This threw him out of employment, and he went immediately to Carlisle, Illinois, whence, early in the Spring of 1863, he drifted with the tide of emigration to the Beaverhead mines. As with all men of ardent temperament, his habits of drinking, by long indulgence, had passed by his control. He was subject to fits of occasional intoxication, and these, unfortunately, became so frequent that seldom a week passed unmarked by the occurrence of one or more scenes of riot, in which he was the chief actor. Liquor enkindled all the evil elements of his volcanic nature. He was as reckless and ungovernable as a maniac under its influence, but even those who had suffered outrage at his hands during these explosive periods, were disarmed of hostility by his gentle, amiable deportment, and readiness always to make reparation on the return of sobriety. His fits of rowdyism, moreover, always left him a determined business man, with an aim and purpose in life. As a remarkable manifestation of this latter quality, soon after he went to Montana, a steamboat freighted with goods from St. Louis, unable from low water to ascend the Missouri to Fort Benton, had discharged her cargo at Milk River, in a country filled with hostile Indians; and Slade was the only man to be found in the mines willing to encounter the risk of carrying the goods by teams to their place of destination in the Territory. The distance was seven hundred miles, full half of which was unmarked by a road. The several bands of the Blackfeet occupied the country on the north, and the Crows, Gros-Ventres, and Sioux on the south. Slade collected a company of teamsters, led them to the spot, and returned safely with the goods, meeting with adventures enough on the way to fill a volume. After the discovery of Alder Gulch, Slade went to Virginia City. It was there that I first met him. Slade came with a team to my lumber-yard, and selecting from the piles a quantity of long boards, directed the teamsters to load and take them away. After the men had started with the load, Slade asked me, “How long credit will you give me on this purchase?” “About as long as it will take to weigh the dust,” I replied. He remarked good-humoredly, “That’s played out.” “As I can buy for cash only, I must of necessity require immediate payment on all sales,” I said, by way of explanation. Slade immediately called to the teamster to return and unload the lumber, remarking, as soon as it was replaced upon the piles, “Well, I can’t get along without the boards anyhow; load them up again.” The man obeyed and left again with the load, Slade insisting, as before, that he must have time to pay for it, and I as earnest in the demand for immediate payment. The teamster returned and unloaded a second time. “I must and will have the lumber,” said Slade; and the teamster, by his direction, was proceeding to reload it a third time, when I forbade his doing so, until it was paid for.