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Show FROM FR'ISCO TO SALT LASS. The Trip Conflagration in the Sierras Three-Card-Monte filen and their work Harvesting, elc. Lake City, August -3th, 1S7I. EJHo, II n,U ; It may not be generally known, and if u Wius wbat of jt - hnt it, a 1 iaci. nevertheless, that your correspondent, corres-pondent, after a protracted visit to the metropolis 0f the Pacific Coast, arrived home last night, and will, having had a rest and tho accumulation accumula-tion of dust removed from his freckled frontispiece, briefly tell you of his trip thenco hence." I will not partic-uiitnze, partic-uiitnze, nor weary vou with unnecessary unneces-sary details. 1 took an "emigrant" ticket for several reasons, prominent among wuic-11 was scarcity of capital to-start on, but chief of which was to "take in as much as possible of the scenery and indents at route. Did you ever travel far as an emigrant? It you didn't, then vou have much cause for no regret; for, for a more tiresome, weaning, vexatious rivo days' experience I can think of nothing to equal a uinc-hundred-and-eighteen-mUo trip on a western "emigrant" "em-igrant" train. Every station, water tank, wood pile and crossing, it seems hko, was stopped at, and evory speed, from that ol lie crawling crab to the lightning cxnres, traveled at. " Yiy.E IS THE SrEKRAfi, On Saturday morning, early, rattling rat-tling along at a furious rate, the shrill locomotive whistle sounded through the forests the "down brake" signal, and brakesmen aud eunductor rushed through the train in apparent fright. There was something wrong.' The one question of the affrighted passengers was: "What's the matter?' And the hurried reply came: "There's ft tire ahead."- I 'p went the windows; out popped tiie heads of the hau-awak-ened passengers. Sure enough, the train, in touuding one of the numerous numer-ous curves in the Sierras, had suddenly sudden-ly run into a burning snow shed. The tire lit up the whole surroundingsand was a magnificent, though LhrilUng sight. The train was stopped and backed up far enough to be out of danger of "catching,1 ' and was there stationed until the lire had finished its work, the demolition of the length of about a block two hundred yards or so of snow Bhed,- and between -100 and 500 cords of wood, cut in lengths and stacked for use of engines on the line. We discovered at the next station, sta-tion, Truckee,- that wc had bech detained about ilvo hours. THItEli-CAKD MONTE MfcLW ' Xot much of interest, in scenery or events, after the Sierras aro left behind.. be-hind.. At Battle Mountain, though, I sF-W some of those pests of the West, for v.'hoti3 early departure to " that toi'-rae" many a fleeced fellow moet devoutly prays. I ' mean some of .h&n threc-card-monte chaps. In a town gin 'mill, surrounded by SmC. is, friends,- M cappers," inno-ct-t-looking "greenies,'' and yo thriftless bummers, was one of them. He assumed the character and, by the way, he was a clever character actor of a half drunk simpleton, with lots of greenbacks and hard cash, and just about sense enough to show his "pile'' and gamble on the turning u j of the " little Indian boy." Tho unwary are fascinated by the simple-looking simple-looking modus uptrattdii they think they can make a sudden rawn by trying try-ing it "just once;' they are lured in-i) in-i) betting so easily and scientifically Uiai Die nrst thing they know they are bettiDg to the extent of their cash on hand, and the next thing they know they are minus every cent. The day we passed through there, I was reliably informed, a western-bound western-bound passenger on tho ' morning train had been "cleaned out" of 560 and a heavy gold watch and mat-sive chain; another out of some $200 and odd, and others out of smaller amounts, the sharps getting away with over $1,000 in a very short space of time. It is done every day, and with almost every train Of eiMI' grants that passes along the road. At Toano thero was another lot. The principal operator in this gang was a young man, who " played ofl"' as a green stock-dealer from " old Kanetuck." Four or fivo cappers or assistants accompanied him and they boarded our car and commenced operations in an off-hand manner; but Western peoplo have lately been posted as to the movements move-ments of these artful dodgers, and they could not mako up a successful game. They adjourned to the next rar where they were bluntly told by one of the passengers therein, that their room, as gamblers, was more agreeable than their company. At being styled' gambler Mr. Three-card Monto was indignant and signified his resentment resent-ment of the insult by a blow. Five-. Five-. shooters, six-dittoes and seven-dittoes were quickly drawn by passengers and gamblers, but through the interference inter-ference of several stout lookers on, no harm was done. Tneso fellows are dangerous in man ways, out on tho road, and the Eastern press would accomplish ac-complish -a great good by keeping standing warnings to travelers to the West. THE HARVESTING In the northern counties is fairly under way, and the work of gathering gather-ing in tho rich crops presents a happy hap-py contrast to the barren wastes just left behind between the Sierras and tho Rocky Mountains. On every side the harvesters were to be seen, cutting, cut-ting, raking, binding and loading the precious grain, aud appearances indicated indi-cated that the picsent year's crops ol all kinds will far excel in point ol quantity and quality those of any former year. And tho harvest over, what a bright, cheering prospect ia before Utah's thrifty people. May success continually attend them. Yours, truly, J . K. E. |