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Show BATTLE MOUNTAIN, IN 1871 EMIGRANTS, sight-seeers, and what few tourists chanced to come west at that day, found Battle Mountain to be a veritable oasis In the desert, as the only plot of green Strass could be seen there for miles along the Central Pacific railroad. The town, though small In size and in population, pop-ulation, had attained fame far and near. While in Virginia City, Nevada, I had the pleasure of meeting Charles Goodwin, a writer of national and international in-ternational repute. As a writer on , finance, mining, and polygamy, Goodwin Good-win never had an equal. His analytical analyt-ical mind grasped the most Intricate problems and worked them to conclusions conclu-sions which are Incontrovertible. Goodwin will go down in history as one of the great writers of his time and one of whom Nevada and Utah can well be proud. I asked Goodwin which he considered the most illuminating illum-inating places in Nevada in which to obtain knowledge of the climate, manners man-ners and customs of the people then residing In the state. He advised me to spend a few weks at Battle Mountain. Moun-tain. I had passed through the town by rail on my way to San Francisco and lost no time in going, as the fav orable impression gained on passing there was still fresh In my mind. To my great surprise, in stepping from the train the first one to meet my gaze, was a colored man, whose name was "Spot" and from my home town in the state of Virginia. My interest inter-est in negotiation with Mr. Barnum of circus fame, relative to taking "Spot" as a freak for exhibition in Barnum's circus, I asked "Spot" how he came to be so far from home, and his mission mis-sion to Battle Mountain. He, said that he was in charge of a box of opossums to be delivered to a Kentucky Ken-tucky colonel at Virginia City, Nevada, Ne-vada, and his instructions were to see that the opossums had plenty of water, and as he saw a fountain playing play-ing in front of the depot, he left the train with his prized treasure. "Spot" received his nickname by having round copper colored spots on his face and body the size of an old-fashioned old-fashioned copper cent then in vogue. 1 "Spot" had a peculiar facial expression expres-sion when laughing. His upper lip ovould curl up, his right eye roll up- n. vard and outward, and his left eye downward and inward. These characteristics charac-teristics were accounted by local scien-tlfict scien-tlfict physicians at his home town by stating that "Spot's" mother had witnessed wit-nessed a fight betwen a leopard and laughing hyena at John Robinson's circus during her period of gestation. I met a Yankee at the hotel who was known by the name of "Side-pock ets." He was given this name by gamblers gam-blers of the town as he carried a pet prairie dog in each pocket, which he Hjiaptured in Wyoming. I found "Side-pockets" "Side-pockets" quite interesting and I had several interviews with him. I asked "Side-Pockets" if he noted any distinctive dis-tinctive difference between the char acteristics of Nevada and his native state, which was Maine. He said, "that down in Maine when you called a man" a liar, he sot down on a log and commenced to argue you out on it; but, when you called him a liar in Battle Mountain he knocked you down and commenced hurting on you." ""jack Roach owned and conducted a saloon at Battle Mountain which' wan headquarters for three card monto men and gamblers of all sizes and attainments. Shell games were In evidence evi-dence and conducted for fleeing Immigrants. Immi-grants. At that day immigration coaches were side-tracked for an hour or two each day at the depot. Roach, the proprietor of the saloon, had a peddling wagon, to which he attached a bony, skinny horse with ropes on as harness. The contents of the wagon consisted oC a few vegetables. On the seat with Roach sat an ant eater, with a tin cup of silver half dollars. Soon after the Immigrant coach was switched switch-ed to the siding, Roach would drive his wagon in front of the coach containing con-taining the immigrants and manage to have the front wheel strike a boulder, boul-der, which caused the silver to scatter scat-ter on the ground in all directions. Roach was dressed as a typical peddler ped-dler and the immigrants-would take pity on him and assist Roach in gathering gath-ering up the silver for which Roach would show his gratitude by taking the Immigrants to his saloon and treat them to beer. Of course, the shell game was in full swing and Roach would commence playing and invariably invari-ably win. This decoy worked well and led many an immigrant to lose his money. Roach had a trained dog of considerable size and when an immigrant im-migrant became obstreperous over losing his money, Roach would tap on the table three times and the dog would take the immigrant by the seat of his pants and back him out of the saloon. Some enterprising gamblers In San Francisco learned that Roach was making money at Battle Mountain and owned a race horse and they concluded conclud-ed negotiations for a mile race. Roach was a "dead game sport" but strongly suspected that ho was to be "bunked." Roach owned a range horse that had seen hard service in Humboldt county, running after cattle. Five hundred dollars were put up as stakes. The gamblers shipped an old swayback horse which was a speed burner in a box car to Battle Mountain along with a colored rider, who also was a swayback. I was informed that in case the swayback horse lifted his rear deck too far, the boy would be knocked off in the race. "Side-pockets" was selected to start the race by firing two shots from an old "Allen, pepper box" revolver. Tne gamblers, to make doubly sure of winning the race, placed a dry pine cone under Swayback's tail just as the last dhot was fired by "Side-pockets." The last heard of the swayback horse and rider was, that they had passed a cattle corral ten miles distant dis-tant and were still going. A search was instituted by the gamblers for horse and rider, who were found fifteen fif-teen miles distant. They were both dead. Swayback had jumped over one of Colonel Harding's cattle corral fences and broken his neck. Roach claimed the money on a foul and was sustained by "Slim Jim," who was considerable con-siderable of a cuckoo in Battle Mountain. Moun-tain. Pacilic Coast Hotel Gazette. |