Read Ebook: Buckskin Mose Or Life From the Lakes to the Pacific as Actor Circus-Rider Detective Ranger Gold-Digger Indian Scout and Guide. by Perrie George W Rosenberg C G Charles G Editor

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Editor: C. G. Rosenberg

Illustrator: C. G. Rosenberg

BUCKSKIN MOSE;

OR,

LIFE FROM THE LAKES TO THE PACIFIC,

AS ACTOR, CIRCUS-RIDER, DETECTIVE, RANGER, GOLD-DIGGER, INDIAN SCOUT, AND GUIDE.

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."--HAMLET.

NEW YORK:

HENRY L. HINTON, PUBLISHER, 744 BROADWAY. 1873.

Stereotyped at the WOMEN'S PRINTING HOUSE, 56, 58 and 60 Park Street, New York.

PREFACE

As a young author, although scarcely what the world would consider a young man, I should scarcely feel inclined to say a word in presenting this volume to it, were it not that I wish the public to comprehend one of the two reasons which have induced me to write it. As it would be idle, even for a man of decided literary genius, to deny that pecuniary profit is, in most instances, the incentive to the exercise of his power, so, in a humbler fashion , I will scarcely affirm that I do not look with a degree of longing on the possible success of my first effort.

Let me, however, frankly say that I have another and a stronger reason for writing this work.

While hoping that I have not thrust this into undue prominence, as I have, in every case, made it secondary to the facts which are detailed, it is my wish to demonstrate to the public of the United States, that the manner in which the Government protects the settler is neither good for him nor for the Indian. It must equally fail in satisfying its children and its vassals. At times, it leaves the first totally unprotected. When they grow accustomed to the habit of self-protection, it not infrequently represses the sturdy independence thus begotten, instead of guiding it by the ability, wisdom, and honesty of its appointed officials. In like manner, it has no settled course of policy with the latter. At one time it bribes, and at another, it lashes them into subjection.

Perhaps, the settler is not entirely elevated in character, nor the Indian thoroughly debased. But this wavering and uncertain line of policy cannot do otherwise than lower the nature of the first, while it certainly cannot raise that of the last.

That one considers his Government as weak and capricious, while this one believes it to be both tyrannical and asinine.

In addition to this, those who are selected to command the troops employed in the neighborhood of the Reservations, or to act as Indian Agents, are, in nine cases out of ten, utterly ignorant of the nature of the savage with whom they have to deal, the character of the country in which they have to move; and, in the latter position, not infrequently deficient in one of the cardinal virtues--that of honesty. In this last case, they will not only disgust the settler, but enrage the savage, who, on the score of his own dishonesty and treachery, is far less disposed to smile at these vices in others, when he himself suffers from their exercise. The false philanthropy, also, is deeply injurious, which believes in the possibility of guiding uneducated nature without a due degree of compulsory restriction.

If in mentioning these few points in relation to the dealings of our Government with the white settler and the red-skin, I awaken the attention of the public to the real obstacles for the preservation of a steady and creditable peace on the Indian territory and in the Reservations, without the complete extermination of the original inhabitants of my country, I shall be satisfied. Nor do I feel that I have said nearly as much, nor said it one-tenth as strongly, as the necessity for plain speaking might have justified me in doing.

Before concluding, I would, however, call attention to one portion of my volume which, without corroborative proof, might cause considerable doubt as to my veracity. This is my positive mention of the existence of Masonry, of my own knowledge, among the Cheyennes, and by hearsay from them, among other Western tribes.

If I am right, it was in 1854, that Judge Harrison, of Red Bluffs, in California, with his wife and children, was captured by the Cheyennes. Like myself, he was a Mason, and was indebted to that circumstance for the liberation of himself and his family. This he told me in Susanville, where he afterwards died. When he mentioned this circumstance to me, he showed me a war-club presented to him, which was almost identical in its decorative carving with my own, and which is now, or lately was, in the possession of his widow. Nor have I any reason to doubt that there may be others now living, who have also been indebted, for a similar immunity, to the fact of their belonging to the Masonic order.

While touching upon this, I might also mention that Peter Lassen, killed by the Indians, at Black Rock, in 1859, was the first Mason who carried a Charter to, and founded the first Masonic Lodge, on the Pacific coast. Peace be with the old man's ashes.

PAGE HOW I SOLD POP-CORN 16

MY CAPTURE OF JACKSON 31

SPOTTING A COUNTERFEITER 34

A SECOND OFFER OF MARRIAGE 63

MY FIRST APPEARANCE IN SUSANVILLE 92

A STRUGGLE FOR LIFE 125

THE MONUMENT ERECTED TO PETER LASSEN IN HONEY LAKE VALLEY 102

BEING REQUESTED TO CHANGE TREES 119

BOUND TO THE STAKE 140

AN UNEXPECTED ALLY 155

CLO-KE-TA'S WARNING 222

TAKING PAYMENT 249

MY FIRST EXPERIENCE IN THE CIRCUS--AN ACCIDENT AND A CHANGE OF CALLING--FAMILY AFFECTION--POP-CORN--A LITTLE CHEEK, AND A GREAT DEAL OF DISMAY--SUCCESS AS A DEALER IN GRAIN--BEING AN ACTOR--CAUGHT AGAIN--BLOOD AND ITS CONSEQUENCES--BAILED OUT, AND IN AGAIN--THE GOOD-NATURED IRISHMAN--CHANGE OF VENUE--ANOTHER PROFESSION.

Actor, trapper, scout, gold-digger, and guide, my life, very unlike that of most of my readers, has been one of plenty of change and adventure, but certainly not of money-making. They say "A rolling stone gathers no moss." I have had good reason to feel this proverbial truth, having been a wanderer on the face, if not of this earth, at all events, of this continent.

My earliest recollection, which is worth my own remembrance, is a decidedly unpleasant one. When no more than eight years of age I was connected with the Circus of Dan Rice. Necessarily, I was a very unimportant member of it; and not feeling that it was in every respect what I thought a circus-life ought to be, I took it into my head to run away from it. Before I had covered sufficient ground to get out of the agent's reach, he caught me, and I had the gratification of being very well and soundly flogged. The smart of this judicial visitation upon my skin still recurs to me at times, and renders the locality in Kentucky, where the flogging took place, a very sore spot in my memory. I consequently will not name it.

In spite of this escapade, I gradually became a proficient in bare-back riding, vaulting, on the slack-rope and in the trapeze-performance, excelling all the boys attached to the circus, and in consequence became the pet of Old Dan, with whom I remained for three years. My youthful ambition to shine in this career was, however, brought to an untimely close. An uncle of mine discovered me on the Mississippi, and immediately wrote to my father, who, at the time I left home, had been the landlord of the United States Hotel in Galena. Making a somewhat wrathful pilgrimage in search of his missing offspring, he caught up with me at some small place in Kentucky, reclaimed me from the vocation of my choice, and after taking me home and chastising me in a truly parental fashion, bound me out as an apprentice to the village blacksmith. It would be needless to say, that the forge was by no means as pleasant an occupation, to my youthful mind, as the daring life on the sawdust of the arena.

Some six months after, I forgot the parental scourge, and wrote a letter to the manager of Older and Orton's Circus, which was then performing at Portage City, Wisconsin.

What sort of a letter it was, I can now scarcely tell. But my education had not been remarkable in its extent, and it may be presumed the orthography as well as the calligraphy, possibly, astonished him who received it. If so, he never mentioned the fact to me, but returned me a favorable answer. Consequently, I once more made tracks, and joined them for the season.

Here I was so successful, and became such a general favorite, that I received the offer of a star-engagement from Levi North, with whom I remained until an injury received on the occasion of my benefit, in the execution of an unusually daring feat of horsemanship, brought our connection to an end. The company were obliged to leave me behind them in Chicago.

My recovery was slow and tedious. Although my professional brethren displayed great kindness to me, in every way, the means I had made, even with their assistance, were insufficient for my needs. Once or twice, I thought of writing to my relatives in Galena.

The supposable wrath of my paternal proprietor, however, deterred me from doing so. The shiver of filial fear at his retributive justice induced me to make an effort to support myself in a new field. This was in a grocery store at the corner of Randolph and Deerborne streets, kept by a man named Martin. It was a widely different sphere of exertion from that in which my previous employment had been cast, as well as one even more different from that in which I was afterwards to make my mark. Often, since, I have laughed over this period of my life. In the Forge and the Circus, I had learnt much which might fit me for my future. But, it is somewhat curious for Buckskin Mose ever to have figured in peddling or carrying out tea and sugar, potted fruits and whiskey, with other such necessaries and luxuries, from a corner-grocery.

But I was not destined to continue at this work for any length of time. One day, a fire occurred on the premises, and in endeavoring to rescue a keg of brandy from the flames, I slipped upon the ice in front of the store--it was then midwinter--and broke my arm.

This untoward accident threw me again out of employment, and I remember my angry feelings while the doctor was placing my maimed limb in splints, and I was thinking what I could do for a living. Some few days after, when, worn out by the suffering and compulsory inaction consequent upon this accident, I was wandering through the streets, I stumbled upon another uncle of mine.

He was one of the millionnaires of Chicago. As many men have grown rich by the sudden growth of the cities in which they live, rather than by their own efforts, he had gained his dollars. But in doing so, he had forgotten his love for those who bore his name. At any rate, he had done so for me, as far as extending me any helping hand in my immediate necessity.

"You must work, my boy! Only see what I have done. No friends assisted me. I began at the lowest rung of the ladder, and now I am pretty well off in the world. God bless you!"

Then he tapped me on the shoulder in a benevolent manner, and walked on, never thinking of assisting the beneficence he had asked to bless me.

But I had to live. With my broken arm, what was there left for me to attempt? Davy Crockett mentions the shell-corn business at one period of his eventful life, as having suggested itself to him. Why should not I become a pop-corn merchant in a humble approach to the calling the hero of Kentucky had once followed. But, to my intense disgust, on diligent inquiry, I could find no pop-corn in the whole of Chicago, whether for love or money, save in one store. The amount demanded for this was thirty dollars. Of the last article mentioned above--money--I had none. Of the first, I had plenty. But this was not a circulating medium. As, with my unlamed hand, I was scraping my forehead in the hope of exhuming an idea, I looked up and found myself in front of a grocery store. Its owner was standing behind the counter. His face wore a benevolent and kindly expression. At no time in my life, from that in which I ran away from Dan Rice's Circus, have I been long in forming a determination. So I walked in, and asked him for the loan of the moneh am eigenen Leibe nieded to monopolize the pop-corn trade.

"Thirty dollars!" he exclaimed.

He was profoundly astonished, and on reflection, I am compelled to say, well he might be.

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