Some one asked Bolzer what became of Sam Plunkett, the Arkansas beauty, as they called him. Bolzer stated that after they had finished working out their joint claim in Georgetown cañon, in the spring of ’50, Sam went north, and was supposed to have been killed by the Modoc Indians in the summer of ’56, as he went on a prospecting expedition up into that country about that time, and was never heard of afterwards.
“If the Indians did kill him,” Bolzer continued, “they must have done it when he was asleep some dark night, for they never dared to go near enough to kill him in the daylight. Why, Sam told me once that he was offered a big salary to travel with a show as a natural curiosity, and I asked why he didn’t. Well, he said he would, but there was another chap in his native State who was jealous of him, and told him if he joined that show he would kill him later, sure. Sam said they hired ’tother chap, but they didn’t keep him long, for the farmers all over the country made such a fuss, and threatened to kill him if he didn’t git out. I asked Sam why the farmers were all down on him, and he said that in every section of the country he passed through, the milk all turned sour.
Bolzer then related an incident to show why the Indians were afraid to get near enough to Sam to kill him.
“Upon one occasion,” said Bolzer “Sam, in company with a chap they called ‘Sleepy Ben,’ started upon a prospecting expedition away up north, and Ben tells for a fact that when, in passing around a point near the mouth of a ravine, they saw, just a short distance beyond, four or five Indians who were apparently very badly scared at something upon the opposite side of the ravine, for they ran for their ponies, which they mounted in a great hurry, and were out of sight among the rocks and brush beyond in a jiffy. Ben said they were astonished, and couldn’t imagine what the Indians were so badly scared at, but, upon coming in sight of the opposite side of the ravine, there upon the face of a high ledge of rock was the shadow of Sam with his roll of blankets upon his back, looking for all the world like a huge camel walking upon its hind legs.”
Bolzer was asked if he believed the yarn that was told about Sam frightening a bear to death up in Nevada County, in the fall of ’50. Bolzer replied that Dutch Pete, who was with Sam at the time, said ’twas true. Upon some one asking about the circumstances, Bolzer related that Sam and Pete had been into town and were on their way home again with a sack of flour and other articles upon their shoulders. Sam was in the lead, and just as they were opposite a cluster of bushes a huge grizzly bear met them in the trail, and, raising itself upon its hind legs, laid its forepaws in a playful manner upon Sam’s shoulders. Sam had a heavy load on his back, and being somewhat astonished at the sudden appearance of the bear he stood perfectly still, and looked his unwelcome visitor square in the face. The bear also, by the way, seemed to be as much astonished as Sam was, and Pete said that it would look very earnestly at Sam, first out of one eye and then turning its head it would gaze at him for a minute with the other, and then it would lower its head, and closing both eyes, seemed to be thinking to itself whether it had ever in the course of its life come across such a looking object before, and whether ’twas dangerous or not. Pete said the animal seemed to think that the queer-looking thing was dangerous, and that he had “shust got dem paws into it, for he shost rolled his eyes up and pooty sudden all at vunce he falls over on top mit his back, und den he durns his eye up to Sam, strikes at him mit his paw, und daking von long breath vas dead right avay as von big nail, by shiminy.”
“This was Pete’s account of the affair,” concluded Bolzer. “Well, Sam was the ugliest man in the universe, and he seemed to be proud of it, too. He said once that he would be remembered after he was dead a spell longer ‘than you good-lookin’ chaps,’ and that seemed to console him for his ugliness. It was stated by a man who crossed the plains in the same train with Sam, that the whole train was at one time in the greatest danger of being run over and trampled to death by an immense drove of buffaloes, but Sam, seeing the danger just in time, walked towards the drove when it was almost upon them, and it divided, passing upon either side. His presence of mind in showing himself to the drove at the right time saved the lives of more than one hundred men, women and children.”
CHAPTER XXIII.
Bill Burnes Lynching the Colored Man—Dick Arnold—The Mining Regions—The Old-timers Disperse—The Phantoms of the Forty-niners—Forty Years Have Passed—The Argonauts’ Soliloquy—The Great Changes—The Flight of Time—The Number of Pioneers Now Living.