Page:Oregon Native Son volume 2.djvu/257

124 On page 248 will be found, "By what arguments they (the Cayuse murderers) had been persuaded to give themselves up has never been revealed." I received from General Lane, on January 20, 1880, the following: "I carried on negotiations with the Cayuses in 1849 in a friendly manner, with the hope of getting them to surrender up the principal actors in the murder of Dr. Whitman, his wife and many others at Waiilatpu, without war. But told them that war upon them would be certain if they did not deliver up the guilty. They agreed at last, agreed to meet me near The Dalles in May, 1850, and as agreed, with Lieutenant Addison and ten soldiers of the rifle regiment, we met them, the principal chiefs and many warriors, and after a long talk with them, they delivered the prisoners to me. We then, after taking our leave, left with our prisoners. The rest you know."

Readers of this pretended history will find on page 62 thereof, "Mr. Spalding determined to strengthen the hands of the agent (Dr. Elijah White), by receiving thirty Nez Perce Indians into the church, and it was done May 14, 1843." There is not a particle of evidence to show that this was done "to strengthen the hands of the agent." These converts had been propounded for membership previously, and were received for the same reason that other persons were recived, and the presence or absence of the agent had no bearing whatever upon their admission as members of the church.

MYRON EELLS.

WARPED MULES.

The death of Capt. J. W. Kern, a pioneer of 1853, calls to mind one of the stories he used to tell about the way the old ferries running across the river at Portland were operated.

"Oh, yes," said he, as a reminescent look came into his grey eyes, "many amusing things occurred in early times in Portland. By the way, were you a resident of the city when the Stark street ferry was propelled by huge sweeps or oars? No? Well then probably you come later on, when they used a great tread-wheel which revolved under the deck. Wern't here then? Why! Pshaw! man, you are a tenderfoot. Well, it was in the early 50's that the Knotty introduced this new-fangled machine to the traveling public. It is difficult to describe, but was simply a large wheel that revolved, as I say, under the decks, projecting out on each side several feet to admit of the horses or mules to tread the mill, as it were, on the outside of the guard rails. I tell you we were proud of this wonderful mechanism and we never expected to see an improvement made in this system of navigation. You see there were two mules, one on either side of the boat, each fastened in a curved corral, treading away to make the old thing work. Well, these mules would become so warped that they were threatened with curvature of the spine. They really did become rights and lefts and it is said, although I didn't see this personally, but have it from the very best authority, a farmer bought a span of these mules and when he hitched them with their concave sides to each other, they were constantly tripping each other up. At someone's suggestion he changed them about. What do you think was the result? Why, although the farmer was taking a couple of Indian corpses some one had made up the river—home industry, you see—as I say, although he was taking these two "good Indians" out to Lone Fir to start a cemetery with, and was intending to go due east, I'll be blamed if these mules didn't describe a circle and walk right into the river and drown. You see they had on heavy chain harness and couldn't swim with such a load. But, you must excuse me, as this is Saturday and I haven't looked inside my Sunday school lesson leaf yet. Great institutions, these Sunday schools — always attend them, have done so from my boyhood."