Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 376 — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

e Sa ee ee - ~ 1 Out dashed a rather handsome young Mor- mon, with a wild-looking face and the eager ex- pression of a man who knows he has not long to choose. He rode up to the women and cast his eye over them as he passed along the front, till he set eyes on one who had the appearance of a washerwoman of Irish blood, when he called out: ‘*Come hither, woman.” The poor woman cowered and faltered; but the man, with a frown, lifted his long whip, and, echoing his first call, made as though he would use the cruel lash. In a moment she came running to him, shriek- ing: “Oh! for God’s sake, sir, don’t bate! Tl come—indade I’!1 come, sir!” The young savage laughed, as he let out the lash, and took a piece out of the poor woman’s shoulder, saying as he did so: ‘*Then come quickly, or I may change my mind, and give thee to the Indians.” Then he took her to one side, and Joe saw him sitting on his horse, questioning her, as if he were a king and she a slave, while the next man took his choice. Joe noticed that the second man, after look- ang over the crowd, selected another big, power- ful woman, getting old and wrinkled already, and asked his next neighbor: | ** Why do they take such wives as that?’ * The Mormon looked at him with surprise, and then smiled as he answered: ‘“‘ Ah, it is thou, the recruit, When thou hast been as long in the faith as I have, thou wilt learn that the Saints choose their wives, not for looks, but for wear. It will be thy turn after me, and do as thou wilt. Thou wilt choose one of the handsome ones, I doubt not. Well, no one wili dispute with thee for that,” His own name was called after a while, and Joe saw him go out and take the biggest and strongest woman left in the crowd, now that so many had had their pick. She was a person who looked as if she had been a farmer’s wife and used to hard labor all her life, while her flaxen hair and blue eyes were unmistakably German. Then Joe heard his own number called, and he rode out, not knowing exactly what to do, The apostle Nephi saw him come, and, smil- ing, said to him: ‘* Thou seest that the Saints of the Lord have their rewards on earth, as well as in heaven. Choose well, young man, and take thee a wife; for the Saints will take care of thee, when we get to Deseret.” “4Tbus adjured, and not knowing what else to do, Joe rode up to the crowd, and, looking over it, was puzzled what todo, Naturally bashful, and confronted by so many women’s eyes, the only thing that reassured him was the fact that they all looked pleadingly at bim, for they saw that his face was good-natured. At haphazard he pointed to the middle of the crowd, and called out: ‘“‘Hyar, you gal in the blue dress, come hyar. I choose you.” The girl in the blue dress had her back turned to him, dnd it was only the fact of seeing the patch of color in the midst of other hues that hud decided his choice at all, He had taken an idea that he would try and save one girl and carry ber away from the roe of the Mormons; and it mattered little to him which it was, when there was so much misery that he knew himself powerless to relieve in any event. He could but save one, at the risk of bis life, if indeed that were possible. Nevertheless it would be wrong to say that, when the girl in the blue dress turned round and disclosed a very beautiful face under a sun- bonnet, with golden curls hanging tangled round the countenance, he did not experience a thrill of pleasure that found vent in a flush, and caused his cynical friend, who had given him such practital advice, to say sardonically: ‘*Thar, [ knowed he’d doit. Ye won’t doit ot sealed toa few more, brother. arter ye’ve they does that makes ‘em worth It’s the wor having.” But Joe was deaf to the voice of his experi- enced friend, and beckoned kindly to the girl in the blue dress who, poor thing, came tremblingly forward, eying him in a frightened way, till she got near his horse, when another Mormon, who was next after Joe came riding by, calling out in a jeering tone: ‘‘Take her away, brother, for we old hands don’t want no such gals as that. They don’t work fur what they eat.” Joe turned on him fiercely: ‘*Mind yer own biz and leave the gal alone. _ ZImchoosin’ her, not you.” ae / California Joe’s First Trail. The Mormon looked as if he would have made a surly answer; but the voice of Nephi cut short the wrangle, by saying sternly: ‘* Lemuel, the fault is thine. The recruit is new to our ways, but he has fought well and will fight better when the time comes, Hold thy peace and let her alone,” Lemuel subsided, and Joe said to the girl in an undertone; ‘* Keep by my hoss and don’t be skeered. No one sha’n’t hurt ye.” The girl looked up at him timidly, as if the kindness of the tone reassured ber, and her blue eyes filled with tears as she obeyed bim. CHAPTER XIV. ‘SS CAPTIVE. THE other Mormons had taken their prisoners away, and the choice was accomplished in peace; when Joe found himself alone, at a dis- tance from the rest, with his strangely-met captive. Then he spoke quickly to her: ‘““Gal, don’t be afeard. I ain’t one of these devils; though they’ve got meamong’em. l’ll help ye to git off, if ye’ll trust me. What’s yer name?” She looked up at bim in a wild sort of way, as if she did not dare to believe him, and fal- tered: ‘*Sir—I— Oh, sir, who are you?” Joe frowned impatiently, for be knew he had not much time to speak, without exciting the attention of the other Mormons, ‘‘ Never mind who lam,” he said. ‘It’s who you are that l’m askin’ ye. What’s yer name, and who is yer folks?” Something in his tone seemed to make her think he meant what be said, for she answered: ‘““My name is Alice Foster,and my father was killed by those men. Oh, sir, are they go- ing to kill me too?” ** Tain’t, little one,” he responded kindly. ‘‘I ain’t goin’ to do no sich thing; but air you the gal to stand hardship, if I try to git ye off this very night? Whar air yer other folks, or ain’t ye got any?” ‘*] have an uncle living in San Francisco,” she said quickly, seeming to be encouraged again. ‘‘] will do what I can, sir, for I am stronger than I look, but what can we do? These men will kill us.both, if they find us out.” Joe nodded. ‘‘That’s true as gospel, little one. But then I don’t intend they shall find us aout. Notef | know what I’m abaout, and I think Ido, Tell me another thing. Who’s got the best hosses in your camp—that is, who had the hosses that could outrun all the rest? Or don’t ye know ?” The girl’s face brightened up in a moment, as she replied: ‘There is a pair of bay horses, that my father owned.. [ rode one of them, and be kept the other for hunting on the road, If we could get them, they can run faster than anything in the camp. They are thoroughbreds. My father came from Virginia, and they are the best blood of the State, sir.” Joe nodded. : ‘*That’s all I wanter know, little one. I'll git aout of this devil’s den, afore long, or Pll know the reason why,” Then he went back to the rest of the men, as they were completing their choice from among the weeping captives, in the style, as they put it, of ‘the children of Israel spoiling the Ca- naanites,” and looked on, with Alice Foster by his side. Then came the division of the property of the unhappy emigrants, and Joe managed to get, in that division, the two horses which, he knew from Alice, were the best in thecamp. Some- what to his surprise too, he had no difficulty in securing them; for the Mormons seemed to be set on having, in the way of animals, the same useful and solid qualities that they chose in their wives. Among the rest of the plunder, which was distributed by lot, Joe drew a wagon and six oxen, which excited the envy of several of the ‘* Angels,” and when they found Joe was open to a trade, they were only too willing to ex- change with him for what he wanted, As the result of the morning’s work, he found himself the proud possessor of two fine horses; a stout mule, with a pack-saddle; arms enough to provide him with four revolvers and a new rifle of the Sharpe’s pattern, with a barrel like that of his own old Kentucky shooter, while his new captive had a side-saddle, and was able to ride with bim, in the style of a backwoods belle, The ‘“‘ Angels” sneered at him for his choice; but the chief commended him publicly, saying that “‘ the new recruit would prove a warrior, af. and not a plowman; and therefore he was x to equip bimself as a warrior mre d leay 7 ea the farm work to those who ha army of the Lord before him.” al F And, in all this time, Joe bad the satisfactior of seeing that he bad excited no suspicion in the mind of the Mormon chief, so complete ai he managed to simulate zeal in his new faith. ‘ STS ee Then the wagon-train, under its new masters, — f ~ - - ? « was put on the road again, and Joehadanop- portunity to see the way the Mormons | their captives, when they were women. _— He had feared a terrible scene after the bat- tle was over; but, on the contrary, the Saints scemed to be bent on nothing but making their captives as comfortable and happy as could be done, under the circumstances, 2b True, they had murdered all their kinsfolk at one blow, but they seemed to be determined — on making the women forget this, and realize that they were in a new life, where the old one would be sunk forever. | Joe heard Uzziel, who was riding near bim at the side of one of the wagons, speaking to the treated) ~= ~§}° yt ‘ a ' « t : stout Irishwoman whom he bad taken fora wife. The poor woman was lamenting her fate and the loss of her husband, who had been shot in the massacre, when Uzziel said: ‘Nora, hold thy peace; for it was the will of the Lord, and he hath given thee a better husband tban thou hadst before. the Saints are not like the wives of the Gen- tiles, worn down with hard work. They live together like a band of sisters, and are even as the wives of the prophet Jacob, of whom thou hast heard, in that they dwell in the same tent. ‘‘ But what’ll 1 do when poor Pat’s in Purga- tory, and niver a mass can be said for his sowl?”? asked Nora, weeping. ‘ Ah, it’s all very well for yon to talk, whin ye’ve killed the pore felly as if Le war a sheep; but av ye think ‘ll forgit Pat so’asy, ye make a big mistake, mister.” Uzziel frowned at her as he replied: ‘* Nora, knowest thou what is done to the wo- man who reviles her husband, in the church of the Saints of the Lord?” Nora turned her eyes on him with an appre- hensive glance, as she said, falteringly: ‘No, sor,” - ‘“She is beaten with many stripes, Nora; and, if thou art wise, thou wilt forget thy Gen- tile, and make u the Saint of the bonored among women, and their children are princes,” She was about to answer, when he shook his’ Z / long whip menacingly, adding; ‘But if thou art stiff-necked, then beware; for verily I say unto thee, we are not wont to take any reviling from our women.” And there was something so fierce in his eye that the poor woman shrunk back into the wagon, in which she was riding, and said no more, The caravan went on for the rest of the af- ternoon, and in the evening came out of the mountains in view of a great plain covered with a carpet of sage-green grass, that slo down to the blue waters of a distant lake, that more resembled a sea, on the horizon; while in — the midst of the plain, about ten or twelve miles from this water, lay a cluster of houses: and buildings that looked like forts in the midst of high mud walls, that gave the the town—for such it was—a strange, medieval appearance in the midst of the American continent, The place seemed to cover a great deal of ground, and the buildings were embowered in trees, while the glittering lines of wide ditches and canals, that ran from the foot of the moun- tain range that bordered the plain, showed that irrigation had been freely used to make the | wilderness bloom. The scene was full of beauty, and Joe could not help a thrill of pleasure as he looked at it; but his attention was almost immediately at- — tracted to the spectacle of three wagons b on the foot of the spur on which their own Car- — | avan was moving, in which he recognized the Scott and Gabelle equipages, with a guard of several Mormons round them, oH ‘They must have gone some other way,” he * said to bimself; and as he thought this, the — voice of Nephi called him, ‘‘ Son Joseph, come bither.” The wives of | thy mind tobe happy with —C. ord, They that ina are Joe left Alice, with a whispered injunction to : : ee ie. Fae keep where she was in the procession, androde i ft up to his chief who said to him: “Son Joseph, thou hast done well to-day, and 5 thou art the best mounted of our party no Take thy wife, ride down to that wagon, a >» ' 2 . oe ar ¢ < - - . wo : y a RFS, Le a