A "Trifling Incident"--Billy Ryus Runs Risks With Government
Property.
Six months after my visit to the camp of Satanta a trifling incident
comes to my mind. Crossing Red river which was considerably swollen due
to the heavy thaws--the river at this point was only about nine feet
across and about two and a half feet deep--but it was a treacherous
place because it was so mirey. It stuck many freight wagons--I was in a
quandary just how I would cross it. After climbing down off of the
coach, looking around for an escape (?), a happy idea possessed me. I
was carrying four sacks of patent office books which would weigh about
240 pounds a sack, the sacks were eighteen inches square by four and a
half feet long, so I concluded to use these books to make an impromptu
bridge. I cut the ice open for twenty inches, wide enough to fit the
tracks of the coach for the wheels to run on, then placed four of these
sacks of books in the water and drove my mules across Red River. I was
fully aware that the books were government property, but from past
experience I knew they would never be put to use.
People all along the route were mad because the stage company charged
$200 for a passage from Kansas City to Santa Fe and knowing that we were
compelled to haul the government mail, heavy or light, in the way or out
of it, and desiring to "put us to it," kept ordering these books sent
them. They never took one of them from the postoffice, hence the
accumulation in the postoffice grew until there was room for little
else. These books were surveys and agricultural reports. Unreadable to
say the least, but heavy in the extreme. The postoffice at Santa Fe was
a little bit of a concern, and the postmaster said there was no room for
the books there. Earlier in the year I had carried one of these sacks to
the postoffice and had attempted to get the postmaster to accept them as
mail. I told him that it was mail and that I had no other place to
deposit it. Nevertheless he said he would not have them left at the
postoffice and told me do anything I wanted to with them, saying at the
time that people all around there had a mania for ordering those books,
but never intended to take them when they ordered them. I took the books
around to the stage station and discovered four wagonloads of the
"government stuff."
At the time I placed the books in Red river I knew that the postmaster
would not let them be left there and I knew they might serve the
government better in a "bridge" than otherwise. Knowing this I felt that
I had a remedy at law and grounds for defense.
The four passengers with me "jawed" me quite enough to "extract" the
patience of an ancient Job for having treated government property to a
watery burial in Red river. Two of the passengers were Mexicans and two
other men from New York. However, the two Mexicans soon disgusted the
other two passengers, who took sides with me. The Mexicans said they
would report me to the government, and I had no doubt they would.
As soon as I got to Santa Fe I went to see General Harney, ex-governor
of New Mexico. I told him what I had done and why I did it. General
Harney told me he was glad I had notified him right away and said he
would explain this transportation of the patent office books to the
fourth assistant postmaster. I gave him a detailed account of my
conversation regarding the disposition of the books to the postmaster
the trip before, which conversation he put in the form of an affidavit
and took it to the postmaster to verify. The postmaster refused to sign
the document, saying that he was no such a fool as that. General Harney
reported to the government who ordered the postmaster to rent a room in
which to store the government books now in possession of the stage
company. I knew that the postmaster was going to get these orders, so I
told Mr. Parker, proprietor of the hotel (called in those days the
"Fonda") that he could rent the room to the postmaster for $15 per
month. He would draw $45 per quarter and net the stage company $30. We
conductors made the drivers haul all the books over to the postoffice,
and when we had put all inside that we could get in there, obstructing
the light from the one solitary window, we put several thousand up on
top of the postoffice. Everybody was looking at us and everybody else
was laughing.
* * * * *
In a squealy little old voice the postmaster came out and told us to
take them to "Parker's Fonda," that he had rented the room for the
storage of such trash. Thus it came that the books were placed back in
the same room in which they were formerly stored, but they were now
paying the stage company rent for "their berths" and continued three
years to net the stage company $10 per month.
This transaction caused the government to quit printing these books. The
governor sent directions to the Santa Fe Stage Company at Kansas City
that should more such books accumulate they might be delivered by
freight. There were no more sent.