Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/90

 78 John Minto. few inches of fresh-fallen snow as he had passed around a doorless cabin without waking me. I left him, but a few months later the dog of a friend hunting there rushed into the cave after the panther and passed him — then stopped howling in fear. Others closed in, when the owner of the dog went in with lighted torch in one hand and a Colt's in the other and shot him between the eyes. Acquaintance with animal life greatly lessens the danger of their killing. In addition to this book on frontier life I bought and read a small volume of selections from Plutarch's Lives — grand reading for a youth. Having met the season's supply of coal, T went to Pitts- burg and found my father and others idle by reason of the failure of a freshet to float the coal to market in the No- vember previous ; so there was a glut of coal on hand, and of course hard times for both masters and men. Pittsburg had become an objective point for English miners immigrating, which tended to a glut of men. I had $33 to travel on, with a supply of clothing. At a public meeting to consider the situation I advised those who could, to seek other districts, or other occupation, and did so myself, as told years ago. The foregoing is an outline of labor life in Pennsylvania mines. The story of the journey from Pittsburg to Astoria I need not repeat and will even be brief in my story of life on the land, as much of that is known in pioneer publications and the history of the agricultural development of Oregon. (To be continued.)