Saturday evening entertainment, you had to have
some regard for the Howlin Wilderness.
The proprietors, who stood behind the bar, had bags of sand laid up in a bullet-proof wall inside the counter, between them and the crowd, so that when the shooting set in, and men threw themselves on the floor, fled through the door, or barricaded their breasts with monte-tables and wooden benches, they had only to drop down behind the bags of sand, and lie there, pistols in hand, till the ball was over.
These men were wisely silent and impartial in all misunderstandings that arose. They always seemed to try to quell a trouble, and prevent a fight ; per haps they did. At all events, when the battles were over, they were always the first to take up the wounded, and do what they could for the dying and the dead. There was a great puncheon, hewn from sugar-pine, that had once been a monte-table, back on the outside by the chimney. This was stained with the blood of many. Many bodies had been laid out, in the course of a year, to stiffen on this board.
" We will have a man for breakfast to-morrow," some one would say, when shots were heard in the direction of the Howlin Wilderness; and the pro phecy was nearly always fulfilled.
There was a tall man, a sort of half sport and half miner, who had a cabin close to town, who seemed to take a special interest in these battles. He was known as a Long Dan," always carried a pistol, and took a pride in getting into trouble.
" Look here," said Prince to him one evening,
