The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 2, 1899, Page 23

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, APRIL 2, 1899. FLYING COYOTES WHIPPED UP BY CLEVER LASSOING Pranks of San Joaquin Vaqueros Who Cateh and Brand Animals *“Just for Fun,” HERE was trouble on Miller & Lux's ranch the other day Henry Miller, “the bos had taken it into his head to relieve a coyote- tr. something to know. p and he found out la he didn't particularly want The coyote had been caught w rap the night before, but for lg m nobody had killed it Then the old man saw it. He hadn’t i the fun of killing a coyote for a ng time (not since the Le took the bounty off scalps) so h this one out with professional pride. When the beast was taken from the Miller turned it over and at Ap- Mr. ¢ 1 to swear. » in thunder did that?" he shout- » has been clapping my brand slowly came forward and and surpgised counte- Diceiatsiba coyoy was Miller & Lux’'s b ng plainly that t} t v of the million- g i the full explain the brand on ome of them Portu- sum r what done ain’t got s that. I'll nd out any- le up there quick, and come of $2 50 a scalp re-enacted at the next g Legislature nobody would have a right T began a chase over the ranch to kill the varmints except us. And for sight of a coyote. Yyou can just figger on how much money you, Pachugo, lasso that fel- we'd have.” outed Miller, as soon as one Then without a word Mr. Miller got 000,000 the ‘quick-footed coyotes came in sight. Old Pachugo is one of the best hands with the lariat in the whole San ows” before he got his game. the rope fell short, then it went FOROAOROADAOKOAOAOHOAO X O % & % O% but Mr. Coyote jumped through it and went plains, being careful to run close to as many prairie dog holes as he could. At st old Pachugo was succe ul and ove “r like As the Nevada end of the ranch was o ‘1u hundred miles away Mr. Miller could statement. convinced, so he made the whole crowd put in the day on a coyote hunt. “If I knew fire him right now, jlad I'm not that Chinaman,” sald old_Pachugo. “I'll tell you who it was,” said Char- ley “Well, “My interest? velled Miller, beginning to get mad again. “Well, you see,” said Charle; t cowboy on ‘there ain’t no bounty on coyote sc s just now, so there ain't no use in killing them. Now the nigger figgered that > enough he’ and then when you get the bounty law on hi buried in the deepest kind of thought. The heard him sa; killed fur nothi Enough branded coyotes were found ad. Then it fell In the right place,” during the day’s hunt to show that if AN\ ampering gleefully over the the coyote was pulled over on his back th a broken neck, the lariat having nded in just the right spc Mr. turned enough, Wwors Miil Miller jumped off his horse and over the dead animal. Sure there was the HH. And still there were the earmarks. r & Lux’s coyote beyond a doubt. ~“That was done by that Chinaman r near Nevada,” said old Pachugo. because the coyote smells not make old Pachugo prove his But he was by no means ers which of you it was I'd aid Miller. ‘That is if you don’t believe it them Portugu st that's what they out with it. The Portuguese onment branding on th didn’'t do it, I know,” said Miller. lease fn. “All right,” said Charley, “it was that nigger over on the west side, and he e res done it fur your interest.” e ares What do you mean?"” brand all the coyotes in the State, horse and rode off, his head last words any of the cowboys “Thirty coyotes *Ceor *#OXOX - George and forth by de in eve finally with Noyes, RAFTY ’‘coon, 'Possum sly, Find a housewife's Chicken pie. #E%E The Woodland path, Side by side; Quiet spot To divide. Possum sly, Knife in hand, Seems to wait 5 command. DEOAOROXONOX O X @ crooks which had been “Ah!” says 'possum. - “Oh!” says 'coon, Borne afar, The pie, full soon. 23 the forgers and died within a few 's of each other from colds which de- veloped into pneumonia. Austin Bidwell, with his brother George, McDonald and Edward Noyes, formed a quartet of forgers, check rals- played upon the stald old Bank of England to the tune of nearly two million dollars. Through the most unusuai efforts put tives and police authorities part of the world, the quartet were finally captured, and after a sensa- tional trial were sentenced to life impris- George Bidwell secured his re- in the early ninetles, and Austin was also released a few years later through ng efforts of his sister, who se- petition after another, she presented to the British Government, obtaining her reward only after Bldwell had agreed mever to place his foot upon British sofl after his release. He was accompanied by Scotland Yard detectives to the steamship wharf, and they never lost sight of him until the steamer sailed. All England was startled in April, 1873, when it became known that the Bank of England, the “Old Woman of Thread- needle street,” which victimized by American criminals to the amount of $2,- George McDonald was captured in New York harbor on the steamer Thuringia; Austin Bidwell was caught in Havana and George Bidwell was taken by the English police in Edinburgh. Two hundred and forty hundred and fifty dollars in gold, United VEGHOHOHOHOHOKOHOROKOROR O KOKOHOAOKOHOKOHOHOHOHD ¥ O ¥ @ KO OKOROKOKOR DK OARDA DK DK OROHOKD KOXOK DA OHOKOKOUOADHORO ¥ O ¥ O ¥ OXOKOHOHOHOH thousand nine the vaqueros had not been in the busi- ness in a wholesale way they had cer- tainly branded enough coyotes to make the double H mark famous in all the coyote villages throughout California. After Miller had gone the vaqueros admitted that the branding was done by them “just for fun.” Riding the range and working the round-up oc- casionally needs something to enliven it. When the bounty was removed from coyote scalps the animals increased rapidly and the horseback riders grad- ually fell into the habit of putting spurs to their ponies in chase and roping the animals. One day one of them, in a frolicsome mood, clapped the branding iron on the animal, added the Miller & Lux earmarks and turned the coyote loose, “Just to help swell dhe big herds carrying the same marks and to start a double H coyote herd.” Tne men in the different headquarters of the big ranch looked on this as a tremendous piece of ranch humor and thereafter roping and marking scam- pering coyotes became one of the standing jokes of the range rider. Some of the vaqueros became So ex- pert in this line that they began to take a pride in the character of the work and in the increasing number of coyotes they added to the herd. Grad- 1lly the most expert of them began asso big hares and soon there was started a brand of jackrabbits bearing the double H brand and earmarks. There are not many hares in the band yet, but enough to show that the double H brand has promising running beef in the jackrabbit line. The section ‘“bosses” try their best to stop these pranks of the vaqueros, for roping coyotes and Jjackrabbits is apt to be hard on the horses as well as the time of the playful herdsmen, but the number of coyotes and hares shot and trapped show that the happy-go- lucky and prankful vaqueros are car- rying on their sport in spite of watch- fulness. —_—— Two bluejackets were once overheard arguing as to who had the least work to do on board a man-of-war, says the Corn- hill Magazine. “It's the parson,” said one. ‘‘'Ow d'ye make that out?” querled the other. . “'Cos ’e's got no work to do, and all day to do it in.” 'You ain’t quite got it, Bill,” retorted his friend, while an inspired grin illu- mined his features. “It ain’t the parson, it’s the cap’n o' marines.” “*'Ow’s that?* “Wal, as you say, the parson’s got no work to do, and all day to do it in; but the cap’'n o' marines 'as nothin’ to do and all day to do it in, and 'as a lewtenit o’ marines to 'elp 'im to do it! — e — Doubtful Party (to gentleman)—Can you assist me, s to a trifle? I'm a stranger in a strange land, 15,000 miles from home. Gentleman—My goodness! Where |is your home? Doubtful Party- Australia. Gentleman (handing him a copper)— How do you ever expect to get back there? Doubtful Party (balancing the penny)— ‘Well, if I don't do better than this, sir, I s'pose I'll have to walk.—Tit-Bits. ——e—————— “Are we going to fight any more?” asked the Spanish admiral. “I understand there is a great deal of discontent among our countrymen.” Well, keep me posted. If there is to be any more war I'd like to see if we can't get a bill through the Cortes to take the steam engines and put in Keely motor: £ sometimes Africa reach the height of fifteen feet. Ant hills in West £ & FOROHOH Just Died Suddenly in a Small States bonds and diamonds were ~cap- tured with McDonald, and $5000 in bonds were found in the possession of Austin Bidwell in Havan: The scheme by which the enormous for- geries were succ carried to a profitable result was arkable. Me- Donald, the secured a building close to the Burlington Gar- dens Branch of the Bank of England and posed as American merchants who had secured large -contracts for supplving parlor coaches to Continental railroads. They opened an account with the Bu lington Branch Bank, and conducted bus ness apparently on a solid, substantial basis for several months before starting to put their scheme into effect. They had learned that time bills, when deposited in a Bank of England branch, were not sent to the signers to be In- ftlaled, as is customary in this country, so affer full hing their credie several good bills at short time were de- posited. These went through all right, and then several bills amounts of which by the use of acids and clever pen- manship. had 1 raised, were depos- ited. These were at three mohths time and were deposited at various times ana in various amounts until the total rep- nted between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000. the money was drawn against the bills it was used in the purchase of Unitea States bonds, and no suspicion was awak- ened until it was accidentally discovered by the bank officlals that several of the bills bore no date. The bills purported to be signed by the Rothschilds, Baring Brothers, Jay Cooke and McCulloch & Co., and a messenger was sent to the of- ficers of these bankers to have the date affixed. Then the forgery and check- raising were discovered. The conspirators learned of the discov- QRS OAD KSR OH O 9 ND OF TWO S WORLD'S GREATEST FORGERS The Bidwell Brothers, Who Stole Millions From the Bank of England, Have HE sudden deaths last week of Austin Byron Bidwell and George Bidwell, in Butte, Mont., removes two of the groatest criminals of modern brothers MADE PORTION OF SAN FRANCISCO IS SLOWLY SETTLING / Surveyors Say the Lower End of Market Street Is Going Down at the Rate of Three Inches a Year. S the “made” portion of San Fran- cisco subsiding gradually into the waters of the bay? This is not the question of a hot- headed, irresponsible alarmist; it is a problem which is seriously di turbing the minds of clear-brained citizens, who do business and own prop- erty in the most crowded and valuable portion of San Francisco. An ocular demonstration of the fact can be gained by any one who will walk down Market street to the ferry depot. He will notice a curious irregularity in the side- walksatthelower end of the thoroughfare. Sometimes he will have to ascend an in- clined plané and walk along a raised plat- form three feet or more above the road- way, at other times he will find the side- walk on a level with the rest of the street. If it had not been for the many new buildings recently erected in this part of the city the change in level might have passed unnoticed by the layman, though of cour: our engineers and surveyors have known about it all along, and with delicate instruments have carefully kept track of the subsiding thoroughfare. Whenever a new building is erected the sidewalk has to be laid out in accordance with the authorized. city levels, which have as their base a stone at the corner of the sugar factory just under Tele- graph Hill. This building is planted firm on the solid rock, and therefore cannot settle, so that the surveyors can alway rely on the measurements taken from thi point. If the whole of Market street had been rebuilt at once this alteration in the level would not have mattered very much, But as it is, the new buildings, with their inconvenient humps of sidew: are few and far between, while the old structures, many of them flimsy shanties, remain unaltered, cheerfully settling down with the roadway into the blue mud of the bay. “The lower portion of Market street, near the ferry,” said Mr. Tilton, the City Surveyor, “is settling at the rate of two or three inches a year. Why, it is only fifteen years since Market street was graded up to its proper level, and since then it has sunk between two and three feet. Of course the rate of subsidence varies—in some places it is greater than others—but this is about the average.” Another practical illustr: fact, patent to the most ca is the new turntable now b the Market Street Railway Company in front of the ferry depot. and behind the turntable and you will see how much higher it is than the foot of Market street. The cars will have to run up quite an in- e before they can be spun round and sent back on their return journey up- town. ! Just as there is no lack of practical demonstration there o lack of ex- pert evidence available. Baron Uhlig, the chief dremghtsman for the Board of Harbor Co:zmissioners, has made a spe- cial study of the question during his twenty-three yvears service with thc de- partment. “There is no doubt about the subsidence,” he said; “it has been going on for a long time, although I think the rate at which the city is sinking is some- what less than in former years. Market street is now two feet below the city Montana Town. ery almost as quickly as the bank officials and fled. Alarms were sent all over the world, with the result that all four were captured. Austin B. Bidwell, who was the ringleader, was captured in Havana with his wife, whom he had just mar- rled, and was confined in the military n there. He succeeded in effe ape hy jumping from recaptured in the wooc miles frora Havana two days There was no extradition law d eighteen after. between England and Spain at the time, and Bid- lawyers fought bitterly against his ition, but he was sent to Englana in July and placed on trial with his brother and McDonald and Noyes. His brother made an impassioned plea to the court, .declaring that Austin had notn- ing to do with the forgeri and declar- ing that he alone was guilty. The plea had no effect, however, and all four were convicted and sentenced to life imprison- ment. George Bidwell's health gave way under confinement, and he was liberated in 1590. He bent all his energies to secure the re~ lease of his brother, aiding his sister in every way. Their efforts were finally successful and Austin returned to this country a few vears ago. He published a book of his life, and was' conspicuous on the lecture platform for several years. His health had never been good since his confinement. The story of the great forgery fs told In Austin Bidwell's reminiscences as fol- lows: “Finding myself in London in 1872 with a very clever partner and about $100,000 in our pockets, we resolved to tackle the Bank of England, believing that the lightning ought to strike where the bal- ances are heavy. We figured the matter out to our satisfaction that the bank was a fossil institution and especfally open to Hungry 'coon, Ankiously, “Either part Waxing gay, “Fair indeed .“I'll oblige you, If T can— ° I will give you, Sir, the PAN.” 'Possum greed, *Coon despair, Will do for me.” “Ho!” says ’possum, The words you say Friendship broken Then and there. base. The city base is only four feet above extreme high water. Therefore the foot of Market street is only two feet above the tidal level.” Here is a startling fact. If the subsi- dence continues at the present rate for another ten or fifteen years it will only require an extra high ‘tide to flood the lower portion of the main -thoroughfare of the city and to swamp numbers of wharves on the water front. The damage to property would be incalculable. One has to go back to the early days of the city to trace the causes of this re- markable subsidence. In 1849, when the pioneer argonauts thronged from all parts of the world to Yerba Buena, the waters of the bay covered what is now the principal shipping and business quar- ter of the city. The water-front line, roughly speaking, trended inward from where Folsom street now meets Spear street. Thence it continued up Folsom to Beale street and westward in a diagonal line through Howard and Mission streets to the corner of Market and First. Curv- ing slightly inward the shore line crossed the intersection of Pine and Sansome streets, and followed very nearly the line of Montgomery street to the cor- ner of Jackson. Here there was a small lagoon, which carried the water still fur- ther inward, occupying the space on which the old opera-house was later on to be erected. The beach, turning almost at a right angle, now ran seaward again to the intersection of Broadway and Front. Let any one take a pencil and trace out this route on a map of the city and he will realize the large area of San Francisco which stands on made ground. This little indentation of the bay, now vanished from sight, was about 3800 feet wide and extended inward 1700 feet, hav- ing an area of seventeen acres. Every inch of this space had to be filled up in order to make the present city, with its continuous water front, possible. This would not have mattered so much had the filling up been done in a systematic manner, with suitable and properly placed mat al. In those good old da body was too busy and excited rushing after gold to think out the future of the city. San Francisco was left to grow out of the wate of the bay haphazard fashion, just as she chose. Anything and everything was dumped into the harbor to fill it up, and it is even on record that . however, every- attack if one had that very rare com- bination outside of the law of capital, determination and financial knowledge. 1 determined to go to the front myself. Within a few days I not only had an ac- count opened with the bank, but a fairly good credit estab 1, and all this un- der a fictitious name. Within a few months I had borrowed nearly $5,000,000 om the bank on collateral and printed my own ¢ eral. “I left England, believing the world was mine, and settled down in the West Indies. I settled my scheme in life and set out to enjoy myself, not in an intem- perate way. I had no fear of the Englis police, as I knew the English have an ordinate idea of the abllity of their own police, and I never counted on their em- ploying the American police after their own had failed to locate me. Unluckily for myself, I was mistaken. John Bull had his back up and determined to have me in his clutches, no matter what it cost; so after the English police failed to find me the bank employed the Pinker- tons, with orders to spare no expense. ie Pinkertons put twenty of the best men on the case and soon let daylight into the whole affair. “In the end I was arrested in my own house, taken to London and faced an English jury in the famous old Bailey court. Of course, I was perfectly willing to pay justice her due, and felt that I had no right to protest, if I should re- celve a sentence of even ten or fifteen vears, but when the Judge, Lord Archi- bald, hurled a sentence of imprisonment for life at me I felt that justice was welghing me In her balance with a pret- ty good effect. Now, in England a life sentence means life with a big L, but I thought that anything would be possible if I only had courage to endure. I re- solved 1 would endure the peltings of the pitiless storm I knew was ahead of me. This I did with more or less fortitude for over twenty years. I never lost my faith that there .was corn and wine in Egypt for me still."” George Bidwell was caught in France and Austin Bidwell in Cuba. They were tried and given life sentences with their two confederates. ~After twenty years they were released. in those extravagant .times, when the market was overstocked, bales and cases of valuable goods were used to form side- walks. The contents speedily rotted and the packages sank out of sight in.the mud to take their place in forming the foundations of a great city. Many large ships, being unable to find crews, were moored to the shore and turned into hotels or business establish- ments. They, too, when their time came, rotted and sank into the mud. Even to- day, when driving piles for a foundation, it 1s no uncommon thing for the contract- - ors to find their progress stopped by the timbers of some old ship, buried many feet below the surface. It can. easily be understood how this mass of decomposing material has allow- ed itself to be compressed by the weights placed upon it. Then, until the seawall was built in 1877, there was nothing to prevent the waves of the bay washing out the filling, just as they are doing to- day east of Mission, where the protecting wall is still lacking. Even as it is, the seawall does not form an absolutely per- fect barrier. The tide finds its way through the interstices of the loosely laid stones and bears seaward each day a certain proportion of mud. The concrete wall erected opposite the new ferry depot affords a better safeguard against the action of the waves, and if this were the only source of trouble would undoubtedly check the subsidence of Market street. But we must go still deeper to get at the root of the evil. It is not merely the loosely made ground on top which is at fault. The trouble is that this filling, unsatisfactory though it be, has no better foundation to rest upon than soft mud. It is an actual fact that the bedrock underlying San Francisco Bay has newer been struck. The metamorphic sandstone which crops out on the side of Telegraph Hill and rises again on the other side .of the harbor dips sharply under the water. For countless centuries each rapi run- ning tide has been bringing down its load of mud from the upper reaches of the bay and depositing it along the beaches wherever the contour of the land checked for a while the rapid rush of the current. The Yerba Buena indentation must have received its full are of this sediment, soft, blue, greasy stuff, for no man with certainty knows its depth. Experts differ on the point. Baron Uh- lig thinks the bedrock may be anywhere from two to three hundred feet below the city level. “We cannot say accurately,” he explains, “for as far as we have yet gone down, we have struck nothing but blue mud, gradually stiffening into blue clay. In 1872, when taking a survey for the proposed seawall, we made a horing two hundred feet, but never encountered rock. In 1890, at another place on the water front, we went down 150 feet with the same resuit.” % The contractors, who are always busy driving piles on the water front, can give, in spite of all tneir experience, no more definite information. ¥ have never struck bedrock anyw! said a member o1 one of the largest firms engaged in this business. “The longest piles we have ever driven have gone to a depth of eighty-five’ feet, but we have never encountered any- thing but mud.” The experience gained in building. the seawall illustrates the unstable character of the ground. To6 make this wall' it was necessary to dump huge scowloads of rock into the bay, and to keep on dump- ing until the stone at last ceased to set- tle. Often at the end of the.day's work the contractors would ileave the .wall standing several feet out of the water. ‘When they returned to labor in the morn- ing the loosely piled rock would have sunk to a depth of twelve or fifteen feet. In one instance a strip of the wall about 300 feet in length sunk bodily out of sight; and the whole work had to be recoms: menced. However, patience and an inex- haustible supply of rock triumphed in the end, the mud was compressed until it would yield on longer and the seawal sank to its final bearings. No man can say when the period of sub- sidence will cease—when the underlying clay shall have heen so firmly compressed. that it will yield no more. Meanwhile, unless some change happens, it may become necessary to follow the example of Chicago, and to bodily raise this low lying portion of the city to a safe height above high water mark. ————— Glowworms are much more brilliant when a storm is coming than at other seasons. Like many other mysteries of Nature, this curious clrcumstance has never been explained. DAOHOROKOKOADIKDOROX O % O ¥ O¥OXOADKOXROXOXOXOXORO®