Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 41 — page 1: what you’re looking at

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

HI ng SS = IAC l Vol. [V. In One saa AOE - Gold Dan The White Savage of the Great Salt Lake. BY ALBERT W. ATKEN. AUTHOR OF ‘“‘ VELVET HAND,” ‘‘ OVERLAND KIT,” ‘‘ROCKY MOUNTAIN ROB,” ‘ KEN- TUCK, THE SPORT,” ‘“‘INJUN DICK,” ETC., ETC., ETC. CHAPTER L THE CHIEF OF THE DANITES, ** By that lake whose gloomy shore Sky-lark never warbled o'er—’’ THE Great Salt Lake in the heart of the con- tinent; that strange body of water within whose confines fish swim not, whose borders are incrust- ed with salty crystals, glistening, diamond-like, in the sun; whose dense, saline waters reject the human who essays to plunge beneath the wave; and of this wondrous lake, so strange, so wild, \\ | = ih i Wit: Gye SMI ite \i | TV, i eZe Gy ay Z, 2 Wiel Az a) | \i iy, —— aS) Hy Hy ? \ <atll) We j | | | A, \ \ | f .“ WHOOP—YOW-YOW—WHOOP LA!” AND THE-MAN-FROM-RED-DOG EXECUTED A WAR-DANCE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET. — th i » cal SS 233 = Sot as SWS Su SNe SS Qe BS - ; 1) 1 ee Chi Dino. TT COPYRIGHTED IN 18753, 8Y BEADLE & ADAMS, Beadle g¢ Adams, Publishers, No. 98 WILLIAM STREET, NEW YORK. we shall relate a story so terrible, so improba- ble, that even credulous man might re believe such things could be, were not the pages of history already stained with the red story of the impartial historian. We write of the days of the spring of ’69, when the great overland road was rapidly ap- proaching completion, and already the grading parties of both the Central and the Union Pacific railways were in strong force in the neighbor- hood of the town of Corinne, on Bear river, just to the north of the Great Salt Lake. It is a lovely night in the month of April, and the clear heavens above are spangled with a myriad of stars, and these peaceful watchers looked down upon as strange a scene as they ever had beheld since the world was young. Ina secluded nook on Antelope island, the largest of the little group which dot the waters of the lake, burned a camp-fire, and around the flames were gathered a motley collection of men, twelve or fifteen in number. One might search all the border, from the waters of the Missouri to the golden sands of the placid Pacific, and yet not find a dozen as desperate fellows. Sr es ee a i | | Sn BODO LD | me eee Phe N QO. 41 . All were armed to the teeth, with one excep- to | tion, and he, with his plain black suit and clerical aspect, was a strange contrast to the rest. These armed ruffians, so fierce of face and so lawless in aspect, were Danites—the ‘‘ Destroy- ing Angels ” of the Mormon host, and the black- coated man was a Mormon elder. After | eerie, when. they read the record of the Danites, will wonder that such things could be in a Christian land, and think perha that the story is over-wrought, when in reality the half of the dark deeds done in the ga canyon and desolate wastes of Utah will never be revealed until the Judgment Day, when the murdered victims rise in accusing wrath, Early in the existence of the Salt Lake settle- ment, the wily and unscrupulous leaders of this strange band of zealots saw that to crush oppo- sition, awe the timid and overbear the bold, it was necessary to use the sword. A sentence in Genesis suggested the means: ‘ Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse’s heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.” Gomilecbooks..co