INDIAN SAVAGES ON THE PACIFIC RAILROAD.

Lake County Press, Issue 53, 7 June 1872, Page 2

INDIAN SAVAGES ON THE PACIFIC RAILROAD.

A reckless attempt to interfere with vested interests has drawn the directors of the Central Pacific Railroad into a difficulty from which passengers using the line will wish them speedily relieved. It appears that with the view of making friends of the Shoshone Indians, whose wigwams are dangerously near the unprotected track of the railroad running through Nevada, the directors invested them with the right of driving upon the luggage-trains without payment. The privilege was fuLy appreciated and somewhat extensively enjoyed, the noble savages occasionally bringing their families with them, and luxuriating for a whole day or more in the pleasure of travelling on the top of a waggon ol coal, or astride a bale of cotton. No objection was raised to this custom on the part of the railway company. It pleased the In-.nans.and it did not inter, fere with the traffic, while it was shrewdly calculated that the Shosbones would be careful to protect the interests of an undertaking whence they derived such profound satisfaction. But, unfortunately, the Shosbones have discovered that it is pleasauter to drive in a pas-senger-car than by the luggage-train; and accordingly, on the Sunday before Christmas Day, a strong detachment of them, including three chiefs, quietly took their seats in a most comfortably furnished car which they found empty. The conductor, putting a bold face on the matter, asked for their tickets, whereupon the eldest chief made a brief harangue, the main purport of which was that Lightning-Eye (meaning himself) was not in the habit of purchasing railway tickets. With considerable difficulty the noble savages were hauled out, and the train steamed on. But the affair was not permitted to end there, Lightning-Eye has conveyed to the proper authorities an intimation that. if he and his tribe be rot permitted ti travel free of cost in any train thej may please to select, they will tear nf the tract of the Central Pacific Railroa Thus, for the present, the matter resa The position of the railway directors i one which will command the dee)

sympathy of their brethren in

country and elsewhere To have thei best Pulman's car invaded by Lightning Eye, his squaw, and the younger mefl bers of the family all going nowhere « particular, and purposing to come bad by the same rout, is a serious matter [ contemplate. But the alternative pr« pect of having the rails torn up at brie intervals along the route by which tk line passes through Lightning-Eye' former territory is perhaps more serjw Bti 1, and the consideration of it m lead to a compromise favorable to fl offended chief.