LITMIR.BIZ

      As late as the 70's, the supervisors allowed a claim for four dollars for a pole with which to demolish the nests that the swallows built under the courthouse eaves. The San Joaquin was a stream of pure icy water, and clear as a crystal where not muddied by mining. Salmon ascended to the spawning grounds by the myriads, and, when the run was on, the fish were hunted with spear, pitchfork, shovel, even with shotgun and revolver. Salmon appeared in such shoals that as late as July, 1870, it was recorded that restful sleep was disturbed because "myriads of them can be heard nightly splashing over the sand bars in the river opposite town as they make their way up." Hogs roamed at large unhindered as the self-constituted village scavengers.

      Fresno was a paradise for the Nimrod. They tell of great herds of antelope scouring over the desert plains where Fresno City is located. Today an antelope is as rare as the ichthyornis. Along in December, 1870, mention was made on the authority of a Crane Valley man that an Indian named Tom, shot, killed and dressed twenty-one deer in three days within a circle of one mile from a given spot. Even this was regarded as extraordinary enough to warrant publication at a time when the plains, mountains, foothills and rivers teemed with game and fish.

      With such delightfully primitive conditions, the flutter may be faintly appreciated, when at the close of March, 1871, announcement was made of a change in April in the stage schedule, for all of which Contractor Bennett was publicly thanked for his "enterprising and accommodating spirit." Northbound stages were to connect with Fisher's stages at Snelling (county seat of Merced and a village that went through the same lingering dying experience as Millerton, instead of Hornitas in Mariposa. The Snelling stages arrived at Millerton at the ungodly hour of five a. m., and passengers were piloted to hotels by the pale glimmer of whale oil lanterns. They departed at eight in the evening, arriving at Snelling at eleven on the following morning. The Visalia stage left immediately on arrival of the northern stage, and returning also made close connections. By this new arrangement Millertonians could go through to San Francisco in twenty-four hours, a gain of nearly one-half in time, and no unnecessary laying over en route. And this was hailed as rapid transit!

      All of which recalls the "unbearable outrage" of July, 1870, when Millerton. Big Dry Creek and Kings Riven were relegated from a four to a single weekly mail by reason of the abandonment of the mail route. Otto Froelich was then Millerton's postmaster. The Expositor, which had never a good word for the national Republican administration said "There is nothing too corrupt or contemptible for the Radical officers to do." In August, Sillman's opposition stage to Stockton began running, leaving Millerton every Thursday morning with through fare of eight dollars. About the middle of December, Contractor P. Bennett bought off Sillman & Co., who had the mail contract and he served again the tri-weekly mail.

      Talking about stages, here is another piece of evidence to accentuate the isolation of the village. In July of this year broke out the Franco-German war. The Expositor gave on July 20, 1870, the news of the outbreak based on a dispatch from Visalia brought by Russell Fleming the Saturday before to the effect that France had determined upon a declaration against Prussia. And as for war news thereafter, it was so scarce that a club was formed at Millerton to buy war dispatches at Visalia to be brought by Fleming as "the genial Jehu" of Bennett's stages. Fleming is a familiar Fresno character, reputed to have been the first appointed postmaster of Fresno City, of which he is one of the earliest settlers. He was the first livery man in the town and his stables and corral at H and Mariposa were long a landmark.

      The gathering of news for a weekly issue for Millerton, with a population of 200 to 300 at the most, was no easy task, when so much was suppressed, and so much space wasted in fulminations against the "radicals." The "unbearable outrage" in the reduced mail delivery made the task the more difficult, with "not a single exchange under ten days old," and "no communication with any portion of the county either." But all things come to those who wait. Things hummed again in the first week in September, according to the Millerton pace. An editorial squib read:

      "MILLERTON has been quite lively thus far this week. The county court has been and is still in session and a very large number of jurors and witnesses are in attendance. Whiskey has flowed pretty freely and some considerable skirmishing has taken place."

      There may have been no connection whatever between the two, but in the next column was this pithy, two-line penitential announcement:

      "EXCUSE the lack of editorial matter in this issue as we have been sick."