Читать книгу Vigilante Days and Ways. The pioneers of the Rockies; the makers and making of Montana and Idaho онлайн

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Several years before this time, Patterson joined in an expedition in Northern California, to pursue a band of Indians who had been stealing horses and committing other depredations upon the property of the settlers. The pursuers captured a bright Indian lad of sixteen. After tying him to a tree, they consulted as to what disposition should be made of him. They were unanimous in the opinion that he should not be freed, but were concerned to know how to take care of him. Some time having elapsed without arriving at any conclusion, Patterson suddenly sprung to his feet, and seizing his rifle, said with an oath that he would take care of him, and shot the poor boy through the heart. “That incident,” said the judge, “determined for me the brutal character of the wretch. His whole life since has been of a piece with it. For years he has been a ‘bummer’ among men of his class. He has lived off his friends. He has had no higher aims than those of an abandoned, dissolute gambler. Pinkham, though a gambler, had other and better tendencies. His schemes for the future looked to an abandonment of his past career, and he was in no sense a ‘bummer.’”