass hay, and I delivered two loads on that day

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to L. W. Lee. The winter of 1873-74 had been a very hard one and hay was all cleaned up on this side of the mountains and some hay was shipped in here from California—some of it was oat hay and so badly matted in the bale that it had to be knocked loose with a sledge hammer.

            Frank Payne, another prominent citizen of Reno, helped to hay on the Peckham and Norcross farms in the early '70s and became very efficient in handling a pitchfork, and when he was helping us to haul hay, it went into the stack on the double quick.

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LOW WATER IN THE RIVER; SYRUP OF FIGS

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            The statement of B. F. Leete that when he rode his horse across the Truckee river in August, 1859, the water was not ankle deep to his horse is another severe jolt to the scenic beauty theorists who want the margin between high and low water on Tahoe to be kept within a limit of four feet. At the time Leete crossed the Truckee river in 1859, it was at the close of the fifth consecutive dry season at Sacramento, the nearest station to Tahoe and the Truckee river where a record of precipitation was kept at that time. This would indicate that Lake Tahoe was much lower on October 1, 1859, than it was on October 1, 1889, probably two feet lower, as there was no dam

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at the outlet to retain the flow whenever the surface of the lake happened to be above the outlet. This would make the elevation of the lake at low water in 1859 about six thousand two hundred and twenty-one feet or ten feet lower than on July 14, 1907, when the elevation was six thousand two hundred and thirty-one and twenty-six hundredths feet above sea level, and about fifteen feet lower than the estimated high water mark of 1862.  As the seasons of 1862-63 and 1863-64 were the two driest consecutive seasons on record, it would also make Tahoe lower on October 1, 1864, than on October 1, 1889, with an elevation some higher than in 1859 and about one foot lower than 1889, which would make one variation on Tahoe of fifteen feet and another variation of fourteen feet and the two variations within a period of five years.

            These estimates are based on precipitation records of the nearest stations that kept the early day record or are from the memory of people who were either at the Lake during those seasons or resided on the watershed of the Truckee river, and I believe they are fairly accurate. Since 1888, records have been kept at the Lake.

            We are now about at the end of a series of dry seasons and when the wet seasons again show up with their old time vigor then our California friends will begin to see the error of their ways and will multiply their four-foot margin theory by any number necessary to keep pace with the rapid increase in the

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elevation of the Lake. It will also refresh the memory of the more elderly of the admirers of scenic beauty as to what happened in 1890, 1904 and 1907, when some of them were talking quite loudly and advocating blowing out the dam and enlarging the outlet so as to let the water out faster. Perhaps a few years hence our California admirers of scenic grandeur will be trying to expunge from the records all that they ever said about a four foot margin on Lake Tahoe.

            That world-renowned remedy called "Syrup of Figs," if I am correctly informed, was first prepared in Reno by Pinniger and Queen, Reno druggists. It became such a favorite remedy in this vicinity that it was fast taking the place of Ayers Pills, Perry Davis' Pain Killer and other remedies. A company was formed and its preparation or manufacture was begun on a larger scale at Glendale. One report was that George Alts' barn or some other building near by was the place of manufacture. George Alt was president of the company, Sol Levy was secretary and Herman Thyes was one of the trustees. Quite a number of Reno people became interested in this benevolent company that thought they had found a remedy that would relieve mankind of its many ills without so much griping as was caused by the old time remedies. It was a big success and a few members began to have visions of great wealth, of trips to Europe and a continuous round of pleasure if too many were not allowed to share in the profits.

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            A law suit and an assessment weeded out a good many. On October 30, 1883, George Alt and Sol Levy were ousted as officers and trustees and J. J. Condon and J. J. Quinn were put in as trustees. H. J. Thyes was selected to represent the minority. R. E. Queen was then elected president, T. E. Haydon vice-president and J. F. Condon secretary.

            The following item from a local paper of October 17, 1883, shows that snow falls early in the season once in a while:

            "A. M. Ward, while hunting stock near Granite mountain a few days ago, got lost in a blinding snow storm and came near perishing. Snow fell to a depth of two feet in a few hours."

            The present little flurry in a few industries and the slump in prices in a few products is probably only temporary as our industrial and financial systems are so interwoven that there is very little danger of one of those old-time panics when the cunning profiteers who had salted their wealth down in money or gilt edge securities would reap an unearned harvest of several hundred per cent when measured in values of other property. The old style panic, when bank depositors would engage in a foot race to get to the bank to withdraw deposits, has been superseded by a more humane and scientific way of protecting the debtor as well as the holder of so-called gilt-edge securities. But we are in need of a little legislation both financial and industrial.

            If there ever was a time in the history of the United

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States when we needed a high protective tariff, that time is now; otherwise our big coast markets will be turned over to the foreigners. We not only need a high protective tariff for the product of the factory but that of the farm also. The large increase in the cost of rail transportation from the interior to the coast would make it impossible for states in the interior to compete with foreign countries for our coast markets unless we have a high tariff, because foreign countries have cheap water transportation.

            Our monetary system needs legislation and regulation that will give both creditor and debtor a square deal, and a lively discussion on this subject might result in some benefit to many people who have been victims of others who are classed as shrewd financiers.

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A REMARKABLE DREAM ; PHYSICAL EDUCATION; WORK ON THE FARM

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            As I remember them, the following items were published in the Athenian Literary Society paper at Huffakers about forty years ago:

            "While William Warren was seated near the stove in Jerry Schooling's store in Reno the other day, he had occasion to take his hat off just as three Indian ladies entered the store. These ladies noticed immediately that Mr. Warren was almost hairless.

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They became greatly excited and were talking quite rapidly and pointing to Mr. Warren's head. One of the ladies went over to where Jerry Schooling was and pointing her finger at Mr. Warren said: `He no brave man, heap lose um scalp; squaw no have him.'

            A very interesting debate on the Mormon and polygamy question took place at one of the meetings of the Athenian Literary Society. Mr. Tolles was on the side against polygamy and made a very eloquent plea against a man having more than one wife and was frequently applauded by the ladies who were present. Mr. Warren took the opposite side and favored polygamy but thought no one man should be allowed more than twenty wives. The only applause Mr. Warren received was from a group of men standing in the back part of the school room near the outside doors.

            It was such an able and impressive discussion that it made a profound sensation and was the talk of the society for a long time afterwards. It caused one of the members to have a most remarkable dream which was published in the society paper and read at the next meeting.

            According to this dream a very eloquent and magnetic Mormon missionary had held a series of revival meetings at Huffakers and had converted a large number including Mr. Tolles and many who came out from Reno to hear him. Mr. Tolles was given a very high position and became the head bis-

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hop of Huffakers. Like many other dreams it included events that would take years to happen in the ordinary way, and according to this dream a big celebration was being held at Huffakers on the anniversary of the conversion of Mr. Tolles. A long procession was marching up the Virginia road with a large delegation from Reno in the rear. There were many people along the line of march and as the procession was approaching a group of spectators, Charles Jenkins who was in the group, exclaimed: "Well, I'll be hanged if Tolles hasn't got an elephant leading his procession." "Hush," cried William Everett, "don't talk so loud. That leader of the procession is not an elephant but the ponderous form of William Warren, who is as great a man among his followers at Huffakers as was Brigham Young among the saints of Salt Lake." According to this dream the procession and every thing connected with it was a very spectacular affair.

            The reading of the dream created unbounded enthusiasm and the reader had to pause frequently to allow the listeners to give vent to their feelings.

            The following incidents that happened fifty years or more ago were rather interesting to me and my friends at that time. Ben Shaber and family were living on the old Alec Cochrane ranch about one-half mile from where Charles Robinson and I were living. One evening during the fall of 1868 Mr. Robinson and I started out to visit our neighbor, Mr. Shaber.

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            There had been a heavy rain and the road was muddy, so we concluded to walk down to his house through the field, which was a grass meadow. Mr. Robinson thought I was rather awkward in climbing over the fence and he told me to watch him and see how an old man could go over the fence. He put one hand on the top and gave a spring to jump over the fence, but unfortunately for him the heel of one of his shoes got caught on the board and it turned his body so that he landed on his head near where I was standing. It took him some little time to get up and when he saw that I was laughing at him he was quite angry and said it might have broken his neck and that I should never laugh at an accident like that, as it might get me into trouble. I told him I could not help it and it might have been the same even if his neck had been broken. I also told him he was too old a man to be trying to show off in that way. Then I apologized for laughing at his misfortune, which made him feel much better and by the time we arrived at Mr. Shaber's he was in good humor and we had a very pleasant visit with our neighbor.

            In those days there was much hard work to do on the farms, clearing off the brush, digging post holes and ditches and other work, and when George Deremer, Charles Robinson or I had an extra tough job we would sometimes swap work and get through with it as quickly as possible. When we were digging post holes we would often engage in a contest to see

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which could dig a post hole the quickest or the largest number in a day. Although I was only seventeen or eighteen years of age I had no trouble in doing my share of work in full and with much ease. This was doubtless due to my getting broken in to hard work while I was growing.

            The work I did on ranches in California in 1863, when I was twelve years old, gave me a good start in physical culture. I was sheepherder, weed puller, turned the grind stone during harvest when the grain was cut with cradles, and worked in the tobacco fields when the growing tobacco needed the removal of the suckers. I helped to drive sheep and hogs to market on foot, thus improving my qualifications as a pedestrian—which were further improved a year or two later with my daily walk of thirty miles carrying mail and papers from Washoe City to Galena and surrounding lumber and wood camps.

            This early training in physical instruction seems to have had the desired effect and up to the present time has kept me immune from gout, dyspepsia or stomach trouble of any kind. But perhaps I ought to add that the old time Washoe zephyrs deserve much credit for some of the great vitality displayed by such old time residents of Western Nevada as Harry Fogg, Bob Gracey, Jack Frazer, A. M. Lamb, W. F. Everett, Orville Sessions, Bill Lyell, Charles Gulling, Charles Taylor, Bob Watson, H. Smith, Sam Wilbur, William Caughlings, C. H. Rulison and scores of others.

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            I believe I am the only one left in Washoe County that belonged to the Sons of Temperance of Galena as early as 1864, which partly accounts for my being able to give my old acquaintances an occasional write up.

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AN EARLY DAY DOG STORY; SOME MORE TAHOE FIGURES

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            One of the noted characters of the Truckee Meadows during the '60s and early '70s was Capt. Gray. He was an all round handy man and rancher and had worked as a farm hand on the ranches of Charles Robinson, T. W. Norcross and others. He was also a good financier and started loaning money at an early day when the rates of interest were around four to ten per cent per month compounded monthly.

            He was a splendid collector and his money multiplied rapidly. If he had stayed in Washoe County a few years longer he would have owned the County, but he was a great lover of fun at other people's expense and some times had a very violent temper which caused him a little trouble.

            In the early days there was an incident happened at the John Martin station on the Virginia road, where the university farm is now located, concerning which no two witnesses could give a similar description. I was not present when it occurred but I saw

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some of the effects of it a short time afterwards and heard it described at different times by the different witnesses who were there.

            There was an undesirable dog at the Martin station which may have been a stray and Mr. Martin wanted him to stay away from the place. Cap Gray suggested that they tie a can of powder to the dog's tail with a long enough fuse attached so it would not explode until at a safe distance, and the dog would get such a scare when the explosion occurred he would never come back.

            Mr. Martin had plenty of powder and fuse at the station and Cap Gray was an expert in attending to the details. The dog with the can of powder and fuse attached to his tail was turned loose near the Virginia road. The dog started off at a lively clip but when he looked around and saw and heard the sputtering fuse he turned around and made a straight run for the men who were watching him.

            Mr. Martin in trying to dodge the dog stepped into a post hole and painfully wrenched his leg. The dog then ran against Cap Grey with such force that he was knocked over and badly frightened for he was expecting the explosion to take place at that time. The dog then ran between the legs of a man named Becker, who was nearly capsized; from there the dog rushed through the open doorway into the bar room and while he was circling the bar room the can of powder slipped from the end of the dog's tail and

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skidded under the stove just as the explosion took place.

            The stove was badly wrecked, part of it being blown through one of the windows, a hole was blown in the floor and other damage done around the bar room, but as far as the dog was concerned it had the desired effect for the dog received such a scare that he was never seen on the premises again.

            Late in August, 1888, the Truckee river was very low and the farmers of the Truckee Meadows needed a little more water to mature the late crops. Mr. Mayberry was employed by the ditch owners to clean out the outlet at Lake Tahoe so as to increase the flow in the Truckee river. He took up a crew of men and utensils and performed the work and the farmers had plenty of water the remainder of that season.

            But as soon as the elder Mr. Bliss heard of what was going on he took an attorney from Carson City to Auburn to perform the necessary red tape to stop the work of cleaning out the debris from the outlet of the Lake. Much of this debris may have been caused from the lumbering operations of Yerington, Bliss & Company or some such firm or corporation. When these stately pines were being sacrificed in the interest of the lumber industry there was no champion of scenic beauty there to stop it.

            The sheriff of Placer County had proceeded to the outlet of Lake Tahoe with the necessary authority to stop this work of cleaning out the rubbish and

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debris which was partly or mostly caused by these lumber operations at the Lake, but unfortunately for Mr. Bliss and the admirers of scenic grandeur, Mr. Mayberry and his crew had completed the work and were outside of Placer County when the sheriff arrived at the Lake. The scenic grandeur of Tahoe was damaged to the extent of lowering the Lake a fraction of an inch until the damage was repaired by the next storm.

            Mr. W. L Bliss in criticising a statement made by "Nevadan" that "before there was any dam at the outlet of Lake Tahoe there was a fluctuation on the elevation of the lake of fifteen feet," stated that it was a fairy tale and then tried to explain that the gap would be thirteen hundred feet wide with a flood from six feet to fifteen feet flowing from five to ten feet per second and washing everything before it.

            That criticism is rather extravagant and he probably would not have made it if he had been quick and accurate in mathematics. Let us suppose that this volume of water pouring out of Tahoe is only six feet in depth for the thirteen hundred feet in width and we will take his maximum velocity of this volume of water flowing at the rate of ten feet per second. This would make seventy-eight thousand second feet pouring out of Tahoe which is about sixty times the maximum amount that was running out of Tahoe in July, 1907, when the Lake was at an elevation of only five feet less than the elevation of 1862. If these calculations are right then Mr. Bliss

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seems to be in the fairy tale class. Of course if his statement is accurate he was justified in making the further statement that it would wash everything before it.

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"HANDSOMEST BABY" SWAPPING YARNS

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            Old man Small was a very conspicuous man around Reno and Truckee Meadows during the early days of Reno. He was not a handsome man but he claimed to have been the handsomest baby in a group of several states around Indiana. He was first exhibited at the county fairs of Indiana during his early babyhood, winning every prize for being the most beautiful child exhibited, and in a free for all contest at the state fair, he said he again took first prize with the most beautiful babies in the surrounding states of Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky and Michigan. The judges all declared he was the most beautiful child they ever saw, so Small asserted, and they did not believe there was another baby in the United States that was his equal.

            As he grew older his beauty began to fade and when he arrived in Reno many years later the old-time beauty of his youth had entirely disappeared and he was a very plain looking, elderly man, although at one time he seemed quite a favorite among

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some of the ladies. He was foreman for A. J. Hatch on the Marysville ranch, which Mr. Hatch had bought from Old Man Hill about 1870. This ranch is now owned by Mr. Bakeless and lies just south of the Fife farm. The Fife farm was originally owned by T. W. Norcross. I was living on the Norcross farm during the early seventies when Mr. Small was foreman on the adjoining farm.

            In those days social gatherings among neighbors paid very little attention to cultured etiquette or style and when a lot of us old hay-seeds got together for a social chat there would be some very interesting stories told. Mr. Small could embellish his stories with some of the best Hoosier sentences I ever heard, and when Old Man Gillespie, another one of my early day chums, who was originally from Tennessee, and who retained some of the old time lingo in use in the mountain districts of that state prior to the Civil War, would start to match one of Mr. Small's stories I knew something was coming that would be worth listening to. When Old Man Gillespie would start to match Mr. Small's story, he would open his complimentary remarks with : "By gum, that's pretty good for Indiana, but I'll be grasshopper kicked if Tennessee can't beat it by a right smart chance with plenty of hog and hominy thrown in for good measure."

            After Old Man Gillespie had finished his fine story in honor of Tennessee, I was expected to tell another to the credit of some other state. I selected

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the Civil War story heretofore related in these reminiscences in the Galena chapter. Mrs. Legg of Missouri told about a squash that weighed four tons and which took two men to lift it into the wagon, and said she, "I tell ye we had some powerful men in Missouri before the war."

            When I finished telling that story both Mr. Small and Mr. Gillespie, as well as the other listeners, acknowledged that Missouri took the cake. Then Mr. Small and Mr. Gillespie led off in singing that old song, in honor of Missouri :

            "My name it is Jo Bowers,

                        I have a brother Ike,

            I came from old Missouri

                        And all the way from Pike."

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SOME LOW PRICES IN SAN FRANCISCO; SHOOTING A WOODEN DUCK

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            While I was living in San Francisco during the early '60s, competition in many kinds of business was very fierce. The hotel business seemed greatly overdone and only a few made it pay, which they did by buying their supplies at wholesale at bedrock prices. The old "What Cheer" house was one that did business at a profit. A person could get a very good meal there for ten cents, which included a piece of steak nearly the size of the plate, with bread and

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vegetables, but if a person was not a teetotaler and had to have tea or coffee the price would be five cents extra.

            Competition between steamboat companies was very bitter and passenger fare on the boats between Sacramento and San Francisco went as low as twenty-five cents and the steerage fare between San Francisco and New York by the Isthmus of Panama route for a few passengers went as low as nine dollars. But that kind of competition is now a thing of the past, and, in place of the old time bitter competition we now have organization or combinations, trusts and unions to look out for their own interests. When all occupations get thoroughly organized so that the people who do the drudgery work get a square deal and are on a parity with the so-called higher-ups, and get their share of good things, then the millennium will be at hand, provided of course that there is no hitch in the proceedings.

            Fatalists who believe that everything on this planet and in the Universe is moving along according to a fixed program and is controlled by a power much higher than any human agency, seem to have some grounds for that belief. In a joint debate on this subject at the Athenian Literary Society of Huffakers many years ago it was decided that man is the victim of circumstances and fate, and is simply fulfilling his predestined career while he remains on this planet. And it is also foreordained that only a few will accept this belief on account of conditions not

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being right for the belief to become general, all of which is a part of the general predestined plan. It was a very interesting debate with much feeling and ability displayed on both sides. There were four or five debaters on each side and they were all primed for the occasion. Some of the spectators did not like the decision of the judges but by the time the next meeting was held everything was as harmonious as ever.

            One little incident that happened while I was in San Francisco will always remain a pleasant memory. William Vanderslice, a cousin of mine, had borrowed a gun and, spending all the money he had for ammunition, wanted me to go along to help him bring the ducks home that he expected to shoot. I was only about ten years of age and we went forth with great expectation. We traveled a long distance out through the sand hills and swamps and finally came to a pond where there was a duck. After firing several shots at the duck my cousin was afraid his ammunition would not hold out to get as many ducks as he would like. We drove some sticks down in the sand and left them at a suitable height for a rest for the barrel of the gun so as to get a more accurate aim, but this did not improve matters and he kept firing away at the duck until the ammunition was all gone. We then walked down to the edge of the pond so as to get a better view of the duck. It seemed very tame and paid no attention to our approach. We threw a few sticks at him, one of which

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hit him and from the sound it made we concluded it was a wooden duck, the first of the kind we had ever seen. That little experience cured me. I have never been duck hunting since.

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SOME EARLY MEMORIES; FAST VS. SLOW

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            Looking backward for a period of sixty-five years or more over my past life, many old time memories are revived. My father passed from this life in September, 1855, when I was but four and one-half years of age and yet I remember many incidents that happened before his passing. I would run out to meet my father when he was coming home from his work and he would often bring me little presents. One evening he brought me a nice iron hoop such as the little tots of those days liked to roll along the streets and sidewalk. I was greatly pleased and took great delight in playing with the hoop the rest of that evening and when night came I put the hoop in the woodshed. The next morning when I went to get it for another round of pleasure it was gone. I felt so badly over my loss and it made such a lasting impression that I could not forget it and have not to this day.

            I began going to school in Fall River, Mass., when I was five years old and remember the first

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piece I ever spoke at school. There were about twelve of us little tots standing in a row and each one spoke a short verse representing some trade. The one spoken by me follows :

            "I am a blacksmith,

                        Your horses I'll shoe,

            And I'll drive the nails,

                        Very carefully, too."

            That little verse seems as fresh in my memory as when I first learned to repeat it sixty-four years ago. One little fellow about my age was so full of pent up activity while in school that it some times had to have vent in ways which were quite annoying to the teacher. One day, when everything was comparatively quiet in the school room, this little fellow gave a loud shrill whistle which startled the teacher and all the other children. As soon as the teacher recovered from her astonishment she asked the little fellow why he whistled that way in school. "I could not help it," replied the child; "it whistled itself." The answer astonished the teacher as much as the whistle did.

            John Brown, the great abolitionist, was hung in the state of Virginia on the second day of December, 1859. During the hour he was hung the tolling of the bells in Fall River and many other Northern cities made it a very solemn occasion. It caused a profound impression on the people of the North and had much to do with hastening the Civil War and

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the abolition of slavery. The song of "John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave but his soul goes marching on" became the favorite war song at the beginning of the Civil War and words suitable for the tune and schools were sung at the schools in San Francisco during 1861 and 1862, while I was attending the Denman grammar school on Bush street in that city.

            Within a week or so after John Brown was hanged my mother took me to hear Wendell Phillips, the most eloquent orator in Massachusetts at that time, deliver a eulogy on John Brown, which was grand beyond description. His audience was spellbound for nearly two hours and he declared John Brown one of the greatest heroes that ever lived.

            When I look backward for sixty years and compare the roads and the speed made on the public highways in those days with the paved highways and the speed made by the automobiles of the present day, it makes a most wonderful contrast. But this great speed is much more costly and dangerous than the old style of travel and pleasure riding and probably has more to do with the present cost of living than any thing else.

            The old "has-beens," pedestrians, and people who still persist in driving a horse or riding in autos that are not capable of great speed sometimes criticise the up to date joy riders who enjoy the exhilarating pleasure of speeding over the paved highways at a

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sixty or eighty mile clip and to whom it is very annoying sometimes to have to bump into the slow pokes who do not hear them coming soon enough to clear the track.

            It is also very aggravating to some auto drivers when they are gliding over the paved highways at seventy to one hundred miles an hour to have to dodge other autos, or perhaps slow down to pass through a band of beef cattle or sheep that are being slowly driven over these paved boulevards. But perhaps the exhilarating delight of traveling at this high speed is well worth the price and occasional loss of a few lives and limbs.

            These up to date speeders should not be judged too harshly by the courts and pedestrians, for it may be a characteristic inherited from ancestors who lived in the age when so many had a weakness for a fast horse and would speed their horse up to the limit the same as many joy riders are speeding their autos up to the limit. At all events, it is highly probable that Saint Peter will lookup the records of the ancestors of these auto speeders when they knock at his door for admittance, before he denies them a hearing.

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FINANCIAL PANICS AND DEFLATION

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            As I have been somewhat of an observer or student of finance for more than sixty years, a brief summary of a few of my observations may interest some of the recent arrivals.

            The first thing I remember in this line was the panic of 1857, which, when we consider the wealth and resources of the country at that time, was greater than we have had since. According to the Tribune Almanac of 1893 there were four thousand nine hundred and thirty-two failures in this country in 1857 with liabilities of two hundred and ninety-one million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which was the largest amount of failures for any year prior to 1893. The panic of 1861 caused six thousand nine hundred and ninety-three failures, but the liabilities were only two hundred and seven million two hundred and ten thousand dollars which was a figure much smaller than in 1857. On July 1, 1862, the amount of money in circulation in the United States was three hundred and thirty-four million six hundred and ninety-seven thousand seven hundred and forty-four dollars, composed of one hundred and eighty-three million seven hundred and ninety-two thousand and seventy-nine dollars in state bank notes, ninety-six million six hundred and twenty thousand of United States notes, fifty-three million forty thous- 

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and dollars of demand notes and twenty-five millions of specie in circulation on the Pacific coast. This made the per capita circulation at that time only ten dollars and twenty-three cents.

            The passage of the legal tender law of February 25, 1862, and the national banking law of February 25, 1863, increased the supply of money as needed, and towards the close of the Civil War a considerable part of the government obligations were used as currency, notably what was known as the seven thirty treasury notes, which also were drawing seven and three-tenths per cent interest per year. Other evidences of the interest-bearing debt were also used as currency and prices and business were good, and for the three years of 1863, 1864 and 1865 there were only one thousand five hundred and forty-five business failures, with liabilities of thirty-four million one hundred and three thousand nine hundred dollars in this country, or less than one-sixth of the liabilities for those three years of what it was for the one year in 1861.

            Contraction on a limited scale began in 1866, but it was not until about 1869 and 1870 that contraction began to get in its deadly work, and to this was added the demonetization of silver in February, 1873, which culminated in a great panic that sent values of everything except money and gilt-edge securities a glimmering. Some of the best real estate in the eastern centers shrunk as much as seventy-five

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per cent in price. This was caused by the wholesale contraction of money and credit.

            There were several panics during the '70s and '80s, those of 1875 and 1878 and 1884 being nearly as bad as the one in 1873, but the people had become accustomed to them and tried to make the best of it, which was a tough job at the best. There were also some very tough times and panics during the early and middle '90s, that of 1893 being very severe. It caused much suffering among many people and although prices were exceedingly low for the necessaries of life there were ten times as many people without the price as there are now when there seems to be a general complaint about high prices. The following paragraph taken from an account of the tough times in New York City in 1893-94, as told by the World Almanac of 1895, may be of interest to those who cannot afford to buy an up-to-date stylish automobile :

            "When the hard times fell upon the poor of the city, when an army of workless ones swarmed through the streets vainly seeking employment, when the bake-shops were surrounded by hungry-looking women and men with faces pressed against the pane, when the hard winter of 1893-94 seemed without hope for that great class whose earnings were cut off, when the outlook was darkest for the poor—then the World started its free bread fund. In the fall and winter this fund gave away one million four

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hundred and ten thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine loaves of bread."

            There is very little danger that those old-time panics and bedrock prices will be repeated, for there are numbers of elderly boys and girls who have been through that experience and who are still living and who know that it is not necessary to contract credit and the currency and pauperize the multitude to give an unfair and an unearned benefit to the few who have salted their wealth down in money or gilt-edged securities.

            Occasionally some so-called financier will advocate "deflation," a refined name for contraction, and will admit it will be very painful, but he does not state that the pain will be suffered by the enterprising borrowers whose equity in property will be sacrificed in order that the purchasing power of the wealth of the "shrewd financiers" may be greatly enhanced. If it is necessary to have deflation it should be done so as to give all a square deal, then it would be painless. Let the creditors, gilt-edged and all, stand the same per cent of shrinkage in values as the debtor has to stand; then there will be no injustice done. But of course that would take away the great incentive for deflation by those who expected to reap a great harvest from it.

            Every great war is fought by the aid of an expansion of credit and indebtedness, which results in business activity and higher prices and better times and there is no good reason why we should cling

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to the old superstition that it is necessary to bring prices down to the pre-war level, but there are a number of very excellent reasons why our present volume of credit and currency should not be "deflated."

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A TRIBUTE TO THE PIONEER

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            This is the closing part of a speech delivered in Reno about forty-six years ago by an early orator. It is given as I recall it from memory and may not be correct in every detail.

            The gallant pioneer, he is a type of American fraternity, for he has honor and courage, qualities that eagle plume men's souls, and fit them for the sun.

            He climbs like a huge fly upon the bald skull of some lofty mountain, and the primeval hills welcome his footsteps. He taps with the prospector's pick at the adamantine doors of the earth's treasure chambers, and at his demand they reveal their shining secrets. His glittering ax lays low the green plumed forest monarchs, and on the emerald hued prairies he marks the sites of the cities yet to be.

            Not for him the science of the school, not for him the graces of culture, not for him the joys of home, not for him the sweet solaces of life, but he reads the story of the ages written on the rocks, and hears the

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tale of mysterious forces whispered by the midnight stars. And the priest robed mountains and the smiling lakes, and white lipped sunset seas are his kindred. Southward you will behold him undaunted by the roar of the Colorado, and still onward to listen to the wash of tropic waters. Westward, Ah, there is no longer a West, for the iron lace with which progress fringes her garments, reaches now to where the Golden Gate swings back upon her hinges; Asia and the farther Indies are just beyond, and the Orient to Europe becomes the Occident to America.

            Northward, his resolute face is turned toward the wooing mountains of crystal, until the North star gleams like a mighty diamond in its gold and crimson settings of Northern Lights and the sudden sun but for an instant hangs upon the verge of the Polar night, a faint remainder of the lost Southern clime, while the booming artillery of the ice king, hails the pioneer of Polar seas.

            And still, from the silver and the orange blossoms of cactus fringed and snow crowned Mexico, northward to where the icebergs glitter against an arctic sky our pioneers are marching and toiling. In the pathway which their fierce feet are breaking our country is marching onward to her greatness, the army of civilization swells upon their pathway. Art, science, progress, the wealth of nations, the power and glory of the republic follow. All honor and all hail to those brave hearts who lead the vanguard.

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(end of Part 3)  

Part 1 ; Part 2 ; Part 3