Blazing the Way; Or, True Stories, Songs and Sketches of Puget SoundDenny, Emily Inez
History
Blazing the Way; Or, True Stories, Songs and Sketches of Puget Sound
Denny, Emily Inez
Indians of North America -- Northwestern States; Oregon Territory -- History; Washington (State) -- History
When they told what they had done, it was, agreed that it was extremely
unlikely that anyone would take a pleasure walk in that direction on so
gloomy a day.
Meanwhile a worthy citizen of the little burgh had gone roaming in
search of his stray cow. As before stated, it was a chilly, damp day,
and the man who was looking for his cow, Mr. Dexter Horton, for it was
none other than he, seeing the fire, was moved to comfort himself with
its genial warmth.
He advanced toward it and spread his hands benignantly as though
blessing the man that invented fire, rubbed his palms together in a mute
ecstasy of mellow satisfaction and then reversed his position, lifted
his coat-tails and set his feet wide apart, even as a man doth at his
own peaceful hearthstone. The radiant energy had not time to reach the
marrow when a terrific explosion took place. It threw earth, roots and
splinters, firebrands and coals, yards away, hurled the whilom
fire-worshiper a considerable distance, cautioned him with a piece of
hot iron that just missed his face, covered him with the debris,
mystified and stupefied him, but fortunately did not inflict any
permanent injury.
As he recovered the use of his faculties the idea gained upon him that
it was a mean, low-down trick anyhow to blow up stumps that way. He was
very much disgusted and refused very naturally to see anything funny
about it; but as time passed by and he recovered from the shock, the
ludicrous side appeared and he was content to let it be regarded as a
pioneer pleasantry.
The innocent perpetrator of this amazing joke has no doubt laughed long
and loud many times as he has pictured to himself the vast astonishment
of his fellow townsman, and tells the story often, with the keenest
relish, to appreciative listeners.
Yes, to be blown up by an old bomb-shell on a quiet Sunday afternoon,
while resting beside a benevolent looking stump-fire that not even
remotely suggested warlike demonstrations, was rather tough.
HOW BEAN'S POINT WAS NAMED.
Opposite Alki Point was a fine prairie of about forty acres to which C.
C. Terry at first laid claim. Some of the earliest settlers of the first
mentioned locality crossed the water, taking their cattle, ploughed and
planted potatoes on this prairie. Terry subsequently settled elsewhere
and the place was settled on by a large man of about sixty years, a Nova
Scotian, it was supposed, who bore the name of _Bean_. This lonely
settler was a sort of spiritualist; in Fort Decatur, while one of a
group around a stove, he leaned his arm on the wall and when a natural
tremor resulted, insisted that the "spirits" did it. After the war he
returned to his cabin and while in his bed, probably asleep, was shot
and killed by an Indian. Since then the place has been known as Bean's
Point.
Dr. H. A. Smith, the happiest story-teller of pioneer days, relates in
his "Early Reminiscences" how "Dick Atkins played the dickens with poor
old Beaty's appetite for cheese" in this engaging manner:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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