AND PACIFIC COAST GUIDE. amount of new and original matter. fall cloth, $1.25; in paper covers, 75 cents. on the trains. Wolfe’s Business Directory of all the cities, towns and stations, on the line of the Union Pa- cific railroad, and on the line of nearly every other railroad in Nebraska, Colorado, Wyomin and Utah, together with a vast amount of miscel- laneous information, collected and published for the first time. J.M. Wolfe, Publisher, Omaha, Neb. Price, $3.50. (@=> For a miscellaneous collection of old blood- curdling Indian stories, stale jokes, old plains yarns, together with a compilation of facts from pore volumes of our books, buy our imitator’s ook. For an additional :list of books worth buy- ing, see ANNEX 51, No. 10 Annex. Jack Slade—Virginia Dale was rey a stage station on the old Denver, Salt Lake and California road, and was laid out and kept by the notorious Jack Slade, who was division superintend- ent for the old C. O. C. Stage Co., from 1860 to 1863. It was supposed that Slade was the head of a gang of desperadoes who infested the coun- try, running off stock from the emigrants, and ap- Brepenine the same. Atanyrate he was anoted esperado, having, it is said, killed thirteen men. The last of his exploits, east of the mountains, was the wanton and cruel murder of Jules Burg, the person who gave his name to Julesburg. Slade had a quarrel with Jules in 1861, whic ended in a shooting scrape, wherein Slade was beaten—or, as their class would say, ‘‘forced to take water.”’ In 1863 some of the drivers on the line, friends and employes of Slade’s, decoyed Jules to the Cold Spring ranche, on the North Platte River, kept at the time by old Antoine Runnels, commonly known as ‘tthe Devil’s left bower.” He was a great friend of Slade’s, who appears to have rightfully earned the title of ‘right bower” to that same warm-natured indi vidual. The place where this tragedy occurred is 50 miles north of Cheyenne, and 25 miles below Fort Laramie, whither Slade repaired from Cot- tonwood Springs (opposite McPherson station) in an extra coach as soon as he was notified of the capture of his old enemy. He drove night and day, arriving at Cold Spring ranche early in the morning. On alighting from the coach he found Jules tied to a post ina coral, in such a position as torender him perfectly helpless. Slade shot him twenty-three times, taking care not to kill him, cursing all the time in a most fearful man- ner, returning to the ranche for a ‘' drink’ between shots. While firing the first twenty-two shots, he would tell Jules just where he was going to hit him, aacing that he did not intend to kill him immediately; that he intended to torture him to death. During this brutal scene, seven of Slade’s friends stood by and witnessed the proceedings. Unable to provoke a.cry of pain or a sign of fear from the unfortunate Jules, he thrust the pistol into his mouth, and at the twenty-third shot blew his head to pieces, Slade then cut the ears from his yictim, and put them in his pocket. In the saloons of Denver City, and other places, he would take Jules’ ears out of his pocket, throw them down on the bar, and openly ee ye act, would demand the drinks on his bloody pledges, which were never refused him. Shortly after this exploit, it became too hot for him in Colorado, and he was forced to flee. From thence he went to Virginia City, Montana, where he continued to prey upon society. The pee in that country had no love or use for his kind of people, and after his conduct had become insup- Sold Price, in| portable, the Vigilantes hung him, as he richly deserved. His wife arrived at the scene of execution just in time to behold his dead body. She had ridden on horseback 15 miles for the avowed purpose of shooting Slade, to save the disgrace of having him hung, and she arrived on the scene with re- volver in hand, only a few minutes too late to exe- cute her scheme—Jack Slade, the desperado, was dead, and he died—“ with his boots on.” No.1 Annex. Boulder Canyon—This large illustration—No. 4—is noticeably wild and ro- mantic, even ina country where nature has been so productive of surprising scenery. On either side rise the lofty walls, from 1,000 to 2,000 feet in height, their sides covered with verdure, save in spots where the rocks stand forth in naked bold- ness. Through the canyon rushes a noisy and turbulent stream, serving to enhance the attrac- tions and break the solitude. Through its whole extent, a distance of fifteen miles, the points of special interest vie with each other in attracting the attention of the beholder. Prominent among those are the ‘‘ Falls’; and the “Dome.” The former are ten miles distant from Boulder City, (see page 68) on the North Fork, a few hundred yards from its junction with the Mid- dle Boulder, whence they are reached by a roman- tic trail along the mountain side. | Three miles up the canyon, and nearly encircled by it, rises the “‘Dome,” asolitary and majestic mass of granite, five hundred feet in height. The illustration is from a photograph by W. G. Cham- berlain, of Denver. No.12 Annex. Hanging Rock of Clear Creek Camyon—as shown in our large view, No. 3, is at the point of entry into one of the grandest of nature’s amphitheatres. It is an ex- ample of how man can utilize the sublime scenery of nature, and make even the canyons—which, struggling, have worn through almost impene- trable granite—the medium of communication be- tween regions that had once seemed almost im- penetrable. By almost incredible engineering skill, the bed for the railroad was cut out of the wall of solid nite, beside which flows Clear Creek; following its sinuosities, with the creek thundering below, and the walls of overhanging rock towering aloft to the height of from 1,500 to 2,000 feet above the road. If you want to see nature in all her wild sublimity, and art as the triumphant utilizer of her varied resources, you need not visit the Alps or Apenines, but go and see the grand scen- ery of Clear Creek Canyon of Colorado. See page 72. : No. 13 Annex. Snow Difficulties—The Central Pacific Company commenced the erection of snow-sheds at the same time with their track- laying over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and the result has been their trains have never been delayed as often or as long as on many roads in the Eastern States. The depths of snow-fall and the necessities for snow-sheds over the Sierras were known, and could be guarded against, but further to the eastward, over the Rocky Moun- tains, on the route of the Union Pacific, no such necessity for protection against snow was thought to exist; hence the blockade of February and March, 1869. The Union Pacific Company immediately took— as was thought by everybody at the time—am- ple precautions to protect their cuts from the es snow, by the erection of snow-fences and snow-sheds at every exposed point, but the win- ter of 1871-2 proved to be one of unusual—un- 306 |