Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/183

Rh decree of the vigilantes, or to satisfy the righteous vengeance of some one whom they had wronged.

For several years during the early sixties Mr. Stockman alternated between Walla Walla and the mining camps of Idaho, Montana and British Columbia, spending the winters in Walla Walla. In the summer of '61 he was at Pierce City, or Orofino. On his way to that region he camped on the site of Lewiston, there being no building of any description on the ground at that time. On reaching the mines, he found that provisions of all kinds were exorbitantly high. Flour reached $80.00 per hundred pounds and potatoes were 30 cents a pound. In comparison with such prices the present ado about the cost of living would seem to be mere burlesque. He conceived the idea that the growing of potatoes at the camp would be a profitable business and accordingly procured seed and planted about four acres. Stimulated by assiduous cultivation, the crop was coming on in the most promising manner when a heavy midsummer frost fell upon it, withering the tops to the ground. Feeling sure that there would be no outcome to his effort at farming, he abandoned his field, but learned afterward that the potatoes ripened sufficiently to volunteer and for several years after his experiment the miners were wont to repair there to dig them as the successive crops came on.

Social conditions in Walla Walla had grown even worse during the winter of 186 1-2 than they had been during the previous winter, and the following year saw no' improvement. Robberies and murders were of frequent occurrence. A man suddenly faced another on the principal street at midday, shot him and took what money he found upon him. One day a man stepped to the door of a barber shop and said to the occupant of the chair: "I'm going to kill you for murdering my father in California." The barber who was treating the man in the chair stepped aside for safety and his patron was shot to death before he could rise.

At another time a character of the town entered a saloon and standing near the front, called with vile epithet to a man