Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/25

Rh the women, even issuing nearly 500 tickets for the trip.

Having interested and secured about all the passengers necessary to fill the ship, I returned to Washington to have the vessel made ready and turned over to me. Accompanied by Senator George H. Williams of Oregon, I called upon Quartermaster-General Meigs with Grant's order. Unfortunately the man in line first ahead of Senator Williams was an individual who had furnished a horse to our soldiers and taken a receipt for the same. The man had been paid twice for his animal already and General Meigs recognized him. The quarter-master Hew into a rage, ordered the man arrested and filled the room with the smoke of vituperation and cuss words until breathing was an actual effort. Presenting an order at this time was fatal. Still black in the face from his recent experience. General Meigs looked at the paper a moment, then said: 'There is no law justifying this order and I will not honor it. Crestfallen, I retired. Meigs was stubborn and the law was with him. Weeks passed and I was ready to give up the fight, when one day in New York I received a letter from General Meigs saying that he had ordered a special appraisement of the propellor Continental, a 1,600 ton ship, and that I could have her at the appraisement for carrying my people to Seattle notwithstanding the law required the sale to be at public auction. Eighty thousand dollars was the price, cash in hand.

That was not a price to 'stagger the world,' but it made me tremble. Sitting in my room at the Merchants Hotel and canvassing every known avenue that gave the faintest hope of leading up to this sum of ready money, I was surprised to receive a card bearing the name 'Ben Holladay.' Inviting him up. he began the conversation by saying: 'I understand the government offers you the Continental for $80,000, and that you have not the money. If you will let me have her I will fit her for the trip and carry your people to Seattle at a nominal figure.

Drowning men catch at straws. I was the asphyxiated individual and caught at the extended straw. The contest was unequal. Mr. Holladay had two good lawyers pitted against an inexperienced youth, over-anxious and ready to be sacri-