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diff --git a/36123-h/36123-h.htm b/36123-h/36123-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fa3bb87 --- /dev/null +++ b/36123-h/36123-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,10192 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Comstock Club, by C. C. Goodwin. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.linenum { + position: absolute; + top: auto; + left: 4%; +} /* poetry number */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i4 { + display: block; + margin-left: 4em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + .poem span.i28 {display: block; margin-left: 28em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i8 {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i44 {display: block; margin-left: 44em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Comstock Club, by Charles Carroll Goodwin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Comstock Club + +Author: Charles Carroll Goodwin + +Release Date: May 16, 2011 [EBook #36123] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMSTOCK CLUB *** + + + + +Produced by David Garcia, Justin Gillbank, Mary Meehan and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h1>THE COMSTOCK CLUB.</h1> + +<h2>BY C. C. GOODWIN</h2> + +<h3>EDITOR SALT LAKE DAILY TRIBUNE.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<h3>Neither radiant angels nor magnified monsters, but just plain, +true men.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<h3>1891.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Tribune Job Printing Company,</span><br /> +SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH.</h3> + +<h3><i>Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1891, by</i><br /> +THE LEONARD PUBLISHING COMPANY,<br /> +<i>in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.</i></h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3>TO THE<br /> +MINERS OF THE PACIFIC COAST,<br /> +THIS BOOK,<br /> +WHICH WAS WRITTEN WHILE WORKING FOR AND AMONG THEM,<br /> +IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED<br /> +BY<br /> +THE AUTHOR.<br /> +<i>Salt Lake City, Utah, December 15, 1891.</i></h3> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. <span class="smcap">The Old Flush Days</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. <span class="smcap">The Club</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. <span class="smcap">Mirages</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. <span class="smcap">The Argonauts</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. <span class="smcap">The Call of the Birds</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. <span class="smcap">The Perfume and the Light</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. <span class="smcap">Man As a Worker</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. <span class="smcap">Rough Royalty</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. <span class="smcap">More Royalty</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. <span class="smcap">Specimen Liars</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI. <span class="smcap">The Club Grows Poetical</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII. <span class="smcap">An Unbiased Judge</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII. <span class="smcap">Sister Celeste</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV. <span class="smcap">Trouble with the Expense Account </span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV. <span class="smcap">Humor of the West</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI. <span class="smcap">Trouble in the Club</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII. <span class="smcap">Up in the Sheaves</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII. <span class="smcap">The Terrible Depths</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX. <span class="smcap">The Dawn of Elysium</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX. <span class="smcap">Three Postscripts</span></a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE COMSTOCK CLUB.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + + +<p>"The pioneer! Who shall fitly tell the story of his life and work?</p> + +<p>"The soldier leads an assault; it lasts but a few minutes; he knows that +whether he lives or dies, immortality will be his reward. What wonder +that there are brave soldiers!</p> + +<p>"But when this soldier of peace assaults the wilderness, no bugles sound +the charge; the forest, the desert, the wild beast, the savage, the +malaria, the fatigue, are the foes that lurk to ambush him, and if, +against the unequal odds, he falls, no volleys are fired above him; the +pitiless world merely sponges his name from its slate.</p> + +<p>"Thus he blazes the trails, thus he fells the trees, thus he plants his +rude stakes, thus he faces the hardships, and whatever fate awaits him, +his self-contained soul keeps its finger on his lips, and no +lamentations are heard.</p> + +<p>"He smooths the rugged fields, he turns the streams, and the only cheer +that is his is when he sees the grain ripen, and the flowers bloom where +before was only the frown of the wilderness. When over the trail that he +has blazed, enlightenment comes joyously, with unsoiled sandals, and +homes and temples spring up on the soil that was first broken by him, +his youth is gone, hope has been chastened into silence within him; he +realizes that he is but a back number.</p> + +<p>"Not one in a thousand realizes the texture of the manhood that has been +exhausting itself within him; few comprehend his nature or have any +conception of his work.</p> + +<p>"But he is content. The shadows of the wilderness have been chased away; +the savage beast and savage man have retired before him; nature has +brought her flowers to strew the steps of his old age; in his soul he +feels that somewhere the record of his work and of his high thoughts has +been kept; and so he smiles upon the younger generation and is content.</p> + +<p>"May that contentment be his to the end."</p> + +<p>It was an anniversary night in Pioneer Hall, in Virginia City, Nevada, +one July night in 1878, and the foregoing were the closing words of a +little impromptu speech that Alex Strong had delivered.</p> + +<p>A strange, many-sided man was Alex Strong. He was an Argonaut. When the +first tide set in toward the Golden Coast, he, but a lad, with little +save a pony and a gun, joined a train that had crossed the Missouri and +was headed westward.</p> + +<p>The people in the company looked upon him as a mere boy, but, later, +when real hardships were encountered and sickness came, the boy became +the life of the company. When women and children drooped under the +burdens and the fear of the wilderness, it was his voice that cheered +them on; his gun secured the tender bit of antelope or grouse to tempt +their failing appetites; his songs drove away the silence of the desert. +He was for the company a lark at morn, a nightingale at night.</p> + +<p>Arriving in California, he sought the hills. When his claim would not +pay he indicted scornful songs to show his "defiance of luck." Some of +these were published in the mountain papers, and then a few people knew +that somewhere in miner's garb a genius was hiding. Amid the hills, in +his cabin, he was an incessant reader, and with his books, his friction +against men and in the study of nature's mighty alphabet, as left upon +her mountains, with the going by of the years he rounded into a +cultured, alert, sometimes pathetic and sometimes boisterous man, but +always a shrewd, all-around man of affairs.</p> + +<p>When we greet him he had been for several years a brilliant journalist.</p> + +<p>He had jumped up to make a little speech in Pioneer Hall, and the last +words of his speech are given above.</p> + +<p>When he had finished another pioneer, Colonel Savage, was called upon. +He was always prepared to make a speech. He delighted, moreover, in +taking the opposite side to Strong. So springing to his feet, he cried +out:</p> + +<p>"Too serious are the words of my friend. What of hardships, when youth, +the beautiful, walks by one's side! What of danger when one feels a +young heart throbbing in his breast!</p> + +<p>"Who talks of loneliness while as yet no fetter has been welded upon +hope, while yet the unexplored and unpeopled portions of God's world +beckon the brave to come to woo and to possess them!</p> + +<p>"The pioneers were not unhappy. The air is still filled with the echoes +of the songs that they sung; their bright sayings have gone into the +traditions; the impression which they made upon the world is a monument +which will tell of their achievements, record their sturdy virtues and +exalt their glorified names."</p> + +<p>As the Colonel ceased and some one else was called upon to talk, Strong +motioned to Savage and both noiselessly sought some vacant seats in the +rear of the hall.</p> + +<p>Colonel Savage was another genius. He was a young lawyer in New York +when the first news of gold discoveries in California was carried to +that city. He, with a hundred others, chartered a bark that was lying +idle in the harbor, had her fitted up and loaded, and in her made a +seven months' voyage around the Cape to San Francisco. He was the most +versatile of the Argonauts. Every mood of poor human nature found a +response in him. At a funeral he shamed the mourners by the sadness of +his face; at a festival he added a sparkle to the wines; he could +convulse a saloon with a story; he could read a burial service with a +pathos that stirred every heart, and so his life ran on until when we +find him he had been several years a leading member of a brighter bar +than ever before was seen in a town of the size of Virginia City.</p> + +<p>He was a tall, handsome man, his face was classical, and all his +bearing, even when all unbent, was that of a high-born, self-contained +and self-respecting man.</p> + +<p>Strong, on the other hand, was of shorter statue; his face was the +perfect picture of mirthfulness; there was a wonderful magnetism in his +smile and hand-clasp; but when in repose a close look at his face +revealed, below the mirthfulness, that calm which is the close attendant +upon conscious power.</p> + +<p>As they reached their seats Alex spoke:</p> + +<p>"You were awfully good to-night, Colonel."</p> + +<p>"Of course; I always am. But what has awakened your appreciation +to-night?"</p> + +<p>"I thought my speech was horrible."</p> + +<p>"For once it would require a brave man to doubt your judgment," said the +Colonel, sententiously.</p> + +<p>"I was sure of it until I heard you speak; then I recovered my +self-respect, believing that, by comparison, my speech would ring in the +memories of the listeners, like a psalm."</p> + +<p>"You mean Sam, the town-crier and bootblack. His brain is a little weak, +but his lungs are superb."</p> + +<p>"I believe you are jealous of his voice, Colonel. But sit down: I want +to tell you about the most unregenerate soul on earth."</p> + +<p>"Proceed, Alex, only do not forget that under the merciful statutes of +the State of Nevada no man is obliged to make statements which will +criminate himself."</p> + +<p>"What a comfort that knowledge must be to you."</p> + +<p>"It often is. My heart is full of sympathy for the unfortunate, and more +than once have I seen eyes grow bright when I have given that +information to a client."</p> + +<p>"The study of that branch of law must have had a peculiar fascination to +you."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, it did, Alex. At every point where the law draws the shield of +its mercy around the accused, in thought it seemed made for one or +another of my friends, and, mentally, I found myself defending one after +the other of them."</p> + +<p>"Did you, at the same time, keep in thought the fact that in an +emergency the law permits a man to plead his own cause?"</p> + +<p>"Never, on my honor. In those days my life was circumspect, even as it +now is, and my associates—not as now—were so genteel that there was no +danger of any suspicion attaching to me, because of the people I was +daily seen with."</p> + +<p>"That was good for you, but what sort of reputations did your associates +have?" asked Alex.</p> + +<p>"They went on from glory to glory. One became a conductor on a railroad, +and in four years, at a salary of one hundred dollars per month, retired +rich. One became a bank cashier, and three years later, through the +advice of his physicians, settled in the soft climate of Venice, with +which country we have no extradition treaty. Another one is a broker +here in this city, and I am told, is doing so well that he hopes next +year to be superintendent of a mine."</p> + +<p>"Why have you not succeeded better, Colonel, financially?"</p> + +<p>"I am too honest. Every day I stop law suits which I ought to permit to +go on. Every day I do work for nothing which I ought to charge for. I +tell you, Alex, I would sooner be right than be President."</p> + +<p>"I cannot, just now, recall any one who knows you, Colonel, who does not +feel the same way about you."</p> + +<p>"That is because the most of my friends are dull, men, like yourself. +But how prospers that newspaper?"</p> + +<p>"It is the same old, steady grind," replied Alex, thoughtfully. "I saw a +blind horse working in a whim yesterday. As he went round and round, +there seemed on his face a look of anxiety to find out how much longer +that road of his was, and I said to him, compassionately: 'Old Spavin, +you know something of what it is to work on a daily paper.' I went to +the shaft and watched the buckets as they came up, and there was only +one bucket of ore to ten buckets of waste. Then I went back to the horse +and said to him: 'You do not know the fact, you blissfully ignorant old +brute, but your work is mightily like ours, one bucket of ore to ten of +waste.'"</p> + +<p>"How would you like to have me write an editorial for your paper?"</p> + +<p>"I should be most grateful," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"On what theme?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you might make your own selection."</p> + +<p>"How would you like an editorial on——scoundrels?"</p> + +<p>"It would, with your experience, be truthfully written, doubtless, but +Colonel, it is only now and then in good taste for a man to supply the +daily journals with his own autobiography."</p> + +<p>"How modest you are. You did not forget that, despite the impersonality +of journalism, you would have the credit of the article."</p> + +<p>"No, I was afraid of that credit, and I am poor enough now, Colonel; but +really, that credit does not count. If, for five days in the week, I +make newspapers, which my judgment tells me are passably good, it +appears to me the only use that is made of them is for servant girls to +kindle fires with, and do up their bangs in: but if, on the sixth day, +my heart is heavy and my brain thick, and the paper next morning is +poor, it seems to me that everybody in the camp looks curiously at me, +as if to ascertain for a certainty, whether or no, I am in the early +stages of brain softening."</p> + +<p>"A reasonable suspicion, I fancy, Alex; but what do you think of your +brother editors of this coast as men and writers?"</p> + +<p>"Most of them are good fellows, and bright writers. If you knew under +what conditions some of them work, you would take off your hat every +time you met them."</p> + +<p>"To save my hat?" queried the Colonel. "But whom do you consider the +foremost editor of the coast?"</p> + +<p>"There is no such person. Men with single thoughts and purposes, are, as +a rule, the men who make marks in this world. For instance, just now, +the single purpose of James G. Fair, is to make money through mining. +Hence, he is a great miner, and he, now and then, I am told, manages to +save a few dollars in the business. The dream of C. P. Huntington is to +make money through railroads, so he builds roads, that he may collect +more fares and freights, and he collects more fares and freights so that +he may build more roads, and I believe, all in all, that he is the +ablest, if not the coldest and most pitiless, railroad man in the world. +The ruling thought of Andy Barlow is to be a fighter, and he can draw +and shoot in the space of a lightning's flash. The dream of George +Washington, he having no children, was to create and adopt a nation +which should at once be strong and free, and the result is, his grave is +a shrine. But, as the eight notes of the scale, in their combinations, +fill the world with music—or with discords, so the work of an editor +covers all the subjects on which men have ever thought, or ever will +think, and the best that any one editor can do is to handle a few +subjects well. Among our coast editors there is one with more marked +characteristics, more flashes of genius, in certain directions, more +contradictions and more pluck than any other one possesses.</p> + +<p>"That one is Henry Mighels, of Carson. I mention him because I have been +thinking of him all day, and because I fear that his work is finished. +The last we heard of him, was, that he was disputing with the surgeons +in San Francisco, they telling him that he was fatally ill, and he, +offering to wager two to one that they were badly mistaken."</p> + +<p>"Poor Henry," mused the Colonel; "he is a plucky man. I heard one of our +rich men once try to get him to write something, or not to write +something, I have forgotten which, and when Mighels declined to consent, +the millionaire told him he was too poor to be so exceedingly +independent. Here Mighels, in a low voice, which sounded to me like the +purr of a tiger, said: 'You are quite mistaken, you do not know how rich +I am. I have that little printing office at Carson; paper enough to last +me for a week or ten days. I have a wife and three babies,' and then +suddenly raising his voice, to the dangerous note, and bringing his fist +down on the table before him with a crash, he shouted, '<i>and they are +all mine</i>!'</p> + +<p>"The rich man looked at him, and, smiling, said: 'Don't talk like a +fool, Mighels.' The old humor was all back in Mighels' face in an +instant, as he replied, 'Was I talking like a fool, old man? What a +sublime faculty I have of exactly gauging my conversation to the mental +grasp of my listener!' But, Alex, do you not think there is a great deal +of humbug about the much vaunted power of the press?"</p> + +<p>"There's gratitude for you. You ask <i>me</i> such a question as that."</p> + +<p>"And why not?" inquired the Colonel.</p> + +<p>"You won a great suit last week, did you not—the case of Jones vs. +Smith?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. It was wonderful; let me tell you about it."</p> + +<p>"No; spare me," cried Alex. "But how much did you receive for winning +that case?"</p> + +<p>"I received a cool ten thousand dollars."</p> + +<p>"And you still ask about the influence of the press?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Why should I not?"</p> + +<p>"Sure enough, why should you not? If you will stop and think you will +know that three months ago you could not have secured a jury in the +State that would have given you that verdict. There was a principle on +trial that public opinion was pronounced against in a most marked +manner. The press took up the discussion and fought it out. At length it +carried public opinion with it. That thing has been done over and over +right here. At the right time, your case, which hung upon that very +point, was called. You think you managed it well. It was simply a +walkover for you. The men with the Fabers had done the work for you. The +jury unconsciously had made up their minds before they heard the +complaint in the case read. The best thoughts in your argument you had +unconsciously stolen from the newspapers, and the judge, looking as wise +as an Arctic owl, unconsciously wrung half an editorial into his charge. +You received ten thousand dollars, and to the end of his days your +client will tell (heaven forgive his stupidity) what a lawyer you are, +but ask him his opinion of newspaper men and he will shrug his +shoulders, scowl, and with a donkey's air of wisdom, answer: 'Oh, they +are necessary evils. We want the local news and the dispatches, and we +have to endure them.'</p> + +<p>"I am glad you robbed him, Colonel. I wish you could rob them all. If a +child is born to one of them we have to tell of it, and mention +delicately how noble the father is and how lovely the mother is. If one +of them dies we have to jeopardize our immortal souls trying to make out +a character for him. They want us every day; we hold up their business +and their reputations, beginning at the cradle, ending only at the +grave."</p> + +<p>"What kind of character would you give me, were I to die?"</p> + +<p>"Try it, Colonel! Try it! And if 'over the divide' it should be possible +for you to look back and read the daily papers, when your shade gets +hold of my notice, I promise you it shall be glad that you are dead."</p> + +<p>"But what about that unregenerate soul that you were going to tell me +of—has some broker sold out some widow's stocks?"</p> + +<p>"No: worse than that."</p> + +<p>"Has some one burglarized some hospital or orphan asylum?" suggested the +Colonel.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no. Old Angus Jacobs, you know, is rich. Among strangers he parades +his thin veneering of reading, and poses as though all his vaults were +stuffed with reserves of knowledge. Well, while East last spring, he ran +upon a distinguished publisher there, with whom he agreed that he would, +on his return, write and send for publication an article on the West.</p> + +<p>"He came and begged me to write it, confessing that he had deceived the +publisher, and asserting that, he must keep up the deception, or the +integrity of the West would be injured in the estimation of that +publisher.</p> + +<p>"I went to work, wrote an article, became enthused as I wrote, wrote it +over, spent as much as three solid days upon it, and when it was +finished I looked upon my work, and lo, it was good.</p> + +<p>"Then, at my own expense, I had it carefully copied and gave the copy to +old Angus. He sent it East. To-day he received a dozen copies and a +letter of profuse praise and thanks from the publisher.</p> + +<p>"I saw the old thief give one of the copies to a literary man from San +Francisco, telling him, cheerfully, as he did, that he dashed the +article off hastily, that most of the language was crude and awkward, +but it might entertain him a little on the train going to San +Francisco."</p> + +<p>"I never heard of anything meaner or more depraved than that," +indignantly remarked the Colonel, "except when I read the funeral +service over an old Dutchman's child once, in Downieville. Speaking of +it afterward, the old Hessian said:</p> + +<p>"'Dot Colonel's reading vos fine, but he dond vos haf dot prober look uf +regret vot he ought to haf had'—but here comes the Professor."</p> + +<p>Professor Stoneman joined the pair, and when the greetings were over the +Professor said:</p> + +<p>"I am just in from Eastern Nevada: went to Eureka to examine a mine +owned by a jolly miner named Moore. It is a good one, too—a contact +vein between lime and quartzite. The fellow worked, running a tunnel, +all winter, and now he has struck, and cross-cut, his vein. It is fully +seven feet thick, and rich. I asked him how he felt when at last he cut +the vein.</p> + +<p>"'How did I feel, Professor,' he said, 'how did I feel? Why, General +Jackson's overcoat would not have made a paper collar for me.'</p> + +<p>"There are a great many queer characters out that way. Moore is not a +very well educated man. In Eureka I was telling about the mine—that +Moore ought to make a fortune out of it—when a man standing by, a +stranger to me, stretched up both his arms and cried: 'A fortune! Look +at it, now! Moore is so unspeakably ignorant that he could not spell out +the name of the Savior if it were written on White Pine Mountain in +letters bigger than the Coast Range. But he strikes it rich! His kind +always do.' Then he added, bitterly: 'If I could find a chimpanzee, I +would draw up articles of copartnership with him in fifteen minutes.'</p> + +<p>"And then a quiet fellow, who was present, said: 'Jim, maybe the +chimpanzee, after taking a good look at you, would not stand it.'</p> + +<p>"I was sitting in a barroom there one day, and a man was talking about +the Salmon River mines, and insisting that they were more full of +promise than anything in Nevada, when another man in the crowd earnestly +said:</p> + +<p>"'If my brother were to write me that it was a good country, and advise +me to come up there, I would not believe him.'</p> + +<p>"Quick as lightning, still another man responded: 'If we all knew your +brother as well as you do, maybe none of us would believe him.'</p> + +<p>"That is the way they spend their time out there. But I secured some +lovely specimens: specimens of ore, rare shells, some of the finest +specimens of mirabilite of lead that I ever saw. It is a most +interesting region. But I don't agree entirely with Clarence King on the +geology of the district. You see King's theory is—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, hold on, Professor," said the Colonel, "it does not lack an hour of +midnight. You have not time, positively. Heigh ho. Here is Wright. How +is the mine, Wright?"</p> + +<p>"About two hundred tons lighter than it was this morning, I reckon," +replied Wright.</p> + +<p>"But tell us about the mine, Wright," said Alex, impatiently. "How is +the temperature?"</p> + +<p>"How is your health?" responded Wright, jocularly. "If you do not expect +to live long, you might come down and take some preparatory lessons; +that is, if you anticipate joining the majority of newspaper men."</p> + +<p>"No, no; you are mistaken," said Alex. "You mean the Colonel. He is a +lawyer, you know."</p> + +<p>"It is the Professor that needs the practice," chimed in the Colonel. +"Just imagine him 'down below,' explaining to the gentleman in green how +similar the formation is to a hot drift that he once found in the +Comstock."</p> + +<p>"I will tell you a hotter place than any drift in the Comstock," said +the Professor. "Put all the money that you have into stocks, having a +dead pointer from a friend who is posted, buy on a margin, and then have +the stocks begin to go down; that will start the perspiration on you."</p> + +<p>"We have all been in that drift," said Alex.</p> + +<p>"Indeed, we have," responded Wright.</p> + +<p>"I have lived in that climate for twelve years. One or two winters it +kept me so warm that I did not need an overcoat or watch, so I loaned +them to——'mine uncle,'" remarked the Colonel.</p> + +<p>"But, do you know any points on stocks, Wright?"</p> + +<p>"No, not certainly, Alex. I heard some rumors last night and ordered 100 +Norcross this morning. Some of the boys think it will jump up three or +four dollars in the next ten days."</p> + +<p>"I took in a block of Utah yesterday. They are getting down pretty deep, +and there is lots of unexplored ground in that mine," said the Colonel, +quietly.</p> + +<p>The Professor, looking serious, said: "I have all my money the other +way, in Justice and Silver Hill. They are not deep enough in the north +end yet."</p> + +<p>Alex got up from his chair. "You are all mistaken," said he, "Overman is +the best buy, but it is growing late and I must go to work. What shift +are you on, Wright?"</p> + +<p>"I go on at seven in the morning. By the way, you should come up of an +evening to our Club. We would be glad to see all three of you."</p> + +<p>"And pray, what do you mean by your Club?" asked the Colonel.</p> + +<p>"Why," said Wright, "I thought you knew. Three or four of us miners met +up here one night last month. Joe Miller was in the party, and as we +were drinking beer and talking about stocks, Miller proposed that we +should hire a vacant house on the divide—the old Beckley House—and +give up the boarding and lodging houses. We talked it all over, how +shameful we had been going on, how we were spending all our money, how, +if we had the house, we could save fifty or sixty dollars a month, and +eat what we pleased, do what we pleased, and have a place in which to +pass our leisure time without going to the saloons; so we picked up +three or four more men, and, on last pay-day, moved in—seven of us in +all—each man bringing his own chair, blankets and food. The latter, of +course, was all put into common stock, and Miller had fixed everything +else. Since then we have been getting along jolly.'"</p> + +<p>"But who makes up your company?" inquired Alex.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you know the whole outfit," answered Wright. "There is Miller, as I +told you; there are, besides, Tom Carlin, old man Brewster, Herbert +Ashley, Sammy Harding, Barney Corrigan and myself."</p> + +<p>"It is a good crowd; but you are not all working in the same mine, are +you?" said the Professor, inquiringly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no. Brewster is running a power-drill in the Bullion. He is a +mechanic, you know, and not a real miner. Miller and Harding are in the +Curry, Barney is in the Norcross, Carlin and Ashley are in the Imperial, +and I in the Savage. But we all happen to be on the same shift, so, for +this month at least, we have our evenings together."</p> + +<p>"It must be splendid," enthusiastically remarked the Colonel.</p> + +<p>"How do you spend your evenings?" asked Alex.</p> + +<p>"We talk on all subjects except politics. That subject, we agreed at the +start, should not be discussed. We read and compare notes on stocks."</p> + +<p>"How do you manage about your cooking?" queried the Professor.</p> + +<p>"We have a Chinaman, who is a daisy. He is cook, housekeeper, +chambermaid, and would be companion and musician if we could stand it. +You must come up and see us."</p> + +<p>"I will come to-morrow evening," Alex replied, eagerly.</p> + +<p>"So will I," said the Colonel, with a positiveness that was noticeable.</p> + +<p>"And so will I," shouted the Professor.</p> + +<p>Just then the eleven o'clock whistles sounded up and down the lead. +"That is our signal for retiring," said Wright, "and so good night."</p> + +<p>"Let us go out and take a night cap, first," said the Colonel.</p> + +<p>"Well, if I must," said Wright. "Though the rule of our Club is only a +little for medicine."</p> + +<p>The night caps were ordered and swallowed. Then the men separated, the +Colonel, Professor and Wright going home, the journalist to his work.</p> + +<p>Professor Stoneman was a character. Tall and spare, with such an outline +as Abraham Lincoln had. He was fifty years of age, with grave and serene +face when in repose, and with the mien of one of the faculty of a +university. Still he had that nature which caused him when a boy to run +away from his Indiana home to the Mexican war, and he fought through all +that long day at Buena Vista, a lad of eighteen years. Of course he was +with the first to reach California. He had tried mining and many other +things, but the deeper side of his nature was to pursue the +sciences—the lighter to mingle with good fellows. He would tell a story +one moment and the next would combat a scientific theory with the most +learned of the Eastern scientists, and carry away from the controversy +the full respect of his opponent. There was a great fund of merriment +within him, and his generosity not only kept his bank account a minus +number, but moreover, kept his heart aching that he had no more to give. +When by himself he was an incessant student, and beside knowing all that +the books taught, he had his own ideas of their correctness, especially +those that deal with the formation of ore deposits. He was a learned +writer, a gifted lecturer and an expert of mines, and, over all, the +most genial of men.</p> + +<p>Adrian Wright was of another stamp altogether. He was tall and strong, +with large feet and hands, a massive man in all respects, and forty-five +years of age.</p> + +<p>He had a cool and brave gray eye, a firm, strong mouth, very light brown +hair and carried always with him a something which first impressed those +who saw him with his power, while a second look gave the thought that +beside the power which was visible, he had unmeasured reserves of +concealed force which he could call upon on demand.</p> + +<p>He went an uncultured lad to California. He was at first a placer miner. +Obtaining a good deal of money he became a mountain trader and the owner +of a ditch, which supplied some hydraulic grounds. He was brusque in his +address, said "whar" and "thar," but his head was large and firmly +poised; his heart was warm as a child's, and he was loved for his clear, +good sense and for the sterling manhood which was apparent in all his +ways. Though uncultured in the schools, he had read a great deal, and, +mixing much with men, his judgment had matured, until in his mountain +hamlet his word had become an authority.</p> + +<p>His friends persuaded him to become a candidate for the State +Legislature. After he had consented to run he spent a good deal of money +in the campaign. He was elected and went to Sacramento. There he was +persuaded to buy largely of Comstock stocks. He bought on a margin. When +it came time to put up more money he could not without borrowing. He +would not do that through fear that he could not pay. He lost the +stocks. He went home in the spring to find that his clerks had given +large credits to miners; the hydraulic mines ceased to pay, which +rendered his ditch property valueless, and a few days later his store +burned down. When his debts were paid he had but a few hundred dollars +left. He said nothing about his reverses, but went to Virginia City and +for several years had been working in the mines.</p> + +<p>As already said, a miners' mess had been formed. Seven miners on the +Comstock might be picked out who would pretty nearly represent the whole +world.</p> + +<p>This band had been drawn together partly because of certain traits that +they possessed in common, though they were each distinctly different +from all the others.</p> + +<p>We have read of Wright. Of the others, James Brewster, was the eldest of +the company. He was fifty years of age, and from Massachusetts. He was +not tall, but was large and powerful.</p> + +<p>There were streaks of gray in his hair, but his eyes were clear, and +black as midnight. He had a bold nose and invincible mouth; the +expression of his whole face was that of a resolute, self-contained, but +kindly nature. All his movements were quick and positive.</p> + +<p>He was educated, and though of retiring ways, when he talked everybody +near him listened. He was not a miner, but a mechanical engineer, and +his work was the running of power drills in the mine. He never talked +much of his own affairs, but it was understood that misfortune in +business had caused him to seek the West somewhat late in life. The +truth was he had never been rich. He possessed a moderately prosperous +business until a long illness came to his wife, and when the depression +which followed the reaction from the war and the contraction of the +currency fell upon the North, he found he had little left, and so sought +a new field.</p> + +<p>He was the Nestor of the Club and was exceedingly loved by his +companions.</p> + +<p>Miller, who first proposed the Club, was a New Yorker by birth, a man +forty-five years of age, medium height, keen gray eyes, a clear-cut, +sharp face, slight of build, but all nerve and muscle, and lithe as a +panther. He had been for a quarter of a century on the west coast, and +knew it well from British Columbia to Mexico, and from the Rocky +Mountains to the Pacific.</p> + +<p>He was given a good education in his youth; he had mingled with all +sorts of men and been engaged in all kinds of business. There was a +perpetual flash to his eyes, and a restlessness upon him which made him +uneasy if restrained at all. He had the reputation of being inclined to +take desperate chances sometimes, but was honorable, thoroughly, and +generous to a fault.</p> + +<p>He had studied men closely, and of Nature's great book he was a constant +reader. He knew the voices of the forests and of the streams; he had a +theory that the world was but a huge animal; that if we were but wise +enough to understand, we should hear from Nature's own voices the story +of the world and hear revealed all her profound secrets.</p> + +<p>He possessed a magnetism which drew friends to him everywhere. His hair +was still unstreaked with gray, but his face was care-worn, like that of +one who had been dissipated or who had suffered many disappointments.</p> + +<p>Carlin was twenty-eight years of age, long of limb, angular, gruff, but +hearty; quick, sharp and shrewd, but free-handed and generally in the +best of humors. He was an Illinois man, and a good type of the men of +the Old West.</p> + +<p>His eyes were brown, his hair chestnut; erect, he was six feet in +height, but seated, there seemed to be no place for his hands and hardly +room enough for his feet. He was well-educated, and had been but three +and a half years on the Comstock.</p> + +<p>All the Californians in the Club insisted, of course, that there was no +other place but that, but this Carlin always vehemently denied, for he +came from the State of Lincoln and Douglas, and the State, moreover, +that had Chicago in one corner of it, and he did not believe there was +another such State in all the Republic.</p> + +<p>Ashley was from Pennsylvania; a young man of twenty-five, above medium +height, compact as a tiger in his make-up, and weighing, perhaps, one +hundred and eighty pounds. His eyes were gray, his hair brown, his face +almost classic in its outlines; his feet and hands were particularly +small and finely formed, and there was a jollity and heartiness about +his laugh which was contagious. He had an excellent education, and had +seen a good deal of business in his early manhood.</p> + +<p>Corrigan was a thorough Irishman, generous, warm-hearted, witty, +sociable, brave to recklessness, curly-haired, with laughing, blue eyes; +the most open and frank of faces that was ever smiling, powerfully built +and ready at a moment's notice to fight anyone or give anyone his purse.</p> + +<p>Everybody knew and liked him, and he liked everybody that, as he +expressed it, was worth the liking.</p> + +<p>He had come to America a lad of ten. He lived for twelve years in New +York City, attended the schools, and was in his last year in the High +School when, for some wild freak, he had been expelled. He worked two +years in a Lake Superior copper mine, then went to California and worked +there until lured to Nevada by the silver mines, and had been on the +Comstock five years when the Club was formed.</p> + +<p>Harding was the boy of the company, only twenty-two years of age, a +native California lad. But he was hardly a type of his State.</p> + +<p>His eyes were that shade of gray which looks black in the night; his +hair was auburn. He had a splendid form, though not quite filled out; +his head was a sovereign one.</p> + +<p>But he was reticent almost to seriousness, and it was in this respect +that he did not seem quite like a California boy. There was a reason for +it. He was the son of an Argonaut who had been reckless in business and +most indulgent to his boy. He had a big farm near Los Angeles, and +shares in mines all over the coast. The boy had grown up half on the +farm and half in the city. He was an adept in his studies; he was just +as much an adept when it came to riding a wild horse.</p> + +<p>He had gained a good education and was just entering the senior class in +college when his father suddenly died. He mourned for him exceedingly, +and when his affairs were investigated it was found there was a mortgage +on the old home.</p> + +<p>He believed there was a future for the land. So he made an arrangement +to meet the interest on the mortgage annually, then went to San +Francisco, obtained an order for employment on a Comstock +superintendent, went at once to Virginia City and took up his regular +labor as a miner. He had been thus employed for a year when the Club was +formed.</p> + +<p>This was the company that had formed a mess. Miller had worked up the +scheme.</p> + +<p>It had been left to Miller to prepare the house—to buy the necessary +materials for beginning housekeeping, like procuring the dishes, knives +and forks and spoons, and benches or cheap chairs, for the dining room, +and it was agreed to begin on the next pay day.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + + +<p>About four o'clock in the afternoon of the day appointed for commencing +housekeeping, our miners gathered at this new home. The provisions, +bedding and chairs had been sent in advance, in care of Miller, who had +remained above ground that day, in order to have things in apple-pie +shape. The chairs were typical of the men. Brewster's was a common, +old-fashioned, flag-bottomed affair, worth about three dollars. Carlin +and Wright each had comfortable armchairs; Ashley and Harding had neat +office chairs, while Miller and Corrigan each had heavy upholstered +armchairs, which cost sixty dollars each.</p> + +<p>When all laughed at Brewster's chair, he merely answered that it would +do, and when Miller and Corrigan were asked what on earth they had +purchased such out-of-place furniture for, to put in a miner's cabin, +Miller answered: "I got trusted and didn't want to make a bill for +nothing," and Corrigan said: "To tell the truth, I was not over-much +posted on this furniture business, I did not want to invest in too chape +an article, so I ordered the best in the thavin' establishment, because +you know a good article is always chape, no matter what the cost may +be."</p> + +<p>The next thing in order was to compare the bills for provisions. +Brewster drew his bill from his pocket and read as follows: Twenty +pounds bacon, $7.50; forty pounds potatoes, $1.60; ten pounds coffee, +$3.75; one sack flour, $4.00; cream tartar and salaratus, $1.00; ten +pounds sugar, $2.75; pepper, salt and mustard, $1.50; ten pounds prunes, +$2.50; one bottle XXX for medicine, $2.00; total, $32.60.</p> + +<p>The bill was receipted. The bills of Wright and Harding each comprised +about the same list, and amounted to about the same sum. They, too, were +receipted. The funny features were that each one had purchased nearly +similar articles, and the last item on each of the bills was a charge of +$2.00 for medicine. It had been agreed that no liquor should be bought +except for medicine.</p> + +<p>The bills of Carlin and Ashley were not different in variety, but each +had purchased in larger quantities, so that those bills footed up about +$45 each. On each of the bills, too, was an item of $4.75 for demijohn +and "half gallon of whisky for medicine." All were receipted.</p> + +<p>Corrigan's bill amounted to $73, including one-half gallon of whisky and +one bottle of brandy "for medicine," and his too was receipted.</p> + +<p>Miller read last. His bill had a little more variety, and amounted to +$97.16. The last item was: "To demijohn and one gallon whisky for +medicine, $8.00." On this bill was a credit for $30.00.</p> + +<p>A general laugh followed the reading of these bills. The variety +expected was hardly realized, as Corrigan remarked: "The bills lacked +somewhat in versatility, but there was no doubt about there being plenty +of food of the kind and no end to the medicine."</p> + +<p>When the laugh had subsided, Brewster said: "Miller estimated that our +provisions would not cost to exceed $15.00 per month apiece. I tried to +be reasonable and bought about enough for two months, but here we have a +ship load. Why did you buy out a store, Miller?"</p> + +<p>"I had to make a bill and I did not want the grocery man to think we +were paupers," retorted Miller.</p> + +<p>"How much were the repairs on the house, Miller?" asked Carlin.</p> + +<p>"There's the beggar's bill. It's a dead swindle, and I told him so. He +ought to have been a plumber. He had by the Eternal. He has no more +conscience than a police judge. Here's the scoundrel's bill," said +Miller, excitedly, as he proceeded to read the following:</p> + +<p>"'To repairing roof, $17.50; twenty battens, $4.00; to putting on +battens, $3.00; hanging one door, $3.50; six lights glass, $3.00; +setting same, $3.00; lumber, $4.80; putting up bunks, $27.50; total, +$66.30.'</p> + +<p>"The man is no better than a thief; if he is, I'm a sinner."</p> + +<p>"You bought some dishes, did you not, Miller?" inquired Ashley. "How +much did they amount to?"</p> + +<p>"There's another scalper," answered Miller, warmly. "I told him we +wanted a few dishes, knives, forks, etc.—just enough for seven men to +cabin with—and here is the bill. It foots up $63.37. A bill for wood +also amounts to $15.00; two extra chairs, $6.00."</p> + +<p>Brewster, who had been making a memorandum, spoke up and said: "If I +have made no error the account stands as follows:</p> + +<table width="50%"> +<tr><td>Provisions</td><td align="right">$357 56</td></tr> +<tr><td>Crockery, knives, forks, etc.</td><td align="right">53 37</td></tr> +<tr><td>Wood</td><td align="right">19 00</td></tr> +<tr><td>Repairs</td><td align="right">66 50</td></tr> +<tr><td>One month's rent</td><td align="right">50 00</td></tr> +<tr><td>One month's water</td><td align="right">7 00</td></tr> +<tr><td>Chairs</td><td align="right">6 00</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td align="right">--------</td></tr> +<tr><td>Making a total of</td><td align="right">$559 43</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>Or, in round numbers, eighty dollars per capita for us all. I settled my +account at the store, amounting to $32.60, which leaves $47.40 as my +proportion of the balance. Here is the money."</p> + +<p>This was like Brewster. Some of the others settled and a part begged-off +until next pay-day.</p> + +<p>The next question was about the cooking. After a brief debate it was +determined that all would join in getting up the first supper. So one +rushed to a convenient butcher shop and soon returned with a basket full +of porter house steaks, sweetbreads and lamb chops; another prepared the +potatoes and put them in the oven; another attended to the fire; another +to setting the table. Brewster was delegated to make the coffee. To +Corrigan was ascribed the task of cooking the meats, while Miller +volunteered to make some biscuits that would "touch their hearts."</p> + +<p>He mixed the ingredients in the usual way and thoroughly kneaded the +dough. He then, with the big portion of a whisky bottle for a +rolling-pin, rolled the dough out about a fourth of an inch thick. He +then touched it gently all over with half melted butter; rolled the thin +sheet into a large roll; then with the bottle reduced this again to the +required thickness for biscuits, and, with a tumbler, cut them out. His +biscuit trick he had learned from an old Hungarian, who, for a couple of +seasons, had been his mining partner. It is an art which many a fine +lady would be glad to know. The result is a biscuit which melts like +cream in the mouth—like a fair woman's smile on a hungry eye. Corrigan +had his sweetbreads frying, and when the biscuits were put in the oven, +the steak and chops were put on to broil. The steak had been salted and +peppered—miner's fashion—and over it slices of bacon, cut thin as +wafers, had been laid. The bacon, under the heat, shriveled up and +rolled off into the fire, but not until the flavor had been given to the +steak. One of the miners had opened a couple of cans of preserved +pine-apples; the coffee was hot, the meats and the biscuits were ready, +and so the simple supper was served. Harding had placed the chairs; +Brewster's was at the head of the table.</p> + +<p>Corrigan waited until all the others had taken their seats at the table; +then, with a glass in his hand and a demijohn thrown over his right +elbow, he stepped forward and said:</p> + +<p>"To didicate the house, and also as a medicine, I prescribe for aitch +patient forty drops."</p> + +<p>Each took his medicine resignedly, and as the last one returned the +glass, Corrigan added: "It appears to me I am not faling ony too well +meself," and either as a remedy or preventive, he took some of the +medicine.</p> + +<p>The supper was ravenously swallowed by the men, who for months had eaten +nothing but miners' boarding-house fare. With one voice they declared +that it was the first real meal they had eaten for weeks, and over their +coffee they drank long life to housekeeping and confusion to +boarding-houses.</p> + +<p>When the supper was over and the things put away, the pipes were +lighted. By this time the shadow of Mount Davidson around them had +melted into the gloom of the night, and for the first time in months +these men settled themselves down to spend an evening at home. It was a +new experience.</p> + +<p>"It is just splendid," cried Wright. "No beer, no billiards, no painted +nymphs, no chance for a row. We have been sorry fools for months—for +years, for that matter—or we would have opened business at this stand +long ago."</p> + +<p>"We have, indeed," said Ashley. "To-night we make a new departure. What +shall we call our mess?"</p> + +<p>Many names were suggested, but finally "The Comstock Club" was proposed +and nominated by acclamation.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3> THE COMSTOCK CLUB.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>It was agreed, too, that no other members, except honorary members, +should be admitted, and no politics talked. Then the conversation became +general, and later, confidential; and each member of the Club uncovered +a little his heart and his hopes.</p> + +<p>Miller meant, so soon as he "made a little stake," to go down to San +Francisco and assault the stock sharps right in their Pine and +California street dens. He believed he had discovered the rule which +could reduce stock speculation to an exact science, and he was anxious +for the opportunity which a little capital would afford, "to show those +sharpers at the Bay a trick or two, which they had never yet 'dropped +on.'" He added, patronizingly: "I will loan you all so much money, by +and by, that each of you will have enough to start a bank."</p> + +<p>"I shtarted a bank alridy, all be mesilf, night before last," said +Corrigan.</p> + +<p>"What kind of a bank was it, Barney?" asked Harding.</p> + +<p>"One of King Pharo's. I put a twenty-dollar pace upon the Quane; that +shtarted the bank. The chap on the other side of the table commenced to +pay out the pictures, and the Quane——"</p> + +<p>"Well, what of the Queen, Barney?" asked Carlin.</p> + +<p>"She fill down be the side of the sardane box, and the chap raked in me +double agle."</p> + +<p>"How do you like that style of banking, Barney?" asked Ashley.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Its mighty plisant and enthertainin', of course; the business sames +to be thransacted with a grate dale of promptness and dispatch; the only +drawback seems to be that the rates of ixchange are purty high."</p> + +<p>Tom Carlin knew of a great farm, a store, a flour mill, and a hazel-eyed +girl back in Illinois. He coveted them all, but was determined to +possess the girl anyway.</p> + +<p>After a little persuasion, he showed her picture to the Club. They all +praised it warmly, and Corrigan declared she was a daisy. In a neat hand +on the bottom of the picture was written: "With love, Susie Richards." +Carlin always referred to her as "Susie Dick."</p> + +<p>Harding, upon being rallied, explained that his father came with the +Argonauts to the West; that he was brilliant, but over-generous; that he +had lived fast and with his purse open to every one, and had died while +yet in his prime, leaving an encumbered estate, which must be cleared of +its indebtedness, that no stain might rest upon the name of Harding. +There was a gleam in the dark eyes, and a ring to the voice of the boy +as he spoke, that kindled the admiration of the Club, and when he ceased +speaking, Miller reached out and shook his hand, saying: "You should +have the money, my boy!"</p> + +<p>Back in Massachusetts, Brewster had met with a whole train of +misfortunes; his property had become involved; his wife had died—his +voice lowered and grew husky when mentioning this—he had two little +girls, Mable and Mildred. He had kept his children at school and paid +their way despite the iron fortune that had hedged him about, and he was +working to shield them from all the sorrows possible, without the aid of +the Saint who had gone to heaven. The Club was silent for a moment, when +the strong man added, solemnly, and as if to himself: "Who knows that +she does not help us still?"</p> + +<p>In his youth, Brewster acquired the trade of an engineer. At this time, +as we learned before, he was running a power drill in the Bullion. He +was a great reader and was thorough on many subjects.</p> + +<p>Wright had his eyes on a stock range in California, where the land was +cheap, the pasturage fine, the water abundant, and where, with the land +and a few head of stock for a beginning, a man would in a few years be +too rich to count his money. He had been accustomed to stock, when a +boy, in Missouri, and was sure that there was more fun in chasing a wild +steer with a good mustang, than finding the biggest silver mine in +America.</p> + +<p>Ashley had gained some new ideas since coming West. He believed he knew +a cheap farm back in Pennsylvania, that, with thorough cultivation, +would yield bountifully. There were coal and iron mines there also, +which he could open in a way to make old fogies in that country open +their eyes. He knew, too, of a district there, where a man, if he +behaved himself, might be elected to Congress. It was plain, from his +talk, that he had some ambitious plans maturing in his mind.</p> + +<p>Corrigan had an old mother in New York. He was going to have a few acres +of land after awhile in California, where grapes and apricots would +grow, and chickens and pigs would thrive and be happy. He was going to +fix the place to his own notion, then was going to send for his mother, +and when she came, every day thereafter he was going to look into the +happiest old lady's eyes between the seas.</p> + +<p>So they talked, and did not note how swiftly the night was speeding, +until the deep whistle of the Norcross hoisting engine sounded for the +eleven o'clock shift, and in an instant was followed by all the whistles +up and down the great lode.</p> + +<p>Then the good nights were said, and in ten minutes the lights were +extinguished and the mantles of night and silence were wrapped around +the house.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + + +<p>An early breakfast was prepared by the whole Club, as the supper of the +previous evening had been. The miners had to be at the mines, where they +worked, promptly at 7 o'clock, to take the places of the men who had +worked since eleven o'clock the previous night.</p> + +<p>While at breakfast the door of the house was softly opened and a +Chinaman showed his face. He explained that he was a "belly good cook," +and would like to work for ten dollars a week.</p> + +<p>Carlin was nearest the door, and in a bantering tone opened a +conversation with the Mongolian.</p> + +<p>"What is your name, John?"</p> + +<p>"Yap Sing."</p> + +<p>"Are you a good cook, sure, Yap?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, me belly good cook; me cookie bleef-steak, chickie, turkie, +goosie; me makie bled, pie, ebbything; me belly good cook."</p> + +<p>"Have you any cousins, Yap?"</p> + +<p>"No cuzzie; no likie cuzzie."</p> + +<p>"Do you get drunk, Yap?"</p> + +<p>"No gettie glunk; no likie blandy."</p> + +<p>"Do you smoke opium?"</p> + +<p>"No likie smokie opium. You sabe, one man smokie opium, letee while he +all same one fool; all same one d——d monkey."</p> + +<p>"Suppose we were to hire you, Yap, how long would it take you to steal +everything in the ranch?"</p> + +<p>"Me no stealie; me no likie stealie."</p> + +<p>"Now, Yap, suppose we hire you and we all go off to the mines and leave +you here, and some one comes and wants to buy bacon and beans and flour +and sugar, what would you do?"</p> + +<p>"Me no sellie."</p> + +<p>"Suppose some one comes and wants to steal things, what then?"</p> + +<p>"Me cuttie his ears off; me cuttie his d——d throat."</p> + +<p>At this Brewster interposed and said: "I believe it would be a good idea +to engage this Chinaman. We are away and the place is unprotected all +day; besides, after a man has worked all day down in the hot levels of +the Comstock, he does not feel like cooking his own dinner. Let us give +John a trial."</p> + +<p>It was agreed to. Yap Sing was duly installed. He was instructed to have +supper promptly at six o'clock; orders were given him on the markets for +fresh meat, vegetables, etc. From the remnants of the breakfast the +dinner buckets were filled and the men went away to their work.</p> + +<p>Yap Sing proved to be an artist in his way. When the members of the Club +met again at their home, a splendid, hot supper was waiting for them. +They ate, as hungry miners do, congratulating themselves that, as it +were from the sky, an angel of a heathen had dropped down upon them.</p> + +<p>After supper, when the pipes were lighted, the conversation of the +previous evening was resumed.</p> + +<p>The second night brought out something of the history of each. They had +nearly all lived in California; some had wandered the Golden Coast all +over; all had roughed it, and all had an experience to relate. These +evening visits soon became very enjoyable to the members of the Club, +and the friendship of the members for each other increased as they the +more thoroughly, knew the inner lives of each other.</p> + +<p>On this night, Wright was the last to speak of himself. When he had +concluded, Ashley said to him: "Wright, you have had some lively +experiences. What is the most impressive scene that you ever witnessed?"</p> + +<p>"I hardly know." Wright replied. "I think maybe a mirage that was +painted for me, one day, out on the desert, this side of the sink of the +Humbolt, when I was crossing the plains, shook me up about as much as +anything that ever overtook me, except the chills and fever, which I +used to have when a boy, back in Missouri. For only a picture it was +right worrisome."</p> + +<p>The Club wanted to hear about it, and so Wright proceeded as follows:</p> + +<p>"We had been having rough times for a good while; thar had been sickness +in the train; some of the best animals had been poisoned with alkali; +thar had been some Injun scares—it was in '57—and we all had been +broken, more or less, of our rest, I in particular, was a good deal +jolted up; was nervous and full of starts and shivers. I suspect thar +was a little fever on me. We halted one morning on the desert, to rest +the stock, and make some coffee. It was about eight o'clock. We had been +traveling since sundown the night before, crossing the great desert, and +hoped to reach Truckee River that afternoon.</p> + +<p>"While resting, a mighty desire took possession of me to see the river, +and to feel that the desert was crossed.</p> + +<p>"I had a saddle mule that was still in good condition. I had petted him +since he was three days old, had broken him, and he and myself were the +best of friends. His mother was a thoroughbred Kentucky mare; from her +he had inherited his courage and staying qualities, while he had also +just enough of his father's stubbornness to be useful, for it held his +heart up to the work when things got rough.</p> + +<p>"I looked over the train; it was all right; I was not needed; would not +be any more that day.</p> + +<p>"The mule was brought up in the Osage hills, and I had named him Osage, +which after awhile became contracted to Sage. I went to him and looked +him over. He was quietly munching a bacon sack. I took a couple of +quarts of wheaten flour, mixed it into a soft paste, with water from one +of the kegs which had been brought along, and gave it to him. He drank +it as a hungry boy drinks porridge, and licked the dish clean. The +journey had impressed upon him the absolute need of exercising the +closest economy.</p> + +<p>"When he had finished his rather light breakfast, I whispered to him +that if he would stand in with me, I would show him, before night, the +prettiest stream of water—snow water—in the world. I think he +understood me perfectly. Telling the people of the train that I would go +ahead and look out a camping place, I took my shotgun, put a couple of +biscuits in my pocket, and mounted Sage. He struck out at once on his +long swinging walk.</p> + +<p>"It was an August morning and had been hot ever since the sun rose. That +is a feature out thar on the desert in the summer. The nights get cold, +but so soon as the sun comes up, it is like going down into the +Comstock. In fifteen minutes everything is steaming. Old Ben Allen, down +on the borders of the Cherokee Nation, never of a morning, warmed up his +niggers any livelier than the sun does the desert.</p> + +<p>"I rode for a couple of hours. As I said, I was weak and nervous. In the +sand, Sage's feet hardly made any sound, and the glare and the silence +of the desert were around and upon me. If you never experienced it you +don't know what the silence of the desert means. Take a day when the +winds are laid; when in all directions, as far as your vision extends, +thar is not a moving thing; when all that you can see is the brazen sky +overhead, and the scarred breast of the earth, as if smitten and +transfixed by Thor's thunderbolts, lying prone and desolate like the +face of a dead world, before you; and withal not one sound: absolute +stillness; and strong nerves after awhile become strained. On me, that +forenoon, my surroundings became almost intolerable. I had been on foot +driving team all night; I had eaten nothing since midnight, and then had +only forced down a small slice of bread and a cup of horrible black +coffee, and was really not more than half myself. One moment I was +chilly; the next was perspiring, and sometimes it seemed as though I +should suffocate. With my nerves strung up as they were, I guess it +would not have required much to give me a panic.</p> + +<p>"Just then, out against the sun to the southward, and apparently a mile +away, I saw something. Talk about being impressed! that was my time. I +was sure I saw five hundred Indian warriors, all mounted. They were +wheeling in black squadrons on the desert, wheeling and forming, as I +thought. Horses and men were all black, and now and then as they wheeled +or swung to and fro, I marked what I was sure was the gleam of steel. +They evidently had seen me: I expected every moment to hear their yell +and wondered that I did not feel the tremble of the earth beneath their +horses' feet; I was too nearly paralyzed to try to escape. I slipped or +fell, I don't know which, from my mule, and lay panting like a tired +hound upon the sand. But I could not keep my eyes from the terrible +sight before me. Still those tawny warriors kept wheeling and forming, +and as I believed, menacing me.</p> + +<p>"At length I grew a little calmer, and remember that I explained to +myself that the reason I did not hear the thunder of their horses' feet, +was because of the sand, and from the fact that the ponies could not be +shod. But I wondered more and more where an Indian tribe could get so +many black horses.</p> + +<p>"Once, when they seemed particularly furious, and just on the point of +charging down upon me; I remember that I said to myself: 'If they eat me +they will have to broil me in the sun, for thar is no fuel here.' All +the time too, I was pitying Sage, and my own voice frightened me as I +unconsciously said: 'Poor Sage, it is a hard fate to be faithful and +suffer as you have and then fall into the hands of savages.'</p> + +<p>"When a little more under my own control, I cautiously rose to my feet +and looked at the mule. It was no use. On top of the fatigue of coming +quite two thousand miles, he had, on that morning, been constantly +traveling for fourteen hours, with only two rests of thirty minutes +each. He never could get away from those fresh ponies. I looked back in +the direction of the train; it was nowhar in sight and must have been +back probably five miles.</p> + +<p>"In this strait I looked up again toward my savages. At that very moment +the charge commenced; the whole array was bearing down upon me. I took +my gun from the horn of the saddle and sat down on the ground. I +felt—but no matter how I felt; I only know that at that moment I would +have given my note for a large sum to have been back in Missouri.</p> + +<p>"On they swept, and I watched them coming. But somehow they began to +grow smaller and smaller, and in an instant more the squadron vanished. +Where the moment before an armed band, terrible with life and bristling +with fury, had shone upon my eyes, now all that there was to be seen was +a flock of perhaps twenty ravens, flying with short flights, and hopping +and lighting around some little thing, which lay above the level of the +desert. I mounted Sage and rode out to the spot, some four hundred yards +away.</p> + +<p>"I found another road, and strung along it, were the carcasses of a good +many cattle that had died in emigrant trains. The ravens were hopping +about these carcasses and flying from one to another. I had heard of the +mirage of the desert, when a boy in school, and suddenly 'I dropped +upon' the whole business. By some mighty refraction of the beams of +light, these miserable scavengers of the desert had been magnified into +formidable, mounted warriors, and the glint of steel that I had seen, +was but the shimmer of sunbeams upon their black wings.</p> + +<p>"Again I headed Sage for the river. In a little while he commenced to +stretch out his nose; soon, of his own accord, he quickened his pace to +a trot, a little later he took up his long lope and never relaxed his +speed until he drove his nose into the delicious water of the Truckee. I +dismounted and joined him. Right there we each took the biggest and +longest drink of our lives; then I gave Sage one of my biscuits and ate +the other myself, and we both felt immensely refreshed. I stripped the +saddle and bridle from the mule and let him go. The river bank was green +with grass and Sage was happy.</p> + +<p>"Throwing myself upon the ground, and laying my head upon the saddle, I +composed myself for a sleep.</p> + +<p>"I was greatly in need of sleep, but the moment I closed my eyes, here +came my black cavalry charging down upon me again, and I sprang up with +a cry. Of all impressive scenes, that was my biggest one sure. I see it +in my dreams still, at times, and I never, from this mountain side, look +down to where the sand clouds are piling up their dunes over toward the +Sink of the Carson, that I do not instinctively take one furtive glance +in search of my savages."</p> + +<p>"I had a livelier mirage than that once," said Miller with a laugh. "I +was prospecting for quartz in the foothills of Rogue River Valley, +Oregon, and looking up, I thought I saw four or five deer, lying under a +tree, on a hill side, about three hundred yards away. I raised the sight +on my gun, took as good aim as I could on horseback, and blazed away.</p> + +<p>"In a second, four of those Rogue River Indians sprang from the ground +and made for me. I had a good horse, but they ran me six miles before +they gave up the chase. No more mirages like that for me, if you +please."</p> + +<p>"I had a worse one than either of yees," chimed in Corrigan. "It was in +that tough winter of '69. I had been placer mining up by Pine Grove, in +California, all summer. I had a fair surface claim, and by wurking half +the time, I paid me way and had a few dollars besides. The other half of +the time I was wurking upon a dape cut, through bid rock, to get a fall +in which I could place heavy sluices, and calculated that with the +spring I could put in a pipe, and hydraulic more ground in one sason +than I could wurk in the ould way in tin. One day, late in the autumn, I +went up to La Porte to buy supplies, and on the night that I made that +camp it began to snow. When once it got shtarted, it just continued to +snow, as it can up in those mountains, and niver "lit up" for four hours +at a time for thray wakes. It began to look as though the glacial period +had returned to the wurld.</p> + +<p>"When I wint into town, I put up at Mrs. O'Kelly's boardin' and lodgin' +house. Mrs. O'Kelly was a big woman, weighin' full two hundred pounds, +and she was a business woman. She didn't pretind to be remainin' in La +Porte jist for her hilth.</p> + +<p>"But there was a beautiful girl waitin' on the table in Mrs. O'Kelly's +home. Her name was Maggie Murphy, and she was as thrim and purty a girl +as you would wish to mate. She had bright, cheery ways, and whin she +wint up to a table and sung out 'Soup'? all the crockery in the dinin' +room would dance for joy.</p> + +<p>"Of an avenin' I used, after a few days, to visit a bit with Maggie. +Some one had told about the camp that I had a great mine, and was all +solid, and I was willin' to have the delusion kipt up, anyway until the +storm saised. Maggie, I have a suspicion, had hurd the same story, for +she was exceedingly gracious loike to me. One avenin,' as I was sayin' +'good night'—we were growin' mighty familiar loike thin—I said +'Maggie,' says I, 'the last woman I iver kissed was my ould mother, may +I not kiss you, for I love you, darlint?' 'Indade you shall not,' says +she, but in spite of that, somethin' in her eyes made me bould loike, +and I saised upon and hild her—but she did not hould so very hard—and +I kissed her upon chake and lips and eyes, and me arms were around her, +and her heart was throbbin' warm against mine, and me soul was in the +siventh heaven.</p> + +<p>"After awhile we quieted down a bit, and with me arms shtill around her, +I asked, didn't she think Corrigan was a purtier name nor Murphy, and as +I could not change my name fur her sake, wouldn't she change hers fur +moine?</p> + +<p>"Thin with the tears shinin' loike shtars in her beautiful eyes, she +raised up her arms, let thim shtale round me neck, and layin' her chake +against me breast, which was throbbin' loike a stone bruise, said, said +she, 'Yis, Barney, darlint.'</p> + +<p>"I had niver thought Barney was a very beautiful name before, but jist +then it shtruck upon me ear swater thin marriage bells."</p> + +<p>Here Miller interrupted with, "You felt pretty proud just then, did you +not, Barney?"</p> + +<p>"The Koohinoor would not hiv made a collar button fur me."</p> + +<p>"Don't interrupt him, Miller," interposed Carlin; "let Barney tell us the +rest of the story."</p> + +<p>"There was a sofay near by. I drew Maggie to it, sat down and hild her +to me side. She was pale, and we were both sort of trembly loike.</p> + +<p>"We did not talk much at first, but after awile Maggie said, suddent, +said she: 'What a liar you are, Barney!'</p> + +<p>"And I said 'for why?' And she said 'to say you had niver kissed a woman +since you had lift your ould mother. You have had plinty of practice.'</p> + +<p>"'And how do you know,' says I, and thin—but no matter, we had to begin +all over again.</p> + +<p>"After awhile I wint away to bid, and talk about your mirages; all that +night there was a convoy of angels around me, and the batein' of their +wings was swater than the echoes that float in whin soft music comes +from afar over still wathers.</p> + +<p>"One of the angels had just folded her wings and taken the form of +Maggie, and was jist bend in' over me, whisperin' beautiful loike, whin, +oh murther, I was wakened with a cry of: 'Are ye there now, ye +blackguard?' I opened me eyes, and there stood Mrs. O'Kelly, with a +broomstick over her head, and somethin' in her eye that looked moighty +like a cloudburst.</p> + +<p>"'Ye thavin' villin,' said she, 'pertendin' to be a rich miner, and +atin' up a poor woman all the time.' Thin she broke down intoirely and +comminced wailin.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, Mr. Corrigan,' she howled through her sobs, 'How could yees come +here and impose upon a unsuspectin' widdie; you know how hard I wurk; +that I am up from early mornin' until the middle of the night, cookin' +and shwapin' and makin' beds, and slavin' loike a black nigger, and——' +by this time she recovered her timper and complated the sintence with: +'If yees don't pay me at once I'll—I'll, I'll—'</p> + +<p>"I found breath enough after awhile to tell her to hould on. My +pantaloons were on a chair within aisy rache; I snatched thim up, sayin' +as I did so: 'How much is your bill, Mrs. O'Kelly?'</p> + +<p>"'Thray wakes at iliven dollars is thray and thirty dollars, and one +extra day is a dollar and five bits, or altogither, thirty-four dollars +and five bits.'</p> + +<p>"I shtill had siveral twinty-dollar paces; I plunged me hand into the +pocket of me pants, saized them all, thin let them drop upon aich other, +all but two, and holdin' these out, said sharply, and still with the +grand air of a millionaire: 'The change, if you plase, Mrs. O'Kelly.'</p> + +<p>"She took the money, gazed upon it a moment with a dazed and surprised +look; thin suddenly her face was wrathed in smiles, and as softly as a +woman with her voice (it sounded loike a muffled threshing machine) +could, said: 'Take back your money. Mr. Corrigan, and remain as long as +you plase. I was only jist after playin' a bit of a trick upon yees. +What do yees think I care for a few beggarly dollars?'</p> + +<p>"But I could not see it; I remained firm. Again I said: 'The change, if +you plase, Mrs. O'Kelly, and as soon too as convanient.'</p> + +<p>"She brought me the change, sayin': 'I'll have your brikfast smokin' hot +for yees, in five minutes, Mr. Corrigan.'</p> + +<p>"I put on me clothes and looked out. The storm had worn itself out at +last. I wint down stairs to the dinin' room door, and beckoned to +Maggie. She came to me, and there ware the rale love-light in her +beautiful eyes. I can see her now. She was straight as a pump rod; her +head sat upon her nick like a picture; the nick itsilf was white loike +snow—but niver mind.</p> + +<p>"'Come out in the hall a bit.' I whispered, and she come. I clasped her +hand for a moment and said: 'It's goin' home I am, Maggie; I am goin' to +fix me house a little: it will take me forty days to make me +arrangements. If I come thin, will you take me name and go back with +me?'</p> + +<p>"'I will,' says she.</p> + +<p>"This is the sivinteenth of the month, Maggie; the sivinteenth of next +month will be thirty days, and tin more will make it the twinty-sivinth. +If I come thin, will yees go?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'I will, Barney, Dear,' was the answer.</p> + +<p>"'Have yees thought it over, and will yees be satisfied, darlint?' I +asked.</p> + +<p>"'I have, Barney; I shall be satisfied, and I will be a good wife to +yees, darlint,' was the answer.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>MAGGIE.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>"Thin I hild out me arms and she sprang into thim. There was an embrace +and a kiss and thin—</p> + +<p>"'Goodbye, Maggie!'</p> + +<p>"'Good bye, Barney!' and I wint away.</p> + +<p>"I wint to a ristaurant and got a cup of coffee, and was jist startin' +fer home, whin a frind come up and said: 'Barney,' said he; 'there's a +man here you ought to go and punch the nose off of.'</p> + +<p>"'What fur,' says I.</p> + +<p>"'He's a slanderin' of yer,' says he.</p> + +<p>"'Who is the man and what is he sayin?' says I.</p> + +<p>"'It's Mike Dougherty, the blacksmith,' says he; and he is a sayin' as +how your claim is no account, and that you are a bummer.'</p> + +<p>"Me heart was too light to think of quarrelin'; on me lips the honey of +Maggie's kiss was still warm, and what did I care what ony man said. I +merely laughed, and said: 'Maybe he is right,' and wint upon me way."</p> + +<p>With this Corrigan ceased speaking. After a moment or two of silence, +Carlin said:</p> + +<p>"Well, Barney, how was it in six weeks?"</p> + +<p>"I had another mirage thin," said Barney. "I wint up to town; called at +Mrs. O'Kelly's; she mit me, smilin' like, and said: 'Walk in, Mr. +Corrigan!' I said: 'If you please, Mrs. O'Kelly, can I see Miss Murphy?' +There was a vicious twinkle in her eye, as she answered, pointin' to a +nate house upon the hillside, as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"'You will find her there, but her name is changed now. She was married +on Thursday wake, to Mr. Mike Dougherty, the blacksmith. A foine man, +and man of property, is Mr. Dougherty.'</p> + +<p>"Talk about shtrong impressions! For a moment I felt as though I was +fallin' down a shaft. I——but don't mention it."</p> + +<p>Barney was still for a moment, and then said, in a voice almost husky: +"As I came into town that day, all the great pines were noddin,' +shmilin' and stretchin' out their mighty arms, as much as to say: 'We +congratulate you, Mr. Corrigan.' As I turned away from Mrs. O'Kelly's, +it samed to me that ivery one of thim had drawn in its branches and +stood as the hoodlum does whin he pints his thumb to his nose and +wriggles his fingers."</p> + +<p>Just then the Potosi whistle rung out on the still night again, the +others answered the call, and the Club, at the signal, retired.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + + +<p>As the pipes were lighted next evening, Carlin said to Barney: +"Corrigan, does the ghost of your La Porte mirage haunt you as Wright's +does him?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it," answered Corrigan sharply. "It hurt for awhile, I +confess it, but a year and a half after Maggie was married, I passed her +house one avenin' in the gloaming, and in a voice which I knew well, +though all the swateness had been distilled out of it, this missage came +out upon the air: 'Mike, if yees have got the brat to slape, yees had +better lay him down and come out to your tay. I should loike to get +these supper things put away sometime to-night.' Be dad, there was no +mirage about that, no ravens about that, Wright; it was the charge of +the rale Injun!'"</p> + +<p>"Speaking of babies," said Miller nonchalantly, "do you know that about +the most touching scene I ever witnessed was over a baby? It was in +Downieville. California, way back in '51 or '2. You know at that time +babies were not very numerous in the Sierras. There were plenty of men +there who had not seen a good woman, or a baby, for two years or more. +You may not believe it, but you shut the presence of women and children +all out of men's lives, for months at a time, and they contract a +disease, which I call 'heart hunger,' and because of that I suspect that +more whiskey has been drunk in this country, and more killings have +grown out of trifling quarrels, than through all other causes combined. +Without the eyes of women, good women, that he respects, upon a man, in +a little while the wild beast, which is latent in all men's hearts, +begins to assert itself. Because of this, men who were born to be good +and true, have, to kill the unrest within their souls, taken to drink; +the drink has led naturally up to a quarrel; they have got away with +their first fight; the fools around them have praised them for their +'sand'; there has been no look of sorrow and reproach in any honest +woman's eyes to bring them back to their senses; and after such a +beginning, look for them in a year, and, in nine cases out of ten, you +will find that they are lost men.</p> + +<p>"But I commenced to tell you about the Downieville baby. It had been +decided that we would have a Fourth of July celebration. There was no +trouble about getting it up. We had a hundred men in camp, either one of +whom could make as pretty a speech as you ever heard; everybody had +plenty of money, and there was no trouble about fixing things to have a +lively time. True, there was no chance for a triumphal car, with a +Goddess of Liberty, and a young lady to represent each State. There was +a good reason for it. There were not thirty young ladies within three +hundred miles of us.</p> + +<p>"But we had a big live eagle to represent Sovereignty, and a grizzly +bear as a symbol of Power, which we hauled in the procession; we had +some mounted men, including some Mexican packers on mule back; a vast +variety of flags, and many citizens on foot in the procession. Of course +we had a marshal and his staff, a president of the day, an orator, poet, +reader and chaplain, and last, but not least, a brass band of a few +months' training. There were flags enough for a grand army, and every +anvil in town was kept red hot firing salutes.</p> + +<p>"After the parade, the more sedate portion of the people repaired to the +theatre, to hear the Declaration, poem, and oration. The prayer, +Declaration and poem had been disposed of, and the president of the day +was just about to introduce the orator, when a solitary baby but a few +months old, set up a most energetic yell, and continued it for two or +three minutes, the frightened mother not daring in that crowd to supply +the soothing the youngster was evidently demanding. To cause a +diversion, I suppose, the leader of the brass band nodded to the others, +and they commenced to play the 'Star Spangled Banner.' The band had not +had very much more practice than the baby, but the players were doing +the best they could, when a tremendous, big-whiskered miner sprang upon +a back seat, and waving his hat wildly, in a voice like a thunder-roll, +shouted: 'Stop that——d band and give the baby a chance!'</p> + +<p>"Nothing like what followed during the next ten minutes had ever been +seen on this earth, since the confusion of tongues transpired among the +builders of Babel's Tower. Men shouted and yelled like mad men, +strangers shook each other by the hand and screamed 'hurrah,' and in the +crowd I saw a dozen men crying like children.</p> + +<p>"For a moment every heart was softened by the memories that baby's cries +awakened.</p> + +<p>"The next time you feel provoked because the children shout and shy +rocks as they return from school, you may all remember that could the +world be carried on without children, it would not require more than two +generations to transform men into wild beasts."</p> + +<p>When Miller ceased speaking, Ashley remarked: "Miller, yon talk very +wisely on the subject of babies, why have you none of your own?"</p> + +<p>Miller waited a moment before answering, and then in an absent-minded +manner said:</p> + +<p>"Did you never hear a gilt-edged expert talk familiarly about a mine, as +though he knew all about it, when he did not really know a streak of ore +from east country porphyry?"</p> + +<p>At this the others all laughed, and Miller joined in the merriment +heartily, but nevertheless, something in the thoughts which the question +awakened, had its effect upon him, for he was moody and preoccupied for +several minutes. Meanwhile, a spell seemed to be upon the whole Club, +except Brewster, who was reading a pamphlet on "The Creation of Mineral +Veins," and Carlin, who was absorbed in a daily paper.</p> + +<p>"Whoever stops to think," proceeded Miller, speaking as much to himself +as to the others, "upon what sorrows the foundations of new States are +laid, how many hearts are broken, how many strong lives are worn out in +the pitiless struggle?</p> + +<p>"Where are the men who were the Argonauts of the golden days? The most +of them are gone. Every hill side is marked with their graves. They were +a strong, brave, generous race. They laid the wand of their power on the +barbarism which met them; it melted away at their touch; they blazed the +trails and smoothed the paths, that, unsoiled, the delicate sandals of +civilization might draw near; they rifled the hills and ravines of their +stores of gold, and poured it into the Nation's lap, until every +sluggish artery of business was set bounding; they built temples to +Religion, to Learning, to Justice and to Industry; as they moved on, +cities sprung up in their wake; following them came the enchantments of +home and the songs of children; but for them, what was their portion? +They were to work, to struggle, to be misjudged in the land whence they +came; to learn to receive any blows which outrageous fortune might hurl +at them, without plaint; to watch while States grew into place around +them, and while the frown on the face of the desert relaxed into a smile +at their toil, that toil was simply to be accepted as a matter of course +by the world, and in the severe and self-satisfied civilization of older +States, only pity was to be felt for their ignorance, and only horror +for their rough ways. They were to be path-finders, the sappers and +miners to storm the strong-holds of barbarism; through summer's heat, +and winter's cold, to continue their march, until the final night should +come, and then to sink to a dreamless bivouac under the stars. What +wonder if some became over-wearied! if others grew reckless?"</p> + +<p>He had risen and was walking the floor, to and fro, like a caged lion, +as he talked. Going now to the kitchen door, he cried: "Yap, bring some +hot water, some sugar, a nutmeg and some limes, if you have them."</p> + +<p>The heathen obeyed, and Miller made seven big, hot whiskey punches. Then +lifting his glass he offered this toast:</p> + +<p>"Here's to the Old Boys; to those who worked and suffered and died, but +never complained!"</p> + +<p>All rose and drank in silence.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + + +<p>At the next meeting, when the pipes were all lighted, Ashley, turning to +Miller, said:</p> + +<p>"You took too gloomy a view of things last night. What you said, or +rather something in your tone, has haunted me ever since. But you were +wrong. The Argonauts will not be forgotten.</p> + +<p>"The names of the kings who compelled the building of the pyramids are +mostly matters of conjecture now, but no man who ever gazed upon those +piles of stone that have borne unscarred the desert storms that have +been breaking upon and around them through the centuries, has failed to +think of the tremendous energy of the race that reared those monuments +above the sand; reared them so that the abrasion of the ages avails not +against them.</p> + +<p>"One loves to dream of how that race must have looked, there under that +sky, while yet the world was young, and while the energy and beauty of +youth was upon it. There was no steam power to assist, no power drills, +there were only rude, untempered tools. The plain wedge, and the lever +in its more effective form, were about all that was known of mechanics; +still from the quarries of Syene, far up the Nile, those blocks were +wrested, hewed, transported, lifted up and laid in place, and with such +mathematical precision was the work performed, that the ebb and flow of +the centuries have no effect upon the work. While this material work was +going on, in the same realm wise men were putting into a language the +alphabet of the sky, tracing out the procession of the stars and solving +the mystery of the seasons. When we think of Ancient Egypt, it is not of +her kings, but what was wrought out there by brain and hand.</p> + +<p>"To-day I was at work on the twenty-four hundred-foot level of the mine. +Around me power drills were working, cars were rattling, cages were +running; three hundred men were stoping, timbering and rolling cars to +and from the chutes and ore-breasts, and in the spectral light I thought +it was a scene for a painter. But while so thinking, for some reason, +there came to me the thought of the one hundred times three hundred men, +who, for a generation, worked on a single pyramid; worked without pay +days, without so much as a kind word, and on poorer fare than one gets +at a fourth-rate miners' boarding house; and, as I reflected over that, +our little work here seemed small indeed.</p> + +<p>"So, in estimating Greece, we do not pick out a few men or women to +remember, but we think of the race that made Thermopylæ and Marathon +possibilities, of the men who followed Xenophon, of the women who closed +their hearts and left their deformed offspring to perish in the woods +that Greece should rear no woman who could not bear soldiers, no man who +could not bear arms; of the race so finely strung that poetry was born +of it; that sculpture and eloquence were so perfected in, that to copy +is impossible; that was so susceptible to beauty that it turned justice +aside, and yet that was so valiant that it mastered the world.</p> + +<p>"So of Rome! It is not that the great Julius lived that we call it 'The +Imperial Nation.' We stand in awe of it still, not because out of its +millions a few superb figures shine. Rather, we think of the valor that +from a little nucleus widened until it subdued the world; of the ten +thousand fields on which Romans fought and conquered. We think how they +marshaled their armies, and taught the nations how to lay out camps; how +they built roads and aqueducts, that their land might be defended and +the Imperial City sustained; how they carved out an architecture of +their own which the world still clings to in its most stately edifices; +how, from barbarism, they progressed, until they framed a code which is +still respected; how, in literature and the arts, they excelled, and +how, for a thousand years, they were the concernment of the world.</p> + +<p>"So of England. Which merits the greater glory, King John or the stern, +half barbarous barons who, with an instinct generations in advance of +their age, circled around their sullen king and compelled him to give to +them 'the great charter?' Through the thousand years that have succeeded +that act, how many individual names can we rescue from the hosts that on +that little isle have lived and died? Not many. But the grand career of +the nation is in the mind forever. How, through struggle after struggle, +the advance has been made; struggles that, though full of errors, knew +no faltering or despair, until at last, for the world, she became the +center and the bulwark of civilization; until in material strength she +had no equal; until the sheen of her sails gave light to all the seas, +and under her flag signal stations were upreared the world around. We do +not remember many men, but there is ever in the mind the thought of +English valor and persistence, and the clear judgment which backed the +valor by land and sea.</p> + +<p>"But we need not go abroad; our own land has examples enough. Not many +can call over the names of those who came in the 'Mayflower,' or those +who made up the colonies up and down the Atlantic coast. But the +spectacle of the 'Mayflower' band kneeling, on their arrival, in the +snow and singing a triumphal song, is a picture the tints of which will +deepen in splendor with the ages. We need not call over the names of our +statesmen and warriors; they give but a slight impression of our race. +But when we think how, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, the woods +were made to give place to gardens, fruitful fields and smiling homes; +when we think that the majority of those families had each of them less +to start with than any one of us gets for a month's labor, and yet how +they subdued the land, pressed back the savage, reared and educated and +created a literature for their children, until over all the vast expanse +there was peace, prosperity, enlightenment and joy, then it is that we +begin to grow proud.</p> + +<p>"If the Argonauts of the Golden Coast can show that they have wrought as +well, they will not be forgotten. Those who succeed them will know that +they were preceded by a race that was strong and brave and true, and +their memory in the West will be embalmed with the memory of those in +the East who, starting under the spray that is tossed from the white +surf of the eastern sea, with no capital but pluck, hewed out and +embellished the Republic.</p> + +<p>"Of course, there have been sorrows; of course, hearts have broken; but +there has been much of triumph also. It is something to have a home in +this Far West; there is something in the hills, the trees, the free air +and action of this region which brings to men thoughts that they would +never have had in other lands. It is not bad sometimes for men to leave +their books and turn to Nature for instruction. Here of all the world +some of the brightest pages of Nature's book are spread open for the +reader. And many a man that others pity because they think his heart +must be heavy, does not ask that pity; does not feel its need. Those +hearts have gathered to themselves delights, which, if not, perhaps, of +the highest order, still are very sweet. Let me give an instance.</p> + +<p>"Last year I went to look at a mine down in Tuolumne county, California. +I was the guest of a miner who had lived in the same cabin for more than +twenty years. He was his own cook and housekeeper and seldom had any +company except his books—a fine collection—his daily papers, his gun +and some domestic animals. He had a little orchard and garden. Around +his garden tame rabbits played with his dogs. In explanation, he said: +'They were all babies at the same time and have grown up together.' +While walking with him in his garden, he asked me if I had ever seen a +mountain quail on her nest. At the same moment he parted the limbs of a +shrub, and there, within six inches of his hand, sat a bird, her bright +eyes looking up in perfect confidence into his.</p> + +<p>"The place was in the high foothills; there was a space in front of his +cabin. From that point the hills, in steadily increasing waves, swelled +into the great ridges of the higher Sierras, and far away to the east +the blue crest of Mount Bodie stood out clear against the sky.</p> + +<p>"It was not strange to me that he loved the place. When within doors he +talked upon every subject with a peculiar terse shrewdness all his own. +He had had many bouts with the world; he knew men thoroughly; he had in +a measure withdrawn himself from them, and found a serener comfort in +his pets, his hills and trees. He had acquired that faculty which men +often do when a great deal alone in the mountains. He did not reason his +way up through the proof of a proposition, but with a clear sagacity +reached the truth at a bound, and left the reasoning for others. He had +his theory of how fissures were originally formed and filled; he had his +opinion of ancient and modern authors; he understood politics well, and +gave brief and true reasons for his belief. In short, he was a +self-appointed ambassador to the court of the hills, to represent all +the world.</p> + +<p>"My admiration for him increased the longer I remained with him, for he +knew much of interest to me; but he spoke always in a tone as though he +was revealing only a little of what he knew. I suspect that was the real +state of the case. There was a charm, too, about his manner. Though I +knew that he had suffered many disappointments, if not sorrows, there +was no bitterness. Whatever he did or said, was with a gentle grace of +his own. He was free, alike, from either harshness, egotism or +diffidence. Something of the great calm of the hills around him had +entered into his soul.</p> + +<p>"But the greatest surprise was reserved for me to the last. I had to get +up at three o'clock in the morning and walk over a dim trail two or +three miles to a little village, in order to take the stage which passed +the village at five o'clock. When I was ready, my friend said: 'There +are so many trails through the hills you might take the wrong one in the +uncertain light. I will pilot you.'</p> + +<p>"When we set out it was yet dark. There was an absolute hush upon the +world. Up through the branches of the great pines, God's lanterns were +swinging as though but just trimmed and lighted, and under the august +roof where they swung, they shone with rays more pure than vestal lamps. +But at length up the east some shafts of light were shot, and soon the +miracle of the dawn began to unfold. It was a June morning and entirely +cloudless. Soon the warm rays of approaching day began to bend over the +hills from the east; the foliage which had been black began to grow +green; the scarlet of the hills shone out where the light touched it; +the sentinel fires above began to grow dim. A little later the hills +began to grow resonant with the manifold voices which they held, and +which commenced to awaken to hail the approaching day.</p> + +<p>"Then my sententious companion, as though kindled by the same +influences, opened his lips. He seemed to have forgotten that I was +near; he was answering the greetings of his friends in the woods. I can +only give the faintest idea of what he said, and I grieve over it, for +it was sweeter than music. His words ran something like this:</p> + +<p>"'Chirp, chirp; O, my martin, (the swallow's grandmother); as usual you +are up first, to say good morning, the first to hail the beautiful +coming day. Ah, there you are, whistling, my lovely quail, you charming +cockaded glory; and now, my mocking bird, you brown splendor with a flat +nose, where do you get all your voices? Heigh, O! you are up, Mr. Jacob +(woodpecker) up to see if Mrs. Jacob is gathering acorns this morning, +you old miser of the woods, with your black and white clothes and your +thrift worse than a Chinaman's; and now, my morning dove has commenced +its daily drone, growling because breakfast is not ready, I suppose. At +last you have opened your eyes, Mrs. Lark; a nice bird you are to claim +to be an early riser, but you have a cheery voice, nevertheless. Now, my +wren and my oreole, you are making some genuine music, if both of you +together are not as big as one note of an organ. Hist! that was a +curlew's cry from away down on the river's bank, and now you are all +awake and singing, you noisy chatterers, as though your hearts would +burst for joy. Finally, old night-raiding owl, you are saying 'good +night' this morning, you old burglar of the woods.'</p> + +<p>"Meanwhile the banners of the dawn had grown more and more bright in the +sky, and as he ceased speaking, the full disc of the sun, lighted with +omnipotent fires, shone full above the hills, with a splendor too severe +for human eyes.</p> + +<p>"I had not interrupted my friend during the half hour that he, striding +before me on the trail, had been talking. I half suspected that he had +forgotten that I was near, absorbed as he was in greeting his warblers. +Of course I have not named the birds in their order; nor have I named +half that he greeted; I might as well try to repeat to you all the +scientific terms in one of Professor Stewart's earthquake lectures. But +all that day, and for many days afterwards, his words were ringing in my +ears; and often have I wondered, if, with his thoughts and his +surroundings, he was not with more reason and more peace, passing down +life's trail, than as though he were out in the pitiless world of men, +striving for wealth and for power. Never since have I seen a lonely man +in town, with shy face which revealed that he was unused to the crowds +of the city, purchasing some few little necessaries, and, apparently, +hurrying to get away, that I have not said to myself: 'He has a cabin +somewhere with books and dogs, and with a garden outside, and he knows +every bird in the forest by its morning call.'"</p> + +<p>While Ashley was talking, he had unconsciously fixed his eyes upon the +light which shone from a reflector, up through the window from the +hoisting works down the hill, and seemed to forget the presence of any +one near.</p> + +<p>As he ceased and looked around, he discovered that all his auditors had +fallen asleep in their chairs, except Yap Sing, who had stolen into the +room. He looked up knowingly, smiled and said:</p> + +<p>"You talkie belly nice. Me heap sabbie, clail, chickie, duckie, goosie. +Me cookie lem flirst late, you bettie."</p> + +<p>"You be—" said Ashley, and went to bed. The rest, awakened by the +whistles, started up in surprise, and Corrigan said: "I was dramin' of +agles and pacocks and swans and hummin' birds. I must have been afther +atin too much supper."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + + +<p>The next evening as the club gathered around the hearth, Brewster, who, +next to Harding, was the most reticent member of the party, said +apologetically to Ashley:</p> + +<p>"It was shabby of us not to give more heed to your story last night, but +the truth with me was, I was very tired. We were cutting out a station +on the 2,300 level of the mine, yesterday; the work was hard, the +ventilation bad, and it was hot and prostrating work. But, I heard most +of your story, nevertheless. While I know nothing of your miner who +lives with his books and birds and dogs and flowers; and hence know +nothing of what storms he has breasted and what heart-aches he has +borne; and, therefore, cannot, in my own mind, fix his place, still, on +general principles, it is man's duty never to accept any rebuff of +unkind fortune as a reason for ceasing to try; but rather he should +struggle on and do the best he can; if needs be dying with the harness +on his back. Moreover, as a rule, it is the easier way. It is in harmony +with nature's first great law, and man seldom errs when he follows the +laws that were framed before the world's foundations were laid. When man +was given his two feet to stand upon; his arms to cleave out for himself +a path and a career, and his brain to be his guide; then with the rich +earth for a field, in the opinion of the Infinite Goodness, he has all +the capital that he required. The opportunities of this land, especially +this free West, with a capacity to plan and work, are enough for any +man. The trouble is, men falter too soon. On that last night of anxiety, +before the New World rose out of the sea to greet the eyes of Columbus; +when his sullen and fear-stricken crews were on the point of mutiny, +suddenly there came to the senses of the great commander, the perfume of +earthly flowers. Soon after the veil of the ocean was rent asunder, and +upon his thrilled eyes there burst a light. Columbus was not the only +man who ever discovered a new world. They are being found daily. I meet +men often on the street and know by something in their faces, that, at +that very moment, the perfume of the flowers of some glory to come is +upon them, and that the first rays of the dawn of a divine light are +commencing to fill with splendor their eyes.</p> + +<p>"When the idea of the Alexandrian, after having been transmitted from +mortal to mortal, for more than fifty generations, at last materialized, +and the care worn man who was watching, heard the first sob of +artificial life come from a steam engine, to him was the perfume and the +light.</p> + +<p>"When, after generations of turmoil and war, in the deadly double +struggle to assimilate various peoples, and at the same time out of +barbarism to construct a stable and enlightened government; when the +stern old English barons caught the right inspiration, and gathering +around their sovereign, asked him to recognize the rights of the men on +whose valor his throne leaned for safety and to sign Magna Charta; to +them came the perfume and the light.</p> + +<p>"When the desire of the colonies, voiceless before, at length through +the pen of Jefferson, found expression in the words: 'We hold these +truths to be self-evident—that all men are created equal; that they are +endowed by their Creater with certain unalienable rights;' then to a +whole nation, yes to the world, came the perfume and the light.</p> + +<p>"In public life these emotions are marked, and the world applauds. In +humble life they are generally unnoticed, but they are frequent, and the +enchantment of the perfume becomes like incense, and it is a softer +light that dawns. When the poor man, who lays aside daily but a pittance +from his earnings, finds at last, after months and years, that the sum +has increased until it is certain that he can build a little home for +his wife—a home which is to be all his own—and that he can educate his +children; then the perfume and lights of a new world entrance him, and +in his sphere he is as great as was the dark-eyed Italian.</p> + +<p>"In the Bible we read that all the prophets were given to fasting and to +labor, in order to bring the body under subjection to the soul. This is +but typical of what a great soul must submit to, if it would catch the +perfume and the light. The world's wealth rests on labor. Whether a man +tills a garden or writes a book, the harvest will be worth gathering +just in proportion to the soil, and to the energy and intelligence of +the work performed. Columbus could never have discovered a new world by +standing on the sea shore and straining his eyes to the West. The +tempests had to be met; the raging seas outrode; the mutinous crew +controlled. There are tempests, waves and mutineers in every man's path, +and it is only over and beyond them that there comes the perfume and the +light. The lesson taught at Eden's gate is the one that must still be +learned. All that man can gain is by labor, and the sword that guards +the gate flames just as fiercely as of old.</p> + +<p>"To the Argonauts was given a duty. They were appointed to redeem a wild +and create a sovereign state. I believe they were a brave, true race. +The proof is, that without the restraint of pure women and without law, +they enforced order. Their energy, also, was something tremendous. After +building up California, they, in great part, made a nucleus for +civilization to gather to in each of half-a-dozen neighboring +Territories. But they had advantages which the men who settled the +Eastern States—the region beyond the Mississippi River, I mean—never +possessed. They had better food to eat, a better climate to live in. If +they did not have capital, they knew a living, at least, could be had +from the nearest gravel bank or ravine, and if they lacked the +encircling love of wife and children, they were spared the sorrow of +seeing dear women wear out lives of hardship and poverty, as has been +seen on all other frontiers in America.</p> + +<p>"If some fell by the wayside, it was natural, for human nature is weak +and Death is everywhere; if some in the pitiless struggle failed, they +had no right to cease to try, for when men do that the hope that to them +will come the perfume or that upon their eyes will ever shine the light, +is forever closed."</p> + +<p>"All that is good," said Carlin, "but the rule does not always hold +true. There is sometimes a limit to man's capacity to suffer, and his +heart breaks; and still after that his face gives no sign, and there is +no abatement of his energies. In such cases, however, men generally lose +the capacity to reason calmly and chase impossibilities. I saw a case +yesterday. I met a man mounted on a cheap mustang, and leading another +on which was packed a little coarse food, a pick, shovel, pan, +coffee-pot and frying pan. As he moved slowly up C. street, a +friend—himself an Argonaut—clutched me by the arm with one hand, and +with the other pointing to the man on horseback, asked me if I knew him. +Replying that I did not, he said: 'Why, that is "Prospecting Joe"; I +thought everybody knew him.' I told him I had never heard of him, when +he related his story, almost word for word, as follows:</p> + +<p>"He came to the far West from some Eastern state in the old, old days. +He was not then more than twenty-three or twenty-four years old. +Physically he was a splendid specimen of a man, I am told. He was, +moreover, genial and generous, and drew friends around him wherever he +went. He secured a claim in the hills above Placerville. One who knew +him at that time told me, that, calling at his cabin one night, he +surprised him poring over a letter written in a fair hand, while beside +him on his rude table lay the picture of a beautiful girl. His heart +must have been warmed at the time, for picking up the picture and +handing it to my friend, he said. 'Look at her! She is my Nora, <i>my</i> +Nora. She, beautiful as she is, would in her divinity have bent and +married a coarse mold of clay like myself, and poor, too, as I was; but +her father said: 'Not yet, Joe. Go out into the world, make a struggle +for two years, then come back, and if by that time you have established +that you are man enough to be a husband to a true woman, and you and +Nora still hold to the thought that is in your hearts now, I will help +you all I can. And, mind you, I don't expect you to make a fortune in +two years; I only want you to show that the manhood which I think you +have within you is true.' 'That was square and sensible talk, and it was +not unkind. So I came away.' Then he took the picture and looked fondly +at it for a long time, and said: 'I see the delicious girl as she looked +on that summer's day, when she waved me her last good by. I shall see +her all my life, if I live a thousand years.'</p> + +<p>"Well, Joe worked on week days; on Sundays, as miners did in those days, +he went to camp to get his mail and supplies. His claim paid him only +fairly well, but he was saving some money. In eight months he had been +able to deposit twelve hundred dollars in the local bank. One Sunday he +did not receive the expected letter from his Nora, and during the next +hour or two he drank two or three times with friends. He was about to +leave for home, when three men whom he slightly knew, and who had all +been drinking too much, met him and importuned him to drink with them. +He declined with thanks, when one of the three caught him by the arm and +said he must drink.</p> + +<p>"At any other time he would have extricated him self without trouble and +gone on his way. But on that day he was not in good humor, so he shook +the man off roughly and shortly told him to go about his own affairs.</p> + +<p>"The others were just sufficiently sprung with liquor to take offense at +this, and the result was a terrific street fight. Joe was badly bruised +but he whipped all three of the others. Then he was arrested and ordered +to appear next morning to answer a charge of fighting. He was of course +cleared without difficulty, but it took one-fourth of his deposit to pay +his lawyer. Then the miners gathered around him and called him a hero +and he went on his first spree.</p> + +<p>"Next morning when he awoke and thought of as much as he could remember +of the previous day's events, he was thoroughly ashamed. As he went down +to the office of the hotel, in response to an inquiry as to how he felt, +he answered: 'Full of repentance and beer.' A friend showed him the +morning paper with a full account of the Sunday fight and his trial and +acquittal. This was embellished with taking head-lines, as is the custom +with reporters. It cut him to the heart. He knew that if the news +reached his old home of his being in a street fight on Sunday, all his +hopes would be ended. His first thought was to draw his money and take +the first steamer for Panama and New York. He went to the bank and asked +how his account stood, for he remembered to have drawn something the +previous day. He was answered that there was still to his credit $150. +The steamer fare was $275. Utterly crushed, he returned to his claim. +The fear that the news of his disgrace would reach home, haunted him +perpetually and made him afraid to write. He continued to work, but not +with the old hope.</p> + +<p>"After some weeks, a rumor came that rich ground had been 'struck' away +to the north, somewhere in Siskiyou county. He drew what money he had, +bought a couple of ponies, one to ride and one to pack, and started for +the new field. Before starting, he confided to a friend that the +previous night he had dreamed of a mountain, the crest of which +glittered all over with gold, and he was going to find it.</p> + +<p>"The friend told him it was but a painted devil of the brain, the child +of a distempered imagination, but he merely shook his head and went +away.</p> + +<p>"He has pursued that dream ever since. His eyes have been ever strained +to catch the reflection from those shining heights. When he began the +search, his early home and the loving arms which were there stretched +out to him, began to recede in the distance. In a few years they +disappeared altogether. Then his hopes one by one deserted him, until +all had fled except the one false one which was, and still is, driving +him on. Youth died and was buried by the trail, but so absorbed was he +that he hardly grieved. As Time served notice after notice upon him; as +his hair blanched, his form bent and the old sprightliness went out of +his limbs, he retired more and more from the haunts of men; more and +more he drew the mantle of the mountains around him. But his eyes, now +bright with an unnatural splendor, were still strained upon the shining +height. There were but a few intervening hills and some forests that +obstructed his view. A little further on and the goal would be reached. +Last night he was in his cups and he told my friend that this time he +would 'strike it sure,' that the old man would make his showing yet, +that he would yet go back to the old home and be a Providence to those +he loved when a boy.</p> + +<p>"Poor wretch. There is an open grave stretched directly across his +trail. On this journey or some other soon, he will, while his eyes are +still straining towards his heights of gold, drop into that grave and +disappear forever.</p> + +<p>"Some morning as he awakens, amid the hills or out upon the desert, +there will be such a weariness upon him that he will say, 'I will sleep +a little longer,' and from that sleep he will never waken.</p> + +<p>"Heaven grant that his vision will then become a reality and that he may +mount the shining heights at last.</p> + +<p>"Of course it is easy to say that he was originally weak, but that is no +argument, for human nature is prone to be weak. His was a high-strung, +sensitive, generous nature. He never sought gold for the joy it would +give him, but for the happiness he dreamed it would give to those he +loved. His Nora was a queen in his eyes and he wanted to give her, every +day, the surroundings of a queen. He made one mistake and never rallied +from it. Had the letter come that fatal Sunday from Nora, as he was +expecting it, or had he left for home half an hour earlier, or had he +been of coarser clay, that day's performance would have been avoided, or +would have been passed as an incident not to be repeated, but not to be +seriously minded. But he was of different mold, and then that was a blow +from Fate. It is easy enough to say that there is nothing in that thing +called luck. Such talk will not do here on the Comstock. There is no +luck when a money lender charges five dollars for the use of a hundred +for a month and exacts good security. He gets his one hundred and five +dollars, and that is business.</p> + +<p>"But in this lead where ore bodies lie like melons on a vine, when ore +is reported in the Belcher and in the Savage, when Brown buys stock in +the Belcher and Rogers buys in the Savage; when the streak of ore in the +Belcher runs into a bonanza and Brown wakes up rich some morning, and +when the streak of ore in the Savage runs into a Niagara of hot water +which floods the mine and Rogers's stock is sold out to meet an +assessment, it will not do to call Brown a shrewd fellow and Rogers an +idiot.</p> + +<p>"Still, I do not object to the theory that a man should always keep +trying, even if the lack is against him, because luck may change +sometime, and if it does not, he sleeps better when he knows that with +the lights before him he has done the best he could. A man can stand +almost anything when his soul does not reproach him as he tries to go to +sleep.</p> + +<p>"Then, too, man is notoriously a lazy animal, and unless he has the +nerve to spur himself to work, even when unfortunate, he is liable to +fail and get the dry rot, which is worse than death.</p> + +<p>"But my heart goes out in sympathy when I think of the glorified +spirits, which on this coast have failed and are failing every day, +because from the first an iron fortune has hedged them round and baffled +their every effort, struggle as they would."</p> + +<p>Carlin ceased speaking, and the silence which prevailed in the Club for +a moment was broken by Miller, who said: "Don't worry about them, +Carlin. If they do fail they have lots of fun in trying."</p> + +<p>"I would grave more for your mon Joe," interposed Corrigan, "did I not +remember Mrs. Dougherty, who married the gintleman of properthy, and +thin your Joe war a fraud onyway. What war there in a bit of a scrap to +make a mon grave himself into craziness over it?"</p> + +<p>"Your stock-buying illustration is not fair, Carlin, for that is only a +form of gambling at best," suggested Brewster.</p> + +<p>The club winced under this a little, for every member dabbled in stocks +sometimes, except Brewster and Harding.</p> + +<p>For two evenings Harding had been scribbling away behind the table, and +during a lull in the conversation Ashley asked him what he had been +writing. "Letters?" suggested Ashley.</p> + +<p>"No, not letters," answered Harding, sententiously.</p> + +<p>"What is it, then," asked Miller; "won't you read it to us?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, rade it, rade it," said Corrigan, and the rest all joined in the +request.</p> + +<p>"You won't laugh?" said Harding, inquiringly.</p> + +<p>They all promised, and Harding read as follows:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">THE PROSPECTOR.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How strangely to-night my memory flings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the face of the past its shadowy wings,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I see far back through the mist and tears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which make the record of twenty years;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the beautiful days in the Golden State,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When life seemed sure by long leases from Fate;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the wondrous visions of "long ago"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the naked shade that we call "now."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Those halcyon days! There were four with me then—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ernest and Ned, Wild Tom and Ben.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now all are gone; Tom was first to die.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I held his hands, closed his glazed eye;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many a tear o'er his grave we shed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As we tenderly pillowed his curly head<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the shadows deep of the pines, that stand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forever solemn, forever fanned<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the winds that steal through the Golden Gate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And spread their balm o'er the Golden State.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And the others, too, they all are dead.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the turbid Gila perished Ned;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Brave, noble Ernest, he was lost<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Amid Montana's ice and frost;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And out upon a desert trail<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our Bennie met the spectre pale.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And I am left—the last of all—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as to-night the white snows fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As barbarous winds around me roar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I think the long past o'er and o'er—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What I have hoped and suffered, all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From twenty years rolls back the pall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the dusty, thorny, weary track,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the tortuous path I follow back.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In my childhood's home they think me, there,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A failure, or lost, till my name in the prayer<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At eve is forgot. Well, they cannot know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That my toil through heat, through tempest and snow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While it seemed for naught but a struggle for pelf,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was more for them, far more, than myself.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah, well! As my hair turns slowly to snow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The places of childhood more distantly grow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And my dreams are changing. 'Tis home no more,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For shadowy hands from the other shore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stretch nightly down, and it seems as when<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I lived with Tom, Ned, Ernest and Ben.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And the mountains of Earth seem dwindling down,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the hills of Eden, with golden crown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rise up, and I think, in the last great day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will my claim above bear a fire assay?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the slag of earth, and the baser strains,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will the crucible show of precious grains<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Enough to give me a standing above,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where in temples of Peace rock the cradles of Love?<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"That is good, but it is too serious by half," Miller said, critically. +"What is a young fellow like you doing with such a melancholy view of +things?"</p> + +<p>"It's a heap better to write such things for pleasure in boyhood than to +have to feel them for a fact in old age," said Wright.</p> + +<p>"I say, Harding, have you measured all the faet in that poem?" remarked +Corrigan, good-naturedly.</p> + +<p>"We have been talking too seriously for two or three evenings and it is +influencing Harding," was Miller's comment.</p> + +<p>Brewster thought it was a good way for Sammie to spend his evenings. It +would give him discipline, which would help him in writing all his life.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + + +<p>The next evening Wright had business down town.</p> + +<p>"Carlin was right last night," began Miller, "when he said that all men +were naturally lazy. Laziness is a fixed principle in this world. I can +prove it by my friend Wand down at Pioche.</p> + +<p>"When he was not so old as he has been these last few years, he made a +visit to San Francisco, and one day, passing a building on Fourth +street, saw within several hives of bees, evidently placed there to be +sold. Some whim led him within the building and, from the man in charge, +he learned that in California, because of the softer climate, bees +worked quite nine months in the year; that a good swarm of bees would +gather a certain number of pounds of honey in a season, which sold +readily at a certain price, making a tremendous percentage on the cost +of the bees, which was, if I remember correctly, one hundred dollars per +hive. The idea seemed to strike Wand. He had fifteen hundred dollars, +and all that day he was mentally estimating how much money could be made +out of fifteen swarms of bees in a year. The figures looked exceedingly +encouraging. They always do, you know, when your mind is fixed upon a +certain business which you want to engage in.</p> + +<p>"That evening Wand happened to meet a friend who had just come in from +Honolulu. This friend was enthusiastic over the Hawaiian Islands. There +was perpetual summer there and ever-blooming flowers. Before one flower +cast its leaves, others on the same tree were budding. Their glory was +ever before the eyes and their incense ever upon the air.</p> + +<p>"Wand fell asleep that night trying to estimate how much money a swarm +of bees would make a year in a land of perpetual summer. The conclusion +was that next morning Wand bought twelve hives of bees, and that +afternoon sailed with them for Honolulu.</p> + +<p>"He found a lovely place for his bees, and saw with kindling pleasure +that they readily assimilated with the new country and went to work with +apparent enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>"The bees worked steadily until, in their judgment, it was time for +winter to come. Then they ceased to work, remained in their hives until +they ate up their hoarded wealth, and then, as Wand expresses it, 'took +to the woods.'</p> + +<p>"He borrowed the money necessary to pay his passage to San Francisco, +and ever since has sworn that bees are like men, 'natural loafers,' that +will not work unless they are forced to. He believes that the much +lauded ant would be the same way if it were not urged on to work +perpetually by the miser's fear of starvation."</p> + +<p>Carlin suggested that the question be tested nearer home, and called +out, "Yap Sing!"</p> + +<p>The Mongolian came in from the kitchen and Carlin interrogated him.</p> + +<p>"Yap, do you like to work?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, me heap likee workee."</p> + +<p>"How many hours a day do you like to work, Yap?"</p> + +<p>"Maybe eight hour, maybe ten hour, maybe slixteen hour."</p> + +<p>"We give you forty dollars a month. Would you work harder if we paid you +fifty dollars?"</p> + +<p>"No. Me thinkee not," answered Yap, adroitly. "You sabbie, you hire me, +me sellee you my time. Me workee all the slame, forty doll's, fifty +doll's, one hundred doll's. No diffelence."</p> + +<p>"Yap, suppose you were to get $3,000, would you work then?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. Me workee all the slame, now."</p> + +<p>"Suppose, Yap, you had $5,000—what then?"</p> + +<p>"Me workee all the slame."</p> + +<p>"Do you ever buy stocks?"</p> + +<p>"Slum time buy lettle; not muchee."</p> + +<p>"Suppose, Yap, that some time stocks would go up and make you $20,000, +would you work then?"</p> + +<p>The Chinaman, with eyes blazing, replied vehemently: "Not one d——d +bittee."</p> + +<p>The Club agreed that Carlin had pretty well settled a vexed question, +that conditions which would make both the bee and the Chinaman idlers, +would be apt to very soon cause the Caucasian to lie in the shade.</p> + +<p>"And yet," mused Brewster, "there are mighty works going on everywhere. +This Nation to-day makes a showing such as this world never saw before. +From sea to sea, for three thousand miles, the chariot wheels of toil +are rolling and roaring as they never did in any other land. The energy +that is exhausted daily amounts to more than all the world's working +forces did a hundred years ago. The thing to grieve about is not that +there is not enough work being performed, but that in this intensely +practical, and material age, the gentler graces in the hearts of men are +being neglected. In the race for wealth the higher aspirations are being +smothered. If from the 'tongue-less past' there could be awakened the +silent voices, the cry which would be heard over all others would be: 'I +had some golden thoughts; I meant to have given them expression, but the +swiftly moving years with their cares were too much for me, and I died +and made no sign.'</p> + +<p>"If there is such a thing as a ghost of memory, all the aisles of the +past are full of wailing voices, wailing over facts unspoken, over +eloquence that died in passionate hearts unuttered, over divine poems +that never were set to earthly music. Aside from native indolence, most +men are struggling for bread, and when the day's work is completed, +brain and hand are too weary for further effort. So the years drift by +until the zeal of young ambition loses its electric thrill; until cares +multiply; until infirmities of body keep the chords of the soul out of +tune, and the night follows, and the long sleep. There were great +soldiers before Achilles or Hector, but there were no Homers, or if +there were, they were dissipated fellows, or they were absorbed in +business, or, under the clear Grecian sky, it was their wont to dream +the beautiful days away, and so, no sounds were uttered, of the kind +which, booming through space, strike at last on the immortal heights, +and there make echoes which thrill the earth with celestial music ever +after. If fortune had not made an actor of Shakespeare, and if his +matchless spirit, working in the line of his daily duties, had not felt +that all the plays offered were mean and poor, as wanting in dramatic +power as they were false to human nature, and so was roused to fill a +business need, the chances are a thousand to one that he 'would have +died with all his music in him,' and would, to-day, have been as +entirely lost in oblivion as are the boors who were his neighbors. Just +now there is not much hope for our own country, and probably will not be +for another century. Present efforts are all for wealth and power and +are almost all earthly. Everything is calculated from a basis of coin. +Before that, brains are cowed, and for it Beauty reserves her sweetest +smiles. The men who are pursuing grand ideas with no motive more selfish +than to make the masses of the world nobler, braver and better, or to +give new symphonies to life, are wondrously few. There are splendid +triumphs wrought, but they are almost every one material and practical.</p> + +<p>"The men who created the science of chemistry dreamed of finding the +elixir of life; the modern chemist pursues the study until he invents a +patent medicine or a baking powder, and then all his energies are +devoted to selling his discovery.</p> + +<p>"In its youthful vitality the Nation has performed wonders, and from the +masses individuals have solved many of nature's mysteries and bridled +many elemental forces.</p> + +<p>"The winds have been forced to swing open the doors to their caves and +show where they are brewed; the lightnings have submitted to curb and +rein; the ship goes out against the tempest, carried forward on its own +iron arms; the secret of the sunlight has been fathomed and a +counterfeit light created; the laws which govern sound have been +mastered until the human voice now thrills a wire and is caught with +perfect distinctness sixty miles away, and a thousand other such +triumphs have been achieved.</p> + +<p>"But no deathless poem has been written, no immortal picture has been +called to life on canvas; no master hand has touched the cold stone and +transfigured it into something which seems ready, like the fabled statue +of the old master, to warm into life and smiles.</p> + +<p>"Souls surcharged at first with celestial fire have waited for the work +of the bodies to be finished, that they might materialize into words of +form and splendor, waited until the tenement around them fell away and +left them unvoiced, to seek a purer sphere, and a generation, three +generations have died with their deepest tints unpainted, their sweetest +music unsung.</p> + +<p>"This is one of the penalties attached to the laying of the foundations +of new States. There is too much to be accomplished, too many purely +material struggles to be made, and so hearts are stifled and souls, +glowing with celestial fervor, are forbidden an altar on which to kindle +their sacred flame.</p> + +<p>"England struggled a thousand years before a man appeared to shame +wealth, power and titles with the majesty of a divine mind. Perhaps it +will be as long in the United States before some glorified spirit will +appear to show by example that the things which this generation is +struggling most for are mere dust, which, when obtained, are but Dead +Sea apples to the lips of hope."</p> + +<p>"But Brewster," said Harding, "do you not think that a good miner is of +more use to the world than a bad sculptor?"</p> + +<p>"Suppose," said Carlin, "we were all to stop this four dollars a day +business of ours and go to writing poetry, who would pay the Chinaman +and settle the grocery bills at the end of the month?"</p> + +<p>"Were not the Argonauts making pretty good use of their time," asked +Miller, "when in twelve years they dug up and gave to the world nearly a +thousand millions of dollars and caused such a change in the business of +the country as comes to the fainting man's circulation through a +transfusion of healthy blood into his veins?"</p> + +<p>"Did you not tell us last evening," said Ashley, "that when a poor man +earned a home for his wife and babies, that to him came the perfume and +the light?"</p> + +<p>"I carved out some beautiful stories and shpoke any amount of illegint +poethry to Maggie Murphy, but it would not do," said Corrigan.</p> + +<p>"There is a mirage before Brewster's eyes to-night," said Miller; "the +business of most men is to earn bread."</p> + +<p>Then Brewster, bristling up, responded:</p> + +<p>"My answer to all of you is this: Man's first duty is to provide for +himself, and for those dependent upon him, by honest toil, either of +hand or brain, or both. For a long time you have each worked eight hours +out of the twenty-four; perhaps eight hours more have been absorbed in +eating and sleeping. What have you done with the other eight hours? You +are miners. You can set timbers in line, you can lie on your backs and +hit a drill above you with perfect precision; but could you make a +draught of a mine, or clothe a description of one in good language on +paper? You look upon a piece of ore, but can you test it and tell how +much it is worth? These are all legitimate parts of your business as +miners, and I refer to them merely to illustrate that in the excitements +of this city, and the dream of getting rich in stock speculations, you +have not only neglected your better natures, but have failed to +thoroughly accomplish yourselves in your real business. You can see what +you have actually lost, but you cannot estimate the pleasure you have +been denying yourselves. Then when you are too old to work, what +amusements and diversions are you preparing for old age?"</p> + +<p>"For that, matter," said Miller, "ask the man who fell down the Alta +shaft last week, 800 feet to the sump, and the pieces of whose body, +that could be found, were sewed up in canvas to be brought to the +surface."</p> + +<p>Then there was a silence for several minutes until a freight train, with +two locomotives (a double header), came up the heavy grade from Gold +Hill and, when opposite the house of the Club, both locomotives +whistled. At this Corrigan said:</p> + +<p>"Hear those black horses neigh! What a hail they give to the night! What +a power they have under their black skins! I wonder if they don't think +sometimes, the off-colored monsters."</p> + +<p>"If the steam engine has not reflective faculties it ought to have," +said Harding. "The highest pleasures which a man, in his normal state, +can have are the approving whispers of his own soul. If in the iron +frame of the steam engine there could be hidden a soul, what whispers +would thrill it in these days! Methinks they would be something like +this:</p> + +<p>"'When I was born Invention gave to Progress a child which was to be to +the modern world what the Genii were to the ancient world, except that I +am real, while the Genii were but dreams. In me man finds the +materialization of a dream which haunted mortals through the centuries, +while the world was slowly pressing onward to a better state. At my +birth men were glad to give to me their burdens, because I could carry +them without fatigue. They thought me but a dumb slave to do their +bidding; they saw that I could add greatly to their achievements by +enabling them to overcome heavy matter, and with tireless feet to chase +the swift hours. I cannot add to man's actual years, but I can make one +hour for him equal to a day in the olden time. At first my work was +confined to the closely peopled regions. But at length I was pushed out +beyond the settlements of men, and then something of the divinity within +me began to assert itself. Savage man and the wild beast retired before +me; when the path was made for me into the immemorial hills, before my +scream the scream of the eagle died away. The lordly bird spread his +wings to seek more impenetrable crags. Following in my wake, +civilization came; homes sprang up, temples to art and to learning were +upreared, and on the air, which but a year before was startled only by +barbarous cries, there fell the benediction of children's voices, as +with swinging satchels in their hands, they sang their songs going to +and returning from schools. Then man began to discover that there was +more to me than polished iron and brass; more than a heart of fire and a +breath of steam. In my headlight they began to discover a faint +reflection of the Infinite light, and in whispers began to say: "It is +not a dumb slave; rather it is to Progress an evangel." As my power +increased, it was seen that as the wild man and wild beast fled before +me, old bigotries and old superstitions likewise fled, snarling like +wolves, from my path; man moved up to a higher plane, and as he +comprehended himself better, his thoughts were led upward; with enlarged +ideas and deeper reverence, he turned to the contemplation of the First +Great Cause who thrilled the dull matter of the universe with His own +celestial light and order, and established that nothing was made in +vain. And now a path is to be made down where the terrible Spaniard +wrested an empire from the Aztecs; where, with the sword, he hewed down +the altars on which human sacrifices were made, and built up new altars +consecrated to Christianity. The people there will gather around me and +rejoice. They think only of material things; how I will carry their +burdens, take from them the fatigue of travel and increase their trade. +They do not know that mine is a higher mission; that as I do their work +there is to gradually fade from the faith that holds them, the +superstitions which for centuries have environed their better selves and +benumbed their grander energies. They will not realize, what is true, +that angels still walk with men; that it is the near presence of the +angels of Progress, Truth, Free Thought, Mercy and Eternal Justice, all +rejoicing, which will give the thrill to their hearts. As yet my work +has hardly commenced. It is not yet fifty years since I became a power +in the world. Wait until I am better understood, until the smooth paths +are made for me through all the wilderness, over all the rivers and +hills, and I am given dominion over all the deep seas, that I may +swiftly bring together the children of men, till gradually the nations +will take on common thoughts and return to that tongue which was +universal when the world was young, and, as yet, man walked in the clear +image of his Creator. Then armies will melt away before me as savage +tribes now do; then no more cannons will be cast, no more swords +fashioned. Then, through my example, labor in the walks of peace will +become exalted; then the thirst for gold will cease, because I will till +the field, drive the loom, and take from man all that is servile or +gross in toil; and gradually the wild beast in men's souls will be bred +out, and in the peace of perfect brotherhood men will possess the earth, +and I will be the good angel that will take away the burdens.'"</p> + +<p>As if in response to the words of Harding, just as he finished, the +whistles all up and down the great lode sounded for the eleven o'clock +change of shift, and the Club retired with this remark from Corrigan:</p> + +<p>"Harding, they heard what yez was remarkin' upon, and now hear the whole +row of them cheerin' your spache."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + + +<p>Just after the lamps were lighted the next evening the door opened and +the Professor, Colonel Savage and Alex Strong came in. The greetings +were warm all around, and at once conversation turned upon stocks. The +Professor insisted that the first great showing was to be made in the +south end mines, Alex still believed in Overman, the Colonel was +sanguine over Utah, Ashley asked the opinion of the others on Sierra +Nevada. The general sentiment was that if Skae had any real indication +there the Bonanza firm would gobble it up before any outsider could +realize.</p> + +<p>Wright still inclined to the belief that the water must be conquered +pretty soon in the Savage and that there would be a showing that would +make every servant girl and hostler on the coast want some Savage.</p> + +<p>So the conversation ran on for an hour, until something was said which +turned the conversation upon the strange characters which had been met +on the western coast. At length the Colonel settled down for a talk, and +the others became willing listeners.</p> + +<p>"I have met many royal people on this coast," began the Colonel. "Royal, +though they never wore crowns, at least crowns not visible in the dim +light of this world. The emblems of their royalty were hidden from most +mortal eyes. In narrow spheres they lived and died, and only a few, +besides God, knew of their sovereignty. One of these was</p> + + +<h3>OLD ZACK TAYLOR.</h3> + +<p>"His last years were passed in Plumas and Lassen counties, California. +When he came there his hair was already silvered; he must have been +fifty years of age.</p> + +<p>"No one knew his antecedents. In the excitements and free-heartedness of +those days not many questions were asked. Besides the young and hopeful +there were many who had sought the new land as a balm for domestic +troubles; as a spot where former misfortunes might be forgotten, where +early mistakes might, in earnest lives, be buried out of sight. With the +rest came Zack Taylor. From the first that region seemed to possess a +charm for him. No person can imagine the splendor in natural scenery of +Plumas county. It must be seen to be comprehended. The mountains are +tremendous; the valleys are so fair that they seem like pictures in +their mountain frames. And so they are. They are the work of a Master's +hand, whose work never fades. His signet is upon them as it was +indented, when, in the long ago, it was decided that at last the earth +was fitted to be a habitation for man.</p> + +<p>"The forests are such forests as are no where seen in this world, except +in the Pacific States of the United States. There is no exaggeration in +this. Ordinary pines will make ten thousand feet of lumber, and they +stand very near together, those mighty pines of the Sierras.</p> + +<p>"The panoramas that are unrolled there when nature is in the +picture-making mood are most gorgeous. Some that I saw there linger +fresh upon my mind still. They come to me sometimes when I am down in +the depths of the mine, and for a moment I forget the heat and the +gloom.</p> + +<p>"As a rule, all the summer long, the skies are of a crystal clearness; +the green of the hill tops melts into the everlasting incandescent white +beyond, and there is no change for days and weeks at a time, except as +the green of the day fades into the shadows of the night, and the gold +of the sunlight gives place to the silver of the stars.</p> + +<p>"It was to this region that Zack Taylor came and made his abode. About +him was an air of perfect contentment. Besides his blanching hair, there +were deep lines about his face, which were an alphabet from which could +be spelled out stories of past excitements and trials, but if sorrows +and sufferings were included, the firm lips gave no sign, and the +bright, black eyes were ever kindly. There were rumors that he had been +a soldier, but the general impression was, that from childhood, he had +been tossed about on the frontier. He had the moods, the gestures and +dialect of the frontier. He liked wild game cooked upon a camp fire, +and, in frontier phrase, he could 'punish a heap of whisky.'</p> + +<p>"He was at home everywhere; in the saloons his coming was always +welcome; when he met a lady on the street, no matter whether she was +young or old, fair or ugly, he always doffed his hat, and the few +children of those early days looked upon him as a father—or an angel. +He had a cheery, hearty, winsome way about him which drew all hearts to +him.</p> + +<p>"When I saw him last the gray hair had turned to snowy white; the scars +of time had grooved deeper furrows on cheek and brow, the old elastic, +merry way had grown sedate, but the black eyes were still kindly and +bright. At that time he lived, a welcome pauper, on the citizens of +Susanville, in Lassen county.</p> + +<p>"When hungry he went where he pleased and got food; when he needed +clothes they were forthcoming in any store where he applied for them. +When, sometimes, merchants would in jest banter him for money on account +of what he owed, his way was to softly suggest to them that if the +patronage of the place did not, in their judgments, justify them in +remaining; there was no constitutional objection that he was aware of to +prevent their making an auction.</p> + +<p>"One fearfully cold winter's night a few of us were sitting around the +stove in the Stewart House, in Susanville, when old Zack came in. The +circle was widened for him, and as he drew up to the fire, some one +said: 'Zack, tell us about that night's work when you tended bar for the +poker players?'</p> + +<p>"'Itwusdown on Noth Fok (North Fork) of Feather River, 'bout '52 or '53, +I disremember which,' began Zack. 'It wus in the winter, and it being +too cold for mining, ther boys wus all in camp. Thar wus no women thar, +least ways, no ladies, and women as isn't ladies—but we dun no who thar +mothers wus, nor how much they has suffered, and we haint got no +business to talk about 'em. But, as I wus sayin', the boys wus all in +camp, and thar wus lots of beans and whisky and sich things, and we hed +good times, you bet!</p> + +<p>"Jake Clark kept a saloon thar, which wus sort of headquarters, and +sometimes when the boys got warmed up on Jake's whisky thar wus lively +times. Well, I <i>should</i> remark. It wussent much wonder, neither, for +Jake made his whisky in the back room, made it out of old boots, +akerfortis and sich things, and if you believe me, a fire assay of that +beverage would have shown 93 per cent, of cl'ar hell. Thar wus three or +four copies of Shakespeare in camp, and everbody got a Sacermento +<i>Union</i> every week when the express came in; so we kept posted solid. +Speakin' of that, if folks only jest stick to Shakespeare and then +paternize one first-class paper, sich as the old <i>Union</i> wus, and read +'em, in the long run they'd have a heap more sense.</p> + +<p>"'Of course the boys would play poker sometimes. Men will always do that +when the reproach in honest women's eyes is taken away, and I have +heard, now and then, of one who would play in spite of good influences. +At least thar is rumors to that effect.</p> + +<p>"'Well, they wus playin' one night, five or six of them, inter Jake's +saloon. It got to be about ten o'clock, and Jake says to me, says he, +'Zack, them fellers is playin' and will most likely run it all night. By +mornin' Tom D. will have the hul pile, and Tom never pays nuthin'. I'm +goin' home. You run the ranch, Zack, and when they call for it you give +'em whisky outer this 'ere keg, so if they never pay we won't lose too +much." This he told me in a low voice behind the bar, in confidence +like.</p> + +<p>"'Jake started for home and I went on watch. Thar wus lots of coin and +dust on the table and the boys wus playin' high. I stood behind the bar +and watched 'em, and as I watched I said to myself, says I, "The +doggoned cusses! They come here and bum Jake's fuel and lights, and +drink his whisky, and don't pay nuthin'. It's too bad."</p> + +<p>"'Then an idea struck me. I had a log of fat pine in the back yard. It +wus fuller of pitch than Bill Pardee is of religion in revival times, +and I thought of somethin'. I went out, got a lot of the pitch, warmed +it in the candle down behind the bar and rubbed it all along the bottom +of my hands, so, and then I waited developments.</p> + +<p>"'Pretty soon thar wus a call for whisky. I started out with a bottle in +one hand and a glass in the other, and, setting down the glass first, I +said, "'Ere's your glass," and settin' down the bottle, said, "'Ere's +your whisky."</p> + +<p>"'They drank all 'round, when Harlow Porter said: "This is mine, Zack." +I argued the pint with him and asked him how a man could furnish a +house, lights, fires and whisky, and keep it up if nobody paid? They +told me to "hire a hall," and all laughed. It wus only old Zack, you +know.</p> + +<p>"'But I did tolerable well after all. When I sat down the glass half a +dollar stuck to my hand, and when I sat down the whisky the other hand +caught up a two and a half piece.</p> + +<p>"'The playin' went on, and I warmed my hands. By and by more whisky wus +called for. I responded. Once more I said, '"Ere's your glass," and +"'Ere's your whisky." They drank, and then Henry Moore said to Hugh +Richmond: "Why don't you ante?" "I have," wus Hugh's reply; "I jist put +up five dollars." "No you didn't," said Henry. "Yes I did," said Hugh, +hotly. "You're a liar," said Miller, and then biff! biff! biff! came the +blows.</p> + +<p>"'I got down behind the bar, for some of them cusses would shoot if half +a chance wus given them. The truth wus, I had picked up the five with my +pitch when I said "'Ere's your whisky."</p> + +<p>"'The boys got hold and stopped the row and the players proceeded. The +oftener they drank the wurs bookkeepers they became, and all the time I +wus doin' reasonably well.</p> + +<p>"'Durin' the night I took in eighty-three dollars and seen a beautiful +fight.</p> + +<p>"'I didn't tell of it, though, for nigh onto three year, 'cept to Jake. +It nearly killed me to keep it to myself. But Lord! wouldn't they have +made it tropic for me if they'd ever dropped on the business! Well, I +should remark!'</p> + +<p>"When Zack finished his story I asked if he would not take something.</p> + +<p>"He remarked that he was not particularly proud and, besides, the +weather was 'powerful sarchin';' he believed he would.</p> + +<p>"He swallowed a stiff drink, returned to the stove, resumed his seat, +began and told the whole story over, except that the whisky was having +its effect, and as he drew towards the close he commenced to exaggerate, +and wound up by the assertion that he took in one hundred and sixty +dollars and saw two tremendous fights.</p> + +<p>"Some one else asked him to drink. He accepted, then returned to his +chair and apparently fell into a doze. After a few minutes, however, he +aroused himself and began again, as follows:</p> + +<p>"'It wus down on North Fok of Feather River, in '52 or '53, I +disremember which. It was in the winter, and it bein' too cold for +minin' ther boys wus all in camp. Thar wus no women thar, leastways no +ladies, and women as is no ladies—but we dun no.'</p> + +<p>"Here I arose and slipped out of the room. Returning about fifteen +minutes later. I found old Zack gesticulating wildly and in a high key +exclaiming:</p> + +<p>"'I everlastingly broke the boys with my pitch. I took in <i>three hundred +and forty-three dollars</i> and seen three the <i>dod-durndest fights in the +world</i>.'</p> + +<p>"But it was not this that I began to tell. Three or four years before +Zack's death, a courier announced to the people of Susanville that three +days before, out near Deep Hole, on the desert eighty miles east of +Susanville, a man had been killed by renegade Pi Ute Indians. The +announcement made only a temporary impression, for such news was often +brought to Susanville in those days. In a very few years eighty Lassen +county men were murdered by Indians.</p> + +<p>"A few days after the news of this particular murder was brought in, +Susanville began to be vexed by the evident presence of a mysterious +thief. If a hunter brought in a brace of grouse or rabbits and left them +exposed for a little while they disappeared.</p> + +<p>"If a string of trout were caught from the river and were left anywhere +for a few minutes they were lost. Gardens were robbed of fruit and +vegetables; blankets, flannels and groceries disappeared from stores. +The losses became unbearable at length, everybody was aroused and on the +alert, but no thief could be discovered, though the depredations still +went on. This continued for days and weeks, until the people became +desperate, and many a threat was made that when the thief should finally +be caught, in disposing of him the grim satisfaction of the frontier +should be fully enjoyed. Old Zack was especially fierce in his +denunciations.</p> + +<p>"One morning a horseman dashed into town, his mustang coming in on a +dead run. Reining up in front of the main hotel, he sprang down from his +horse and to the people who came running to see what was the matter, he +explained that half a mile from town, around the bend of the hill, in +the old deserted cabin, he had found the widow of the man killed weeks +before by the Indians; had found her and a nest of babies, and none of +them with sufficient food or clothing.</p> + +<p>"When the story was finished, men and women—half the population of the +village—made a rush for the cabin. It was nearly concealed from view +from the road by thick bushes, but they found the woman there and four +little children. The woman seemed like one half dazed by sorrow and +despair, but when questioned, she replied that she had been there five +weeks. 'But how have you lived?' asked half a dozen voices in concert. +Then the woman explained that she and her children would have starved, +had it not been for a kind old gentleman who brought her everything that +she required.</p> + +<p>"'Indeed,' she added, 'he brought me many things that I did not need, +and which I felt that I ought not to accept, but he over-persuaded me, +telling me that I did not know how rich he was, that his supplies were +simply inexhaustible.</p> + +<p>"When asked to describe this man, she began to say: 'He is a heavy-set +old gentleman; wears blue clothes; his hair is white as snow, but his +eyes are black, and—'but she was not allowed to go any farther, for +twenty voices, between weeping and laughing, cried 'Old Zack!'</p> + +<p>"The widow and her children were taken to the village, a house with its +comforts provided for them, and there was, thenceforth, no more trouble +from the ubiquitous thief.</p> + +<p>"Living on charity himself, with the wreck of a life behind him and +nothing before him but the grave, which he was swiftly nearing, this +great-hearted, old heavenly bummer and Christian thief, had taken care +of this helpless family, and had done it because despite the dry rot and +the whisky which had benumbed his energies, his soul, deep down, was +royal to the core.</p> + +<p>"It is true that he had robbed the town to minister to the woman and her +babies, but in the books of the angels, though it was written that he +was a thief, in the same sentence it was also added, 'and God bless +him,' and these words turned to gold even as they were being written.</p> + +<p>"When Old Zack was asked why he did not make the facts about the family +known, after waiting a moment he replied:</p> + +<p>"'You see I've been tossed about a powerful sight in my time; have drank +heaps of bad whisky; have done a great many no-account things and not a +great many good ones. Since I wus a boy I have never had chick or kin of +my own. I met the woman and her babies up by the cabin; they wus as +pitiful a sight as ever you seen; and besides, the woman wus jist about +to go stark mad with grief and hunger and anxiety and weariness. I seen +she must have quiet and that anxiety about her children must be soothed +some way. Then I did some of the best lyin' you ever heard. I got her to +eat some supper and waited until the whole outfit wus fast asleep. I +watched 'em a little while and then I got curis to know what kind of a +provider I would have made for a family had I started out in life +different, and that wus all there wus about it.'</p> + +<p>"Is it a wonder, then, that when the old man died his body was dressed +in soft raiment, placed in a costly casket, and that, preceded by a +martial band playing a requiem, all the people followed sorrowingly to +the grave; and that, as they gently heaped the sods above his breast +they sent after him into the Beyond heartfelt 'all-hails and +farewells?'"</p> + +<p>"You see your man through colored spectacles, Colonel," spoke up +Brewster. "From your description, I think there was more of the border +deviltry in the old man than there was true royalty. Life had been a +joke to him always; he played it as a joke to the end. One such a man +was entertainment to the village; had there been a dozen more like him +they would have become intolerable nuisances?"</p> + +<p>"That," said the Colonel, "only shows how miserable are my descriptive +powers. There are not a dozen other such men as old Zack Taylor was +among all the fourteen hundred millions of people on this sorrowful +earth."</p> + +<p>"No," interposed Miller, "you told the story well enough, but it was +only descriptive of a good-humored bummer at best—of one who was +warm-hearted without a conscience, of one who was more willing to work +to perpetrate a joke on others than to honorably earn the bread that he +ate.</p> + +<p>"I will tell you of a royal fellow that I knew. It was Billie Smith. He +lived in Eureka that first hard winter of '70-71. He was not a miner as +we are, receiving four dollars per day. He and his partner, a surly old +fellow, had a claim which they were developing, hoping that it would +amount to something in the spring. That was before smelting had been +made a success. The ores were all base and of too low a grade to ship +away. These men had a little supply of flour, bacon and coffee, and that +was about all, and it was all they expected until spring.</p> + +<p>"It was early in January and the weather was exceedingly cold. Their +cabin was but a rude hut, open on every side to the winds. I was there +and I know how things were. One day I was waiting in a tent, which by +courtesy was called a store, when Billie came in. He had a cheery smile +and hearty, welcome words for every one. He had been there but a few +minutes when his partner came in. The old man was fairly boiling with +rage. So angry was he that he could hardly articulate distinctly. +Finally he explained that some thief had stolen their mattress, a pair +of their best blankets and a sack of flour. He wanted an officer +dispatched with a search warrant. Then I overheard the following +conversation between the two men:</p> + +<p>"'O, never mind,' said Billie; 'some poor devil needed the things or he +would not have taken them.'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, but we need them, too; need them more than anything else,' was +the response.</p> + +<p>"'O, we will get along; we have plenty.'</p> + +<p>"'Yes,' retorted the partner, 'but what are we going to do for a bed? +Our hair mattress and best pair of blankets are gone, and the cabin is +cold.'</p> + +<p>"'We can sew up some sacks into a mattress, and fill it with soft brush +and leaves, and use our coats for blankets,' replied Billie. 'We'll get +along all right. The truth is we have been sleeping too warm of late.'</p> + +<p>"Too warm!' said the partner, bitterly; 'I should think so. A polar bear +would freeze in that cabin without a bed.'</p> + +<p>"'Do you think so?' asked Billie, smiling. 'Well, that is the way to +keep it, and so if any wild animal comes that way we can freeze him out. +Brace up, partner! Why should a man make a fuss about the loss of a +trifle like that?'</p> + +<p>"Later I found out the facts. A little below Billie's cabin was another +cabin, into which a family of emigrants had moved. They were dreadfully +poor. Going to and returning from town Billie had noticed how things +were. One night as he passed, going home in the dark, he heard a child +crying in the cabin and heard it say to its mother that it was hungry +and cold.</p> + +<p>"Next morning he waited until his partner had gone away, then rolled the +mattress around a sack of flour, then rolled the mattress and flour up +in his best pair of blankets, swung the bundle on his shoulder, carried +it down the trail to the other cabin, where, opening the door, he flung +it inside; then with finger on his lip he said in a hoarse whisper to +the woman: 'Don't mention it! Not a word. I stole the bundle, and if you +ever speak of it you will get me sent to prison,' and in a moment was +swinging down the trail singing joyously:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"If I had but a thousand a year, Robin Ruff,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If I had but a thousand a year."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Last winter, after the fire, there was one man in this city, John W. +Mackay, who gave $150,000 to the poor. It was a magnificent act, and was +as grandly and gently performed as such an act could be. No one would +ever have known it, had not the good priest who distributed the most of +it, one day, mentioned the splendid fact. That man will receive his +reward here, and hereafter, for it was a royal charity. But he has +$30,000,000 to draw against, while, when Billie in the wilderness gave +up his bed and his food, he not only had not a cent to draw against, but +he had not a reasonably well-defined hope.</p> + +<p>"When at last the roll-call of the real royal men of this world shall be +sounded, if any of you chance to be there, you will hear, close up to +the head of the list, the name of Billie Smith, and when it shall be +pronounced, if you listen, you will hear a very soft but dulcet refrain +trembling along the harps and a murmur among the emerald arches that +will sound like the beating of the wings of innumerable doves."</p> + +<p>"That was a good mon, surely. Did he do well with his mine?" asked +Corrigan.</p> + +<p>"No," answered Miller. "It was but a little deposit, and was quickly +worked out. He scuffled along until the purchase of the Eureka Con. in +the spring, then went to work there for a few months, then came here, +and a day or two after arriving, was shot dead by the ruffian Perkins.</p> + +<p>"He was shot through the brain, and people tell me he was so quickly +transfixed that in his coffin the old sunny smile was still upon his +face. I don't believe that, though. I believe the smile came when, as +the light went out here, he saw the dawn and felt the hand clasps on the +other side.</p> + +<p>"By the way, there was a man here who knew him, and who wrote something +with the thought of poor Billie in his mind while he was writing."</p> + +<p>At this Miller arose and went to his carpet-sack, opened it and drew out +a paper. Then handing it to Harding, he said: "Harding, you read better +than I do, read it for us all."</p> + +<p>Harding took the paper and read as follows:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">ERNEST FAITHFUL.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Twas the soul of Ernest Faithful<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Loosed from its home of clay—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Its mission on earth completed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To the judgment passed away.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Twas the soul of Ernest Faithful<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Stood at the bar above,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the deeds of men are passed upon<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In justice, but in love.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And an angel questioned Faithful<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of the life just passed on earth!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What could he plead of virtue,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What could he count of worth.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And the soul of Ernest Faithful<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Trembled in sore dismay;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from the judgment angel's gaze<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shuddering, turned away.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For memory came and whispered<br /></span> +<span class="i2">How worldly was that life;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unfairly plotting, sometimes,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In anger and in strife;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For a selfish end essaying<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To treasures win or fame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the soul of Ernest cowered 'neath<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The angel's eye of flame.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then from a book the angel drew<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A leaf with name and date,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A record of this Ernest's life<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wove in the looms of Fate.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And said: "O, Faithful, answer me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Here is a midnight scroll,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What didst thou 'neath the stars that night?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Didst linger o'er the bowl?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Filling the night with revelry<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With cards and wine and dice,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And adding music's ecstacy,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To give more charms to vice?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then the soul of Faithful answered,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">"By the bedside of a friend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I watched the long hours through; that night<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His life drew near its end."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Here's another date at midnight,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where was't thou this night, say?"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"I was waiting by the dust of one<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whose soul had passed that day."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"These dollar marks," the angel said;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">"What mean they, Ernest, tell?"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"It was a trifle that I gave<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To one whom want befell."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Here's thine own picture, illy dressed;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What means this scant attire?"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"I know not," answered Faithful, "save<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That once midst tempest dire,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I found a fellow-man benumbed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And lost amid the storm<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And so around him wrapped my vest,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His stiffening limbs to warm."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Here is a woman's face, a girl's.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O, Ernest, is this well?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Knowst thou how often women's arms<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Have drawn men's souls to hell?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then Ernest answered: "This poor girl<br /></span> +<span class="i2">An orphan was. I gave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A trifle of my ample store<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The child from want to save."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Next are some words. What mean they here?"<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Then Ernest answered low:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"A fellow-man approached me once<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whose life was full of woe,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"When I had naught to give, except<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Some words of hope and trust;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I bade him still have faith, for God<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who rules above is just."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then the grave angel smiled and moved<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ajar the pearly gate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And said: "O, soul! we welcome thee<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Unto this new estate.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Enter! Nor sorrow more is thine,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor grief; we know thy creed—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou who hast soothed thy fellowmen<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In hour of sorest need.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Thou who hast watched thy brother's dust,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When the wrung soul had fled;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And to the stranger gave thy cloak,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And to the orphan, bread.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And when all else was gone, had still<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A word of kindly cheer<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For one more wretched than thyself,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou, soul, art welcome here.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Put on the robe thou gav'st away<br /></span> +<span class="i2">'Tis stainless now and white;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all thy words and deeds are gems;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wear them, it is thy right!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And then from choir and harp awoke<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A joyous, welcome strain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which other harps and choirs took up,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In jubilant refrain,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Till all the aisles of Summer Land<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Grew resonant, as beat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The measures of that mighty song<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of welcome, full and sweet.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"That is purty. I hope there were no mistake about the gintleman making +the showing up above," said Corrigan.</p> + +<p>"What lots of music there must be up in that country," chimed in Carlin. +"I wonder if there are any buildings any where on the back streets where +new beginners practice."</p> + +<p>"That represents the Hebrew idea of Heaven," said Alex. "I like that of +the savage better, with hills and streams and glorious old woods. There +is a dearer feeling of rest attached to it, and rest is what a life +craves most after a buffet of three score years in this world."</p> + +<p>"Rest is a pretty good thing after an eight-hours' wrestle with the +gnomes down on a 2,300 level of the Comstock," said Miller; "suppose we +say good night."</p> + +<p>"Withdraw the motion for a moment, Miller," said Wright. "First, I move +that our friends here be made honorary members of the Club."</p> + +<p>It was carried by acclamation, and thereafter, for several nights, the +three were present nightly.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + + +<p>When the Club reassembled Carlin, addressing the Colonel, said: "You +told us of a royal old bummer last night, and Miller told us of an angel +in miner's garb. Your stories reminded me of something which happened in +Hamilton, in Eastern Nevada, in the early times, when the thermometer +was at zero, when homes were homes and food was food. There was a royal +fellow there, too, only he was not a miner, and though he lived upon the +earnings of others, he never accepted charity. By profession he was a +gambler, and not a very 'high-toned' gambler at that. He was known as +'Andy Flinn,' though it was said, for family reasons, he did not pass +under his real name.</p> + +<p>"Well, Andy had, in sporting parlance, been 'playing in the worst kind +of luck' for a good while. One afternoon his whole estate was reduced to +the sum of fifteen dollars. He counted it over in his room, slipped it +back into his pocket and started up town. A little way from the lodging +where he roomed he was met by a man who begged him to step into a house +near by and see how destitute the inmates were.</p> + +<p>"Andy mechanically followed the man, who led the way to a cabin, threw +open the door and ushered Andy in. There was a man, the husband and +father, ill in bed, while the wife and mother, a delicate woman, and two +little children, were, in scanty garments, hovering around the ghost of +a fire.</p> + +<p>"Andy took one look, then rushed out of doors, the man who had led him +into the cabin following. Andy walked rapidly away until out of hearing +of the wretched people in the house, then swinging on his heel, for full +two minutes hurled the most appalling anathemas at the man for leading +him, as Andy expressed it, 'into the presence of those advance agents of +a famine.'</p> + +<p>"When he paused for breath the man said, quietly: 'I like that; I like +to see you fellows, that take the world so carelessly and easily, +stirred up occasionally.'</p> + +<p>"'Easy!' said Andy; 'you had better try it. You think our work is easy; +you are a mere child. We don't get half credit. I tell you to make a man +an accomplished gambler requires more study than to acquire a learned +profession; more labor than is needed to become a deft artisan. You talk +like a fool. Easy, indeed!'</p> + +<p>"'I don't care to discuss that point with you, Andy,' said the man. 'I +expect you are right, but that is not the question. What are you, a big, +strong, healthy fellow, going to do to help those poor wretches in the +cabin yonder?'</p> + +<p>"Andy plunged his hand into his pocket, drew out the fifteen dollars and +was just going to pass it over to the man when a thought struck him. +'Hold on,' he said; 'a man is an idiot that throws away his capital and +then has to take his chances with the thieves that fill this camp. You +come with me. I am going to try to take up a collection. By the way,' he +said, shortly, 'do you ever pray?'</p> + +<p>"The man answered that he did sometimes. 'Then,' said Andy, 'you put in +your very biggest licks when I start my collection.'</p> + +<p>"Not another word was said until they reached and entered a then famous +saloon on Main street.</p> + +<p>"Going to the rear where a faro game was in progress, Andy exchanged his +fifteen dollars for chips and began to play. He never ceased; hardly +looked up from the table for two hours. Sometimes he won and sometimes +he lost, but the balance was on the winning side. Finally he ceased +playing, gathered up his last stakes, and beckoning to the man who had +come with him to the saloon, and who had watched his playing with lively +interest, he led the way into the billiard room.</p> + +<p>"Andy went to a window on one side of the room and began to search his +pockets, piling all the money he could find on the sill of the window. +The money was all in gold and silver.</p> + +<p>"When his pockets were emptied, with the quickness of men of his class, +he ran the amount over. Then taking from a billiard table a bit of chalk +he, with labored strokes, wrote on the window sill the following:</p> + +<table width="50%"> +<tr><td>hul sum</td><td align="right">$263 50</td></tr> +<tr><td>starter</td><td align="right">15 00</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td align="right">-------</td></tr> +<tr><td>doo ter god</td><td align="right">$248 50</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>"He picked up a ten-dollar piece and a five-dollar piece from the +amount, then pushing the rest along the sill away from the figures, +asked the man to count it. He did so and said:</p> + +<p>"'I make altogether $248.50, Andy.'</p> + +<p>"'I suspect you are correct,' said Andy, 'and now you take that money +and go and fix up those people as comfortably as you can. Tell 'em we +took up a collection among the boys; don't say a word about it on the +outside, and see here. If you ever again show me as horrible a sight as +that crowd makes in that accursed den down the street, I'll break every +bone in your body.'</p> + +<p>"'But,' said the man, 'this is not right, Andy. It is too much. Fifty +dollars would be a most generous contribution from you. Give me fifty +dollars and you take back the rest.'</p> + +<p>"'What do you take me for?' was Andy's reply. 'Don't you think I have +any honor about me? When I went into that saloon I promised God that if +He would stand in with me, His poor should have every cent that I could +make in a two hours' deal. I would simply be a liar and a thief if I +took a cent of that money. You praying cusses have not very clear ideas +of right and wrong after all.'</p> + +<p>"The man went on his errand of mercy, and Andy returned and invested his +money in the bank again, as he said, 'to try to turn an honest penny.'"</p> + +<p>"That was a right ginerous man," remarked Corrigan.</p> + +<p>"May be and may be not," was the remark of the Colonel. "It is possible +that he had been 'playing in bad luck,' as they say, for a good while +and did it to change that luck. Confirmed gamesters never reason clearly +on ordinary subjects. They are either up in the clouds or down in the +depths; they are perpetually studying the doctrine of chances, and are +as full of superstitions as so many fortune tellers."</p> + +<p>"That class of men are proverbially generous, though," said Harding; +"but the way they get their money, I suspect, has something to do with +the matter. Had the man earned the money at four dollars a day, running +a car down in a hot mine, he would hardly have given up the whole sum."</p> + +<p>Here Miller took up the conversation. "I knew a man down in Amador +county, California," said he, "who worked in a mine as we are working +here, except that wages were $3.50 instead of $4.00 per day. He came +there in the fall of the year and worked eight months. His clothes were +always poor. He lived in a cabin by himself, and such miners as happened +into his cabin at meal time declared their belief that his food did not +cost half a dollar a day. He never joined the miners down town; was +never known to treat to as much as a glass of beer. We all hated him +cordially and looked upon him as a miner so avaricious that he was +denying himself the common comforts of life. He was the talk of the +mine, and many were the scornful words which he was made to hear and to +know that they were uttered at his expense. Still he was quiet and +resented nothing that was said, and there was no dispute about his being +a most capable and faithful miner. At last one morning as the morning +shift were waiting at the shaft to be lowered into the mine, Baxter +(that was his name) appeared, and, after begging our attention for a +moment, said:</p> + +<p>"'Gentlemen, there is the dead body of an old man up in the cabin across +from the trail. It will cost sixty dollars to bury it in a decent +coffin. The undertaker will not trust me, but if twenty of you will put +in three dollars each, I will pay you all when pay-day comes.'</p> + +<p>"Then we questioned him, and it came out at last that Baxter had found +the old man sick a few days after he came to work, and of his $3.50 per +day had spent $3.00 in food, medicine and medical attendance upon the +man, all through the long winter, and had moreover often watched with +him twelve hours out of the twenty-four. It was not a child that +something might be hoped for; there was no beautiful young girl about +the place to be in love with. It was simply a death watch over a +worn-out pauper. I thought then, I think still, it was as fine a thing +as ever I saw.</p> + +<p>"There were sixty of us on the mine. We put in ten dollars apiece, went +to Baxter in a body, and, begging his pardon, asked him to accept it.</p> + +<p>"With a smile, he answered: 'I thank you, but I cannot take it. I have +wasted much money in my time. Now I feel as though I had a little on +interest, and I shall get along first rate.'</p> + +<p>"Talk about royalty, our Baxter was an Emperor."</p> + +<p>"He did have something on interest," said Brewster. "Something for this +world and the world to come."</p> + +<p>"Did you ever hear about Jack Marshall's attempt to pay his debts by +clerking in a store?" asked Savage. "Jack brought a good deal of coin +here and opened a store. He did first rate for several months, and after +awhile branched out into a larger business, which required a good many +men. When everything was promising well a fire came and swept away the +store and a flood destroyed the other property. There was just enough +saved out of the wreck to pay the laborers.</p> + +<p>"When all was settled up Jack had but forty-three dollars left and an +orphan boy to take care of. Just then a man that Jack had known for a +good while as a miner, came into town, and hearing of Jack's +misfortunes, hunted him up and told him that he had given up mining and +settled down to farming, and begged Jack to come and make his home with +him until he had time to think over what was best to do. He further said +that he had twelve acres of land cleared and under fence, with ditches +all dug for irrigating the crop; that he had a yoke of oxen to plough +the land; that his intention was to plant the whole twelve acres to +potatoes; that a fair crop would yield him sixty tons, which, as +potatoes then were four cents a pound, would bring him nearly $5,000 for +the season. But he explained that he could not drive oxen, and more than +that, it required two men to do the work, and as he had not much money +and did not want to run in debt, his business in town was to find some +steady man who could drive oxen, who would go with him and help him +plant, tend, harvest and sell the crop on shares. The ranch was down on +Carson River, not far from Fort Churchill.</p> + +<p>"When the man had finished his story, Jack said to him: 'How would I do +for a steady man and a bovine manipulator?'</p> + +<p>"'My God, Mr. Marshall! you would not undertake to drive oxen and plant +potatoes, would you?' said the man.</p> + +<p>"'That's just what I would,' said Jack, 'if you think you can endure me +for a partner. I will become a horny-handed tender of the vine—the +potato vine. What say you?'</p> + +<p>"Well, that evening both men started for the farm. No friend of Jack +knew his real circumstances. They knew he had been unfortunate, but did +not know that it was a case of 'total wreck.' He bade a few of them +good-bye, with the careless remark that he was going for a few days' +hunt down toward the sink of the Carson.</p> + +<p>"Well, he ploughed the land, the two men planted the crop and irrigated +it until the potatoes were splendidly advanced and just ready to +blossom. It got to be the last of June and the promise for a bountiful +crop was encouraging. They had worked steadily since the middle of +March. But just then a thief, who had some money, made a false +affidavit, got from a court an injunction against the men and shut off +the water. It was just at the critical time when the life of the crop +depended upon water. In two weeks the whole crop was ruined. In the +meantime for seed and provisions, clothes, etc., a debt of one hundred +and fifty dollars had been contracted at the store of a Hebrew named +Isaacs. News of the injunction reached the merchant, and one morning he +put in an appearance.</p> + +<p>"'Meester Marshall, hous dings?' asked Isaacs.</p> + +<p>"Pointing to the blackened and withering crop, Jack answered: 'They look +a little bilious, don't you think so?'</p> + +<p>"'Mine Gott! Mine Gott!' was the wailing exclamation. Then, after a +pause, 'Ven does you suppose you might pay me, Meester Marshall?'</p> + +<p>"'As things have been going of late, I think in about seven years. It is +said that bad luck changes about every seven years.'</p> + +<p>"'Mine Gott! Meester Marshall,' cried Isaacs; 'haven't you got nodings +vot you can pay? I vill discount de bill—say ten per cent.'</p> + +<p>"'Nothing that I can think of, except a dog. I have a dog that is worth +two hundred dollars, but to you I will discount the dog twenty-five per +cent.'</p> + +<p>"'O, mine Gott! vot you dinks I could do mit a dog?' said the despairing +merchant.</p> + +<p>"'Why keep him for his society, Mr. Isaacs,' was the bantering answer. +'With him salary is not so much an object as a comfortable and +respectable home. There's too much alkali on the soil to encourage fleas +to remain, so there's no difficulty on that score; and he's an awfully +good dog, Isaacs; no bad habits, and the most regular boarder you ever +saw; he has never been late to a meal since we have been here. You had +better take him; twenty-five per cent is an immense discount.'</p> + +<p>"By this time the Hebrew was nearly frantic.</p> + +<p>"'Meester Marshall,' he said, hesitatingly, 'did you clerk ever in a +store?'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, yes.'</p> + +<p>"'Vould you clerk for me?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes: that is, until that bill shall be settled.'</p> + +<p>"'Ven could you come?'</p> + +<p>"'Whenever you wish.'</p> + +<p>"'Vould you come next Monday—von of mine clerks, Henery, goes avay +Monday?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, I will be on hand Monday. Let us see; it is seven miles to walk. +I will be there about nine o'clock in the morning.'</p> + +<p>"'Vell, I danks you, Meester Marshall; danks you very much.'</p> + +<p>"He turned away and rode off a few steps, then stopped and called back: +'Meester Marshall, if you dinks vot de society of de dog is essential to +your comfort, bring him.'</p> + +<p>"'Thanks, Isaacs,' cried Jack, cheerfully; 'considering where I am going +to work, and the company I am going to keep, it will not be necessary.'</p> + +<p>"Jack went as he had promised. Isaacs, who was a thoroughly good man, +was delighted to see him, shook hands cordially, and then suddenly, with +a mysterious look, led him to the extreme rear end of the store, and +when there, placing his lips close to Jack's ear, in a hoarse whisper, +said:</p> + +<p>"'Meester Marshall, de vater here is —— bad; it is poison, horrible. +You drinks nodings but vine until you gets used to de vater.'</p> + +<p>"Marshall went to work at once. It was in 1863. The war was at its +height, and Jack was intensely Union, while Isaacs, his employer, was a +furious Democrat. Nothing of especial interest transpired for a couple +of weeks, when one day an emigrant woman, just across the plains, +leading two little children, came into the store.</p> + +<p>"She was an exceedingly poor woman, evidently. All her clothes were not +worth three dollars, while her children were pitiful looking beyond +description.</p> + +<p>"Isaacs was in the front of the store; Jack was putting up goods in the +rear, but in hearing, while another clerk was in the warehouse outside +of the main store. Isaacs went to wait on the woman. She picked out some +needed articles of clothing for her children, amounting to some six or +eight dollars, then unrolling a dilapidated kerchief, from its inner +folds drew out a Confederate twenty-dollar note and tendered it in +payment.</p> + +<p>"Isaacs, who had been all smiles, drew back in horror, exclaiming: 'I +cannot take dot; dot is not monish, madam.'</p> + +<p>"Jack overheard what Isaacs said and the woman's reply, as follows:</p> + +<p>"'It is all that I have; it is all the money that we have had in +Arkansas since the war commenced. Everybody takes it in Arkansas.'</p> + +<p>"This conversation continued for two or three minutes, and the woman was +just about turning away without the goods when Jack, unable to longer +bear it, stepped forward and said:</p> + +<p>"'Mr. Isaacs, Mr. Smith would like to see you in the warehouse; please +permit me to wait upon the lady.'</p> + +<p>"'All right,' said Isaacs, 'only (in a whisper) remember dot ish not +money.'</p> + +<p>"Isaacs passed out of the store and Jack then said: 'If you please, +madam, let me see your money.'</p> + +<p>"The woman, with a trembling hand, presented the Confederate note. Jack +glanced at it and said:</p> + +<p>"'Why, this is first-class money, madam. It is just a prejudice that +that infernal old Abolitionist has. I will discharge him to-night. They +would hang him in two hours in Arkansas, and they ought to hang him +here. Buy all the goods you want, madam.'</p> + +<p>"With eyes full of gratitude the woman increased the bill, until it +amounted to eleven dollars and a half. Jack tied up the goods, took the +Confederate note, handed the woman a five-dollar gold piece and three +dollars and fifty cents in silver, and she went on her way holding the +precious coin, the first she had seen in years, closely clasped in her +hand.</p> + +<p>"Jack charged goods to cash twenty dollars, charged himself to cash +twenty dollars, and went back to putting up goods, humming to himself.</p> + +<p>"'Half the world never knows how the other half lives.' Jack's salary +was one hundred and fifty dollars a month. He owed one hundred and fifty +dollars when he went to work. It took him four months to pay off his +indebtedness, but when he gave up his place he had all his pockets full +of Confederate money."</p> + +<p>As the story was finished, Miller said: "A real pleasant but +characteristic thing happened right here in this city when Bishop W—— +first came here.</p> + +<p>"He wanted to establish a church, and his first work was to select men +who would act and be a help to him as trustees.</p> + +<p>"It is nothing to get trustees for a mining company here, but a church +is a different thing. In a church, you know, a man has to die to fill +his shorts, and then, somehow, in these late years men have doubts about +the formation, so that when a man starts a company on that lead any more +he finds it mighty hard to place any working capital.</p> + +<p>"At the time I was speaking of it was just about impossible to get a +full staff of trustees that would exactly answer the orthodox +requirements. But the Bishop is a man of expedients. It was sinners that +he came to call to repentance, and it did not take him long to discover +that right here was a big field. He went to work at once with an energy +that has never abated for a moment since. He selected all his trustees +but one, and looking around for him, with a clear instinct he determined +that Abe E—— should be that one if he would accept the place.</p> + +<p>"Now Abe was the best and truest of men, but he would swear sometimes. +Indeed when he got started on that stratum he was a holy terror. But the +Bishop put him down as a trustee, and, meeting Abe on the street, +informed him that he was trying to organize a church; had taken the +liberty to name him as a trustee, and asked Abe to do him the honor of +attending a trustees' meeting at 1 o'clock the next afternoon.</p> + +<p>"'I would be glad to help you, Bishop,' said Abe, 'but——it——I +don't know. I can run a mine or a quartz mill, but I don't know any more +than a Chinaman about running a church.'</p> + +<p>"But the Bishop plead his case so ably that Abe at length surrendered, +promised to attend the meeting, and, having promised, like the sterling +business man that he was, promptly put in an appearance.</p> + +<p>"Besides Abe and the Bishop, there were six others. When all had +assembled the Bishop explained that he desired to build a church; that +he had plans, specifications and estimates for a church to cost $9,000, +with lot included; that he believed $1,500 might be raised by +subscription, leaving the church but $7,500 in debt, which amount would +run at low interest and which in a growing place like Virginia City the +Bishop thought might be paid up in four or five years, leaving the +church free. He closed by asking the sense of the trustees as to the +wisdom and practicability of making the attempt.</p> + +<p>"There was a general approval of the plan expressed by all present +except Abe, who was silent until his opinion was directly asked by the +Bishop.</p> + +<p>"'Why —— it, Bishop,' said he, 'I told you that I knew nothing about +church business, but I don't like the plan. If you were to get money at +fifteen per cent per annum, which is only half the regular banking rate, +your interest would amount to nearly $1,200 a year, or almost as much as +you hope to raise for a commencement. I am afraid, Bishop, you would +never live long enough to get out of debt. You want a church, why —— +it, why don't you work the business as though you believed it would pay? +That is the only way you can get up any confidence in the scheme.'</p> + +<p>"Abe sat down and the Bishop's heart sank with him.</p> + +<p>"With a smile, one of the other gentlemen asked Abe what his plan for +getting a church would be.</p> + +<p>"'I will tell you,' said Abe, 'I move that an assessment of one thousand +dollars be levied upon each of the trustees, payable immediately.'</p> + +<p>"It was a startling proposition to the Bishop, who was just from the +East and who had not become accustomed to Comstock ways. With a +faltering voice he said:</p> + +<p>"'Mr. E., I fear that I cannot at present raise $1,000.'</p> + +<p>"'Never mind, Bishop,' said Abe, 'we will take yours out in preaching; +but there is no rebate for any of the rest of you. If you are going to +serve the Lord, you have got to be respectable about it. Your checks if +you please, gentlemen.'</p> + +<p>"All were wealthy men, the checks were laughingly furnished, with joking +remarks that it was the first company ever formed in Virginia City where +the officers really invested any money.</p> + +<p>"'Abe took the checks, added his own to the number, begged the Bishop to +excuse him, remarking as he went out that while he had every faith in +the others still he was anxious to reach the bank a little in advance of +them, and started up town.</p> + +<p>"He met this man and that and demanded of each a check for from $50 to +$250, as he thought they could respectively afford to pay.</p> + +<p>"When asked how long he would want the money his reply was: 'I want it +for keeps, —— it. I am building a church.' In forty minutes he had the +whole sum. He took the checks to the bank and for them received a +certificate of deposit in the Bishop's name. Carrying this to the +Bishop's house he rang the bell.</p> + +<p>"'The Bishop had seen his coming and answered the summons in person. +Handing him the certificate Abe said:</p> + +<p>"'Take that for a starter, Bishop. It won't be enough, for a church is +like an old quartz mill. The cost always exceeds the estimates a good +deal, but go ahead, and when you need more money we will levy another +assessment on the infernal sinners.'"</p> + +<p>Strong, who had been listening attentively said: "I heard the Bishop +preach and pray over Abe's dead body three years ago, and watched him as +he took a last, long look at Abe's still, clear-cut splendid face as it +was composed in death. Abe never joined the church, and I am told that +he swore a little to the last. His part in building the church was +simply one of his whims, but for years he was a Providence here to +scores of people. No one knew half his acts of bountiful, delicate +charity, or in how many homes bitter tears were shed when he died.</p> + +<p>"But the Bishop knew enough to know and feel as he was praying over his +remains, that while it was well as a matter of form, it was quite +unnecessary; that, so far as Abe was concerned, he was safe; that in the +Beyond where the mansions are and where the light is born; where, over +all, are forever stretched out the brooding wings of celestial peace, +Abe had been received, and that, upon his coming, while the welcomes +were sounding and the greetings were being made to him, flowers burst +through the golden floor and blossomed at his feet.</p> + +<p>"Among the royal ones of the earth, the soul of Abe E—— bore the +sceptre of perfect sovereignty."</p> + +<p>"I knew him," said Corrigan, "may his soul rest in peace, for he was a +noble man."</p> + +<p>"I knew him," interposed Carlin, "no words give an idea of how sterling +and true a man he was."</p> + +<p>"I knew him," added Wright. "When he died Virginia City did not realize +the loss which his death entailed."</p> + +<p>"I knew him," concluded Strong. "His heart was a banyan tree, its limbs +were perpetually bending down and taking root, till it made shade for +the poor of the city."</p> + +<p>Then Carlin, opening the door to the kitchen, called Yap Sing to bring +glasses. A night-cap toddy was made and as it was drank the good nights +were spoken.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + + +<p>With the lighting of the pipes the next night Miller said:</p> + +<p>"All your royal people so far, though not perfect men, have had +redeeming traits. I once knew one who had not a single characteristic, +except, perhaps, some pluck. My man was simply a royal liar. In Western +parlance, 'he was a boss.' His name was Colonel Jensen.</p> + +<p>"Now, in my judgment, lying is the very grossest of human evils. A +common liar is a perpetual proof of the truth of the doctrine of +original sin. By that vice more friendships are broken and more real +misery is perpetrated and perpetuated in the world than comes through +any other channel.</p> + +<p>"But as genius excites admiration even when exerted for sinister +purposes, so when the art of lying is reduced to an absolute science +there is something almost fine about it.</p> + +<p>"My liar, when I first knew him, seemed to be between fifty and sixty +years of age; but no one ever knew what his real age was.</p> + +<p>"But he was quite an old man, for his hair was perfectly white, and +that, with a singularly striking face and fine faculty of expressing his +ideas, gave him an appearance at once venerable and engaging. It was +hard to look into his almost classical face and to think that if he had +told the truth within twenty years, it must have been an accident; but +such was the fact, nevertheless.</p> + +<p>"He was indeed a colossal prevaricator. He was at home, too, on every +theme, and there was the charm of freshness to every new falsehood, for +he spoke as one who was on the spot—an actor. If it was an event that +he was describing, he was a participant; if a landscape or a structure, +it was from actual observation; if it chanced to be a scientific theme, +he invariably reported the words of some great scientist 'just as they +fell from his lips.'</p> + +<p>"He knew and had dined with all the great men of his generation—that +is, he said so. He always spoke with particularly affectionate +remembrance of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, always referring to them +as 'Hank' and 'Dan,' so intimate had he been with them.</p> + +<p>"My introduction to him was on a stormy winter night, in the early years +of the Washoe excitement. A few of us were conversing in a hotel. One +gentleman was describing something that he had witnessed in his boyhood, +in Columbus, Ohio.</p> + +<p>"As he finished his story, a venerable gentleman, who was a stranger in +Washoe, and who had, for several minutes, been slowly pacing up and down +the room, suddenly stopped and inquired of the gentleman who had been +talking if he was from Columbus? When answered in the affirmative, the +stranger extended his hand, dropped into a convenient seat as he spoke, +and expressed his pleasure at meeting a gentleman from Columbus, at the +same time introducing himself as Colonel Jensen and remarking that one +of the happiest recollections of his life was of a day in Columbus, on +which day all his prospects in life were changed and wonderfully +brightened.</p> + +<p>"With such an exordium, the rest could do no less than to press the old +gentleman to favor the company with a rehearsal of what had transpired.</p> + +<p>"The story was as follows:</p> + +<p>"I had just returned with the remnant of my regiment from Mexico, and +had received the unanimous thanks of the Legislature of Ohio for—so the +resolution was worded—"the magnificent ability and steadfast and +desperate courage displayed by Colonel Jensen for twelve consecutive +hours on the field of Buena Vista." I was young at the time and had not +got over caring for such things. The day after this resolution of thanks +was passed the Governor of the State ordered a grand review, at the +capital, of the militia of the State in honor of the soldiers who had +survived the war. As a mark of especial honor I was appointed +Adjutant-General on the Governor's staff. My place at the review was +beside the Governor—who was, of course, Commander-in-Chief—except when +my particular regiment was passing.</p> + +<p>"'There are a few things which I have never outgrown a weakness for. One +is a real Kentucky blood horse. I had sent to Kentucky and paid four +thousand dollars for a son of old Gray Eagle. I bought him cheap, too, +because of his color. He was a dappled gray. The Boston stock of horses +was just then becoming the rage, and gray was beginning to be an off +color for thoroughbreds. My horse was a real beauty. He had been trained +on the track, and from a dead stand would spring twenty-two feet the +first bound. But he was thoroughly broken and tractable, though he had +more style than a peacock, and when prancing and careering, though not +pulling five pounds on the bit, he looked as though in a moment he would +imitate Elijah's chariot and take to the clouds.</p> + +<p>"'As the hour for the review approached I mounted my horse and took my +position, as assigned, beside the Governor.</p> + +<p>"'I was quietly conversing with him and with our Brigadier-General, when +a runaway team, attached to an open carriage in which were two ladies, +dashed past us.</p> + +<p>"'What followed was instinct. I gave Gray Eagle both rein and spur. In a +few seconds he was beside the running horses. I sprang from his back +upon the back of the near carriage horse, gathered the inside reins of +the team, drew the heads of the two horses together and brought them to +a standstill only a few feet from the bluffs, which any one from that +city will remember, and over which the team would have dashed in a +moment more.</p> + +<p>"'People gathered around instantly, took the horses in hand and helped +the ladies from the vehicle. Being relieved, I caught and remounted my +horse, took my place and the review proceeded.</p> + +<p>"'After the review, I received a note from the Governor asking me to +dine with him that evening.</p> + +<p>"'I accepted, supposing the invitation was due to my Mexican record. +Judge my surprise, then, when going to the Governor's mansion, I was +shown into the parlor, and, on being presented to the Governor's wife +and her beautiful unmarried sister, in a moment found myself being +overwhelmed by the grateful thanks of the two ladies, learning for the +first time, from their lips, that they were the ladies I had rescued.</p> + +<p>"'Of course, after that, I was a frequent visitor at the house, and in a +few months the young lady became my wife.'</p> + +<p>"His story was told with an air of such modest candor and at the same +time with such dramatic effect, that what might have seem improbable or +singular about it, had it been differently related, was not thought of +at the time. The old man was a real hero for a brief moment at least.</p> + +<p>"When, later, we knew the Colonel had never been in the Mexican war or +any other war; that he had never been married; that if he had ever +witnessed a military review it was from a perch on a fence or tree; that +he had never possessed four thousand or four hundred dollars with which +to buy a horse, and that his oldest acquaintances did not believe that +he had ever been on a horse's back, still, while the admiration for the +man was somewhat chilled, there was no difference of opinion as to the +main fact, which was that as a gigantic and dramatic liar, on merit, he +was entitled to the post of honor on a day when the Ananiases of all the +world were passing in review.</p> + +<p>"Old and middle-aged men in the West will remember the delightful +letters, which Lieut. B., under the <i>nom de plume</i> of 'Ching Foo,' used +to write to the Sacramento <i>Union</i>. Once in the presence of Colonel +Jensen these letters were referred to as masterpieces. The Colonel +smiled significantly and said:</p> + +<p>"'They were delicious letters, truly. Take him all in all, Ching Foo was +the most intelligent Chinaman I ever saw. He cooked for me three years +in California. I taught him reading and writing. I reckon he would have +been with me still, but the early floods in '54 washed out my bed-rock +flume in American River and I had to break up my establishment. I had a +ton of gold in sight in the river bed, but next morning the works were +all gone and with them $125,000 which I had used in turning the river.'</p> + +<p>"One day an Ohio man and a Tennessee man engaged in a warm dispute over +the relative excellencies of the respective State houses in Ohio and +Tennessee. Finally they appealed to Colonel Jensen for an opinion. The +Colonel, with his sovereign air, said to the Ohio man:</p> + +<p>"'You are wrong, Tom. I had just completed the State house at Columbus, +when I was sent for to go and make the plans and superintend the +construction of the State house at Nashville. It would have been strange +if I had not made a great many improvements over the Ohio structure, in +preparing plans for the one to be erected in Tennessee.'</p> + +<p>"The Colonel was a bungling carpenter by trade, and never built anything +more complicated or imposing than a miner's cabin.</p> + +<p>"One more anecdote and I will positively stop. Two neighbors had a law +suit in Washoe City. One was an honest man, the other a scoundrel. As is +the rule in Nevada, both the plaintiff and defendant testified. The +defendant denied point blank the testimony of the plaintiff. It was +plain that one or the other had committed terrible perjury. Some other +witnesses were called, the case was closed and the jury retired to +consider upon a verdict. But how to decide was the question. Which was +the honest man and which the scoundrel?</p> + +<p>"At last one juror hit upon a happy thought. He said:</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen, did you notice closely the last witness for the defendant? +His hair was white as snow, his body bent, his steps were feeble and +tottering. That man has already one foot in the grave; he will not +survive another month. Surely a man in his condition would tell the +truth.' The argument seemed logical and the reasoning sound. The verdict +was unanimous for the defendant.</p> + +<p>"No case ever showed clearer the 'infallibility' of a jury. The witness +was Colonel Jensen. The defendant was the perjurer, and all the Colonel +knew of the case was what the defendant had, that morning, out behind a +hay corral, drilled him to know and to swear to, for a five-dollar +piece.</p> + +<p>"The Colonel has gone now to join his ancestors on the other side. In +the old orthodox days there would not have been the slightest doubt as +to who his original ancestor was, or of the temperature of his present +quarters, but who knows?</p> + +<p>"I only know that, while upon the earth, he was one of the few men whom +I have known that I believed was a native genius; a very Shakespeare (or +Bacon) in language; a Michael Angelo in coloring; a colossal, +all-embracing, magnificent, measureless liar."</p> + +<p>"He was a good one, sure," said Carlin.</p> + +<p>"He was a bad one, sure," remarked Ashley.</p> + +<p>Then Brewster, taking up the theme, said: "He had a chronic disease, +that was all. He was as much of an inebriate in his way as ever was +drunkard a slave to alcohol. He had great vanity and self-esteem and a +flowery imagination. These were chastened or disciplined by no moral +attributes. He could no more help being what he was than can the raven +avoid being black."</p> + +<p>"There was bad stock in the mon," said Corrigan. "He should have been +strangled in his cradle; for sich a mon is forever making bitterness in +a neighborhood, and is not fit to live."</p> + +<p>"Boys," asked the Colonel, "do you believe that lying is ever +justifiable?"</p> + +<p>Brewster, Harding and Ashley simultaneously answered "No."</p> + +<p>"It depends," said Carlin.</p> + +<p>"Hardly iver," said Corrigan.</p> + +<p>Miller thought it might be necessary.</p> + +<p>"For one's self, no; for another, perhaps yes," said the Professor.</p> + +<p>"That is just the point," remarked the Colonel. "Let me tell you about a +case which transpired right here in this city. There were two men whose +first names were the same, while their surnames were similar. Their +given names were Frank and their surnames were, we will say, Cady and +Carey, respectively. Cady was a young married man. He had a beautiful +wife, a lovely little girl three years of age and a baby boy a year old +at the time I am speaking of. Carey was five or six years younger and +single. They were great friends, notwithstanding that Cady was pretty +fast while Carey was as pure-hearted a young man as ever came here. +More, he was devotedly attached to a young lady who was a close friend +of the wife of Cady. The young couple were expecting to be married in a +few weeks at the time the incident happened which I am going to relate.</p> + +<p>"Cady was wealthy, while Carey was poor and a clerk in a mercantile +establishment. One day Cady said to his friend: 'Carey, I bought some +Con. Virginia stock to-day at $55. I have set aside eighty shares for +you. Some people think it is going to advance before long. If it does +and there is anything made on the eighty shares it shall be yours.' +Sixty days later the stock struck $463, when it was sold and the bank +notified Carey that there was a deposit of $32,000 to his credit. When +this stroke of good fortune came the youth hastened to tell the good +news to the girl of his heart, and before they separated their troth was +plighted and the marriage day fixed.</p> + +<p>"During this delicious period, one morning Carey stepped into the outer +office of Cady and was horrified to hear from behind the glass screen +which separated the inner office from the main office the wife of Cady +upbrading her husband in a most violent manner. Her back was to the +front of the building. She was holding a letter in her hand, and as +Carey entered the building she began and read the letter through, and +wound up by crying: 'Who is this Marie who is writing to you and +directing the letters simply to Frank, Postoffice box 409? You are +keeping a private box, are you? But you are too careless by half; you +left this letter in your overcoat pocket, and when I went to sew a +button on the coat this morning it fell out, so I could not help but see +it.'</p> + +<p>"Just then Cady looked up and saw Carey through the glass petition. The +latter with a swift motion touched a finger to his lips and shook his +head, which in perfect pantomime said: 'Don't give yourself away,' then +in a flash slipped noiselessly from the building.</p> + +<p>"Once outside, he hastily, on a leaf of his memorandum book, wrote to +the postmaster that if he called with a lady and asked what his +postoffice box was to answer 409; to at once take out anything that +might be in the box, and if he had time to seal and stamp an envelope, +direct it to him and put it in 409, and he added: 'Don't delay a +moment.'</p> + +<p>"Calling a bootblack who was standing near, he gave him the note and a +silver dollar, bade him run with the letter to the postoffice and to be +sure to deliver the note only to some of the responsible men there, to +the postmaster himself if possible.</p> + +<p>"Then, with a good deal of noise, he rushed into his friend's place of +business again.</p> + +<p>"As he entered he heard his friend's wife, through her sobs, saying: +'Oh, Frank! I should have thought that respect for our children would +have prevented this, even if you have no more love for me.'</p> + +<p>"Carey dashed through the sash door, seemed taken all aback at seeing +Cady's wife in the office. In great apparent confusion he advanced and +said: 'Excuse me, Cady, but I am in a little trouble this morning. I was +expecting a letter last night directed simply to my first name and my +postoffice box. It has not come, and as you and myself have the same +first name, I did not know but the mistake might have been made at the +postoffice.' He was apparently greatly agitated and unstrung and seemed +particularly anxious about the letter.</p> + +<p>"Cady replied: 'With my mail last night a letter came directed as you +say. I opened and glanced over it, thought it was some joke, put it in +my pocket and thought no more about it until my wife brought it in this +morning. Somehow she does not seem satisfied at my explanation.'</p> + +<p>"At this the lady sprang up, and, confronting the young man, said: +'Frank Carey, what is the number of your box in the postoffice?'</p> + +<p>"With steady eyes and voice he answered; '409.' The woman was dumfounded +for a moment, but she quickly rallied.</p> + +<p>"'Come with me,' she said. The young man obeyed. She took her way +directly to the postoffice. Arriving, she tapped at the delivery window +and asked if she could see the postmaster in person. The boy delivered +the message and in a moment the door opened and the pair were ushered +into the private office of the postmaster. Hardly were they seated when +the lady said abruptly: 'We have come, Judge, on a serious business. +Will you be kind enough to tell me the number of this gentleman's +postoffice box?'</p> + +<p>"The postmaster looked inquiringly at Carey, who nodded assent. Then in +response to the lady, he replied: 'I do not exactly remember. I will +have to look at the books.'</p> + +<p>"He passed into the main office, but returned in a moment with a petty +ledger containing an alphabetical index. He opened at the 'C's' and +read: 'Frank Carey, box 409; paid for one quarter from Jan——' +Continuing, he said: 'I remember now, Frank, you hired the box about the +time you realized on Con. Virginia, and the quarter has about a month +more to run.'</p> + +<p>"This he said with an imperturbable, and incorruptible face, and with an +air of mingled candor and business which it was charming to behold.</p> + +<p>"The lady was nearly paralyzed, but she made one more effort.</p> + +<p>"'There can be no possible mistake in what you have told me, Judge?' she +asked.</p> + +<p>"'I think not the least in the world,' was the reply, and, rising, he +continued: 'Please step this way.' He led the way to the boxes, and +there over 409 was the name of Frank Carey. More, there was a sprinkle +of dust over it, showing that it had been there for some time.</p> + +<p>"'By the way,' said the postmaster, you have a letter, Frank. It must be +a drop letter, as no mail has been received this morning.' He took the +letter from the box in a manner so awkward that the lady could not help +seeing that it had evidently been directed in a disguised female hand, +and that the superscription was simply 'Frank, P. O. Box 409.'</p> + +<p>"Arrived again in the private office, the lady said to the young man, in +a latitude 78-degree north tone, 'I see, sir, you have a very extensive, +and I have no doubt, very <i>select</i> correspondence.'</p> + +<p>"At the same time she caught up her skirts—the ladies wore long skirts +that year—and, with a 'I thank you, Judge; good morning,' started +toward the door. As she passed Carey she drew close to the wall, as +though for her robes to touch the hem of his garments would be +contamination, and passed haughtily into the street.</p> + +<p>"When she had disappeared Carey sank into a chair and drew a long breath +of relief, while the grave face of the ancient 'Nasby' unlimbered and +warmed into a smile which shone like virtue's own reward.</p> + +<p>"'Lord! Lord!' he said, 'but it was a close shave. I had just got things +fixed when you came. And was not she mad though? She looked like the +prospectus of a cyclone. But tell me, Carey, am I not rather an +impressive liar, when, in the best interests of domestic peace, my duty +leads me into that channel?'</p> + +<p>"Frank answered, 'As Mark Twain told those wild friends of his who +perpetrated the bogus robbery upon him, "You did a marvelous sight too +well for a mere amateur." But now, Judge, mum is the word about this +business.'</p> + +<p>"'Mum is the word,' was the reply.</p> + +<p>"That evening Carey called at the home of his betrothed. A servant +showed him into the parlor, but for the first time the young lady did +not put in an appearance. In her stead her mother came. The elder lady, +without sitting, in a severe tone said: 'Mr. Carey, my daughter has +heard something to-day from Mrs. Cady. Until you explain that matter to +my satisfaction my daughter will beg to decline to see you.'</p> + +<p>"Carey replied: 'Since your daughter has heard of the matter, it does +concern <i>her</i>, and I shall very gladly explain to her; but I cannot to +any one else, not even to you.'</p> + +<p>"'You could easily impose upon a silly girl who is in love, but I am no +silly girl, and am not in love, especially not with <i>you</i>, and you will +have to explain to <i>me</i>,' said the lady.</p> + +<p>"'My dear madam,' said Carey, mildly, 'in one sense there is nothing in +all that gossip. In another sense so much is involved that I would not +under the rack whisper a word of it to any soul on earth save she who +has promised to give her happiness into my keeping. When your daughter +becomes my wife your authority as mother in our home shall never be +questioned by me. Until then my business is not with you.'</p> + +<p>"'It is not worth while to prolong this discussion,' said the old lady, +excitedly. 'If you have nothing more to say, I will bid you good +evening.'</p> + +<p>"'Good evening, madam,' said Carey, and went out into the night.</p> + +<p>"A year later the young lady married the wildest rake on the Comstock, +but Carey never married, and died last year.</p> + +<p>"When Cady saw how things were going, he went to Carey and said: 'Carey, +let me go and explain to those ladies. It kills me to see you as your +are.'</p> + +<p>"'It will never do,' was the reply. 'They would not keep the secret, +especially the elder one never would. It would kill her not to get even +with your wife. It worried me a little at first, for I feared that —— +might grieve some and be disappointed; but she is all right. I watched +her covertly at the play last night. She will forget me in a month. She +will be married within the year. We will take no chance of having your +home made unhappy. Dear friend, it is all just as I would have it.'"</p> + +<p>"It was too bad," said Harding.</p> + +<p>"That Carey was a right noble fellow," was Wright's comment.</p> + +<p>Miller thought if he had been right game he would have seen that girl, +old woman or no old woman.</p> + +<p>"He was punished for his falsehood. He had to atone for his own and his +friend's sins," was Brewster's conclusion.</p> + +<p>"O, murther! I think he had a happy deliverance from the whole family +intoirely," said Corrigan.</p> + +<p>Carlin, addressing Brewster, said: "You say he was punished for the sins +of himself and his friend; how do you dispose of the wickedness of the +postmaster?"</p> + +<p>"Possibly," was the response, "he is wicked by habit, and it may be he +is being reserved for some particular judgment."</p> + +<p>"All that I see remarkable about Carey's case," said Ashley, "is that he +made the money in the first place. Had that stock been carried for me, +the mine would have been flooded the next week and my work would have +been mortgaged for a year to come to make good the loss."</p> + +<p>"It was a hard case, no doubt," said Strong, "but I think with Corrigan, +that the punishment was not without its compensations."</p> + +<p>"He had his mirage and it was worse than wild Injuns, was it not, +Wright?" asked Corrigan.</p> + +<p>"Or worse, Barney," said Wright, "than a blacksmith, a foine mon and a +mon of property."</p> + +<p>"O, murther, Wright," said Corrigan; "stop that. There go the whistles. +Let us say good night."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + + +<p>About this time Virginia City was visited one day by a heavy rain storm +accompanied with thunder. But as the sun was disappearing behind Mount +Davidson, the clouds broke and rolled away from the west, while at the +same time a faint rainbow appeared in the East, making one of those +beautiful spectacles common to mountainous regions.</p> + +<p>At the same time the flag on Mount Davidson caught the beams from the +setting sun and stood out a banner of fire. This, too, is not an +unfrequent spectacle in Virginia City, and long ago inspired a most +gifted lady to write a very beautiful poem, "The Flag on Fire."</p> + +<p>The storm and the sunset turned the minds of the Club to other beautiful +displays of nature which they had seen. Said Miller, "I never saw +anything finer than a sunset which I witnessed once at sea down off the +Mexican coast.</p> + +<p>"We were in a tub of a steamship, the old "Jonathan." We had been in a +storm for four days, three of which the steamer had been thrown up into +the wind, the machinery working slowly, just sufficient to keep +steerageway on the ship.</p> + +<p>"There were 600 passengers on board, with an unusual number of women and +children, and we had been miserable past expression. But at last, with +the coming of the dawn, the wind ceased; as soon as the waves ran down +so that it was safe to swing the ship, she was turned about and put upon +her course.</p> + +<p>"In a few hours the sea grew comparatively smooth, and the passengers by +hundreds sought the deck.</p> + +<p>"All the afternoon the Mexican coast was in full view, blue and +rock-bound and not many miles away.</p> + +<p>"Just before the sun set its bended rays struck those blue head-lands +and transfigured them. They took on the forms of walls and battlements +and shone like a city of gold rising out of the sea in the crimson East, +and looked as perhaps the swinging gardens of Semiramis did from within +the walls of Babylon. In the West the disc of the sun, unnaturally +large, blazed in insufferable splendor, while in glory this seeming city +shone in the East. Between the two pictures the ship was plunging on her +course and we could feel the pulses of the deep sea as they throbbed +beneath us. The multitude upon the deck hardly made a sound; all that +broke the stillness was the heavy respirations of the engines and the +beating of the paddles upon the water. The spell lasted but a few +minutes, for when the sun plunged beneath the sea, the darkness all at +once began as is common in those latitudes, but while it lasted it was +sublime.</p> + +<p>"Speaking of Nature's pictures, in my judgment about the most impressive +sight that is made in this world, is a storm at sea. I mean a real storm +in which a three thousand ton ship is tossed about like a cork, when the +roar of the storm makes human voices of no avail, and when the billows +give notice that 'deep is answering unto deep.'</p> + +<p>"When a boy I often went down under the overhanging rock over which the +current of Niagara pours. As I listened to the roar and tried to compute +the energy which had kept those thunders booming for, heaven only knows +how many thousands of years, it used to make me feel small enough; but +it never influenced me as does an ocean storm. When all the world that +is in sight goes into the business of making Niagaras, and turns out a +hundred of them every minute, I tell you about all an ordinary landsman +can do is to sit still and watch the display.</p> + +<p>"A real ocean storm—a shore shaker—is about the biggest free show that +this world has yet invented."</p> + +<p>Corrigan spoke next; said he: "Spakin' of storms, did you iver watch the +phenomenon of a ragin' snow storm high up in the Sierras? When it is +approaching there is a roar in the forest such as comes up a headland +when the sea is bating upon its base. This will last for hours, the +pines rocking like auld women at a wake, and thin comes the snow. Its no +quiet, respectable snow such as you see in civilized countries, but it +just piles down as though a new glacial period had descinded upon the +worreld. As it falls all the voices of the smaller streams grow still +and the wind itself grows muffled as though it had a could in the head. +The trees up there are no shrubs you know. They grow three hundred feet +high and have branches in proportion, and whin they git to roarin' and +rockin', it is as though all the armies of the mountains were presentin' +arms.</p> + +<p>"When the storm dies away, thin it is you see a picture, if the weather +is not too cold. The snow masses itself upon the branches, and thin you +stand in a temple miles in extent, the floor of which is white like +alabaster while the columns that support it are wrought in a lace-work +of emerald and of frost more lofty and dilicate than iver was traced out +by the patient hand of mortal in grand cathadrals."</p> + +<p>Here Carlin interrupted.</p> + +<p>"Say, Barney, is there not a great deal of frieze to one of those Sierra +temples?"</p> + +<p>"It might same so, lookin' from the standpoint of the nave," was +Barney's quick reply.</p> + +<p>Groans followed this outbreak, from various members of the Club. They +were the first puns that had been fired into that peaceful company and +they were hailed as omens of approaching trouble.</p> + +<p>The gentle voice of Brewster next broke the silence.</p> + +<p>"I saw," he said, "in Salt Lake City, three years ago on a summer +evening, a sunset scene which I thought was very beautiful. The electric +conditions had been strangely disturbed for several days; there had been +clouds and a good deal of thunder and lightning. You know Salt Lake City +lies at the western base of the Wasatch range. On this day toward +evening the sky to the west had grown of a sapphire clearness, but in +the east beyond the first high hills of the range a great electric storm +was raging. The clouds of inky blackness which shrouded the more distant +heights, and through which the lightnings were incessantly zigzaging, +were in full view from the city, though the thunders were caught and +tied in the deep caverns of the intervening hills. To the southeast the +range with its imposing peaks was snow-crowned and under a clear sky. In +the southwest the Oquirrh range was blue and beautiful. Just then from +beyond the great lake the setting sun threw out his shafts of fire, and +the whole firmament turned to glory. The sun blazed from beyond the +waters in the west, the lightnings blazed beyond the nearer hills in the +east, the snowy heights in the southeast were turned to purple, while in +the city every spire, every pane of glass which faced the west, every +speck of metal on house and temple in a moment grew radiant as burnished +gold, and there was a shimmer of splendor in all the air. Then suddenly +over the great range to the east and apparently against the black clouds +in which the lightnings were blazing the glorious arch of a magnificent +rainbow was upreared. All the colors were deep-dyed and perfectly +distinct. There was neither break nor dimness in all the mighty arch. +There it stood, poised in indescribable splendor for quite five minutes. +So wonderful was the display that houses were deserted: men and women +came out into the open air and watched the spectacle in silence and with +uncovered heads.</p> + +<p>"No one stopped to think that the glory which shone on high was made +merely by sunlight shining through falling water; the cold explanation +made by science was forgotten, and hundreds of eyes furtively watched, +half expecting to catch glimpses of a divine hand and brush, for the +pictures were rare enough to be the perfect work of celestial beings +sent to sketch for mortals a splendor which should kindle within them +dim conceptions of the glories which fill the spheres where light is +born.</p> + +<p>"Salt Lake City is famous for its sunsets, but to this one was added new +and unusual enchantments by the storm which was wheeling its sable +squadrons in the adjacent mountains.</p> + +<p>"As I watched that display I realized for the first time how it was that +before books were made men learned to be devout and to pray; for the +picture was as I fancy Sinai must have appeared, when all the elements +combined to make a spectacle to awe the multitude before the mountain; +and when they were told that the terrible cloud on the mountain's crest +was the robe which the infinite God had drawn around Himself in mercy, +lest at a glimpse of His unapproachable brightness they should perish, +it was not strange if they believed it."</p> + +<p>It was not often that Brewster talked, but when he did there was about +him a grave and earnest manner which impressed all who heard him with +the perfect sincerity of the man.</p> + +<p>After he ceased speaking the room was still for several seconds. At +length the Colonel broke the silence:</p> + +<p>"Brewster, you spoke of Sinai. What think you of that story; of the Red +Sea affair; of the Sinai incident, and the golden calf business?"</p> + +<p>"Believed literally," Brewster continued, "it is the most impressive of +earthly literature; looked upon allegorically, still it is sublime. Its +lesson is, that when in bondage to sorrow and to care, if we but bravely +and patiently struggle on, the sea of trouble around us will at length +roll back its waves into walls and leave for us a path. Unless we keep +straining onward and upward, no voice of Hope, which is the voice of +God, will descend to comfort us. If we are thirsty we must smite the +rock for water; that is, for what we have we must work, and if we cease +our struggle and go into camp, we not only will not hold our own, but in +a little while we will be bestowing our jewels upon some idol of our own +creation. If we toil and never falter, before we die we shall climb +Pisgah and behold the Promised Land; that is, we shall be disciplined +until we can look every fate calmly in the face and turn a smiling brow +to the inevitable.</p> + +<p>"I found a man once, living upon almost nothing, in a hut that had not +one comfort. He had graded out a sharp hillside, set some rude poles up +against the bank, covered them with brush, and in that den on a bleak +mountain's crest he had lived through a rough winter. I asked him how he +managed to exist without becoming an idiot or a lunatic. His answer was +worthy of an old Roman. 'Because,' said he, 'I at last am superior to +distress.'</p> + +<p>"He had reached the point that Moses reached when he gained the last +mountain crest. After that the Promised Land was forever in sight."</p> + +<p>"Suppose," asked Savage, "you buy stocks when they are high and sell +them, or have them sold for you, when they are low, where does the +Promised Land come in?"</p> + +<p>"What becomes of the 'superior to distress' theory," asked Carlin, "when +a man in his fight against fate gets along just as the men do in the +Bullion shaft, finding nothing but barren rock, and all the time the air +grows hotter and there is more and more hot water?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, bother the stocks and the hot water," said Strong. "Professor, we +have heard about the Wasatch Range and Mount Sinai, shake up your memory +and tell us about old Mount Shasta! I heard you describe it once. It is +a grand mountain, is it not?"</p> + +<p>"The grandest in America, so far as I have seen," was the reply. "It is +said that Whitney is higher, but Whitney has for its base the Sierras, +and the peaks around it dwarf its own tremendous height. But Shasta +rises from the plain a single mountain, and while all the year around +the lambs gambol at its base, its crown is eternal snow. Men of the +North tell me that it is rivaled by Tacoma, but I never saw Tacoma. In +the hot summer days as the farmers at Shasta's base gather their +harvests, they can see where the wild wind is heaping the snow drifts +about his crest. The mountain is one of Winter's stations, and from his +forts of snow upon its top he never withdraws his garrison. There are +the bastions of ice, the frosty battlements; there his old bugler, the +wind, is daily sounding the advance and the retreat of the storm. The +mountain holds all latitudes and all seasons at the same time in its +grasp. Flowers bloom at its base, further up the forest trees wave their +ample arms; further still the brown of autumn is upon the slopes and +over all hangs the white mantle of eternal winter.</p> + +<p>"Standing close to its base, the human mind fails to grasp the immensity +of the butte. But as one from a distance looks back upon it, or from +some height twenty miles away views it, he discovers how magnificent are +its proportions.</p> + +<p>"For days will the mountain fold the mist about its crest like a vail +and remain hidden from mortal sight, and then suddenly as if in +deference to a rising or setting sun, the vapors will be rolled back and +the watcher in the valley below will behold gems of topaz and of ruby +made of sunbeams, set in the diadem of white, and towards the sentinel +mountain, from a hundred miles around, men will turn their eyes in +admiration. In its presence one feels the near presence of God, and as +before Babel the tongues of the people became confused, so before this +infinitely more august tower man's littleness oppresses him, and he can +no more give fitting expression to his thoughts.</p> + +<p>"It frowns and smiles alternately through the years; it hails the +outgoing and the incoming centuries, changeless amid the mutations of +ages, forever austere, forever cold and pure. The mountain eagle strains +hopelessly toward its crest; the storms and the sunbeams beat upon it in +vain; the rolling years cannot inscribe their numbers on its naked +breast.</p> + +<p>"Of all the mountains that I have seen it has the most sovereign look; +it leans on no other height; it associates with no other mountain; it +builds its own pedestal in the valley and never doffs its icy crown.</p> + +<p>"The savage in the long ago, with awe and trembling, strained his eyes +to the height and his clouded imagination pictured it as the throne of a +Deity who issued the snow, the hoar frost and the wild winds from their +brewing place on the mountain's top.</p> + +<p>"The white man, with equal awe, strains his eye upward to where the +sunlight points with ruby silver and gold the mimic glaciers of the +butte, and is not much wiser than the unlettered savage in trying to +comprehend how and why the mighty mass was upreared.</p> + +<p>"It is a blessing as well as a splendor. With its cold it seizes the +clouds and compresses them until their contents are rained upon the +thirsty fields beneath; from its base the Sacramento starts, babbling on +its way to the sea; despite its frowns it is a merciful agent to +mankind, and on the minds of those who see it in all its splendor and +power a picture is painted, the sheen and the enchantment of which will +linger while memory and the gift to admire magnificence is left."</p> + +<p>"That is good, Professor," said Corrigan; "but to me there is +insupportable loneliness about an isolated mountain. It sames always to +me like a gravestone set up above the grave of a dead worreld. But +spakin' of beautiful things, did yees iver sae Lake Tahoe in her glory?</p> + +<p>"I was up there last fall, and one day, in anticipation of the winter, I +suppose, she wint to her wardrobe, took out all her winter white caps +and tied them on; and she was a daisy.</p> + +<p>"Her natural face is bluer than that of a stock sharp in a falling +market; but whin the wind 'comes a wooin' and she dons her foamy lace, +powders her face with spray and fastens upon her swellin' breast a +thousand diamonds of sunlight, O, but she is a winsome looking beauty, +to be sure. Thin, too, she sings her old sintimintal song to her shores, +and the great overhanging pines sway their mighty arms as though keeping +time, joining with hers their deep murmurs to make a refrain; and thus +the lake sings to the shore and the shore answers back to the song all +the day long. Tahoe, in her frame of blue and grane, is a fairer picture +than iver glittered on cathadral wall; older, fairer and fresher than +ancient master iver painted tints immortal upon. There in the strong +arms of the mountains it is rocked, and whin the winds ruffle the azure +plumage of the beautiful wathers, upon wather and upon shore a splendor +rists such as might come were an angel to descend to earth and sketch +for mortals a sane from Summer Land."</p> + +<p>"You are right, Corrigan," said Ashley. "If the thirst for money does +not denude the shores of their trees, and thus spoil the frame of your +wonderful picture, Lake Tahoe will be a growing object of interest until +its fame will be as wide as the world.</p> + +<p>"But while on grand themes, have you ever seen the Columbia River? To me +it is the glory of the earth. It is a great river fourteen hundred miles +above its mouth, and from thence on it rolls to the sea with increasing +grandeur all the way. Where it hews its way through the Cascades a new +and gorgeous picture is every moment painted, and when the mountain +walls are pierced, with perfect purity and with mighty volume it sweeps +on toward the ocean. It is, through its last one hundred and fifty +miles, watched over by great forests and magnificent mountains. There +are Hood and St. Helens and the rest, and where, upon the furious bar, +the river joins the sea, there is an everlasting war of waters as +beautiful as it is terrible.</p> + +<p>"It makes a man a better American to go up the Columbia to the Cascades +and look about him. He is not only impressed with the majesty of the +scene, but thoughts of empire, of dominion and of the glory of the land +over which his country's flag bears sovereignty, take possession of him. +He looks down upon the rolling river and up at Mount Hood, and to both +he whispers, 'We are in accord; I have an interest in you,' and the +great pines nod approvingly, and the waterfalls babble more loud.</p> + +<p>"The Mississippi has greater volume than the Oregon, the Hudson makes +rival pictures which perhaps are as beautiful as any painted in the +Cascades; but there is a power, a beauty, a purity and a wildness about +the river of the West which is all its own and which is unapproachable +in its charms.</p> + +<p>"More than that. To me the river is the emblem of a perfect life. +Through all the morning of its career it fights its way, blazing an +azure trail through the desert. There is no green upon its banks, hardly +does a bird sing as it struggles on. But it bears right on, and so +austere is its face that the desert is impotent to soil it. Then it +meets a rocky wall and breaks through it, roaring on its way. Then it +takes the Willamette to its own ample breast, and it bears it on until +it meets the inevitable, and then undaunted goes down to its grave.</p> + +<p>"It fights its way, it bears its burdens, it remains pure and brave to +the last. That is all the best man that ever lived could do."</p> + +<p>As Ashley concluded Strong said: "Why, Ashley! that is good. Why do you +not give up mining and devote yourself to writing?"</p> + +<p>Ashley laughed low, and said: "Because I have had what repentant sinners +are said to have had, my experience. Let me tell you about it.</p> + +<p>"It was in Belmont in Eastern Nevada, during that winter when the small +pox was bad. It took an epidemic form in Belmont, and a good many died.</p> + +<p>"Among the victims was Harlow Reed. Harlow was a young and handsome +fellow, a generous, happy-hearted fellow, too, and when he was stricken +down, a 'soiled dove,' hearing of his illness, went and watched over him +until he died.</p> + +<p>"The morning after his death, Billy S. came to me, and handing me a slip +of paper on which was Reed's name, age, etc., asked me to prepare a +notice for publication. I fixed it as nearly as I could, as I had seen +such things in newspapers. It read:</p> + +<blockquote><p>DIED—In Belmont, Dec. 17, Harlow Reed, a native of New Jersey +aged twenty-three years.</p></blockquote> + +<p>"Billie glanced at the paper and then said: 'Harlow was a good fellow +and a good friend of ours, can you not add something to this notice?'</p> + +<p>"In response I sat down and wrote a brief eulogy of the boy, and closed +the article in these words:</p> + +<blockquote><p>And for her, the poor woman, who braving the dangers of the +pestilence, went and sat at the feet of the man she loved, +until he died; for her, though before her garments were soiled, +we know that this morning, in the Recording Angel's book it is +written "her robes are white as snow."</p></blockquote> + +<p>"Billie took the paper to the publisher, and as he went away, I had a +secret thought that, all things being considered, the notice was not +bad.</p> + +<p>"Next morning I went into a restaurant for breakfast and took a seat at +a small table on one side of the narrow room. Directly opposite me were +two short-card sharps. One was eating his breakfast, while the other, +leaning back to catch the light, was reading the morning paper. Suddenly +he stopped, and peering over his paper, though with chair still tilted +back, said to his companion: 'Did you see this notice about that woman +who took care of Harlow Reed while he was sick?'</p> + +<p>"'No,' was the reply. 'What is it?' asked the companion.</p> + +<p>"'It's away up,' said the first speaker. 'But what is it?' asked the +other.</p> + +<p>"The first speaker then threw down the paper, leaned forward, and, +seizing his knife and fork, said shortly:</p> + +<p>"'Oh, it's no great shakes after all. It says the woman while taking +care of Harlow got her clothes dirty, but after he died she changed her +clothes and she's all right now.'</p> + +<p>"Since then I have never thought that I had better undertake a literary +career so long as I could get four honest dollars a day for swinging a +hammer in a mine; but I have always been about half sorry that I did not +kill that fellow, notwithstanding the lesson that he taught me."</p> + +<p>There was a hearty laugh at Ashley's expense, and then Strong roused +himself and said:</p> + +<p>"The Columbia is very grand, but you must follow it up to its chief +tributary if you would find perfect glory—follow it into the very +desert. You have heard of the lava beds of Idaho. They were once a river +of molten fire from 300 feet to 900 feet in depth, which burned its way +through the desert for hundreds of miles. To the east of the source of +this lava flow, the Snake River bursts out of the hills, becoming almost +at once a sovereign river, and flowing at first south-westerly, and then +bending westerly, cuts its way through this lava bed, and, continuing +its way with many bends, finally, far to the north merges with the +Columbia. On this river are several falls. First, the American Falls, +are very beautiful. Sixty miles below are the Twin Falls, where the +river, divided into two nearly equal parts, falls one hundred and eighty +feet. They are magnificent. Three miles below are the Shoshone Falls, +and a few miles lower down the Salmon Falls. It was of the Shoshone +Falls that I began to speak.</p> + +<p>"They are real rivals of Niagara. Never anywhere else was there such a +scene; never anywhere else was so beautiful a picture hung in so rude a +frame; never anywhere else on a background so forbidding and weird were +so many glories clustered.</p> + +<p>"Around and beyond there is nothing but the desert, sere, silent, +lifeless, as though Desolation had builded there everlasting thrones to +Sorrow and Despair.</p> + +<p>"Away back in remote ages, over the withered breast of the desert, a +river of fire one hundred miles wide and four hundred miles long, was +turned. As the fiery mass cooled, its red waves became transfixed and +turned black, giving to the double desert an indescribably blasted and +forbidding face.</p> + +<p>"But while this river of fire was in flow, a river of water was fighting +its way across it, or has since made the war and forged out for itself a +channel through the mass. This channel looks like the grave of a volcano +that has been robbed of its dead.</p> + +<p>"But right between its crumbling and repellant walls a transfiguration +appears. And such a picture! A river as lordly as the Hudson or the +Ohio, springing from the distant snow-crested Tetons, with waters +transparent as glass, but green as emerald, with majestic flow and +ever-increasing volume, sweeps on until it reaches this point where the +august display begins.</p> + +<p>"Suddenly, in different places in the river bed, jagged, rocky reefs are +upraised, dividing the current into four rivers, and these, in a mighty +plunge of eighty feet downward, dash on their way. Of course, the waters +are churned into foam and roll over the precipice white as are the +garments of the morning when no cloud obscures the sun. The loveliest of +these falls is called "The Bridal Veil," because it is made of the lace +which is woven with a warp of falling waters and a woof of sunlight. +Above this and near the right bank is a long trail of foam, and this is +called "The Bridal Train." The other channels are not so fair as the one +called "The Bridal Veil," but they are more fierce and wild, and carry +in their furious sweep more power.</p> + +<p>"One of the reefs which divides the river in mid-channel runs up to a +peak, and on this a family of eagles have, through the years, may be +through the centuries, made their home and reared their young, on the +very verge of the abyss and amid the full echoes of the resounding boom +of the falls. Surely the eagle is a fitting symbol of perfect +fearlessness and of that exultation which comes with battle clamors.</p> + +<p>"But these first falls are but a beginning. The greater splendor +succeeds. With swifter flow the startled waters dash on and within a few +feet take their second plunge in a solid crescent, over a sheer +precipice, two hundred and ten feet to the abyss below. On the brink +there is a rolling crest of white, dotted here and there, in sharp +contrast, with shining eddies of green, as might a necklace of emerald +shimmer on a throat of snow, and then the leap and fall.</p> + +<p>"Here more than foam is made. Here the waters are shivered into fleecy +spray, whiter and finer than any miracle that ever fell from India loom, +while from the depths below an everlasting vapor rises—the incense of +the waters to the water's God. Finally, through the long, unclouded +days, the sun sends down his beams, and to give the startling scene its +crowning splendor, wreaths the terror and the glory in a rainbow halo. +On either sullen bank the extremities of its arc are anchored, and there +in its many-colored robes of light it stands outstretched above the +abyss like wreaths of flowers above a sepulcher. Up through the glory +and the terror an everlasting roar ascends, deep-toned as is the voice +of Fate, a diapason like that the rolling ocean chants when his eager +surges come rushing in to greet and fiercely woo an irresponsive +promontory.</p> + +<p>"But to feel all the awe and to mark all the splendor and power that +comes of the mighty display, one must climb down the steep descent to +the river's brink below, and, pressing up as nearly as possible to the +falls, contemplate the tremendous picture. There something of the energy +that creates that endless panorama is comprehended; all the deep +throbbings of the mighty river's pulses are felt; all the magnificence +is seen.</p> + +<p>"In the reverberations that come of the war of waters one hears +something like God's voice; something like the splendor of God is before +his eyes; something akin to God's power is manifesting itself before +him, and his soul shrinks within itself, conscious as never before of +its own littleness and helplessness in the presence of the workings of +Nature's immeasurable forces.</p> + +<p>"Not quite so massive is the picture as is Niagara, but it has more +lights and shades and loveliness, as though a hand more divinely skilled +had mixed the tints, and with more delicate art had transfixed them upon +that picture suspended there in its rugged and sombre frame.</p> + +<p>"As one watches it is not difficult to fancy that away back in the +immemorial and unrecorded past, the Angel of Love bewailed the fact that +mortals were to be given existence in a spot so forbidding, a spot that +apparently was never to be warmed with God's smile, which was never to +make a sign through which God's mercy was to be discerned; that then +Omnipotence was touched, that with His hand He smote the hills and +started the great river in its flow; that with His finger He traced out +the channel across the corpse of that other river that had been fire, +mingled the sunbeams with the raging waters and made it possible in that +fire-blasted frame of scoria to swing a picture which should be, first +to the red man and later to the pale races, a certain sign of the +existence, the power and the unapproachable splendor of the Great First +Cause.</p> + +<p>"And as the red man through the centuries watched the spectacle, +comprehending nothing except that an infinite voice was smiting his +ears, and insufferable glories were blazing before his eyes; so through +the centuries to come the pale races will stand upon the shuddering +shore and watch, experiencing a mighty impulse to put off the sandals +from their feet, under an overmastering consciousness that the spot on +which they are standing is holy ground.</p> + +<p>"There is nothing elsewhere like it; nothing half so weird, so wild, so +beautiful, so clothed in majesty, so draped with terror; nothing else +that awakens impressions at once so startling, so winsome, so profound. +While journeying through the desert to come suddenly upon it, the +spectacle gives one something of the emotions that would be experienced +to behold a resurrection from the dead. In the midst of what seems like +a dead world, suddenly there springs into irrepressible life something +so marvelous, so grand, so caparisoned with loveliness and irresistible +might, that the head is bowed, the strained heart throbs tumultuously +and the awed soul sinks to its knees."</p> + +<p>The whistles had sounded while Strong was speaking, and as he finished +the good nights were spoken and the lights put out.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + + +<p>With the lighting of the pipes one evening, the conversation of the Club +turned upon what constituted courage and a high sense of honor; whether +they were native or acquired gifts. A good deal of talk ensued, until at +last Wright's opinion was asked:</p> + +<p>"You are all right," said he, "and all wrong. Some men are born +insensible to fear, and some have a high sense of honor through +instinct. But this, I take it, is not the rule and comes, I think, +mostly as an hereditary gift, through long generations of proud +ancestors. In my judgment, no gift to mortals is as noble as a lofty, +honest pride. I do not mean that spurious article which we see so much +of, but the pride which will not permit a man or woman to have an +unworthy thought, because of the sense of degradation which it brings to +the breast that entertains it. This, I believe, is more common in women +than in men, and I suppose that it was this divine trait, manifesting +itself in a brutal age, which gave birth to the chivalry of the Middle +Ages.</p> + +<p>"I have known a few men who, I believe, were born without the instinct +of fear. Charley Fairfax was one of these. He was a dead shot with a +pistol. He had some words with a man one day on the street in +Sacramento, and the man being very threatening, Fairfax drew and cocked +his Derringer. At the same moment the man drove the blade of a sword +cane through one of the lungs of Fairfax, making a wound which +eventually proved fatal. Fairfax raised his Derringer and took a quick +aim at the heart of the murderer, but suddenly dropped the weapon and +said: 'You have killed me, but you have a wife and children; for their +sakes I give you your life,' and sank fainting and, as he thought, +dying, into the arms of a friend who caught him as he was falling.</p> + +<p>"There are other men as generous as Fairfax was, but to do what he did, +when smarting under a fatal wound, requires the coolness and the nerve +of absolute self-possession.</p> + +<p>"Not one man in a million under such circumstances could command himself +enough to think to be generous. Many a man has, for his courage, had a +statue raised to his memory who never did and never could have given any +such proof of a manhood absolutely self-contained as did Fairfax on that +occasion.</p> + +<p>"But, as a rule, we are all mere creatures of education. A friend of +mine came 'round the Horn in a clipper ship. He told me that when off +the cape they encountered a gale which drove the ship far to the +southward; that the weather was so dreadfully cold that the ship's +rigging was sheeted with ice from sleet and frozen spray.</p> + +<p>"One evening the gale slackened a little and some sails were bent on, +but toward the turn of the night the wind came on again and the sails +had to be taken in. Said my friend: 'The men went up those swaying masts +and out upon those icy yards apparently without a thought of danger, +while I stood upon the deck fairly trembling with terror merely watching +them.' After awhile the storm was weathered, the cape was rounded and +the ship put into Valparaiso for fresh supplies.</p> + +<p>"The sailors were given a holiday. They went ashore and hired saddle +horses to visit some resort a few miles out of town. They mounted and +started away, but within three minutes half of them returned leading +their horses, and one spoke for all when he said: 'The brute is crank; I +am afraid he will broach to and capsize.'</p> + +<p>"The men who rode the icy spars off Cape Horn on that inky midnight were +afraid to ride those gentle mustangs.</p> + +<p>"There are, I suppose, in this city to-night one hundred men who, with +knife or pistol, would fight anybody and not think much about it. But +what would they do were they placed where I saw Corrigan unconcernedly +working to-day?</p> + +<p>"He was sitting on a narrow plank which had been laid across a shaft at +the eight hundred-foot level, repairing a pump column. He was eight +hundred feet from the surface, and there was only that plank between him +and the bottom of that shaft nine hundred feet below. Put the ordinary +ruffian who cuts and shoots on that plank and he would faint and fall +off through sheer fright."</p> + +<p>"I guess you are right," interposed Carlin. "There is the Mexican who +lives across the street from us. If I were to take a revolver and go +over there in the morning and attack him, the chances are I would scare +him to death; were I to try the same experiment with a bowie knife the +chances are more than even that he would give me more of a game than I +would want, and simply because he is accustomed to a knife and not to a +pistol.</p> + +<p>"So the mountain trapper will attack a grizzly bear with perfect +coolness, or cross the swiftest stream in a canoe without any fear, but +bring the same man for the first time here to the mine and ask him to +get on a cage with you and go down a shaft, and he will grow pale and +tremble like a girl."</p> + +<p>"An Indian," suggested the Professor, "at the side of a white man will +go into a desperate battle and never flinch; so long as the white man +lives he will fight even unto death. But let a white man engage in a +hand to hand fight with two or three Indians, and if he has the nerve to +hold him up to the fight for two or three minutes he will conquer, +because an hereditary fear overcomes the savage that the pale face will +conquer in the end. That is really the cowardice which Falstaff assumed +to feel, the cowardice of instinct in the presence of the true prince, +and is the mark which the Indian mothers have impressed upon their babes +for ten generations.</p> + +<p>"The rule is that we follow our trades!"</p> + +<p>"Then some men are brave at one time and cowardly at another," said the +Colonel. "Men who will fight without shrinking, by day, are often +completely demoralized by a night attack. With such men the trouble is, +they cannot see to estimate their danger, and their imaginations +multiply and magnify it a hundred fold. I know a man in this city who +has been in a hundred fights, many of them most desperate encounters. He +told me once that he believed it would frighten him to death to be +awakened at night by a burglar in his room.</p> + +<p>"This is the fear, too, which paralyzes men in the presence of an +earthquake. The sky may be clear and the air still, but the thought that +in a moment chaos may come is too much for the ordinary nerves of +mortals."</p> + +<p>"The bravest act I ever witnessed was on C street in this city," +responded Strong. "It was a little Hebrew dunning a desperado for the +balance due on a pair of pantaloons. The amount was six dollars and +fifty cents. I would not have asked the fighter for the money for six +times the sum, but the little chap not only asked for it, but when the +fighter tried to evade him, he seized him by the arm with one hand and +putting the forefinger of his other hand alongside his own nose, in the +most insulting tone possible said: 'You does not get avay. Der man vot +does not bay for his glose is, vots yer call him? one d——d loafer. I +vants my monish.'</p> + +<p>"The fighter could no more escape from that eye than a chicken hawk can +from the spell of the eye of the black snake, and so he settled.</p> + +<p>"That was the courage which it required the hardships and persecutions +of one hundred generations of suffering men to acquire, and I tell you +there was something thrilling in the way it was manifested."</p> + +<p>"So, too, men's ideas of honor are often warped strangely by education," +Miller said. "Do you remember there was a Frenchman hanged in this city +a few years ago? On the scaffold, with a grandiloquent air, just before +the cap was drawn over his face, he said: 'Zey can hang me, but zey +cannot hang Frawnce.' He had from childhood entertained the belief that +there was but one entirely invincible nation on this earth, and that was +France; and the thought that to the last France must be honored +possessed him.</p> + +<p>"That man had murdered a poor woman of the town for her money."</p> + +<p>"I should say there were some queer ideas of honor in this country," +chipped in the Colonel. "I believe the rule among some or all sporting +men is, that it is entirely legitimate to practice any advantage on an +opponent in a game, so long as the same idea controls the opponent. +Still those men have most tenacious ideas of honor. Indeed they have a +code of their own. If one borrows money of another he pays it if he has +to rob someone to do it. If one stakes another—that is gives him money +to play—and a winning is made, the profits are scrupulously divided. If +one loses more at night than he has money to pay, he must have it early +next morning or go into disgrace.</p> + +<p>"A friend of mine who lived on Treasure Hill during that first fearful +winter, told me that during that season a faro game was running, and the +owners of the bank had won some thirty-five hundred dollars. The +dealer's habit was to lock up his place in the forenoon and not return +until evening. The interval was his only time for sleep, as the game +frequently ran all night.</p> + +<p>"Three or four 'sports' who lived together in a house, had lost heavily +at this game. One morning, one of them said that if he could only get +that dealer's cards for half an hour he believed he could 'fix' them so +that the luck of the boys would change.</p> + +<p>"They had for a cook and servant a young man who had confessed that he +left the East without any extensive or extended preparations, and that +he did it to avoid paying a penalty for picking a lock and robbing a +till.</p> + +<p>"He was called up, it was explained to him what was wanted and for what +reason, and asked if it was not possible for him to procure those cards.</p> + +<p>"The youth took kindly to the proposition, went away, and in a few +minutes returned—not with the cards—but with the dealer's sack of +coin, saying as he laid down the sack: 'As I picked the lock of the +drawer I found the sack and the cards lying side by side. I thought it +would be easier to take the coin than to fool with the cards, and here +it is.'</p> + +<p>"Instantly there was a commotion, and a perfect storm of imprecations +was poured out upon the thief. On every side were shouts of: 'Take back +that money! you miserable New York thief! What do you take us for? Take +back that sack or we will sell you for headcheese before night!'</p> + +<p>"The youth carried back the coin and brought the cards. They were found +to be 'fixed'; they were 'fixed' over and returned, and that night 'on +the dead square,' the bank was broken. The boys had the sack for the +second time, but this time the transaction, according to their code, was +entirely legitimate.</p> + +<p>"By the operation the professional thief obtained new ideas of the nice +distinctions which are made in the gamblers' code of honor."</p> + +<p>"I once in Idaho knew a most conscientious judge," said Miller. "In his +court a suit involving the title of some mining ground was pending +between two companies. In another part of the district the Judge had +some claims which were looked upon as mere 'wild cat.'</p> + +<p>"He had for a year been trying to raise money to open his claims, but +without avail. He had incorporated with 40,000 shares and held his +shares at one dollar, with the understanding that twenty per cent. of +the stock should be set aside as a working capital. But no one could see +the ground with the sanguine eyes of the Judge, so he still had all his +stock.</p> + +<p>"But one night quite late the Judge heard a soft knock on the door. In +answer to his 'come in,' the president of the company that was plaintiff +in the mining suit entered, when this conversation ensued:</p> + +<p>"'I was looking at your claims over on the east side to-day,' said the +President, 'and I believe they are good and would like some of the +stock.'</p> + +<p>"There is some of it for sale at one dollar,' was the reply.</p> + +<p>"'I will take ten thousand shares,' said the President. 'If you please, +have the stock ready and I will call at nine o'clock to-morrow morning +with the money.'</p> + +<p>"'I suppose this transaction had better be kept secret at present,' +suggested the Judge.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, yes. It is a private speculation of my own and I would rather my +company would not hear of it.'</p> + +<p>"'Very well, the stock will be ready.'</p> + +<p>"The money was promptly paid and the stock delivered.</p> + +<p>"The day of trial drew near, when one day the Judge met the +superintendent of the company which was defendant in the suit. The Judge +told the superintendent that he had some promising claims, and added +impressively that if he could afford to purchase about 10,000 shares he +felt sure that he would do well. The superintendent admitted that he had +examined the claims with considerable care, and believed with the Judge, +that there was promise in them. The result was that the next day another +ten thousand dollars was paid to the Judge and ten thousand more shares +delivered. The Judge deposited sixteen thousand dollars to his own +account and four thousand dollars to the credit of the company. With the +four thousand dollars he let a contract for work on the mine.</p> + +<p>"In due time the case in court came on and was decided in favor of the +plaintiff and an appeal provided for. The plaintiff kept still about the +stock transaction, but the superintendent of the defendant company did +not hesitate to declare that the Judge was a thief. So matters ran along +for some months, when one day the aforesaid president and superintendent +each received a note asking them to call at the office of the Judge at a +certain hour. Both responded, and each was greatly surprised to see the +other.</p> + +<p>"The Judge opened the business by saying that a grand deposit of ore had +been struck on one of the claims from which enough ore had already been +taken to enable the company to pay a dollar per share dividend on the +capital stock, upon which he pushed a check for ten thousand dollars to +each of the men. He then went on to say that he had that morning +received an offer of two hundred thousand dollars for the property, +which he thought was a fair price, and asked the opinion of the others. +They thought so too, and in a few days the money was paid over and each +of the two received fifty thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>"'Now,' said the Judge, 'let me give you some advice. Settle up that +foolish lawsuit outside of court. The claim is not worth what either one +of you will pay out in attorneys' fees if you fight it out in the +courts.'</p> + +<p>"By this time the three men had grown familiar, so the superintendent +ventured to say:</p> + +<p>"'Judge, will you tell me what caused you to urge me to buy those +shares?'</p> + +<p>"'I thought it was a good investment,' was the reply.</p> + +<p>"'But was not there something else?' asked the superintendent.</p> + +<p>"'To tell you the truth,' replied the Judge, 'I had received ten +thousand dollars from the President here, and I was afraid if the matter +went that way into the court I might be prejudiced, so I sold you a like +amount that I might go upon the bench, to try the case, <i>entirely +unbiased</i>.'"</p> + +<p>"He was a good judge, no doubt, but he ividently had a leaning toward +the east side," said Corrigan.</p> + +<p>"That was one case where the only justification was success," said +Brewster.</p> + +<p>"He took his chances, that was all," Miller remarked, "and that is the +corner-stone on which every fortune on the coast has been builded. I +mean every fortune in mining."</p> + +<p>"That is so," chimed in Carlin. "Mining is simply a grand lottery and is +about as much of a game of chance as poker or faro."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, Carlin," said Strong. "You have picked up the idea that is +popular, but there is nothing to it. I am not referring to mining on +paper, that mining which is done on Pine and California streets. That is +not only gambling, but it is, nine times out of ten, pure stealing. But +what I mean is where a man, or a few men, from the unsightly rock, by +honest labor, wrest something, which all men, barbarous and civilized +alike, hold as precious; something which was not before, but which when +found, the whole world accepts as a measure of values, and the +production of which makes an addition to the world's accumulated wealth, +and not only injures none, but quickens the arteries of trade +everywhere; that is not gambling. Of course there are mistakes, of +course worlds of unnecessary work have been performed, of course hopes +have been blasted and hearts broken through the business, but in this +world men have to pay for their educations. Twenty years ago there was +not a man in America who could work Comstock ores up to seventy-five per +cent. of their money value; only a scholarly few knew anything about the +formations in which ore veins are liable to be found; processes to work +ores and economical methods to open and work mines had to be invented; +so far as the West was concerned the business of mining and reducing +ores had to be created. The results do not justify any man in calling +mining a lottery. In my judgment, it is the most legitimate business in +the world; the only one in which there can be no overproduction, and the +one which, above all others, advances every other industry of the +country.</p> + +<p>"When the steam engine was first invented steam boilers blew up every +day. This was no argument against the engine, but was a notice to men to +build better boilers. For the same reason the sixty-pound steel rail has +been substituted for the old wooden rail with an iron strap on top on +railways, and the sixteen ton Pullman car for the old rattle trap that +the slightest collision would smash. The Westinghouse air brake and the +Miller platform are part of the same education.</p> + +<p>"By and by men will learn to know the rocks, and when their marks and +signs are reduced to a perfect alphabet the crude work of mining as +carried on now will take on the dignity of a science, and mining will +become what it deserves to be, the most honored of industries."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + + +<p>At length the first sorrow fell upon the Club. The mail brought to +Corrigan one day the news of the death of his mother in New York. It was +a terrible blow to him. It had been his dream all through the years that +he had been absent from his home that some time he would accumulate +money enough to provide her with a home, where around her life every +comfort would be drawn, and from her life every heart-breaking care +would be driven away. But time would not wait for him, and the letter, +which only in gentle words told him of his mother's death, kindled in +his heart such bitter self-reproaches that for awhile the warm-hearted +man's grief was inconsolable.</p> + +<p>The Club heartily sympathized with him, but there was little said. The +men who face death daily in a deep mine either come to think, after +awhile, that this life hangs on too tender a thread to be grieved over +so very much when that thread is broken, or, because of the nature of +their occupation, which is necessarily carried on mostly in silence, +they lose the faculty to say the words which in society circles are +intruded upon people who are in deep sorrow.</p> + +<p>On this evening the supper was eaten in silence, Corrigan hardly tasting +anything.</p> + +<p>As the Club took their seats Ashley found opportunity to covertly +whisper to Yap Sing that Corrigan had received bad news and he must +prepare something especially tempting for him to eat. When the meal was +nearly finished Yap Sing brought a mammoth dish of strawberries, a bowl +of sugar and pitcher of cream, and after the noiseless manner of his +race, set them in front of Corrigan's plate. No one else at the table +seemed to notice the act of the Chinaman. Corrigan gave a quick glance +around the table and when he saw that no one else was to be served with +the berries—that it was meant as a special act of sympathy for him—his +eyes filled with tears and he hastily withdrew from the room.</p> + +<p>At his leisure during the evening Yap Sing ate the berries and the +cream, remarking to himself as he did so:</p> + +<p>"Me heap slory Meester Clorigan; me likee be heap slory ebbly day."</p> + +<p>For an hour after supper the Club did little but smoke. At length, +however, Harding, who usually spent his evenings absorbed in reading, +laid aside his book and in his low and kindly voice, began to talk.</p> + +<p>"Often when a boy I heard my father tell a story of a woman, a Sister of +Charity, which, I think, may be, it will be good to tell to-night. In +one of the mountain towns of Northern California a good many years ago, +while yet good women, compared to the number of the men, were so +disproportionately few, suddenly one day, upon the street, clad in the +unattractive garb of a Sister of Charity, appeared a woman whose +marvelous loveliness the coarse garments and uncouth hood peculiar to +the order could not conceal.</p> + +<p>"There was a Sisters' Hospital in the place and this nun was one of the +devoted women who had come to minister to the sick in that hospital.</p> + +<p>"She was of medium size and height, and despite her shapeless garments +it was easy to see that her form was beautiful. The hand that carried a +basket was a delicate one; under her unsightly hood glimpses of a brow +as white as a planet's light could be caught; the coarse shoes upon her +feet were three sizes too large. When she raised her eyes from the inner +depths a light like that of kindly stars shone out, and though a Sister +of Charity, there was something about her lips which seemed to say that +of all famines a famine of kisses was hardest to endure. There was a +stately, kindly dignity in her mien, but in all her ways there was a +dainty grace which, upon the hungry eyes of the miners of that mountain +town, seemed like enchantment. She could not have been more than twenty +years of age.</p> + +<p>"It was told that she was known as 'Sister Celeste,' that she had +recently come to the Western Coast, it was believed, from France, and +that was all that was known of her. When the Mother Superior at the +hospital was questioned about the new sister, she simply answered: +'Sister Celeste is a sister now; she will be a glorified saint by and +by.'</p> + +<p>"The first public appearance of Sister Celeste in the town was one +Sunday afternoon. She emerged from her hospital and started to carry +some delicacy to a poor, sick woman, a Mrs. De Lacy, who lived on the +opposite side of the town from the hospital; so to visit her the nun was +obliged to walk almost the whole length of the one long, crooked street +which, in the narrow canon, included all the business portion of the +town.</p> + +<p>"When the nun started out from the hospital the town was full of miners, +as was the habit in those days on Sunday afternoons, and as the Sister +passed along the street hundreds of eyes were bent upon her. She seemed +unconscious of the attention she was attracting; had she been walking in +her sleep she could not have been more composed.</p> + +<p>"Many were the comments made as she passed out of the hearing of +different groups of men. One big, rough miner, who had just accepted an +invitation to drink, caught sight of the vision, watched the Sister as +she passed and then said to the companion who had asked him:</p> + +<p>"'Excuse me, Bob, I have a feeling as though my soul had just partaken +of the sacrament. No more gin for me to-day.'</p> + +<p>"Said another: 'It is a fearful pity. That woman was born to be loved, +and to love somebody better than nine hundred and ninety out of every +thousand could. Her occupation is, in her case, a sin against nature. +Every hour her heart must protest against the starvation which it feels; +every day she must feel upon her robes the clasp of little hands which +are not to be.'</p> + +<p>"One boisterous miner, a little in his cups, watched until the Sister +disappeared around a bend in the crooked street, and then cried out: +'Did you see her, boys? That is the style of a woman that a man could +die for and smile while dying. Oh! Oh!' Then drawing from his belt a +buckskin purse, he held it aloft and shouted: 'Here are eighty ounces of +the cleanest dust ever mined in Bear Gulch; it's all I have in the +world, but I will give the last grain to any bruiser in this camp who +will look crooked at that Sister when she comes back this way, and let +me see him do it. In just a minute and a half—but no matter, I'm better +that I have seen her.'</p> + +<p>"After that, daily, for all the following week, Sister Celeste was seen +going to and returning from the sick woman's house. It suddenly grew to +be a habit with everybody to uncover their heads as Sister Celeste came +by.</p> + +<p>"Sunday came around again, and it was noticed that on that morning the +nun went early to visit her charge and remained longer than usual. On +her return, when just about opposite the main saloon of the place, a +kindly, elderly gentleman, who was universally known and respected, +ventured to cross the path of the Sister, and address her as follows:</p> + +<p>"'I beg pardon, good Sister, but you are attending upon a sick person. +We understand that it is a woman. May I not ask if we can not in some +way assist you and the woman?'</p> + +<p>"A faint flush swept over the glorious face of Sister Celeste as she +raised her eyes, but simply and frankly, and with a slight French +accent, she answered:</p> + +<p>"'The lady, kind sir, is very ill. Unless, in some way, we can manage to +remove her to the hospital, where she can have an evenly warmed room and +close nursing, I fear she will not live; but she is penniless and we are +very poor, and, moreover, I do not see how she can be moved, for there +are no carriages.'</p> + +<p>"She spoke with perfect distinctness, notwithstanding the slight foreign +accent. The accent was no impediment; rather from her lips it gave her +words a rhythm like music.</p> + +<p>"The man raised his voice: 'Boys,' he shouted, 'there is a suffering +woman up the street. She is very destitute and very ill, and must be +removed to the hospital. The first thing required is some money.' Then, +taking off his hat with one hand, with the other he took from his pocket +a twenty-dollar piece, put the money in the hat, then sprang upon a low +stump that was standing by the trail and added: 'I start the +subscription, those who have a trifle that they can spare will please +pass around this way and drop the trifle into the hat.'</p> + +<p>"Then Sister Celeste had a new experience. In an instant she was +surrounded by a shouting, surging, struggling crowd, all eager to +contribute. There was a Babel of voices, but for once a California crowd +were awakened to full roar without an oath being heard. The boys could +not swear in the presence of Sister Celeste.</p> + +<p>"In a few minutes between seven and eight hundred dollars was raised. It +was poured out of the hat into a buckskin purse, the purse was tied, and +handed, by the man who first addressed her, to Sister Celeste, with the +remark that it was for her poor and that when she needed more the boys +would stand in.</p> + +<p>"Again the nun raised her eyes and in a low voice which trembled a +little, she said:</p> + +<p>"'Please salute the gentlemen and say to them that God will keep the +account.'</p> + +<p>"The man turned around and with an awkward laugh said: 'Boys! I am +authorized, by one of His angels, to say that for your contribution, God +has taken down your names, and given you credit.'</p> + +<p>"Then a wild fellow cried out from the crowd:</p> + +<p>"'Three cheers for the Angel!'</p> + +<p>"The cheers rang out like the braying of a thousand trumpets in accord. +Then in a hoarse under-tone a voice shouted 'Tiger!' and the deep-toned +old-day California 'Tiger' rolled up the hillsides like an ocean roar. +It would have startled an ordinary woman, but Sister Celeste was looking +at the purse, and it is doubtful if she heard it at all.</p> + +<p>"Then the first speaker called from the crowd eight men, by name, and +said:</p> + +<p>"'You were all married men in the States and for all that I know to the +contrary, were decent, respectable gentlemen. As master of ceremonies I +delegate you, as there are no carriages in this camp, to go to the sick +woman's house, and carry her to the hospital, while the good Sister +proceeds in advance and makes a place for her.'</p> + +<p>"This was agreed to, and the Sister was told that in half an hour she +might expect her patient.</p> + +<p>"Then she hurried away, the crowd watching her and remarking that her +usual stately step seemed greatly quickened.</p> + +<p>"Long afterward, the Mother Superior related that, when Sister Celeste +reached the hospital on that day, she fell sobbing into the Mother's +arms, and when she could command her voice, said: 'Those shaggy men that +I thought were all tigers are all angels disguised. O, Mother, I have +seen them as Moses and Elias were, transfigured.'</p> + +<p>"The eight men held a brief consultation in the street, then going to a +store they bought a pair of heavy white blankets, an umbrella and four +pick handles. Borrowing a packer's needle and some twine they began to +sew the pick handles into the sides of the blanket, first rolling the +handles around once or twice in the edges of the blanket. They then +proceeded to the sick woman's house; one went in first and told the sick +woman, gently, what they had come to do, and bade her have no fears, +that she was to be moved so gently that if she would close her eyes she +would not know anything about it. The others were called in; the blanket +was laid upon the floor; the bed was lifted with its burden from the +bedstead and laid on the blanket; the covers were neatly tucked under +the mattress; four men seized the pickhandles at the sides, lifted the +bed, woman and all from the floor, a fifth man stepped outside, raised +the umbrella and held it above the woman's face, and so, as gently as +ever mother rocked her babe to sleep, the sick woman was carried the +whole length of the street to the hospital, where Sister Celeste and the +Mother Superior received her.</p> + +<p>"Then all hands went up town and talked the matter over, and I am afraid +that some of them drank a little, but the burden of all the talk and all +the toasts, was Sister Celeste.</p> + +<p>"After that the nun was often seen, going on her errands of mercy, and +it is true that some men who had been rough and who had drank hard for +months previous to the coming of the Sister, grew quiet in their lives +and ceased to go to the saloons.</p> + +<p>"One day a most laughable event transpired. Two men got quarrelling in +the street which in a moment culminated in a fight. The friends of the +respective men joined and soon there was a general fight in which +perhaps thirty men were engaged. When it was at its height (and such a +fight meant something) Sister Celeste suddenly turned the sharp bend of +the street and came into full view not sixty yards from where the melee +was raging in full fury.</p> + +<p>"One of the fighters saw her and made a sound between a hiss and a low +whistle, a peculiar sound of alarm and warning, so significant that all +looked up.</p> + +<p>"In an instant the men clapped their hands into their side pockets, and +commenced moving away, some of them whistling low and dancing as they +went, as though the whole thing was but a jovial lark. When Sister +Celeste reached the spot a moment afterward, the street was entirely +clear. The men washed their faces, some wag began to describe the +comical scene which they made when they concluded that the street under +certain circumstances was no good place for a fight; good humor was +restored, the chief combatants shook hands with perfect cordiality, a +drink of reconciliation was ordered all around, and when the glasses +were emptied, a man cried out: 'Fill up once more, boys. I want you to +drink with me the health of the only capable peace officer that we have +ever had in town—Sister Celeste.' The health was drank with enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>"The winter came on at length and there was much sickness. Sister +Celeste redoubled her exertions; she was seen at all hours of the day, +and was met, sometimes, as late as midnight, returning from her watch +beside a sick bed.</p> + +<p>"The town was full of rough men; some of them would cut or shoot at a +word, but Sister Celeste never felt afraid. Indeed, since that Sabbath +when the subscription was taken up in the street she had felt that +nothing sinister could ever happen to her in that place.</p> + +<p>"Once, however, she met a jolly miner who had been in town too long, and +who had started for home a good deal the worse for liquor. She met him +in a lonely place where the houses had been a few days previous burned +down on both sides of the street. Emboldened by rum, the man stepped +directly in front of the nun and said:</p> + +<p>"'My pretty Sister, I will give your hospital a thousand dollars for one +kiss.'</p> + +<p>"The Sister never wavered; she raised her calm and undaunted eyes to the +face of the man, an incandescent whiteness warmed upon her cheek, giving +to her striking face unwonted splendor. For a moment she held the man +under the spell of her eyes, then stretching her right arm out toward +the sky, slowly and with infinite sadness in her tones said:</p> + +<p>"'If your mother is watching from there, what will she think of her +son?'</p> + +<p>"The man fell on his knees, crying 'pardon,' and Sister Celeste, with +her accustomed stately step, passed slowly on her way.</p> + +<p>"Next day an envelope directed to Sister Celeste was received at the +hospital. Within there was nothing but a certificate of deposit from a +local bank for one thousand dollars, made to the credit of the hospital.</p> + +<p>"On another occasion the nun had a still harder trial to bear. A young +man was stricken with typhoid fever and sent to the hospital. He was a +rich and handsome man. He had come from the East only a few weeks before +he was taken down. His business in California was to settle the estate +of an uncle recently deceased, who had died leaving a large property.</p> + +<p>"When carried to the hospital Sister Celeste was appointed his nurse. +The fever ran twenty-one days, and when it left him finally, he lay +helpless as a child and hovering on the very threshhold of the grave for +days.</p> + +<p>"With a sick man's whim, no one could do anything for him but Sister +Celeste. She had to move him on his pillows, give him his medicines and +such food as he could bear. In lifting him her arms were very often +around him and her bosom was so near his breast that she could feel the +throbbing of his heart.</p> + +<p>"As health slowly returned, the young man watched the nurse with +steadily increasing interest.</p> + +<p>"At length the time came when the physician said that in another week +the patient would require no further attendance, but that he ought, so +soon as possible, to go to the seaside, where the salt air would furnish +him the tonic that he needed most.</p> + +<p>"When the physician went away the young man said: 'Sister Celeste, sit +down and let us talk.' She obeyed. 'Let me hold your hand,' he said: 'I +want to tell you of my mother and my home, and with your hand in mine it +will seem as though the dear ones there were by my side.' She gave him +her hand in silence.</p> + +<p>"Then he told her of his beautiful home in the East; of the love that +had always been a benediction to that home; of his mother and little +sister, of their daily life and their unbroken happiness.</p> + +<p>"Insidiously the story flowed on until at length he said, with returning +health, his business being nearly all arranged, he should return to +those who awaited, anxiously, his coming. And before Sister Celeste had +any time for preparation or remonstrance, the young man added:</p> + +<p>"'You have been my guardian angel; you have saved my life. The world +will be all dark without you. You can serve God and, humanity better as +my wife than as a lowly and poor Sister here. Some women have higher +destinies and a nobler sphere to fill on earth than as Sisters of +Charity; you were never meant to be a nun, but a loving wife. Be mine. +If it is the poor you wish to serve, a thousand shall bless you where +one blesses you here; but come with me, filling my mother's heart with +joy and taking your rightful place as my wife. Be my guardian angel +forever!'</p> + +<p>"The face of Sister Celeste was white as the pillow on which her hand +lay; for a moment she seemed choking, while about her lips and eyes +there was a tremulousness as though she was about to break into a storm +of uncontrollable sobs. But she rallied under a tremendous effort at +self-control, gently disengaged her hand from the hand that held it, +rose to her feet and said:</p> + +<p>"'I ought not to have permitted this; ought not to have heard what you +said. However, we must bear our cross. I do not belong to the world; but +do not misjudge me, I have not always been as you see me. I can only +tell you this: To a woman now and then there comes a time when either +her heart must break or she must give it to God. I have given mine to +Him. I cannot take it back. I would not if I could.</p> + +<p>"'If you suffer a little now, you will forget it with returning +strength. I only ask that when you are strong and well and far away, you +will sometimes remember that the world is full of heart aches. Comfort +as many as you can. And now, God bless you, and farewell.'</p> + +<p>"She laid her hand a moment on his brow, then drew it down upon his +cheek, where it lingered for a moment like a caress, and then she was +gone.</p> + +<p>"After that the Mother Superior became the young man's nurse until he +left the hospital. He tried hard, but never saw Sister Celeste again. +While he remained in the place she ceased to appear on the street.</p> + +<p>"Another year passed by and Sister Celeste grew steadily in the love of +the people. With the winter months some cases of smallpox broke out. The +country was new, the people careless, and no particular alarm was felt +until the breaking out of ten cases in one day awakened the people to +the fact that the disease prevailed generally.</p> + +<p>"Sister Celeste labored almost without rest, night or day, until the +violence of the contagion had passed; then she was stricken. She +recovered, but was shockingly marked by the disease.</p> + +<p>"She was in a darkened room, and how to break to her the news of her +disfigurement was a matter of sore distress to the other nuns. But one +day, to a Sister who was watching by her bed side, she suddenly said:</p> + +<p>"'I am almost well now, Sister. Throw back the blinds and bring me a +mirror,' and, with a gentle gaiety that never forsook her when with her +sister nuns, she added: 'It is time that I began to admire myself.'</p> + +<p>"The nun opened the blinds, brought the glass, laid it upon the bed and +sat down in fear and trembling.</p> + +<p>"Sister Celeste, without glancing at the mirror, laid one hand upon it, +and, shading her eyes with the other hand, for a moment was absorbed in +silent prayer. Then she picked up the glass and held it before her face. +The watching nun; hardly breathing and in an agony of suspense, waited. +After a long, earnest look, without a shade passing over her face, +Sister Celeste laid down the glass, clasped her hands and said: 'God be +praised! Now all is peace. Never, never again will my face bring sorrow +to my heart.'</p> + +<p>"The waiting nun sank, sobbing, to her knees; but as she did so, she +saw, on the face of the stricken woman, a smile which she declared was +as sweet as the smile of God.</p> + +<p>"With the return of health, Sister Celeste again took up her work of +mercy, and for a few months more her presence was a benediction to the +place. At last, however, it began to be noticed that her presence on the +street was less frequent than formerly, and soon an unwelcome rumor +began to circulate that she was ill. The truth of this was soon +confirmed, and then, day by day, for some weeks, the report was that she +was growing weaker and weaker, and finally, one morning, it was known +that she was dead.</p> + +<p>"A lady of the place who was greatly attached to Sister Celeste, because +of that attachment and because of her devotion to 'Mother Church,' was +permitted to watch through the last hours of the nun's life. Of the +closing moments of the glorified woman's life she gave the following +account:</p> + +<p>"For an hour the dying nun had been motionless, as though hushed in a +peaceful sleep. When the first rays of the dawn struck on the window, a +lark lighted on the sill, and in full voice warbled its greeting to the +day. Then the Sister opened her eyes, already fringed by the death +frost, and in faint and broken sentences murmured:</p> + +<p>"'A delicious vision has been sent me. <i>Deo gratias</i>, every act meant in +kindness that I have ever done, in the vision had become a flower, +giving out an incense ineffable. These had been woven into a diadem for +me. Every word, meant in comfort or sympathy, that I have ever spoken, +had been set to exquisite music, which voices and harps not of this +world were singing and playing while I was being crowned. Every tear of +mine shed in pity had become a precious gem. These were woven into the +robes of light that they drew around me. A glass was held before me; +from face and bosom the cruel scars were all gone, and to eye and brow +and cheek the luster and enchantment of youth had returned, and near all +radiant'—</p> + +<p>"'The eyes, with a look of inexpressibly joyous surprise in them, grew +fixed, and all was still save where on the casement the lark was +repeating her song.'</p> + +<p>"Among the effects left by Sister Celeste was found a package addressed +to the same lady who had watched during the closing hours of the dead +nun's life. This was brought to her by the Mother Superior. On being +opened, within was found another package, tied with silver strings, +sealed with wax, and the seal bore the date on which she took her vows. +This in turn was opened, and a large double locket was revealed. In one +side was the picture of a young man in the uniform of a French colonel. +From the other side a picture had evidently been hastily removed, as +though in a moment of excitement, for there were scars upon the case +which had been made by a too impetuous use of some sharp instrument. On +the outer edge of the case was a half-round hole, such as a bullet +makes, and there were dark stains on one side of the case. Below the +picture in a woman's delicate hand-writing, were the words: 'Henrie. +Died at Majenta.'</p> + +<p>"The lady called the Mother Superior aside and showed her the picture. +Tears came to the faded eyes of the devoted woman.</p> + +<p>"'Now God be praised!' said she. 'Three nights since, as I watched by +the poor child, I heard her murmur that name in her fevered sleep, and I +was troubled, for I feared she was dreaming of the youth she nursed back +to life here in the hospital. It was not so. Her work was finished on +earth, she was nearing the spheres where love never brings sorrow; her +soul was already outstretching its wings to join—' the poor nun +stopped, breathed short and hard a few times, and then incoherently +began to tell her beads in Latin.</p> + +<p>"While they were conversing the body of Sister Celeste lay dressed for +the grave in another apartment, watched over by two Sisters. When the +Mother Superior ceased speaking, the lady said to her:</p> + +<p>"Mother, come with me to where Sister Celeste is sleeping! When we reach +the room, send the watchers away, and then do not look at me. I want to +put this picture away.'</p> + +<p>"The Mother Superior was strangely agitated, but she led the way to the +room, bade the nuns there go and get some rest, then knelt by the foot +of the casket, and bowed her head in prayer.</p> + +<p>"The lady slipped the locket beneath the folds of the winding sheet, +where it lay above the pulseless heart of the dead nun.</p> + +<p>"The whole population of the place were sorrowing mourners at the +obsequies of Sister Celeste, and for years afterward, every morning, in +summer and winter, upon her grave, a dressing of fresh flowers could be +seen.</p> + +<p>"On the day of the funeral the miners made up a purse and gave it to +Mrs. De Lacy, the consideration being that every day for a year, the +grave of the Sister should be flower-crowned. The contract was renewed +yearly until Mrs. De Lacy moved away. In the meantime a wild rosebush +and cypress had been planted beside the grave, and they keep watch there +still."</p> + +<p>The good-night whistles had already blown when Harding finished his +story. Not much was said as the Club retired, but Corrigan, +understanding why the story had been told, in silence wrung Harding's +hand.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + + +<p>The Club had now been running a month. It had been most enjoyable. When +Yap Sing had been installed as cook and housekeeper he was given a +memorandum book, on the first page of which was written an order for +such supplies as the Club might require at the stores and markets. +Brewster had objected to this at first, inasmuch as the Mongolian was a +stranger, and because it was not good to make bills. But he was +overruled by the explanation that almost everything required, except +fresh vegetables and, now and then, fresh meat, had already been +provided, and that the Chinaman could not cheat very much with seven men +to watch him.</p> + +<p>But from the first day the Club fared sumptuously. Yap Sing was a +thorough artist in his way. He had a trick of preparing substantials and +dainties, and of arranging a table, which was wonderful. His breakfasts +and suppers were masterpieces, and daily as the dinner buckets, which +Yap Sing had filled, were opened at the mines, the members of the Club +were the envy of all the men, underground, who were their companions. It +was a change from the boarding houses, so delicious, that the members of +the Club did not care to consider what the probable extra expense would +be. Moreover, each had a feeling that so long as the rest were satisfied +it was not worth while to interrupt the pleasant course which events +were taking by intruding questions which possibly might lead to +unpleasant developments.</p> + +<p>But on pay day the bills were sent in. For provisions and crockery they +amounted to more than three hundred dollars, or about one dollar and a +half per day for each member of the Club. This was in addition to the +stock of food purchased at the beginning.</p> + +<p>The first thought was that Yap Sing had been robbing the Club. He was +called in, confronted with the bills and questioned as to what he had to +say to the amount.</p> + +<p>He declared it to be his belief that it was "belly cheapee."</p> + +<p>Miller took up the case for the plaintiffs and said: "But, Yap, you +understand when you came here a month ago we had plenty of +provisions—flour, butter, bacon, lard, tea, coffee, sugar—everything +required except fresh vegetables and, now and then, fresh meat."</p> + +<p>"Yes, me sabbe; got plentie now, allee samee," said Yap.</p> + +<p>"But, Yap," said Miller, "you know in boarding-houses and restaurants +board is only eight dollars a week. Besides what you had at the +beginning, this is costing a dollar and a half a day for each one of us. +What have you to say to that?"</p> + +<p>"Me say him heap cheapee," said Yap. "Me no care for bloarding-housie; +me no care for lestaulent; me heap sabbie 'em. You likie 'em, you +bletter go lare eatie. You no likie loyster; you likie hashie. You no +likie tlenderloin; you likie corn beefe. You no likie turkie; you likie +bull beefe. You no likie plum puddie; you likie dlied apples. All litie, +me cookie him; me no care. You no likie bloiled tongue, loast chickie +and devil ham for dinner bucket; you likie blead and onion. All litie, +me fixie him. You wantie one d——d cheapee miners' bloarding-housie. +All litie, no difflence me."</p> + +<p>It was hard to argue the point with the countryman of Confucius. +Notwithstanding the magnificent fare, the impression was general that +Yap Sing had been feeding three or four of his cousins and making a +little private pocket change for himself by the transaction, but it +would have been useless to try to convict him. Indeed, it would have +been impossible, for when any particularly outrageous item was pointed +out he would cite some special occasion when he had outdone himself in +his art.</p> + +<p>"What a time-keeper he would make for a mine!" said Carlin. "He would +have his pay-roll full every day if he had to rob a graveyard of all the +names on its monuments to fill it."</p> + +<p>"What a superintendent he would make!" said Miller. "There would not be +an item in the monthly accounts that he would not be prepared to explain +with entire satisfaction and appalling promptness, and all the time he +would have looked like a sorrowful statue of unappreciated innocence."</p> + +<p>"What a mining expert he would be!" said Ashley. "With his faculty for +making doubtful things look plausible, and his powers of expression, he +would convince the ordinary man that he could see further into the +ground than you could bore with a diamond drill."</p> + +<p>"But his cooking is lovely; you must all admit that," said Wright.</p> + +<p>"If there be blame anywhere, it rests on us," said Brewster, "for we +could all see that we were living a little high, and yet not one of us +so much as cautioned Yap to go slow."</p> + +<p>It was finally decided that there must be a return to sound and economic +principles. Yap was paid his month's salary and instructed that, in +future, the fare must be reduced to plain, solid miner's food. The money +to pay all the bills, together with what was due on the previous month, +and also the rent, was contributed and placed in Miller's hands as +treasurer and paymaster, that he might pay the accounts, and the Club +settled down to its pipes and conversation.</p> + +<p>In the meantime the honorary members had come in. As usual, the first +theme was the condition of stocks. Miller believed that Silver Hill was +the best buy on the lode, Corrigan had heard that day that a secret +drift had been run west from the thirteen hundred level of the Con. +Virginia; that up in the Andes ground an immense body of ore had been +cut through, but that nothing would come of it until the Bonanza firm +could gather in more of the stock. Carlin was disposed to believe that a +development was about to be made in Chollar Potosi, because during the +past month the superintendent had come up twice from Oakland, +California, to look at the property. Strong was disposed to unload all +the stocks that he had and invest in Belcher and Crown Point because the +superintendent of both mines had that day assured him that they had no +developments worth mentioning.</p> + +<p>At length the conversation turned on silver. The Club had that day +received a portion of their month's pay in silver, and some grumbled, +thinking they should have received their full wages in gold. After a +good deal had been said, the Professor, who had been quietly reading and +had taken no part in the discussion, was asked for his opinion. He +answered as follows:</p> + +<p>"It is not right to pay laboring men in a depreciated currency; it is a +still greater wrong that there is a discount on silver. It is the +steadiest measure of values that mankind has ever found; it is the only +metal that three-fifths of the human race can measure their daily +transactions in; its full adoption by our Government, as a measure of +values and basis of money, would mean prosperity; its rejection during +the past five years and the denying to it its old sovereignty, have +wrought incalculable loss.</p> + +<p>"Here on the Comstock it sleeps in the same matrix with gold, the +proportion in bullion being about forty-four per cent. gold to fifty-six +per cent. silver. The Nation cannot make a better adjustment than to +keep that proportion good in her securities. Five years ago silver +commanded a premium over gold. Since then two dollars in gold to one in +silver have been taken from the earth, but silver is at a discount, +because through unwise if not dishonest legislation, its sovereignty as +a measure of values, its recognition as money was taken away. The whole +burden was put upon gold, and the result is that the purchasing power of +gold has been enhanced, and silver is, or seems to be, at a discount. +Those who have accomplished this wrong affect to scorn the proposition +that legislation could restore to silver its old value, ignoring the +fact that the present apparent depreciation is due entirely to +unfriendly legislation, and conveniently forgetting that with silver, +everything else is at a discount when measured by gold. That is, gold is +inflated by the discriminations which have been made in its favor. The +chief use of silver in the world is for a measure of values, as the +chief use of wheat is for material out of which to make bread. Were men +forbidden to make any more bread from wheaten flour and compelled to use +corn meal as a substitute, would the present prices of wheat and corn +remain respectively the same?</p> + +<p>"Silver should be restored to its old full sovereignty, side by side +with gold. Then, in this country, just as little of either metal as +possible should be used in men's daily transactions. Handling gold and +silver directly in trade is but continuing the barter of savage men, and +is a relic of a dark age. Moreover, the loss by abrasion is very great. +Both metals should be cast into ingots and their values stamped upon +them. Then they should be stored in the Treasury and certificates +representing their value should be issued as the money of the people. If +this makes the Government a banker no matter, so long as it supplies to +the people a money on which there can be no loss. The thought that this +would drain our land of gold has not much force, because the trade +balances are coming our way and will soon be very heavy; if the gold +shall be taken away something will have to be returned in lieu of it, +and after all the truth is that four-fifths of our people do not see a +gold piece twice a year. Our internal commerce is very much greater than +our foreign commerce, and to keep that moving without jar should be the +first anxiety of American statesmen. For that purpose nothing could be +better than the silver certificate.</p> + +<p>"The Government has commenced to coin silver and has partially +remonetized it. It is only partial because gold is still made the +absolute measure of values and preference is reserved for it in ways +which will keep silver depressed until there shall come a demand for it +which cannot at once be met; then it will be discovered that it is still +one of the precious metals and it will take its place in trade as it has +its place here in the mines, side by side and the full brother of gold. +Were the Government to-morrow to commence to absorb and hoard all the +product of our mines and keep this up for a generation, issuing +certificates on the same for the full value, at the end of about thirty +years there would be on deposit as security for the paper afloat more +than one thousand millions of dollars. This seems like a vast sum, but +it would then amount to but ten dollars per capita for our people. You +have each received two and a half times that amount to-day on account of +your last month's wages, and the only serious inconvenience it has +inflicted upon you is the discount which wicked legislation has given to +silver.</p> + +<p>"But long before one thousand millions in silver could be secured it +would command a premium, because that would mean one-fourth of all the +silver in circulation, and this old world cannot spare to one Nation +that amount and still keep her commerce running and the arts supplied."</p> + +<p>"But, Professor," said Alex, "why hoard the metals? Why may not money be +represented by paper backed by the Nation's faith? Why pile up the +metals in the Government vaults when the printing press can supply as +good money as the people want?"</p> + +<p>"That," replied the Professor, "is an argument for times of peace and +prosperity only. The failure of one crop would so lessen the faith of +the people that a serious discount would fall upon the money that was +only backed by faith. And suppose Europe were to combine to fight the +United States, then what would the loss be to the people? We can only +estimate the amount by thinking what the United States currency was +worth in 1864.</p> + +<p>"Such a combination is not at all impossible. There is a vast country to +the south of us, the trade of which should be ours, and with the +Governments of which we have notified Europe there must be no +interference from beyond the Atlantic. There are channels for ships to +be hewed through the Spanish American Isthmus, and their control is to +become a question.</p> + +<p>"Above all, the light and majesty of our Republic are becoming a terror +to the Old World. Think of it. The immigrants that come to us annually, +together with the young men and women that annually reach their majority +here, are enough to supply the places of all the people of this coast +were they to go away. Who can estimate the swelling strength that is +sufficient to fully equip a new state annually?</p> + +<p>"Before the spectacle thrones are toppling and kings sleep on pillows of +thorns. If our soil was adjacent to Europe, the nations would combine +and assail us to-morrow, in sheer self-defense. They have tremendous +armies; they are accumulating mighty navies and arming them as ships +were never armed before. Suppose that sometime they decide that the +world's equilibrium is being disturbed by the Great Republic, even as +they did when Napoleon the first became their terror, and that, as with +him, they determine that our country shall be divided or crushed. What +then? Of course they will maneuver to have a rebellion in our country +and espouse the cause of the weaker side. This is what nearly happened +in 1862; what would have surely happened had not Great Britain possessed +the knowledge that if she joined with France in the proposed scheme, +whatever the outcome might be, one thing was certain, for a season at +least, there would be no night on the sea; the light made by British +ships in flames would make perpetual day.</p> + +<p>"Then ocean commerce was carried mostly in ships that had to trust alone +to the fickle winds for headway. In twenty years more steam will be the +motive power for carrying all valuable freights, and will be +comparatively safe as against pursuing cruisers.</p> + +<p>"Imagine such a crisis upon us, what then would the unsupported paper +dollar be worth? But imagine that behind the Republic there was in the +treasury a thousand millions of dollars in silver, the original money of +the world, and another thousand millions in gold, what combination of +forces could place the money of the Nation in danger of loss by +depreciation?</p> + +<p>"Gold and silver when produced are simply the measures of the labor +required to produce them; they are labor made imperishable; and when +either is destroyed—and demonetization is destruction—just so much +labor is destroyed, and you who work have to make up the loss by working +more hours for a dollar. You are supposed to receive the same wages that +the miners did who worked on this lode six years ago, for a month's +work. But you do not because, through the mistake of honest men or the +manipulation of knaves, twenty per cent. of the twenty-five dollars paid +you in silver for last month's work has been destroyed; and now those +who have dealt this blow insist that money can in no wise be changed in +value by legislation.</p> + +<p>"The trouble is our law-makers do not estimate at half its worth their +own country. They stand in awe of what they call the money centers of +the world, and refuse to see that already the world is placed at a +disadvantage by our Republic; that within thirty years all existing +nations, all the nations that have existed through all the long watches +of the past, will, in material wealth and strength, seem mean and poor +in comparison with our own.</p> + +<p>"Look at it! Five hundred thousand foreigners absorbed annually, and not +a ripple made where they merge with the mighty current of our people! +What is equal to a new State, with all its people and equipments, +launched upon the Union every year—it makes me think of the Creator +launching worlds—with immeasurable resources yet to be utilized; the +wealth of the country already equal to that of Great Britain, with all +her twelve hundred years of spoils; all our earnings our own; no five +millions of people toiling to support another million that stand on +guard, as is required in France and Germany and Russia and Austria and +Italy; our great Southern staple commanding tribute from all the world; +hungry Europe looking to our Northern States for meat and bread, and to +our rivers for fish; our Western miners supplying to business the tonic +which keeps its every artery throbbing with buoyant health, while over +all is our flag, which symbols a sovereignty so awful in power and yet +so beneficent in mercies, that while the laws command and protect, they +bring no friction in their contact; rather they guarantee the perfect +liberty of every child of the Republic, to seize with equal hand upon +every opportunity for fortune, or for fame, which our country holds +within her august grasp.</p> + +<p>"To carry on the business of such a land an ocean of money is needed, +and infinitely more will be required in future. And for this money there +must be a solid basis; not merely a faith which expands with this year's +prosperity and contracts with next year's calamity; not something which +the death of a millionaire or a visitation of grasshoppers will throw +down; but something which is the first-born child of labor, and is +therefore immortal and without change. This is represented by gold and +silver, and to commerce they are what 'the great twin brethren' at Lake +Regillus were to Rome."</p> + +<p>When the Professor ceased speaking, Harding said: "Professor, what you +have been saying about our Republic sounds to me almost like a +coincidence. Did you dream what you have been saying?"</p> + +<p>The Professor replied that he did not, and asked what in the world +prompted such a question.</p> + +<p>Harding smiled and blushed, and then said: "Because I had a dream last +night."</p> + +<p>All wanted to hear what it was.</p> + +<p>"You won't laugh, Carlin?" said Harding.</p> + +<p>Carlin said he would not.</p> + +<p>"And you will not call me a fool, Wright?" Harding asked.</p> + +<p>Wright promised to conceal his sentiments, if necessary.</p> + +<p>"You will not call it a mirage, Corrigan?" asked Harding.</p> + +<p>Corrigan agreed to refrain.</p> + +<p>"And, Colonel, you will not ask mysterious questions about who usually +sits as a commission of lunacy in Virginia City?" Harding inquired.</p> + +<p>The Colonel agreed to restrain himself.</p> + +<p>"And, Alex, you will not expose me in the paper?" questioned Harding.</p> + +<p>Alex promised to be merciful to the public.</p> + +<p>In final appeal, Harding said: "And you, Professor, you will not say it +is a tough, hard formation and too nearly primitive to carry any +treasure?"</p> + +<p>The Professor assured him that faults and displacements were common in +the richest mineral-bearing veins.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Harding, "I was tired and nervous last night. I could not +sleep, and so determined to get up and read for an hour. I happened to +pick up a volume of Roman history, and became so absorbed in it that I +read for an hour or two more than I ought to. I went to bed at last, and +my body dropped to sleep in a moment, but my brain was still half awake, +and for a while ran things on its own account in a confused sort of a +way.</p> + +<p>"I thought I was sitting here alone, when, suddenly, a stranger appeared +and began to pace, slowly, up and down the room. He had an eye like a +hawk, nose like an eagle's beak and an air that was altogether martial. +His walk had the perfect, measured step of the trained veteran soldier. +After watching him for a little space, I grew bold and demanded of him +his name and business. When I spoke the sound of my own voice startled +me, for he was more savage looking than a shift boss. He turned round to +me—don't laugh, I pray you—and said:</p> + +<p>"'I am that Scipio to whom Hannibal the terrible capitulated. I was +proud of my Rome and my Romans. We were the "Iron Nation," truly. All +that human valor and human endurance could do we accomplished. Amid the +snows of the Alps and the sands of Africa we were alike invincible. We +were not deficient either in brain power. We left monuments enough to +abundantly establish that fact. To us the whole civilized world yielded +fealty, but we were barbarians after all. Listen!'</p> + +<p>"Just then there floated in through the open window what seemed a full +diapason of far-off but exquisite music.</p> + +<p>"'Do you know what that is?' he asked. 'It is the echo of the melody +which the children of this Republic awaken, singing in their free +schools. It smites upon and charms the ear of the sentinel angel, whose +station is in the sun, through one-eighth of his daily round; those +echoes that with an enchantment all their own ride on the swift pinions +of the hours over all the three thousand miles between the seas.</p> + +<p>"My Rome had nothing like that. We trusted alone to the law of might, +and though we tried to be just, the slave was chained daily at our +gates; we sold into slavery our captives taken in war; we fought +gladiators and wild beasts for the amusement of our daughters and wives; +we never learned to temper justice with mercy; only the first leaves of +the book of knowledge were opened to us; our brains and our bodies were +disciplined, but our hearts were darkened and we perished because we +were no longer fit to rule.</p> + +<p>"'Whether by evolution the world has advanced, or whether, indeed, the +lessons of that Nazarene, whom our soldiers crucified, are bearing +celestial fruit, who knows! But surely our Rome, with all its power, all +its splendor, all its heroic men and stately women; its victories in the +field, its pageants in the Imperial City on the days when, returning +from a conquest, our chieftians were laurel-crowned; our art, our +eloquence—all, were nothing compared with this song of songs. It +started at first where the sullen waves wash against Plymouth Rock; it +swelled in volume while the deep woods gave place to smiling fields; +over mountain and desert it rolled in full tones and only ceases, at +last, where the roar of the deep sea, breaking outside the Golden Gate, +or meeting in everlasting anger the Oregon upon her stormy bar, gives +notice that the pioneer must halt at last in his westward march.'</p> + +<p>"As he ceased to speak the melody was heard again, sweeter, clearer and +fuller than before. My guest faded away before me and I awoke. In all +the air there was no sound save the deep respirations of the hoisting +engine in the Norcross works, and the murmur of the winds, as on slow +beating wings they floated up over the Divide and swept on, out over the +desert."</p> + +<p>The verdict of the Club was that if old Scipio talked in that strain he +had softened down immensely since the days when he was setting his +legions in array against the swarthy hosts of the mighty Carthagenian.</p> + +<p>After a while Corrigan spoke: "You native Americans," he said, "at least +the majority of yees, do not half appreciate your country. I was but a +lad whin, after a winter of half starvation, in the care of an uncle, I +lift Ireland in an English imigrant ship. One mornin' as me uncle and +meself were watchin' from the deck a sail rose out of the say directly +in our path. It grew larger and larger, in a little while the hull +appeared, and soon after we could discern that it was a frigate. The +wind was off her beam, blowing fresh; every sail was crowded on, and as +her black beak rose and fell with the says, I thought her more beautiful +than the smile of the sunlight on the hills of Kildare. Half careened as +she was under the pressure on her sails, but still resolutely rushing +on, she made a pictur' of courage which has shone before me eyes a +thousand times since, when me heart has been heavy. She drew quite near, +and as she swung upon her tack her flag was dipped in salute. Then me +uncle bent and said: 'Barney, lad, mark will that flag! That is an +Amirican ship of war.'</p> + +<p>"Great God! Child that I was, I think in that moment I knew how the +young mother feels, when in the curtained dimness of her room, she half +fainting, hears the blissful whisper that unto her is born a son.</p> + +<p>"There was the ensign of the land which held all joy in thought for us; +which to us opened the gates of hope; that wondrous land in the air of +which the pallid cheek of Want grows rosy red and Irish hearts cast off +hereditary dispair.</p> + +<p>"I rushed forward, where thray hundred imigrants were listlessly +lounging about the deck, and, in mad excitement, shouted: 'See! See! It +is the Amirican flag!' Just then the sunlight caught in its folds and +turned it to gold.</p> + +<p>"O, but thin there was a transformation sane. Ivery person on that deck +sprang up and shouted. Men waved their hats and women embraced each +other, and with a mighty 'All Hail' those Irish imigrants—Irish no +longer, but henceforth forever to be Amiricans—greeted that flag. In +response the marines manned the yards, and off to us across the wathers +came the first ringing Amirican chare that we had iver heard. We +answered back with a yell like that which might have been awakened at +Babel. It was not a disciplined chare, but simply a wild cry of joy, and +it was none the less hearty that over us swung haughtily the red cross +of St. George.</p> + +<p>"You native Amiricans are like spiled children, that niver having known +an unsatisfied want, surfeit on dainties."</p> + +<p>Corrigan relapsed into silence, but his eyes were glistening and there +was a tremble about his lips. His mind was still in the burial place, +where "memory was calling up its dead."</p> + +<p>While the spell of Barney's words was still upon the Club, Yap Sing +softly opened the door and announced that the evening luncheon was +ready. The heathen had inaugurated these luncheons on the first day of +his coming. They were at once accepted and had become a regular thing. +Seeing that they were received approvingly, Yap had exhausted every +device to make them a marked feature of the Club.</p> + +<p>On this occasion the table was fully set, but there was no food on the +table. Beside each plate stood a glass of water and a dish of salt. When +the company was seated, Yap went to the cooking range, took out and set +upon the table an immense platter which was piled high with huge baked +potatoes, after which, with a face utterly destitute of expression, he +went to his bench in the corner of the room and sat down.</p> + +<p>Wright, who was nearest him, said: "What is the matter, Yap? Are you +sick?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing matter; me no sickie," said Yap.</p> + +<p>"But why do you not bring on the supper?" asked Wright.</p> + +<p>"No catchie any more," was the answer.</p> + +<p>"What! Just potatoes straight, Yap? What is the matter?" said Wright.</p> + +<p>"I no sabbie what's the matter," said the sullen Oriental. "You livie +belly cheapie now. Potato belly good. Blenty potato, blenty saltie, +blenty cold water; no makie you sickie; I dink belly good."</p> + +<p>The Club took in the situation with great hilarity; the cause of Yap +Sing's frugality was briefly explained to the guests; each seized a +potato and commenced their meal.</p> + +<p>At length Carlin asked Yap Sing if he could not furnish a little butter +with the salt. Yap shook his head resolutely, and said:</p> + +<p>"No catchie. Blutter five bittie [sixty-two and a half cents] one pound. +No buy blutter for five bittie to putee on potato; too muchie money +allee time pay out for hashie."</p> + +<p>Then Ashley asked for a pickle, but Yap Sing was firm. Said he: "Pickle +slix bittie one bottle; no can standee."</p> + +<p>A great many other things were banteringly asked for, from cold tongue +and horse-radish to blackberry jam; but the imperturbable face of the +Mongolian never relaxed and his ears remained deaf to all entreaties.</p> + +<p>The potatoes were eaten with a decided relish, though there was no +seasoning except salt, and when the repast was over the Club still sat +at the table while the Colonel delivered a dissertation upon the virtues +of the potato in general and upon the Nevada potato in particular. He +insisted that the potato was the great modern mind food, and instanced +the effect of potato diet upon the people of Ireland, pointing out that +the failure of a crop there meant mental prostration and despair, while +the news of a bountiful crop was a certain sign of a lively revolution +within the year. From a scientific standpoint he demonstrated that no +where else on the continent were the conditions absolutely perfect for +producing potatoes that were potatoes, except upon the high, dry, +slightly alkaline table lands between the Sierras and the Wasatch Range, +and, giving his lively imagination full play, he pictured that region as +it would be fifty years hence; when transportation shall be reduced; +when artesian wells shall be plenty; when the rich men of the earth will +not be able to give entertainments without presenting their guests with +Nevada or Utah potatoes, and when to say that a man has a potato estate +in the desert will be as it now is to say that a man has a wheat farm in +Dakota, an orange orchard in Los Angeles, or a cotton plantation in +Texas.</p> + +<p>While talking, the Colonel managed, between sentences, to dispose of a +second potato.</p> + +<p>When the pipes were resumed, the joke of Yap Sing was fully discussed, +and finally the Chinese question came up for consideration.</p> + +<p>Strong took up this latter theme and said:</p> + +<p>"The men of the Eastern States think that we of the West are a cruel, +half-barbarous race, because we look with distrust upon the swelling +hosts of Mongolians that are swarming like locusts upon this coast. They +say: 'Our land has ever been open to the oppressed, no matter in what +guise they come. The men of the West are the first to stretch bars +across the Golden Gate to keep out a people. And this people are +peaceable and industrious; all they petition for is to come in and work. +Still, there is a cry which swells into passionate invective against +them. It must be the cry of barbarism and ignorance. It surely fairly +reeks with injustice and cruelty and sets aside a fundamental principle +of our Government which dedicates our land to freedom and opens all its +gates to honest endeavor.'</p> + +<p>"Those people will not stop to think that we came here from among +themselves. We were no more ignorant, we were no worse than they when we +came away. We have had better wages and better food since our coming +than the ordinary men of the East obtain. Almost all of us have dreamed +of homes, of wives and children that are men's right to possess, but +which are not for us; and though they of the East do not know it, this +experience has softened, not hardened our hearts, toward the weak and +the oppressed. If they of the East would reflect they would have to +conclude that it is not avarice that moves us; that there must be a less +ungenerous and deeper reason.</p> + +<p>"Our only comfort is, that, by and by, maybe while some of us still +live, those men and women who now upbraid us, will, with their souls on +their knees, ask pardon for so misjudging us.</p> + +<p>"We quarantine ships when a contagion is raging among her crew; we frame +protective laws to hold the price of labor up to living American rates; +New England approves these precautions, but when we ask to have the same +rules, in another form, enforced upon our coast, her people and her +statesmen, in scorn and wrath, declare that we are monsters.</p> + +<p>"There is Yap Sing in the kitchen. You have just paid him forty dollars +for a month's work. All the clothes that he wears were made in China. If +he boarded himself, as nearly as possible, he would eat only the food +sent here from China. Of his forty dollars just received, thirty at +least will be returned to China and be absorbed there. There are one +hundred thousand of his people in this State and California. We will +suppose that they save only thirty cents each per day. That means, for +all, nine hundred thousand dollars per month, or more than ten million +dollars per annum that they send away. This is the drain which two +States with less than one million inhabitants are annually subjected to. +How long would Massachusetts bear a similar drain, before through all +her length and breadth, her cities would blaze with riots, all her air +grow black with murder? Ireland, with six times as many people, and with +the richest of soils, on half that tax, has become so poor that around +her is drawn the pity of the world.</p> + +<p>"'But,' say the Eastern people, 'you must receive them, Christianize +them, and after awhile they will assimilate with you.'</p> + +<p>"Waiving the degradation to us, which that implies, they propose an +impossibility. They might just as well go down to where the Atlantic +beats against the shore, and shout across the waste to the Gulf stream, +commanding it to assimilate with the 'common waters' of the sea. Not +more mysterious is the law that holds that river of the deep within its +liquid banks, than is the instinct which prevents the Chinaman from +shaking off his second nature and becoming an American. He looks back +through the halo of four thousand years, sees that without change, the +nation of his forefathers has existed, and with him all other existing +nations except Japan and India and Persia, are parvenues.</p> + +<p>"For thousands of years, he and his fathers before him, have been waging +a hand-to-hand conflict with Want. He has stripped and disciplined +himself until he is superior to all hardships except famine, and that he +holds at bay longer than any other living creature could.</p> + +<p>"Through this training process from their forms everything has +disappeared except a capacity to work; in their brains every attribute +has died except the selfish ones; in their hearts nearly all generous +emotions have been starved to death. The faces of the men have given up +their beards, the women have surrendered their breasts and the ability +to blush has faded from their faces.</p> + +<p>"Like all animals of fixed colors they change neither in habits nor +disposition. In four thousand years they have changed no more than have +the wolves that make their lairs in the foothills of the Ural mountains, +except that they have learned to economize until they can even live upon +half the air which the white man requires to exist in. They have trained +their stomachs until they are no longer the stomachs of men; but such as +are possessed by beasts of prey; they thrive on food from which the +Caucasian turns with loathing, and on this dreadful fare work for +sixteen hours out of the twenty-four.</p> + +<p>"The moral sentiments starved to death in their souls centuries ago. +They hold woman as but an article of merchandise and delight to profit +by her shame.</p> + +<p>"Other foreigners come to America to share the fortunes of Americans. +Even the poor Italian, with organ and monkey, dreams while turning his +organ's crank, that this year or next, or sometime, he will be able to +procure a little home, have a garden of his own, and that his children +will grow up—sanctified by citizenship—defenders of our flag.</p> + +<p>"But the Chinaman comes with no purpose except for plunder; the sole +intention is to get from the land all that is possible, with the design +of carrying it or sending it back to native land. The robbery is none +the less direct and effective for being carried on with a non-combatant +smile instead of by force.</p> + +<p>"It is such a race as this that we are asked to welcome and compete +with, and when we explain that the food we each require—we, without +wife or child to share with—costs more in the market daily than these +creatures are willing to work for and board themselves; the question, +with a lofty disdain, is asked: 'Are you afraid to compete with a +Chinaman?'</p> + +<p>"It is an unworthy question, born of ignorance and a false +sentimentality; for no mortal can overcome the impossible.</p> + +<p>"In the cities these creatures fill the places of domestics and absorb +all the simpler trades. The natural results follow. Girls and boys grow +up without ever being disciplined to labor. But girls and boys must have +food and clothes. If their parents can not clothe and feed them other +people must. If poor girls with heads and hands untrained have nothing +but youth and beauty to offer for food, when hungry enough they will +barter both for bread.</p> + +<p>"The vices and diseases which the Chinese have already scattered +broadcast over the west, are maturing in a harvest of measureless and +indescribable suffering.</p> + +<p>"The Chinese add no defense to the State. They have no patriotism except +for native land; they are all children of degraded mothers, and as +soldiers are worthless.</p> + +<p>"Moreover it is not a question of sharing our country with them; it is +simply a question of whether we should surrender it to them or not. When +the western nations thoroughly understand the Chinese they will realize +that with their numbers, their imitative faculties, their capacity to +live and to work on food which no white man can eat, with their +appalling thrift and absence of moral faculties, they are, to-day, the +terror of the earth.</p> + +<p>"The nations forced China to open her gates to them. It was one of the +saddest mistakes of civilization.</p> + +<p>"To ask that their further coming be stopped, is simply making a +plea for the future generations of Americans, a prayer for the +preservation of our Republic. It springs from man's primal right of +self-preservation, and when we are told that we should share our country +and its blessings with the Chinese, the first answer is that they +possess already one-tenth of the habitable globe; their empire has +everything within it to support a nation; they have, besides, the +hoarded wealth of a hundred generations, and if these were not enough, +there are still left illimitable acres of savage lands. Let them go +occupy and subdue them.</p> + +<p>"The civilization of China had been as perfect as it now is for two +thousand years when our forefathers were still barbarians. While our +race has been subduing itself and at the same time learning the lessons +which lead up to submission to order and to law; while, moreover, it has +been bringing under the ægis of freedom a savage continent, the +Mongolian has remained stationary. To assert that we should now turn +over this inheritance (of which we are but the trustees for the future), +or any part of it, to 'the little brown men,' is to forget that a +nation's first duty is like a father's, who, by instinct, watches over +his own child with more solicitude than over the child of a stranger, +and who, above all things, will not place his child under the influence +of anything that will at once contaminate and despoil him.</p> + +<p>"Finally, by excluding these people no principle of our Government is +set aside, and no vital practice which has grown up under our form of +government. Ours is a land of perfect freedom, but we arrest robbers and +close our doors to lewd women. While these precautions are right and +necessary it is necessary and right to turn back from our shores the +sinister hosts of the Orient."</p> + +<p>With this the whole Club except Brewster heartily agreed. Brewster +merely said: "Maybe you are right, but your argument ignores the saving +grace of Christianity, and maybe conflicts with God's plans."</p> + +<p>Then the good-nights were said.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + + +<p>The next evening when supper was prepared, Harding was not present. He +had bruised one hand so badly in the mine the previous day, that he was +forced to have it bound up and treated with liniments and had not worked +that day. Thinking he would be home soon the rest ate their suppers, but +it was an hour before he came. When he arrived he had a troubled look, +and being pressed to tell what had gone wrong, he stated that he had met +a group of five miners from the Sierra Nevada day shift, men whom they +all knew, who, without provocation, had commenced abusing him; jeering +him about joining with six or seven more miners, hiring a house and a +cook, and putting on airs; that finally they dared him to fight, and +when he offered to fight any one of them, they said it was a mere +"bluff," that he would not fight a woman unless she were sick, and +further declared their purpose at some future time to go up and "clean +out" the whole outfit.</p> + +<p>Harding was the younger member of the Club; the rest knew about his +former life; how his father, joining the reckless throng of the early +days, lived fast, and suddenly died, just as the boy came from school; +how the young man had put aside his hopes, learned mining, and with a +brave purpose was working hard and dreaming of the time when he would +wipe away every reproach which rested on his father's memory.</p> + +<p>To have him set upon by roughs, causelessly, was like a blow in the face +to every other member of the Club. When Harding had told his story, +Miller said: "Who did you say these men were, Harding?"</p> + +<p>Harding told their names.</p> + +<p>"Why, they are not miners at all," said Carlin. "They are a lot of +outside bruisers who have come here because there is going to be an +election this year, and they have got their names on a pay roll to keep +from being arrested as vagrants. You did just right, Harding, to get +away from them with your crippled hand without serious trouble."</p> + +<p>"Indeed you did, Harding," said Brewster. "One street fight at your age +might ruin you for life."</p> + +<p>"That is quite true," said Miller; "I am glad you had no fight."</p> + +<p>Said Corrigan: "You offered to fight any one of the blackguards, and +whin they refused, you came away? It was the proper thing to do."</p> + +<p>"Did you have any weapons with you, Harding?" asked Ashley.</p> + +<p>"Not a thing in the world," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"I am glad of that," said Ashley. "The temptation to wing one or two of +the brutes, would have been very great had you been 'fixed.'"</p> + +<p>"I am glad it was no worse," said Wright. "You said it was down by the +California Bank corner?"</p> + +<p>"No," replied Harding; "it was by the Fredericksburg Brewery corner, on +Union Street, just below C."</p> + +<p>"You managed the matter first-rate, Harding," said Wright. "Do not think +any more about it."</p> + +<p>Harding, thus reassured by his friends, felt better, but said if three +of the Club would go with him he would undertake to do his part to bring +hostilities to a successful close with the bullies.</p> + +<p>Ashley and Corrigan at once volunteered, but Wright and Carlin +interfered and said it must not be, and Brewster expostulated against +any such thing.</p> + +<p>Corrigan and Ashley caught a look and gesture from Wright which caused +them to subside, and Harding at length went out to supper.</p> + +<p>When Harding came in from up town, Miller was making arrangements to go +out, as he said, to meet a broker as per agreement. As Harding went to +supper, Miller went out and Brewster resumed the reading of a book in +which he was engaged. The Professor, Colonel and Alex had not yet come +in.</p> + +<p>Significant glances passed between the others, and soon Wright arose and +said: "Boys! the Emmetts drill to-night; suppose we go down to the +armory and look on for half an hour."</p> + +<p>The rest all agreed that it would be good exercise, and quietly the four +men went out, Wright saying as he started: "Brewster, if the others +come, tell them we have just gone down to the Emmetts armory, and will +be back in half an hour or so."</p> + +<p>The Professor and Alex shortly after came in, a little later the Colonel +and Miller. It was nearly an hour before the others returned. When they +did they were in the best possible humor; spoke of the perfectness of +the Emmetts' drill; told of something they had heard down town which was +droll, while Barney in particular was full of merriment over a speech +that had that day been made by a countryman of his, Mr. Snow, in a +Democratic convention, and insisted upon telling Brewster about it.</p> + +<p>Brewster laid down his book and assumed the attitude of a listener.</p> + +<p>"It was this way," said Barney. "The convintion had made all its +nominations, when it was proposed that on Friday nixt a grand +mass-ratification matin' should be hild at Carson City, the matin' to be +intinded for the inauguratin' of the campaign, where all the faithful +from surroundin' counties might mate and glorify, and thus intimidate +the inemy from the viry commincement.</p> + +<p>"The proposition was carried by acclamation, and jist thin a mimber +sprang up and moved that the matin' should be a barbecue. This motion +likewise carried by an overwhilmin' vote. Whin the noise died away a +bit, my ould friend Snow, he of the boardin' house, arose and made a +motion. It was beautiful. Listen!</p> + +<p>"'Mr. Spaker! Bain that the hift of the Dimocratic party do not ate +<i>mate</i> of a Friday, I move yees, sir, that we make it a <i>fish</i> +barbecue.'"</p> + +<p>A great laugh followed Barney's account of the motion, and then the +usual comparison of notes on stocks took place. Miller was sure that +Silver Hill was the best buy on the lode; Corrigan had been told by a +Gold Hill miner that Justice was looking mighty encouraging; the Colonel +had heard the superintendent of the Curry tell the superintendent of the +Belcher that he was in wonderfully kindly ground on the two thousand +foot level; the Professor had that day heard the superintendent of the +Savage declare that the water was lowering four feet an hour, while all +were wondering when the Sierra Nevada would break, as it was too high +for the development. By all is meant all but Brewster and Harding; they +never joined in any conversations about stocks.</p> + +<p>At length the stock talk slackened, when Corrigan again referred to the +fish barbecue resolution. Naturally enough, the conversation drifted +into a discussion of the humor of the coast, when the Colonel said:</p> + +<p>"There is not much pure humor on this coast. There is plenty of that +material called humor, which has a bitter sting to it, but that is not +the genuine article. The men here who think as Hood wrote, are not +plenty. I suspect the bitter twang to all the humor here comes from the +isolation of men from the society of women, from broken hopes, and it +seems to me is generally an attempt to hurl contempt, not upon the +individual at whom it is fired, but at the outrageous fortunes which +hedge men around. The coast has been running over with that sort of +thing, I guess since 'forty-nine.'</p> + +<p>"A man here, fond of his wife and children, said to a friend a day or +two after they went away for a visit to California: 'Did you ever see a +motherless colt?'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, yes,' was the reply.</p> + +<p>"'Then,' said the man, 'you know just how I feel.'</p> + +<p>"'Yes,' said the friend. 'I suppose you feel as though you are not worth +a dam.'</p> + +<p>"I know a brother lawyer who is somewhat famous for getting the clients +whom he defends convicted. One morning he met a brother attorney, a wary +old lawyer, and said to him: 'I heard some men denouncing you this +morning and I took up your defense.'</p> + +<p>"'What did you say?' the other asked.</p> + +<p>"'Those men were slandering you and I took it upon myself to defend +you,' said the first lawyer.</p> + +<p>"The old lawyer took the other by the arm, led him aside, then putting +his lips close to the ear of his friend, in a hoarse whisper said: +'Don't do it any more.'</p> + +<p>"'I am going to lecture to-night at C——,' said a pompous man.</p> + +<p>"'I am glad of it,' was the quick answer. 'I have hated the people there +for years. No punishment is too severe for them.'</p> + +<p>"'I am particular who I drink with,' said a man curtly to another.</p> + +<p>"'Yes?' was the answer. 'I outgrew that foolish pride long ago. I would +as soon you would drink with me as not.'</p> + +<p>"'I do not require lecturing from you,' said a man. 'I am no reformed +drunkard.'</p> + +<p>"'Then why do you not reform?' was the response.</p> + +<p>"This coast is full of the echoes of such things."</p> + +<p>The Professor spoke next. "I think," said he, "that there is more +extravagance in figures of speech on this coast than in any other +country. Marcus Shults had a difficulty in Eureka the other day, when I +was there. He told me about it. Said he: 'I told him to keep away; that +I was afraid of him. I wanted some good man to hear me say that, but I +had my eye on him every minute, and had he come a step nearer, why—when +the doctors would have been called in to dissect him they would have +thought they had struck a new lead mine.'"</p> + +<p>Here Wright interrupted the Professor. "Marcus was from my State, +Professor. Did you ever hear him explain why he did not become a +fighter?"</p> + +<p>The Professor answered that he never had, when Wright continued:</p> + +<p>"Marcus never took kindly to hard work. Indeed, he seems to have +constitutional objections to it. As he tells the story, while crossing +the plains he made up his mind that, upon reaching California, he would +declare himself and speedily develop into a fighter. His words, when he +told me the story, were: 'They knew me back in Missouri, and I was a +good deal too smart to attempt to practice any such profession there, +but my idea was that California was filled with Yankees, and in that +kind of a community I would have an easy going thing. Well, I crossed +the Sierras and landed at Diamond Springs, outside of Placerville a few +miles, and when I had been there a short time I changed my mind.'</p> + +<p>"Of course at this point some one asks him why he changed his mind, +whereupon he answers solemnly:</p> + +<p>"'The first day I was there a State of Maine man cut the stomach out of +a Texan.'</p> + +<p>"Marcus was with the boys during that first tough winter in Eureka. One +fearfully cold day a man was telling about the cold he had experienced +in Idaho. When the story was finished Marcus cast a look of sovereign +contempt upon the man and said:</p> + +<p>"'You know nothing about cold weather, sir; you never saw any. You +should go to Montana. In Montana I have seen plenty of mornings when +were a man to have gone out of a warm room, crossed a street sixty feet +wide and shaken his head, his ears would have snapped off like icicles.'</p> + +<p>"The stranger, overawed, retired."</p> + +<p>Alex spoke next: "The other day Dan Dennison asked me to go and look at +a famous trotting horse that he has here. We went to the stable, and +when the stepper was pointed out I started to go into the stall beside +him, whereupon Dan caught me by the arm, drew me back, and said:</p> + +<p>"'Be careful! Sometimes he deals from the bottom.'</p> + +<p>"He stripped the covers from the horse and backed him out where I could +look at him. The horse was not a beauty by any means and I intimated my +belief of that fact to Dan.</p> + +<p>"'No,' said Dennison. The truth is—' He hesitated a moment and then the +words came in a volley:</p> + +<p>"'He's deformed with speed.'</p> + +<p>"There is a lawyer down town, you all know him. He has a head as big as +the old croppings of the Gould and Curry, but like some other lawyers +that practice at the Virginia City bar (here he glanced significantly at +the Colonel), he is not an exceedingly bright or profound man. He was +passing a downtown office yesterday when a man, who chanced to be +standing in the office, said to the bookkeeper of the establishment:</p> + +<p>"'Look at Judge ——. His head is bigger than Mount Davidson, but I am +told that where his brains ought to be there is a howling wilderness.'</p> + +<p>"The bookkeeper stopped his writing, carefully wiped his pen, laid it +down, came out from behind his desk, came close up to the man who had +spoken to him, and said:</p> + +<p>"'Howling wilderness? I tell you, sir, that man's head is an unexplored +mental Death Valley.'"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the Colonel, "his is a queer family. He has a brother who is +a journalist; he has made a fortune in the business. His great theme is +sketching the lives and characters of people."</p> + +<p>"But has he made a fortune publishing sketches of that description?" +asked Miller.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," replied the Colonel; "he has made his money by refraining from +publishing them. People have paid him to suppress them."</p> + +<p>"Colonel," asked Strong, "did it never occur to you that other fortunes +might be made the same way by people just exactly adapted to that style +of writing?"</p> + +<p>"If it had," was the reply. "I should have considered that the field +here was fully occupied."</p> + +<p>"You might write a sketch of your own career," suggested the Professor.</p> + +<p>"Don't do it, Colonel," said Alex.</p> + +<p>"Why not?" asked Ashley.</p> + +<p>"There is a law which sadly interferes with the circulation of a certain +character of literature," said Alex.</p> + +<p>"Alex," said the Colonel, "what a painstaking and delicate task it will +be, under that law, to write your obituary."</p> + +<p>"There will be great risk in writing yours, Colonel," said Alex; "but it +will be a labor of love, nevertheless; a labor of love, Colonel."</p> + +<p>"If you have it to do, Alex, don't forget my strongest characteristic," +said the Colonel; "that lofty generosity, blended with a self-contained +dignity, which made me indifferent always to the slanders of bad men."</p> + +<p>It was always a delight to the Club to get these two to bantering each +other.</p> + +<p>Ashley here interposed and said: "You all know Professor ——. One night +in Elko, last summer, he was conversing with Judge F—— of Elko. Both +had been indulging a little too much; the Professor was growing +talkative and the Judge morose.</p> + +<p>"The Professor was telling about the battle of Buena Vista, in which he, +a boy at the time, participated. In the midst of the description the +Judge interrupted him with some remark which the Professor construed +into an impeachment of his bravery.</p> + +<p>"He leaned back in his chair and sat looking at the Judge for a full +minute, as if in an astonished study, and then in a tone most dangerous, +said:</p> + +<p>"'I do not know how to classify you, sir. I do not know, sir, whether +you are a wholly irresponsible idiot, or an unmitigated and infamous +scoundrel, sir.'</p> + +<p>"He was conscientious and methodical even in his wrath. He would not +pass upon the specimen of natural history before him until certain to +what species it belonged."</p> + +<p>Said Miller: "Did you ever hear how Judge T—— of this city met a man +who had been saying disrespectful things about him, but who came up to +the Judge in a crowd and, with a smile, extended his hand? The Judge +drew back quickly, thrust both hands in his side pockets and said:</p> + +<p>"'Excuse me, sir; I have just washed my hands.'"</p> + +<p>"I heard something yesterday of a rough man whom you all know, Zince +Barnes," said the Professor, "which seemed to me as full of bitter humor +as anything I have heard on this mountain side. You know that politics +are running pretty high.</p> + +<p>"Well, an impecunious man—so the story goes—called upon a certain +gentleman who is reported to be rich and to have political aspirations, +and tried to convince him that the expenditure of a certain sum of money +in a certain way would redound amazingly to the credit, political, of +the millionaire. The man of dollars could not see the proposition +through the poor man's magnifying glasses, and the patriot retired +baffled.</p> + +<p>"A few minutes later, and while yet warm in his disappointment, he met +Zince Barnes, told him of the interview and closed by expressing the +belief that the millionaire was a tough, hard formation.</p> + +<p>"'Hard!' said Zince. 'I should think so. The tears of widows and orphans +are water on his wheel.'"</p> + +<p>At this Corrigan 'roused up and said: "Speakin' of figures of spache, I +heard some from a countrywoman of mine one bitter cowld mornin' last +March. It was early; hardly light. John Mackay was comin' down from the +Curry office on his way to the Con. Virginia office, and whin just +opposite the Curry works, he met ould mother McGarrigle, who lives down +by the freight depot. I was in the machane shop of the Curry works; they +were just outside, and there being only an inch boord and about ten feet +of space between us, I could hear ivery word plain, or rather I could +not help but hear. The conversation ran about after this style:</p> + +<p>"'Mornin', Meester Mackay, and may the Lord love yees.'</p> + +<p>"'Good morning, madam.'</p> + +<p>"'How's the beautiful wife and the charmin' childers over the big +wathers, Mr. Mackay?'</p> + +<p>"'They are all right.'</p> + +<p>"'God be thanked intirely. Does yees know, Mr. Mackay, that in the hull +course of me life I niver laid eyes upon childer so beautiful loike +yees. Often and often I've tould the ould man that same. And they're +will, are they?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, they are first-rate. I had a cable from them yesterday.'</p> + +<p>"'A tilligram, was it? Oh, but is not that wonderful, though! A missige +under the say and over the land to this barbarous place. It must have +come like the smile of the Good God to yees.'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, I get them every day.'</p> + +<p>"'Ivery day! And phat do they cost?'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, seven or eight dollars; sometimes more. It depends upon their +length.'</p> + +<p>"'Sivin or eight dollars! Oh, murther! But yees desarve it, Mr. Mackay. +What would the poor do without yees in this town, Mr. Mackay? Only +yisterday I was sayin' to the ould man, says I: "Mike, it shows the +mercy of God whin money is given to a mon like Mr. John Mackay. It's a +Providence he is to the city. God bless him." I did, indade.'</p> + +<p>"By this time Mackay began to grow very ristless.</p> + +<p>"'What can I do for you this morning, Mrs. McGarrigle?'</p> + +<p>"'It's the ould mon, Lord love yees, Mr. Mackay. It's no work he's had +for five wakes, and it's mighty little we have aither to ait or to wear. +It's work I want for him.'</p> + +<p>"'I am sorry, but our mines are full. Indeed, we are employing more men +than we are justified in doing.'</p> + +<p>"'But Mr. Mackay, it's so poor we are, and so hard it is getting along +at all; put him on for a month and may all the saints bless yees.'</p> + +<p>"'The city is full of poor people, madam. To determine what to do to +mitigate the distress here occupies half our time.'</p> + +<p>"'Yis, but ours is a particular hard case intirely. I am dilicate +meself. I know I don't look so, but I am; and yees ought ter interpose +to help a poor countryman of yees own in trouble.'</p> + +<p>"By this time Mackay was half frozen and thoroughly out of patience. In +his quick, sharp way he said: 'Madam, we cannot give all the men in the +country employment.'</p> + +<p>"The mask of the woman was off in an instant. With a scorn and hate +unutterable she burst forth in almost a scrame.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, yees can't. Oh, no! Yees forgits fen yees was poor your ownsilf, +ye blackguard. Refusin' a poor man work, and shakin the mountains and +churnin' the ocean avery day wid your siven and eight dollar missages. +Yees can't employ all the min in the counthry. Don't yees own the whole +counthry? And do yees think we'd apply to yees at all if we could find a +dacant mon in the worreld? May the divil fly away wid yees, and whin he +does yees may tell him for me if he gives a short bit for yer soul he'll +chate himself worse nor he's been chated since he bargained with Judas +Iscariot. Thake that, sur, wid me compliments, yees purse-proud +parvenu.'</p> + +<p>"When the woman began to rave, Mackay walked rapidly away, but she niver +relaxed the scrame of her tirade until Mackay disappeared from sight. +Thin she paused for a moment, thin to herself she muttered, 'But I got +aven wid him oneway.' She thin turned and walked away toward her cabin.</p> + +<p>"It was a case where money was no assistance to a man."</p> + +<p>"There is a good deal of humor displayed in courts of justice at times, +is there not, Colonel?" asked Wright.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," was the reply. "Anyone would think so who ever heard old +Frank Dunn explain to a court that the reason of his being late was +because he had no watch, and deploring meanwhile his inability to +purchase a watch because of the multitude of unaccountable fines which +His Honor had seen proper, from time to time, to impose upon him."</p> + +<p>"In that first winter in Eureka," said Wright, "I strolled into court +one day when a trial was in progress.</p> + +<p>"Judge D—— was managing one side and a volunteer lawyer the other. The +volunteer lawyer had the best side, and to confuse the court, Judge +D——, in his argument, misquoted the testimony somewhat. His opponent +interrupted and repeated exactly what the witness had testified to.</p> + +<p>"Turning to his opponent, Judge D——, with a sneer, said:</p> + +<p>"'I see, sir, you are very much interested in the result of this case.'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, no,' was the response. 'I am doing this for pure love. I do not +make a cent in this case.'</p> + +<p>"Then Judge D——, with still more bitterness, said:</p> + +<p>"'That is like you. You try cases for nothing and cheat <i>good</i> lawyers +out of their fees.'</p> + +<p>"With a look of unfeigned astonishment the other lawyer said:</p> + +<p>"'Well, what are <i>you</i> angry about? How does that interfere with +<i>you</i>?'"</p> + +<p>Here Brewster, who had been reading, laid down his book and said:</p> + +<p>"I heard of a case as I came through Salt Lake City some years ago, +which, if not particularly humorous, revealed wonderful presence of mind +on the part of the presiding judge. It may be the story is not true, but +it was told in Salt Lake City as one very liable to be true.</p> + +<p>"A miner, who had been working a placer claim in the hills all +summer—so the story ran—and who had been his own cook, barber, +chambermaid and tailor, came down to Salt Lake City to see the sights +and purchase supplies. He had dough in his whiskers, grease upon his +overalls, pine twigs in his hair, and altogether did not present the +appearance of a dancing master or a millionaire. Hardly had he reached +the city when he thought it necessary to take something in order to +'brace up.' One drink gave him courage to take another, and in forty +minutes he was dead drunk on the sidewalk.</p> + +<p>"The police picked him up and tossed him into a cell in the jail, +disdaining to search him, so abject seemed his condition.</p> + +<p>"Next morning he was brought before the Police Judge and the charge of +D. D. was preferred against him.</p> + +<p>"'You are fined ten dollars, sir,' was the brief sentence of the Court. +The man unbuttoned two pairs of overalls and from some inner recess of +his garments produced a roll of greenbacks as big as a man's fist. It +was a trying moment for the Judge, but his presence of mind did not fail +him. He raised up from his seat, leaned one elbow on his desk and, as if +in continuation of what he had already said, thundered out: 'And one +hundred dollars for contempt of court.'</p> + +<p>"The man paid the one hundred and ten dollars and hastily left the court +and the city."</p> + +<p>Miller was the next to speak. Said he: "Once in Idaho I heard a specimen +of grim humor which entertained me immensely. There was a man up there +who owned a train of pack mules and made a living by packing in goods to +the traders and packing out ore to be sent away to the reduction works. +He was caught in a storm midway between Challis and Powder Flat. It was +mid-winter; the thermometer at Challis marked thirty-four degrees below +zero. He was out in the storm and cold two days and one night, and his +sufferings must have been indescribable. When safely housed and +ministered to at last a friend said to him: 'George, that was a tough +experience, was it not?'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, regular business should never be called tough,' said he, 'but +since I began to get warm I have been thinking that, if I make money +enough, may be in three or four years I will get married, if I can +deceive some woman into making the arrangement. If I should succeed, and +if after a reasonable time a boy should be born to us, and if the +youngster should "stand off" the colic, teething, measles, whooping +cough, scarlet fever and falling down stairs, and grow to be ten or +twelve years old, and have some sense, if I ever tell him the story of +the past two days of my life and he don't cry his eyes out, I will beat +him to death, sure.'"</p> + +<p>The Professor was reminded by the anecdote of something which transpired +in Belmont, Nevada, the previous winter. Said he: "I went to Belmont to +examine a property last winter and while there Judge —— came in from a +prospecting trip down into the upper edge of Death Valley. I saw him as +he drove into town, and went to meet him. He was in no very good +spirits. On the way to his office he said: 'I was persuaded against my +better judgment to go on that trip. The thief who coaxed me away told a +wonderful story. He had been there; he had seen the mine, but had been +driven away by the Shoshones; he knew every spring and camping place. It +would be just a pleasure trip. So, like an idiot, I went with him. It +was twice as far as he said, and we got out of food; he could not find +one particular spring, and we were forty hours without water. We had to +camp in the snow, and the only pleasure I had in the whole journey was +in seeing my companion slip and sit down squarely on a Spanish bayonet +plant. It was a double pleasure, indeed; one pleasure to see him sit +down and another pleasure to see him get right up again without resting +at all, and with a look on his face as though a serious mistake had been +made somewhere.'</p> + +<p>"By this time we had reached the Judge's office. On the desk lay a score +of letters which had been accumulating during his absence. Begging me to +excuse him for five minutes, he sat down and commenced to run through +his mail.</p> + +<p>"Suddenly he stopped, seized a pen and wrote rapidly for two or three +minutes. Then he threw down the pen and begged my attention. First he +read a letter which was dated somewhere in Iowa. The writer stated that +he had a few thousand dollars, but had determined to leave Iowa and seek +some new field, and asked the Judge's advice about removing to Nevada. I +asked the Judge if he knew the man.</p> + +<p>"'Of course not,' said he. 'He has found my name in some directory, and +so has written at random. He has probably written similar letters to +twenty other men. Possibly he is writing a book descriptive of the Far +West by an actual observer,' continued the Judge.</p> + +<p>"'How are you going to reply?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'That is just the point,' he answered. 'I have written and I want you +to tell me if I have done about the right thing. Listen.'</p> + +<p>"At this he read his letter. It was in these identical words:</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">My Dear Sir</span>:—Your esteemed favor is at hand and after careful +deliberation I have determined to write to you to come to +Nevada. I cannot, in the brief space to which a letter must +necessarily be confined, enter into details; but I can assure +you that if you will come here, settle and invest your means, +the final result will be most happy to you. A few brief years +of existence here will prepare you to enjoy all the rest and +all the beatitudes which the paradise of the blessed can +bestow, and if, perchance, your soul should take the other +track, hell itself can bring you no surprises. Respectfully, +etc.</p></blockquote> + +<p>"He mailed the letter, but at last accounts the gentleman had not come +West."</p> + +<p>"That," said Alex, "reminds me of Charley O——'s mining experience. An +Eastern company purchased a series of mines at Austin and made Charley +superintendent of the company at a handsome salary. Charley proceeded to +his post of duty, built a fine office and drew his salary for a year. He +did his best, too, to make something of the property, but it is a most +difficult thing to make a mine yield when there is no ore in it. The +result was nothing but 'Irish dividends' for the stockholders. It was in +the old days, before the railway came along.</p> + +<p>"One morning, when the overland coach drove into Austin, a gentleman +dismounted, asked where the office of the Lucknow Gold and Silver +Consolidated Mining and Milling Company was, and being directed, went to +the office and without knocking, opened the door and walked in. Charley +was sitting with his feet on the desk, smoking a cigar and reading the +morning paper.</p> + +<p>"'Is Mr. O—— in?' politely inquired the stranger.</p> + +<p>"'I am Mr. O——,' responded Charley. The stranger unbuttoned his coat, +dived into a side pocket and drawing out a formidable envelope, +presented it to O——.</p> + +<p>"Charley tore open the envelope and found that the letter within was a +formal notice from the secretary of the company that the bearer had been +appointed superintendent and resident manager of the L. G. and S. C. M. +& M. Co., and requesting O——to surrender to him the books and all +other property of the company. After reading the letter Charley looked +up and said to the stranger:</p> + +<p>"'And so you have come to take my place?'</p> + +<p>"'It seems so,' was the reply.</p> + +<p>"'On your account I am awfully sorry,' said Charley.</p> + +<p>"The stranger did not believe that he was in any particular need of +sympathy.</p> + +<p>"'But you will not live six months here,' said Charley.</p> + +<p>"The stranger was disposed to take his chances.</p> + +<p>"This happened in August. Charley took the first stage and came in to +Virginia City. In the following December the morning papers here +contained a dispatch announcing that Mr. ——, superintendent of the +Lucknow Gold and Silver Consolidated Mining and Milling Company, was +dangerously ill of pneumonia. On the succeeding morning there was +another dispatch from Austin saying that Mr. ——, late superintendent +of the Lucknow Gold and Silver Consolidated Mining and Milling Company, +died the previous evening and that the body would be sent overland to +San Francisco, to be shipped from there to the East. Two days after +that, about the time the overland coaches were due, Charley was seen +wading through the mud down to the Overland barn. He went in and saw two +coaches with fresh mud upon them. The curtains of the first were rolled +up. The curtains of the second were buckled down close. O—— went to +the second coach, loosened one of the curtains and threw it back; then +reaching in and tapping the coffin with his knuckles, said: 'Didn't I +tell you? Didn't I tell you? You thought you could stop my salary and +still live. See what a fix it has brought you to!' And then he went +away. No one would ever have known that he had been there had not an +'ostler overheard him.</p> + +<p>"Speaking of Austin, I think the remark made by Lawyer J. B. Felton of +Oakland, California, regarding the mines of Austin, was as cute as +anything I ever heard. When the mines were first discovered Felton was +induced to invest a good deal of money in them.</p> + +<p>"The mines were three hundred and fifty miles from civilization, there +being no reduction works of any kind, and pure silver would hardly have +paid. So Felton did not realize readily from his investment. After some +months had gone by Felton was standing on Montgomery street, San +Francisco, one day when a long procession, celebrating St. Patrick's +day, filed past. Of course Erin's flag was 'full high advanced' in the +procession. Turning to a friend, Felton said: 'Can you tell why that +flag is like a Reese River mine?'</p> + +<p>"The friend could not.</p> + +<p>"Said Felton: 'It's composed mostly of sham rock and a blasted lyre!'"</p> + +<p>Ashley was next to speak.</p> + +<p>"After all," said he, "the funniest things are sometimes those which are +not meant to be funny at all. Steve Gillis, in a newspaper office down +town, perpetrated one the other day. An Eastern editor was here, and +when he found out how some of the men in the office were working he was +paralyzed, and said to Gillis:</p> + +<p>"'There's ——, you will go into his room some day and find him dead. He +will go like a flash some time. No man can do what he is doing and stand +it.'</p> + +<p>"'Do you think so?' asked Gillis.</p> + +<p>"'Indeed I do; I know it,' said the man.</p> + +<p>"'Then,' said Gillis, 'you ought to be here. You would see the most +magnificent funeral ever had in Virginia City.'"</p> + +<p>By this time it was very late and the Club dispersed for the night.</p> + +<p>Next morning Harding, who was reading the morning paper, came upon this +item:</p> + +<h4>A LIVELY SCRIMMAGE.</h4> + +<blockquote> + +<p>Last evening, about seven-thirty o'clock, there was a terrific +fight on Union Street, near the depot; four men against five. +It lasted but a few minutes, but the five men were dreadfully +beaten. No one seemed to know the origin of the fight. A boy +who was standing across the street says the men met, a few low +words passed between them, and then the fight ensued. The four +men, who seem to have been the assailants, hardly suffered any +damage, but the five others were so badly beaten that two of +them had to be carried home, while the other three had fearful +mansard roofs put upon them.</p> + +<p>There were no arrests; indeed little sympathy was felt for the +injured men, for though at present at work in the mines, they +are known as bullies and roughs by trade.</p> + +<p>No one seems to know who the victors were, except that they +were miners. One man told our reporter that he knew one of the +men by sight; that he was, he thought, a Gold Hill miner. No +weapons were drawn on either side, and no loud words were +spoken, but it was as fierce an encounter as has been seen here +since the old fighting days.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Harding looked up from the paper and said:</p> + +<p>"Wright, what was it you said about the drill of the Emmett Guards, last +night?"</p> + +<p>"They are splendid, those Emmetts," was the reply, with an imperturbable +face.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + + +<p>Pay day was on the fifth of the month. On the night of the thirteenth, +when the Club met at the usual hour for supper, Miller was not present. +He was never as regular as the others, so the rest did not wait supper +for him. After supper the Club settled down to their pipes, the +Professor, the Colonel and Alex came in, and the usual discussion about +stocks was indulged in for some minutes, the chief matter dwelt upon +being the steady and unaccountable rise in Sierra Nevada. At length it +was noticed that Carlin did not join as usual in the conversation, and +Ashley asked him what he seemed so cast down about.</p> + +<p>At this Carlin shook himself together and said: "I will be glad if you +will all give me your attention for a moment." He took a letter from his +pocket and read as follows:</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Carlin</span>: When you receive this I shall be on my way, by +horseback (overland), to Eastern Nevada. I am going to Austin, +and if I do not obtain employment there, shall continue on to +Eureka. You can find me in one place or the other by Sunday.</p> + +<p>The evening of pay day, with the money which the Club had +placed in my hands to pay the bills, I went down town to carry +out the wishes of the Club, when I met a friend, who is in the +close confidence of the "big ring" of operators. He called me +aside and told me that he had inside information that within +three days Silver Hill would commence to jump, that within a +week the present value would be multiplied by five or six and +more likely by ten. That there would be an immediate and great +advance he assured me was absolutely certain. He told me how he +had received his information, and it seemed to me to be +conclusive.</p> + +<p>I found a broker, unloaded my pockets, and bade him buy Silver +Hill; to buy on a margin all he could afford to. The stock has +fallen thirty per cent., and the indications are that it will +go still lower. Yesterday I suppose it was sold out, for on the +previous day I received a notice from the broker to please call +at his office at once. My courage, that never failed me before, +broke down. I could not go. The amount of money belonging to +the Club which I had was altogether $575.00. Of course it in +lost. It is a clear case of breach of trust, if not of +embezzlement. You can make me smart for it, if you feel +disposed to, or if you can give me the time, I can pay the +money in about eight months after I get to work. That is, I can +send you about eighty dollars per month. If wanted I will be in +Austin or Eureka.</p> + +<p>I might make this letter much longer, but I suspect by the time +you will have read this much, you will think it long enough. +Believe me none of you can think meaner of me than I do of +myself.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Joe Miller.</span></p></blockquote> + +<p>After the reading of the letter, Wright was the first to find his voice. +Said he: "It is too bad. I knew Miller was reckless, but I believed his +recklessness never could go beyond his own affairs. I had implicit faith +in him."</p> + +<p>"Had he only told us," said Ashley, "that he wanted to use the money, he +could have had five times the sum."</p> + +<p>"What I hate about it, is the want of courage and the lack of faith in +the rist of us," said Corrigan. "Why did he not come loike a mon and +say, 'Boys, I have lost a trifle of your money in the malstroom of +stocks; be patient and I will work out?'"</p> + +<p>"It is a pitiable business," said Carlin. "The money—that is the loss +of it—does not hurt at all. But it was Miller who proposed the forming +of this Club, and he is the one who first betrays us, and then lacks the +sand to tell us about it frankly. But no matter. Jesus Christ failed to +secure twelve men who were all true. What do you think of it, Brewster?"</p> + +<p>"What Miller has done," said Brewster, "is but a natural result when a +working man goes down into the pit of stock gambling. The hope in that +business is to obtain money without earning it. It is a kind of lunacy. +In a few months, men so engaged lose everything like a steady poise to +their minds. They take on all the attributes which distinguish the +gambler. Their ideas are either up in the clouds or down in the depths. +Worst of all, they forget that a dollar means so many blows, so many +drops of sweat, that a dollar, when we see it, means that sometime, +somewhere, to produce that dollar, an honest dollar's worth of work was +performed, that when that dollar is transferred to another, another +dollar's worth of work in some form must be given in return, or the +eternal balance of Justice will be disarranged. Miller reached the point +where he did not prize his own dollars at their true value. It ought not +to be expected that he would be more careful of ours."</p> + +<p>"Colonel, what is your judgment about the business?" Carlin asked.</p> + +<p>"It seems to me," was the reply, "that when he went away Miller insulted +all of you—all of us, for that matter. His conduct assumes that we are +all pawnbrokers who would go into mourning over a few dollars lost."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, I think not," said Strong. "Miller is a sensitive, high-strung +man. He has been in all sorts of dangers and difficulties and has never +faltered. At last he found himself in a place where, for the first time, +he felt his honor wounded, and his courage failed him. He is not running +away from us, he is trying to run away from himself."</p> + +<p>"What is your judgment, Professor?" asked Carlin.</p> + +<p>"As they say out here, Miller got off wrong," said the Professor; "and +he seems blinded by the mistake so much that he cannot see his best way +back."</p> + +<p>"Harding, why are you so still?" asked Carlin.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry for Miller," said Harding. "He is the best-hearted man in +the world."</p> + +<p>"It is a most unpleasant business. What shall we do about it?" asked +Carlin. "I wish all would express an opinion."</p> + +<p>"What ought to be done, Carlin?" asked Wright.</p> + +<p>Carlin answered: "The business way would be to formally expel him from +the Club, and to write him that, without waiving any legal rights, we +will give him the time he requires in which to settle."</p> + +<p>"That would no doubt be just," said Wright.</p> + +<p>"There would be no injustice in it, from a business standpoint," said +Ashley.</p> + +<p>"He certainly," said Brewster, "would have no right to complain of such +treatment."</p> + +<p>Said Corrigan: "The verdict of the worreld would be that we had acted +fairly."</p> + +<p>"No one," said the Colonel, "could blame you for firing him out. He has +not only wronged you directly, but at the same moment has attacked your +credit in the city where you are owing bills."</p> + +<p>"That is true," said the Professor.</p> + +<p>"It is only a matter of discretion what to do," said Alex. "All the +direct equities are against Miller."</p> + +<p>"There is no decision so fair as by a secret ballot," said Harding. "Let +us take a vote on the proposition of Miller's expulsion, and all must +take part."</p> + +<p>This was agreed to. Nine slips of paper were prepared, all of one size +and length, one was given to each man to write "expulsion, yes," or +"expulsion, no," as he pleased. A hat was placed on the table for a +ballot-box; each in turn deposited his ballot and resumed his seat.</p> + +<p>The silence was growing painful when Brewster said: "Carlin, Miller +wrote back to you; you will have to write to him. Suppose you be the +returning board to count the votes and make up the returns."</p> + +<p>Carlin arose and went to the table. There he paused, and his face wore a +look of extreme trouble; but he shook off the influence, whatever it +was, stretched out his hand in an absent-minded way, picked up a ballot +and slowly brought it before his eyes. He looked at it, turned it over +and looked on the other side, then with a foolish laugh he said: "Why, +the ballot is blank."</p> + +<p>He transferred it to his left hand, picked up another ballot with his +right hand; looked at it; it, too, was blank.</p> + +<p>So in turn he took up one after another. They all were blank.</p> + +<p>As he called the last one and started to resume his seat, Harding, in a +low voice, as to himself, said: "Thank God!"</p> + +<p>All looked a little foolish for a moment, and then the Colonel said: +"Why, Carlin, you are not much of a returning board, after all."</p> + +<p>Said Corrigan: "It sames the convintion moved to make it unanimous."</p> + +<p>Said Carlin: "I could not vote to expel Miller. He has long been my +friend. I know how sensitive he is. He wronged us a little, but I just +could not do it."</p> + +<p>Said Brewster: "I could not do it, because that would be the quickest +way to cause a man, when on the down grade, to keep on. To make him feel +that those who have been most intimate with him, despise him, may be +exact justice, but it seldom brings reformation."</p> + +<p>Said the Colonel: "I could not do it in his absence. It would have had a +look of assassination from behind."</p> + +<p>"I could not do it," said the Professor. "The news would have got out +and the Club would have been disgraced."</p> + +<p>"It was not much more than an error of judgment, on Miller's part," said +Wright. "He never intended to wrong us out of a penny. Crime is measured +only by the intention."</p> + +<p>"That is the true inwardness of the whole business, Wright, and that +thought kept my ballot blank," was Alex's suggestion.</p> + +<p>"I could not do it," said Ashley. "His expulsion would have looked as +though we measured friendship by dollars. If a man ever needs friends, +it is when he is in trouble."</p> + +<p>"I could not do it," chimed in Corrigan. "Suppose all our mistakes shall +be remimbered against us, how will we iver git admitted to the great +Club above?"</p> + +<p>"I could not do it, because I love him," said Harding.</p> + +<p>"I feared," said Brewster, "that things were going wrong with Miller a +week ago, when I noticed that in lieu of the costly chair which he first +brought to the Club, he was using that old, second-hand cheap affair."</p> + +<p>"I think," said Harding, "that I have a right to tell now what has been +a secret. You know Miller and myself worked together. We were coming up +from the mine one evening, ten days ago, when we chanced to pass old man +Arnold's cabin—Arnold, who was crippled by a fall in the Curry some +months ago. The old man was sitting outside his cabin and resting his +crippled limb on a crutch. Miller stopped and asked him how he was +getting on, and talked pleasantly with him for a few minutes, when an +express wagon came by. Miller left the old man with a pleasant word, +asked me if I would not wait there a few minutes, hailed the expressman, +jumped upon his wagon, said something to the man which I did not +understand, and the wagon was driven rapidly away.</p> + +<p>"In a few minutes it returned; Miller sprang down; the expressman handed +him the great easy chair; he carried it into the door of the cabin, +setting it just inside; then lifted the old man in his arms from his +hard chair, placed him in the soft cushions of the other, moved it +gently until it was in just the position where the old man could best +enjoy looking at the descending night; then, picking up the old battered +chair, he said, cheerily: 'Arnold, I want to trade chairs with you,' and +walked so rapidly away that the old man could not recover from his +surprise enough to thank him. This old chair is the one he brought away.</p> + +<p>"Coming home he said to me: 'Harding, don't give me away on this +business, please. We are all liable to be crippled some time, and to +need comforts which we do not half appreciate now. I would have given +the old man the chair two weeks ago, but I did not have it quite paid +for at that time.'</p> + +<p>"I tell you the story now because I do not think there is any obligation +to keep it a secret any longer."</p> + +<p>When Harding had finished there was not one man present who was not glad +that the vote had resulted unanimously against the generous man's +expulsion.</p> + +<p>The next question was as to the form of the letter that should be sent +Miller. This awakened a good deal of discussion. It was finally decided +that each should write a letter, and that the one which should strike +the Club most favorably should be sent, or that from the whole a new +letter should be prepared. Writing materials were brought out and all +went to work on their letters. For several minutes nothing but the +scratching of pens broke the silence.</p> + +<p>When the letters were all completed, Carlin was called upon to read +first. He proceeded as follows:</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Virginia City</span>, August 13th, 1878.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Friend Miller</span>:—The Club has talked everything over. All think +you made a great mistake in going away, and that it would be +better for you to return to your work. Your old place in the +Club will be kept open for you.</p> + +<p>Sincerely yours,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tom Carlin</span>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Wright read next as follows:</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Virginia City</span>, August 13th, 1878.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Joe</span>:—I make a poor hand at writing. I have been banging +hammers too many years. But what I want to say is, you had +better, so soon as your visit is over, come along back. There +wasn't a bit of sense in your going away. Your absence breaks +up the equilibrium of the Club amazingly. The whole outfit is +becoming demoralized, and the members are growing more +garrulous than so many magpies. We shall look for you within a +week. We all want to see you.</p> + +<p>Your sincere friend,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Adrian Wright</span>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>The Colonel responded next.</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Virginia City</span>, August 13th, 1878.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miller</span>:—You made a precious old fool of yourself, rushing off +as you did. Are you the first man who has ever been deceived by +Comstock "dead points?" If you think you are, try and explain +how it is that while some thousands of bright fellows have +devotedly pursued the business during the past fifteen years, +you can, in five minutes, count on your fingers all that have +saved a quarter of a dollar at the business.</p> + +<p>The whole Club join me in saying that you ought to return +without delay.</p> + +<p>Yours truly,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Savage</span>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>The Professor's letter, which was next read, was as follows:</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Virginia City</span>, August 13th, 1878.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Miller</span>:—We do not like your going away. The act was +deficient in candor, and seems to have a look as though you +estimated yourself or the Club at too low a figure. Suppose you +did get a little off; the true business would have been to have +told us all about it. We would have "put up the mud" and +carried the thing along until it came your way. But what is +done is done. The thing to decide now is what it is best for +you to do. Austin is no place for you. The mines there are +rich, but the veins are small and the district restricted. In +that camp the formation makes impossible the creation of a big +body of ore; the fissures are necessarily small. You would die +of asphyxia within a month or go blind searching for a place +where an ore body "could make." Eureka is open to other +objections. It would require six months for you to become +acclimated there, and the chances are that within that time you +would be tied up in a knot with lead colic. The proper course +to pursue is to come back. The Club are all agreed on that +proposition.</p> + +<p>Yours truly,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Stoneman</span>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Ashley's letter, in these words, followed:</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Virginia City</span>, August 13th, 1878.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Friend Joe</span>:—Your going away has caused us ever so much +trouble. It was foolish and cruel of you to imagine—even when +you were in trouble—that any of the Club weighed friendship on +old-fashioned placer diggings gold scales. We are sorry for +your misfortune, but it is on <i>your</i> account that we are sorry. +It is not so serious that it cannot be made up in a little +while, if you do not persist in remaining in some place where +there are no opportunities to do any good for yourself. It may +be a long time, among strangers, before you can obtain +employment. Because you have made one mistake, do not make +another, but without delay come back. This is Tuesday. It will +take you until about Saturday next to get to Austin. You will +be pretty badly used up and will have to rest a day. But on +Sunday evening you ought to start back by stage and rail. That +will bring you home a week from to-day. A week from to-night +then, we shall expect your account of how big the mosquitoes +are at the sink of the Carson, and what your opinion is of +Churchill County as a location for a country residence.</p> + +<p>Yours fraternally,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Herbert Ashley</span>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Alex's letter was very brief, as follows:</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Virginia City</span>, August 13th, 1878.</p> + +<p>Come back, Joe. Were your precedent to be strictly followed, we +should suddenly lose a majority of our most respected citizens. +In the interest of society and of the Club come.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alex.</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">To Mr. Joe Miller</span>, Austin.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Corrigan did not like to read his letter, but the Club insisted, and +after declaring that the Club would get "a dale the worst of it," he +proceeded as follows:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Virginia City</span>, Nevada, August 13th, 1878.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Auld Jo</span>:—It's murthered yees ought to be for doing +onything phat compills me to write you a lether. Whin I +commince to write I fale as though all the air pipes were shut +off intirely. I would sooner pick up a thousand dollars in the +strate, ony day, than to have to hould a pin in me hand and +make sinse in my head at the same moment. You know that same, +too, and hince phy did yees go away and force all this work +upon me? Is it in love wid horseback exercise that ye are? We +have been talkin' your case over, quiet loike, in the Club, and +we have unanimously rached the irresistible conclusion that it +was an unpatriotic thing for yees to do—to propose this Club +business and thin dezart it just whin our habits had become +fixed, so to spake; and it would become a mather of sarious +inconvanience for us to change. In this wurreld a man can shirk +onything excipt his duty, and it is a plain proposition that it +is your duty immejitely to come back. My poor fingers are +cramped to near brakin' by this writin', and it is your falt, +the whole of it, ond I pray yees don't let it happen ony more.</p> + +<p>Faithfully,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">B. Corrigan</span>.</p> + +<p>P. S.—Should you nade a bit of coin to return comfortably draw +on me through W. F. & Co.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Barney.</span></p></blockquote> + +<p>Harding read next.</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Virginia</span>, August 13th, 1878.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Friend Miller</span>:—Enclosed I send certificate of deposit for +$100. The Club desire, unanimously, that you return without a +moment's unnecessary delay. All agree that this is the best +field for you. I will see the foreman in the morning, tell him +you have been called away for a week and get him to hold your +place for you. It was very wicked of you to go away. You can +only get forgiveness by hurrying back.</p> + +<p>Lovingly,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Harding</span>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Brewster's was the final letter, and was in these words:</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Virginia City</span>, Nevada. }</p> + +<p>8th month, 13th day, A. D. 1878. }</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Joseph Miller</span>:</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir and Friend</span>:—I have this evening, with great pain, +learned that you have left this place, and, moreover, have +heard explained the reasons which prompted that course on your +part. It would be a lack of candor on my part not to inform you +that I sincerely deplore the wrong which you have done yourself +and us. At the same time I believe that the real date of the +wrong was when you permitted yourself first to engage in stock +gambling. This world is framed on a foundation of perfect +justice. The books of the Infinite always exactly balance. In +the beginning it was decreed that man should have nothing +except what he earned. It was meant that the world's +accumulations of treasures—in money, in brain, in love, or in +any other material that man holds dear—should, from day to +day, and from year to year, represent simply the honest effort +put forth to produce the treasure.</p> + +<p>Men have changed this in form. Some men get what they have not +earned; but the rule is inexorable and cannot be changed. The +books must balance.</p> + +<p>So when one man gets more than his share, the amount has to be +made up by the toil of some other man or men. This last is what +you have been called upon to do, and, naturally, you suffer.</p> + +<p>But I acquit you of any sinister intention toward us. So do we +all. Your fault was when you first attempted to set aside God's +law. You may recall what was said a few nights ago. "The decree +which was read at Eden's gate is still in full force, and +behind it, just as of old, flashes the flaming sword."</p> + +<p>We have thoughtfully considered your case. The unanimous +conclusion is that you should at once return; that here among +friends and acquaintances, with the heavy work which is going +on, you have a far better opportunity to recover your lost +ground than you possibly could among strangers.</p> + +<p>Moreover, you are familiar with this lode and the manner of +working these mines. You are likewise accustomed to this +climate, hence I conclude that your chances against accident or +disease would be from fifteen to twenty per cent. in favor of +your returning.</p> + +<p>In conclusion, I beg, without meaning any offense, but on the +other hand, with a sincere desire to serve you, to say that I +have a few hundred dollars on hand, enough perhaps to cover all +your indebtedness here. If you would care to use it, it shall +be yours, <i>in hearty welcome</i>, until such time as you can +conveniently return it.</p> + +<p>I beg, sir, to subscribe myself your friend and servant,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">James Brewster</span>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>"God bless you, Brewster," said Harding impetuously.</p> + +<p>"That is a boss lether," said Corrigan.</p> + +<p>"I could not do better than that myself," was Ashley's comment.</p> + +<p>"It is a diamond drill, and strikes a bonanza on the lower level," said +Carlin.</p> + +<p>"The formation is good, the pay chute large, the trend of the lode most +regular, the grade of the ore splendid," said the Professor.</p> + +<p>Wright said: "It is a good letter, sure."</p> + +<p>"It reads as I fancy the photographs of the Angels of Mercy and Justice +look when taken together," suggested Alex.</p> + +<p>The Colonel remarked that the letter established the fact that Brewster +was not so bad a man as he looked to be.</p> + +<p>What should be sent to Miller was next discussed again. It was finally +determined that all the letters should be sent except Harding's; that he +should rewrite his, and instead of sending the certificate of deposit, +should, like Corrigan, instruct Miller to draw on him if he needed +money, and that any such drafts should be shared by the whole Club.</p> + +<p>Then the money to pay the bills was raised among the old members of the +Club, and placed in Carlin's hands to be paid out next day.</p> + +<p>When all was finished a sort of heaviness came upon the company. There +was an impression of sorrow upon them. They had been happy in their +innocent enjoyment, but suddenly one who was a favorite, who was at +heart the most generous one of the company, had failed them, and they +brooded over the change.</p> + +<p>At length Harding roused himself and said: "Miller must be sleeping +somewhere down in the desert to-night. I wish I could call to him by +telephone and bring him back."</p> + +<p>"That reminds me," said Alex, "of something that I heard of yesterday. +Down at the Sisters' Academy there is a telephone. There is a little +miss attending that school, and every morning at a certain hour there is +a ring at a certain house down town. The response goes back, 'Who is +it?' and then the conversation goes on as follows: 'Is that you, papa?' +'Yes!' 'Good morning, papa!' 'Good morning, little one.' 'Is mamma +there?' 'Yes.' 'Say good morning and give my love to mamma.' 'Yes.' +'Goodbye.' 'Good bye.'</p> + +<p>"In the evening the same call is made; the same answer; and then from +the still convent on noiseless pinions these words go out through the +night, and pulsate on the father's ear: 'Good night, papa! Good night, +mamma! a kiss for each of you!' and then the weird instrument +materializes two kisses for the father's ear.</p> + +<p>"He is a rough fellow, but he declares that since he commenced to +receive those kisses, he knows that an answer to prayer is not +impossible; that if that child's voice can come to him, stealing past +the night patrol unheard, stealing in clear and distinct and like a +benediction, while the winds and the city are roaring outside, there is +nothing wonderful in believing that on the invisible wire of faith the +same voice could send its music to the furthest star, and that the Great +Father would bend His ear to listen."</p> + +<p>"It is a pretty story," said Brewster. "The telephone is the most +poetical of inventions. There is a metallic sound to the click of the +telegraph, as though its chief use was to further the work and the worry +of mankind. There is something like a sob to the perfecting press, as +though saddened by the very thought of the abuses it must reform. There +is a something about a steam engine which reminds one of the heavy +respirations of the slave, toiling on his chain, but the telephone has a +voice for but one ear at a time, and when it is a voice that we love its +messages come like caresses.</p> + +<p>"Not the least of its triumphs is that it has broken the silence of the +convent.</p> + +<p>"At last voices from the outer world thrill through the thick walls, and +the patient women who are immured there hear the good nights and the +kisses which by loving lips are sent away to loving homes. How their +starved hearts must be thrilled by those messages! Sometimes, too, they +must realize that the course of Nature cannot be changed; that the +beginning of heaven is in the love which canopies true homes on earth. +But with that thought there comes another, that from the Infinite, to +palace, convent and humble homes alike, celestial wires, too fine for +mortal eyes to discern, stretch down, and all alike are held in one +sheltering hand. Sometime all these wires will work in accord, and the +good-nights and the kisses in the souls of men will materialize into +harmony and fill the world with music."</p> + +<p>"That is, Brewster," said Corrigan, "supposin' the wires do not get +crossed and the girls do not kiss the wrong papas."</p> + +<p>"Suppose, Brewster," said the Colonel, "that at the final concert it +shall be discovered that certain gentlemen have not settled their +monthly rents for a long time, and their connection has been cut off?"</p> + +<p>"There is no music where there are no ears to hear," said Wright. "What +if some souls are born deaf and dumb?"</p> + +<p>"Suppose," said the Professor, "that there are souls which have no ear +for music?"</p> + +<p>"I do not know," said Brewster, "but I fancy that the fairest final +prizes may not be to the best musicians, but to those who made the +sorest sacrifices in order to get a ticket to the concert."</p> + +<p>With this the good nights were repeated.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + + +<p>At length there came a day when there was real trouble in the Club. The +foreman of the mine in which Wright was at work ordered Wright and a +fellow miner to go to the surface to assist in handling some machinery +which was to be sent down into the mine.</p> + +<p>The two men stepped upon the cage and three bells were sounded—the +signal to the engineer at the surface that men were to be hoisted and +all care used.</p> + +<p>The cage started from the 2,400-foot level. Nothing unusual happened +until, as they neared the surface, Wright said to his comrade: "By the +way we are passing the levels, it seems to me they must be in a hurry on +top."</p> + +<p>The other miner answered: "I guess it is all right;" but hardly were the +words spoken, when they shot up into the light; in an instant the cage +went crashing into the sheaves and was crushed, the men being thrown +violently out.</p> + +<p>Wright's companion, as he fell, struck partly on the curbing of the +shaft, rolled in and was of course dashed to pieces.</p> + +<p>Wright was thrown outside the shaft, and though not killed outright, two +or three ribs were broken, one lung was badly injured, besides he was +otherwise terribly bruised.</p> + +<p>People unfamiliar with mining may not understand the above. On the +Comstock the hoisting engines are set from forty to eighty feet from the +mouths of the shafts. Directly over the shafts are frames from thirty to +fifty feet in height, on which pulleys (rimmed iron wheels) are +fastened. The cages are lowered and raised by flat, plaited, steel wire +cables, which are generally four or five inches wide and about +three-eighths of an inch in thickness.</p> + +<p>This cable is first coiled on the reel of the engine, then the loose end +is drawn over the pulley, then down to the cage, to which it is made +fast. The wheel of a pulley is called a sheave, and by habit it has +grown to be a common expression to call the block and wheel in hoisting +works "the sheaves." At intervals of one or two hundred feet on the +cables they are wound with white cloth, as a guide to the engineer, as +the cable is uncoiled in lowering or coiled in hoisting. Also, on the +outer rim of the reel, is a dial with figures or marks at regular +intervals, and a hand (like the hand of a clock) which perpetually +indicates to the engineer about where the cage is in all stages of +lowering or hoisting.</p> + +<p>These engineers work eight hour shifts, and sometimes twelve. Of the +nature of their work an idea can be formed by the statement that during +the two or three years when the great Bonanza in the California +and Con. Virginia mines was giving up its treasure, through two +double-compartment shafts, all the work of those two mines was carried +on. The main ore body was between the 1,300-foot and 1,700-foot levels. +Every day from six hundred to eight hundred men were lowered into and +hoisted out of the mine. One hundred thousand feet (square measure) of +timbers were lowered daily (three million feet per month); nearly or +quite one thousand tons of ore was hoisted daily; the picks, drills and +gads were sent up to be sharpened and returned; the powder used and five +tons of ice daily were lowered, and besides this work, there was +machinery to lower and hoist; the waste rock to be handled and visitors +and officers of the mine to be lowered and hoisted. The cages are about +four feet six inches in length and three feet in width, and are simply +iron frames with a wooden floor and iron bonnet over the top and made to +exactly fit the size of the shaft. Three of these compartments had +double cages—one above the other, and one had three cages. A +three-decker carries three tons of ore or twenty-seven men at a time.</p> + +<p>Of course when such work is being driven, the eyes of an engineer have +to be every moment on their work. Men follow the occupation for months +and years without an accident or mistake, but now and then, through the +ceaseless strain, their nerves break down; something like an aberration +of the mind comes over them and they watch, dazed like sleep-walkers, as +the cage shoots out of the shaft and mounts up into the sheaves and +cannot command themselves enough to move the lever of the engine which +is in their hand.</p> + +<p>Such an accident as this overtook Wright and his companion. Poor Wright +was carried home by brother miners. The accident happened only about an +hour before the time for changing shifts and hardly was Wright laid in +his bed before the other members of the Club met at their home.</p> + +<p>The best surgical talent of the city was called; the members of the Club +took turns in watching; there was not a moment that one or the other was +not bending over their friend.</p> + +<p>At first, when he rallied from the shock of the injury, Wright told all +about the accident. He further told his friends that he had no near +relatives, instructed the Club, in the event of his death, to open his +trunk, burn the papers and divide the little money there among +themselves, designated little presents for each one and said: "Miller +will be grieved if I die, and may think my heart was not altogether warm +toward him, so give him my watch; it is the most valuable trinket that I +have."</p> + +<p>When the first reaction from the shock came, his friends were encouraged +to believe he would recover; but it was a vain hope. He soon went into a +half unconscious, half delirious state, from which it was hard to 'rouse +him for even a few minutes at a time.</p> + +<p>He lay that way for two days and nights and then died.</p> + +<p>On the afternoon of the second day it was clear that he was almost +gone—the spray began to splash upon his brow from the dark river—and +all the Club grouped around him.</p> + +<p>Out of the shadow of death his mind cleared for a moment. In almost his +old natural tones, but weak, like the voices heard through a telephone, +he said:</p> + +<p>"I have seen another mirage, boys. It was the old home under the Osage +shadows. It was all plain; the old house, the orchard, the maples were +red in the autumn sun, and my mother, who died long ago, seemed to be +there, smiling and holding out her arms to me.</p> + +<p>"It was all real, but you don't know how tired I am. Carlin, old friend, +turn me a little on my side and let me sleep."</p> + +<p>Gently as mothers move their helpless babes, the strong miner turned his +friend upon his pillows.</p> + +<p>He breathed shorter and shorter for a few minutes, then one long sigh +came from his mangled breast, and all was still.</p> + +<p>There was perfect silence in the room for perhaps five minutes. Then +Brewster, with a voice full of tears, said: "God grant that the mirage +is now to him a delicious reality," and all the rest responded, "Amen."</p> + +<p>The undertaker came, the body was dressed for the grave and placed in a +casket, and the Club took up their watch around it.</p> + +<p>Now and then a subdued word was spoken, but they were very few. The +hearts of the watchers were all full, and conversation seemed out of +place. Wright was one of the most manly of men, and the hearts of the +friends were very sore. The evening wore on until ten o'clock came, when +there fell a gentle knock on the outer door. The door was opened and by +the moonlight four men could be seen outside. One of them spoke:</p> + +<p>"We 'eard as 'ow Hadrian wur gone, and thot to sing a wee bit to he as +'ow the lad might be glad."</p> + +<p>They were the famous quartette of Cornish miners and were at once +invited in.</p> + +<p>They filed softly into the room—the Club rising as they entered—and +circled around the casket. After a long look upon the face of the +sleeper they stood up and sang a Cornish lament. Their voices were +simply glorious. The words, simple but most pathetic, were set to a +plaintive air, the refrain of each stanza ending in some minor notes, +which gave the impression that tears of pity, as they were falling, had +been caught and converted into music.</p> + +<p>The effect was profound. The stoicism of the</p> + +<p>Club was completely broken down by it. When the lament ceased all were +weeping, while warm-hearted and impetuous Corrigan was sobbing like a +grieved child.</p> + +<p>The quartette waited a moment and then sang a Cornish farewell, the +music of which, though mostly very sad, had, here and there, a bar or +two such as might be sung around the cradle of Hope, leaving a thought +that there might be a victory even over death, and which made the hymn +ring half like the <i>Miserere</i> and half like a benediction.</p> + +<p>When this was finished and the quartette had waited a moment more, with +their magnificent voices at full volume, they sang again—a requiem, +which was almost a triumph song, beginning:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Whatever burdens may be sent<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For mortals here to bear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It matters not while faith survives<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And God still answers prayer.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will not falter, though my path<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Leads down unto the grave;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The brave man will accept his fate,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And God accepts the brave.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Then with a gentle "Good noight, lads," they were gone.</p> + +<p>It was still in the room again until Corrigan said: "I hope Wright heard +that singin'; the last song in particular."</p> + +<p>"Who knows?" said Ashley. "It was all silence here; those men came and +filled the place with music. Who knows that it will not, in swelling +waves, roll on until it breaks upon the upper shore?"</p> + +<p>"Who knows," said Harding, "that he did not hear it sung first and have +it sent this way to comfort us? I thought of that when the music was +around us, and I fancied that some of the tones were like those that +fell from Wright's lips, when, in extenuation of Miller's fault, he was +reminding us that it was the intent that measured the wrong, and that +Miller never intended any wrong. Music is born above and comes down; its +native place is not here."</p> + +<p>"He does not care for music," said the Colonel. "See how softly he +sleeps. All the weariness that so oppressed him has passed away. The +hush of eternity is upon him, and after his hard life that is sweeter +than all else could be."</p> + +<p>"Oh, cease, Colonel," said Brewster. "Out of this darkened chamber how +can we speak as by authority of what is beyond. As well might the mole +in his hole attempt to tell of the eagle's flight.</p> + +<p>"We only know that God rules. We watched while the great transition came +to our friend. One moment in the old voice he was conversing with us; +the next that voice was gone, but we do not believe that it is lost. As +we were saying of the telephone, when we speak those only a few feet +away hear nothing. The words die upon the air, and we explain to +ourselves that they are no more. But thirty miles away, up on the side +of the Sierras, an ear is listening, and every tone and syllable is +distinct to that ear. Who knows what connections can be made with those +other heights where Peace rules with Love?</p> + +<p>"Our friend whose dust lies here was not called from nothing simply to +buffet through some years of toil and then to return to nothing through +the pitiless gates of Death. To believe such a thing would be to impeach +the love, the mercy and the wisdom of God. Wright is safe somewhere and +happier than he was with us. I should not wonder if Harding's theory +were true, and that it was to comfort us that he impelled those singers +to come here."</p> + +<p>"Brewster," said Alex, "your balance is disturbed to-night. You say +'from out our darkened chamber we cannot see the light,' and then go on +to assert that Wright is happier than when here. You do not know; you +hope so, that is all. So do I, and by the calm that has pressed its +signet on his lips, I am willing to believe that all that was of him is +as much at rest as is his throbless heart, and that the mystery which so +perplexes us—this something which one moment greets us with smiles and +loving words, but which a moment later is frozen into everlasting +silence—is all clear to him now. I hope so, else the worlds were made +in vain, and the sun in heaven, and all the stars whose white fires fill +the night, are worthy of as little reverence as a sage brush flame; and +it was but a cruel plan which permitted men to have life, to kindle in +their brains glorious longings and in their hearts to awaken affections +more dear than life itself."</p> + +<p>Then Harding, as if to himself repeated: "It matters not while Faith +survives, and God still answers prayer."</p> + +<p>Half an hour more passed, then the Colonel arose, looked long on the +face in the casket and said:</p> + +<p>"How peaceful is his sleep. The mystery of the unseen brings no look of +surprise to his face. Around him is the calm of the dreamless bivouac: +the brooding wings of eternal rest have spread their hush above him. +To-morrow the merciful earth will open her robes of serge to receive +him; in her ample bosom will fold his weary limbs, and while he sleeps +will shade his eyes from the light. In a brief time, save to the few of +us who love him, he will be forgotten among men. Days will dawn and set; +the seasons will advance and recede; the years will ebb and flow; the +tempest and the sunshine will alternately beat upon his lonely couch, +until ere long it will be leveled with the surrounding earth; his body +will dissolve into its original elements and it will be as though he had +never lived. The great ocean of life will heave and swell, and there +will be no one to remember this drop that fell upon the earth in spray +and was lost.</p> + +<p>"This is as it seems to us, straining our dull eyes out upon the +profound beyond our petty horizon. But who knows? We can trace the +thread of this life as it was until it passed beyond the range of our +visions, but who of us knows whether it was all unwound or whether in +the 'beyond' it became a golden chain so strong that even Death can not +break it, and thrilled with harmonies which could never vibrate on this +frail thread that broke to-day?"</p> + +<p>Then the Colonel sat down and the Professor stood up, and with his left +hand resting on the casket, said:</p> + +<p>"Three days ago this piece of crumbling dust was a brave soldier of +peace. I mean the words in their fullest sense. Just now our brothers in +the East are fearful lest so much silver will be produced that it will +become, because of its plentifulness, unfit to be a measure of values. +They do not realize what it costs or they would change their minds. They +do not know how the gnomes guard their treasures, or what defense Nature +uprears around her jewels. They revile the stamp which the Government +has placed upon the white dollar. Could they see deeper they would +perceive other stamps still. There would be blood blotches and seams +made by the trickling of the tears of widows and orphans, for before the +dollar issues bright from the mint, it has to be sought for through +perils which make unconscious heroes of those who prosecute the search. +For nearly twenty years now, on this lode, tragedies like this have been +going on. We hear it said: 'A man was killed to-day in the Ophir,' or 'a +man was dashed to pieces last night in the Justice,' and we listen to it +as merely the rehearsal of not unexpected news. Could a list of the men +who have been killed in this lode be published, it would be an appalling +showing. It would outnumber the slain of some great battle.</p> + +<p>"Besides the deaths by violence, hundreds more, worn out by the heat and +by the sudden changes of temperature between the deep mines and the +outer air, have drooped and died.</p> + +<p>"The effect is apparent upon our miners. Their bearing perplexes +strangers who come here. They do not know that in the conquests of labor +there are fields to be fought over which turn volunteers into veteran +soldiers quite as rapidly as real battle fields. They know nothing about +storming the depths; of breaking down the defences of the deep hills. +They can not comprehend that the quiet men whom they meet here on the +streets are in the habit of shaking hands with Death daily until they +have learned to follow without emotion the path of duty, let it lead +where it may, and to accept whatever may come as a matter of course.</p> + +<p>"Such an one was this our friend, who fell at his post; fell in the +strength of his manhood, and when his great heart was throbbing only in +kindness to all the world.</p> + +<p>"One moment he exulted in his splendid life, the next he was mangled and +crushed beyond recovery.</p> + +<p>"Still there was no repining, no spoken regrets. For years the +possibility of such a fate as this had been before his eyes steadily; it +brought much anguish to him, but no surprise.</p> + +<p>"He had lived a blameless life. As it drew near its close the vision of +his mother was mercifully sent to him, and so in his second birth the +same arms received him that cradled him when before he was as helpless +as he is now.</p> + +<p>"By the peace that is upon him, I believe those arms are around his soul +to-night; I believe he would not be back among us if he could.</p> + +<p>"We have a right on our own account to grieve that he is gone, but not +on his. He filled on earth the full measure of an honest, honorable, +brave and true life. That record went before him to Summer Land. I +believe it is enough and that he needs neither tears nor regrets."</p> + +<p>The Professor sat down and Corrigan then arose and went and looked long +and fondly upon the upturned face. At last in a low voice he said:</p> + +<p>"Auld frind, if yees can, give me a sign some time that something was +saved from this mighty wrick. I will listen for the call in the dape +night. I will listen by the timbers in the dape drifts; come back if +yees can and give us a hope that there will be hand clasps and wilcomes +for us whin the last shift shall be worked out."</p> + +<p>So one after the other talked until the night stole away before the +smile of the dawn. Harding pulled aside the curtains, and at that moment +the sun, panoplied in glory, shed rosy tints all over the desert to the +eastward.</p> + +<p>"See," said Harding. "It was on such a morning as this that on the +desert was painted the mirage which troubled poor Wright so much, until +the clearer light drove it away. Let us hope that there are no +refractions of the rays to bring fear to him where he is."</p> + +<p>There was the usual inquest, and on the second day after his death, +Wright was buried. After the funeral his effects were looked over; the +bills were paid, a simple stone was ordered to be placed over his grave, +and his money, some few hundred dollars, was divided among the hospitals +of the city.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + + +<p>A few days more went by, but the old joy of the Club was no more.</p> + +<p>Wright was gone, and all that had been heard from Miller was a brief +note thanking the Club for their kindness, but giving no intimation that +he contemplated returning.</p> + +<p>One morning about the twenty-fifth of the month the five miners who were +left went away to their work as usual, but all were unusually depressed, +as though a sense of sorrow or of approaching sorrow was upon them.</p> + +<p>As said before, Brewster was working in the Bullion. Toward noon of this +day word was passed down into the other mines that an accident was +reported in the Bullion; some said it was a cave and some that it was a +fire, but it was not certainly known.</p> + +<p>Each underground foreman and boss was instructed to see that the +bulkheads, which, when closed, shut off the underground connections +between the several mines, were made ready to be closed at a moment's +notice, in case the accident proved to be a fire. The whisper of "fire +in the mine" is a terrible one on the Comstock, for in the deeps there +are dried timbers sufficient to build a great city, and once on fire +they would make a roaring hell.</p> + +<p>When the news of an accident in the Bullion was circulated in the other +mines, but one thought took form in the minds of the other four members +of the Club. Brewster was working in the Bullion, and it might be that +he was in peril.</p> + +<p>Within half an hour, and almost at the same moment, Carlin, Corrigan, +Ashley and Harding appeared at the Bullion hoisting works.</p> + +<p>The superintendent stood at the shaft, and though perfectly +self-contained, he was very pale and it needed but a glance at his face +to know that he was either suffering physically or was greatly troubled. +By this time, too, the wives of the miners at work in the Bullion had +commenced to gather around the works.</p> + +<p>Mingled with the condensing vapors at the mouth of the shaft, there was +the ominous odor of burning timbers.</p> + +<p>Just as the Club miners entered the Bullion works, the bell struck and +the cage came rapidly to the surface. There was nothing on the cage, but +tied to one of the iron braces was a slip of paper. This the +superintendent seized and eagerly scanned.</p> + +<p>Turning to a miner who stood near, he said: "Sandy, go outside and tell +those women to go home. Say to them that the accident involves only one +man, and he has no family here. His name is Brewster, and we hope to +save him yet."</p> + +<p>At this the four members of the Club sprang to the shaft and demanded to +be let down.</p> + +<p>They were sternly ordered back by the superintendent.</p> + +<p>"But," said Carlin, fiercely, "this man whom you have named is like a +brother to us; if he is in danger we must go to his rescue."</p> + +<p>The rest were quite as eager in their demands. Seeing how earnest they +were, the superintendent said: "You are strangers to the mine. The whole +working force from all the levels has been sent to the point of the +accident. You would only be in the way."</p> + +<p>But they still insisted, vehemently. Said Ashley: "Your men are working +for money, and will take no risks; it is different with us."</p> + +<p>"You do not know what you are doing in refusing us," said Harding; "that +man's life is worth a thousand ordinary lives."</p> + +<p>"Suppose your brother were in danger and some man stood in the way +forbidding you to go to him, what would you think?" asked Carlin.</p> + +<p>"Yees are superintindint and rule this mine," said Corrigan, "but you +have no rule over min's lives, and this is a matter of the grandest life +upon the lode, and yees have no right to refuse us."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said the superintendent; "if you men can be of any possible +use you shall be sent down."</p> + +<p>On a bit of paper he wrote a brief note, tied it to the frame of the +cage and sent it down. When the cage disappeared in the shaft, he turned +to the men and explained that he had been upon the surface but a few +minutes; that long before a drift had been run off from the main gallery +at the twenty-one hundred-foot level some fifty feet through ground so +hard that it had never required timbering. At the farther end soft +ground had been encountered and a stringer of ore. Following this +stringer a lateral drift had been run some fifty feet each way. This +lateral drift was timbered when it was run. No ore of any value having +been uncovered the work was abandoned, and since then the drift had been +used as a storage place for powder and candles. That morning the foreman +had gone into this drift with a surveyor to establish some point which +the engineer required. To assist the surveyor the foreman had stuck his +candlestick into a timber and had gone with the surveyor to one end of +this lateral drift.</p> + +<p>Looking back they saw that the candle had fallen against the timber, +which was dry as tinder.</p> + +<p>It had caught on fire and the flame had already run up and was in the +logging.</p> + +<p>They rushed back, and though not seriously injured, were pretty badly +scorched. All the miners in the mine were called to that point, and the +work of putting out the fire, or of keeping it from connecting with the +main drift, was begun. The superintendent was at the time on the +twenty-four hundred-foot level. He had hastened to the spot at the first +alarm. A donkey pump was at the twenty-one hundred-foot station, with +plenty of hose. This was running within fifteen minutes. The fire, after +burning a little way in each direction along the lateral drift, +exhausting the oxygen in the air, ceased to flame and just burrowed its +way through the timbers. This produced a dense and sifting smoke.</p> + +<p>A heavy stream of water was turned into this drift, the superintendent +directing the work until, under the heat and smoke, he had fainted and +been brought to the surface.</p> + +<p>Holding up the note which had come up on the cage, he said the man +Brewster who was holding the nozzle of the hose had gone too far into +the drift, under where the logging had burned away and had been caught +in a cave, but the rest were working to release him.</p> + +<p>The bell sounded again and in three minutes the cage shot out of the +shaft. The paper which it brought had only these few words: "If you can +send two (2) first-class miners, all right, but not more. Any others +would only be in the way. It is a very dangerous place, don't send any +but thorough men." This was signed by the foreman.</p> + +<p>When the superintendent read the note the four men rushed forward, and +for a moment their clamors were indescribable.</p> + +<p>"It is my place to go," said Ashley. "I have as little to live for as +any of you. Do not hold me back."</p> + +<p>"Stand back," said Harding. "I would rather never go home than not to go +with Brewster."</p> + +<p>Seizing Harding by the arm, Carlin hurled him back, exclaiming: "Art +crazy, boy? Your bark is but just launched; this is work for old hulks +that are used to rocks and storms."</p> + +<p>Over all the voice of Corrigan rang out: "Hould, men! This is me place. +Me life has been but a failure. I will make what amind I can," and he +sprang upon the cage, and, seizing a brace with either hand, turned his +glittering eyes upon his friends.</p> + +<p>At length over the Babel the voice of the superintendent was heard +commanding "Silence!"</p> + +<p>"You all alike seem determined," he said, "but only two can go. You will +have to draw lots to decide." This proposition was with many murmurs +agreed to. The superintendent prepared four bits of paper, two long and +two short ones. He placed the slips in his hat, and, holding it above +the level of the men's eyes, said: "You will each draw a slip of paper; +the two who draw the long slips will go, the others will remain. Go on +with the drawing!"</p> + +<p>The long slips were drawn by Corrigan and Carlin. With smiles of triumph +these two shook hands with the others, who were weeping. Said Corrigan:</p> + +<p>"Whativer may happen, do not grave, boys. I will see yees again before +night, or—I will see me mither."</p> + +<p>The two men stepped upon the cage. In his old careless way, Carlin said: +"Don't worry about me, boys! I will come back by and by and bring +Brewster, or I will know as much as Wright does before night."</p> + +<p>With these words the two devoted men disappeared with the cage into the +dreadful depths.</p> + +<p>With bitter self-reproaches the two remaining men sat down and waited. A +half hour went by, when the bell struck and the engine began to hoist. +The cage again bore only a slip of paper. This the superintendent read +as follows:</p> + +<p>"We have had another cave; another man is hurt; all the miners are much +exhausted. Send a couple more men if possible."</p> + +<p>The two men sprang upon the cage, the superintendent joined them, and +they were rapidly lowered into the depths. Reaching the fatal level, +they learned that Corrigan and Carlin, on going down, had insisted on +taking the lead; that they had partly uncovered Brewster when another +cave had come. It had caught and buried Corrigan, but Carlin, though +stunned and bruised somewhat, had escaped. By this time the smoke had +partially cleared, but the drift was intensely hot.</p> + +<p>The superintendent again took charge. Timbers and heavy plank were +brought. The drift was rapidly shored up, and within an hour Harding and +Ashley recovered the body of Corrigan.</p> + +<p>There was very little rock over him, but he was quite dead. He had been +struck and crushed by a boulder from the roof of the drift. He was +bending down at the time, the boulder struck him fairly in the back of +the neck and he must have died instantly.</p> + +<p>Very soon Brewster's body, too, was uncovered. He also was dead. He had +been buried by decomposed rock, and had died from asphyxia.</p> + +<p>The bodies were carried to the shaft; each was wrapped in a blanket, and +that of Corrigan was placed upon the cage. The superintendent, with +Carlin and two other miners, stepped on the cage and it was hoisted to +the surface. It returned in a few minutes, and this time Brewster's body +was placed upon it, and Harding and Ashley, with two other miners, +accompanied it to the surface.</p> + +<p>In the daylight the faces of the dead were both peaceful, as though in +sleep. The bodies were sent away to an undertaker, and as Brewster had +been heard to say, at Wright's funeral, that if he should die in the +West, he would want his body sent East to be buried beside that of his +wife, word was sent to the undertaker to try and get the coroner's +permission and then to embalm the body of Brewster.</p> + +<p>The three remaining members of the Club were carried to their dreary +home. Besides their sorrow, they were terribly exhausted. Harding had +fainted once in the drift; Carlin was, besides being worn out, badly +bruised, and Ashley was so exhausted that upon reaching the surface he +was seized with chills and vomiting. The Professor, the Colonel and Alex +were at the hoisting works when they were hoisted to the surface. They +accompanied them home and remained, ministering to them until late in +the night, when at last all were sleeping peacefully.</p> + +<p>With the morning the desolateness of their situation seemed more +oppressive than ever. Yap Sing had prepared a dainty breakfast, but when +they entered the dining room and saw only three plates where a few days +before there had been seven, it was impossible for them to eat a +mouthful. Each drank a cup of black coffee, but neither tasted food.</p> + +<p>Returned to the sitting room, it was determined to examine the effects +of their dead friends. There was little in Corrigan's bundles except +clothing and a memorandum book. This book had $150 in greenbacks, and a +great many memorandums of stocks purchased, extending over a period of +three years. These, a few words at the bottom of the pages showed, had +almost all been sold either on too short margins or for assessments. +Corrigan's humor ran all through the book in penciled remarks. The +following are samples:</p> + +<p>"I had a sure thing; was the only mon in the sacret. I was but one and I +caught it."</p> + +<p>"I bate Mr. Broker mon. He bought for me on a fifty per cint margin, and +it broke that fast he could not get out from below it."</p> + +<p>"This was a certain sure point. Bedad, I found it that same."</p> + +<p>"I took the Scorpion to my bosom and, the blackguard, he stung me."</p> + +<p>"I stuck to Jacket until I had not a ghoust of a jacket to me back."</p> + +<p>"I made love to Julia. She was more ungrateful than Maggie Murphy."</p> + +<p>But between these same pages was found the letter Corrigan had received +announcing his mother's death, and this was almost illegible because of +the tear stains upon it.</p> + +<p>In Brewster's trunk everything was found in the perfect order which had +marked all his ways.</p> + +<p>A book showed every dollar that he had received since coming to the +Comstock; his monthly expenses, the sums he had sent his sister for his +children, and his bank book showed exactly how much was to his credit.</p> + +<p>Another paper was found giving directions that if anything fatal should +happen to him, his body should be returned to Taunton, Massachusetts, +and if anything should be left above the necessary expenses of +forwarding his body, the amount should be sent to his sister, Mrs. +Martha Wolcott, of Taunton, for his children. The paper also contained +an order on his banker for whatever money might be to his credit, and a +statement that he owed no debts. There were also sealed letters directed +to each of his children. Another large package was tied up carefully and +endorsed, "My children's letters. Please return them to Taunton without +breaking the package."</p> + +<p>The bank book showed that there was eleven hundred and sixty-three +dollars to his credit.</p> + +<p>Brewster was a man that even death could not surprise. He was always +ready.</p> + +<p>When the examination was completed, Carlin suggested to Ashley that he +take the book, call at the bank, see if the amount was correct and if +the bank would pay it on the order found in the book.</p> + +<p>Ashley hesitated. "There is something else, Carlin, that should be done, +but I do not know how to go about it. That sister should be advised of +her brother's death, that she may communicate the news to Brewster's +children."</p> + +<p>"I have been thinking of that ever since yesterday," said Carlin, "but I +can not do it."</p> + +<p>"I have been thinking of it, too," said Harding, "but by evening we can +determine when the body will be sent and can include everything in one +dispatch."</p> + +<p>Ashley went away, leaving Carlin and Harding together.</p> + +<p>"I am not sure," said Harding, "but I begin to believe that the man who +invented dealing in stocks was an enemy to his race. Look at the result +of Corrigan's life; think what poor Wright had to show for all his years +of toil. They could not have fared much worse had they dealt in poker or +faro straight."</p> + +<p>"And they are only two," responded Carlin. "There are three thousand +more miners like them here and a hundred times three thousand other +people scattered up and down this coast, trying to get rich in the same +way, while here and in San Francisco a dozen men sit behind their +counters and draw in the earnings of the coast. It is worse than folly, +Harding. It is a kind of lunacy, a sort of an every day financial +hari-kari."</p> + +<p>By this time it was past eleven o'clock in the forenoon. Suddenly, +without a preliminary knock, the door opened and Miller stood before the +two men. They sprang to their feet and welcomed him, the tears starting +to all their eyes as they shook hands.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Miller!" said Harding, "why did you go away? We have had only +trouble and sorrow since."</p> + +<p>"It was not fair of you, Miller," said Carlin, "You held our friendship +at a miserably low price."</p> + +<p>"You are awfully good," said Miller; "but you are looking from your +standpoint. I looked from mine, and I could not do differently. But tell +me about this dreadful business. I saw about Wright, and read the +account of this fearful accident of yesterday as I was coming up in the +train, but still, there must have been some blundering somewhere."</p> + +<p>Everything was explained, and also what had been discovered of the +effects of the dead miners.</p> + +<p>"Poor grand souls," said Miller. "It was a tough ending. Never before +did three such royal hearts stop beating in a single fortnight on the +Comstock."</p> + +<p>Ashley returned, and, with words full of affectionate reproach, greeted +Miller.</p> + +<p>Ashley had found everything at the bank as the book indicated, and the +undertaker had promised that Brewster's remains should be ready for +shipment on the evening of the next day.</p> + +<p>Then the question of the dispatch to the family came up again.</p> + +<p>"Before deciding upon that," said Miller, "let me tell you something:</p> + +<p>"When I took the money to pay the bills, I had, with a little of my own, +something over seven hundred dollars. I bought on a margin of only +twenty-five per cent.—the broker was my friend—all the Silver Hill +that the money would purchase. I thought I had a sure thing. My +informant was a Silver Hill miner. I believed I could multiply the money +by three within as many days. In five days it fell thirty per cent. What +could I do? A note from the broker asking me to call, received the +evening before I went away, decided me. I went away, but when I saw by +dispatches that Wright had been killed, and I could get nothing to do, I +determined to come back.</p> + +<p>"Well, I met my broker this morning. He asked me to call at his place. +There he informed me that the day he purchased Silver Hill he met the +superintendent and learned from him that there was not yet a +development; that the stock was more liable to fall than to rise for two +or three weeks to come, the rage being just then for north end stocks. +He could not find me, and accordingly, on his own responsibility, he +sold the stock, losing nothing but commissions and cost of dispatches.</p> + +<p>"There was a little lull in Sierra Nevada that day, and, believing it +was good, he bought with my money and on my account. As it shot up he +kept buying. At last, a week ago, he had two thousand shares and sold +five hundred, and by the sale paid himself all up except $21,000.</p> + +<p>"Hearing day before yesterday that I had left the city, he sold the +other fifteen hundred shares at $157. This morning he handed me a +certificate of deposit in my favor for $213,000, and here it is."</p> + +<p>Most heartily did the others congratulate Miller on his good fortune.</p> + +<p>But Miller said: "Congratulate yourselves! I used the money of the Club. +The profit I always intended should be the Club's. Wright and Corrigan +and Brewster are gone, but you are left and Brewster's children are +left. If I am correct, $213,000 divided by five, makes exactly $42,600. +That is, you each have $42,600 on deposit in the bank, and a like sum is +there for two fatherless and motherless children in Massachusetts."</p> + +<p>It was useless to try to reason the matter with Miller. He merely said: +"It shall be my way. It was a square deal. I meant it so from the first; +only," he added, sadly, "I wish Wright and Corrigan and Brewster could +have lived to know it." Then turning quickly to Harding, he said: +"Harding, how much is that indebtedness which has worried you so long?"</p> + +<p>Harding replied that the mortgage was $8,000, while the personal debts +amounted to $3,000 more.</p> + +<p>"Then," said Miller, "you can pay the debts and have nearly $30,000 more +with which to build your house and barns, to stock and fix your place +for a home."</p> + +<p>The tears came to Harding's eyes, but he could not answer.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, old boy," said Miller; "did I not tell you I would make +things all right for you?"</p> + +<p>Then Carlin got up, went into the adjoining room, brought out the watch +which had been Wright's and told Miller how Wright, under the shadow of +death, had bequeathed the watch to him.</p> + +<p>For the first time Miller broke down and burst into tears.</p> + +<p>When he recovered somewhat the command of himself, he said:</p> + +<p>"Now, I have a proposition to make. Let us all give up this mining. It +is a hard life, and generally ends either in poverty or in a fatal +accident. I am going to San Francisco. The place to make money is where +there is money, and I am going to try my skill at the other end of the +line."</p> + +<p>"You are right," said Carlin. "I am never going down into the Comstock +again. I made up my mind to that yesterday. I am going back to +Illinois."</p> + +<p>"And I am going to Pennsylvania," said Ashley.</p> + +<p>"I gave up mining yesterday, also," said Harding; "at least on the +Comstock. I do not mind the labor or the danger, but it is not a life +that fits a man for a contented old age."</p> + +<p>Suddenly Miller said: "Harding, were you ever in the Eastern States?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Harding; "the present boundary of my life is limited to +California and Nevada."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Miller, "if we all give ourselves credit for all the good +we ever dreamed of doing, still neither of us, indeed, all of us +together, are not worthy to be named on the same day with James +Brewster. His body must go East, and on its arrival there only an aged +woman and two little orphan children await to receive it. I think it +would be shabby to send the dust of the great-hearted and great-souled +man there unattended. What say you, Ashley and Harding, will you not +escort the body to its old home?"</p> + +<p>Both at once assented. A dispatch was prepared announcing Brewster's +death, and adding that his body would be shipped the next evening +escorted by two brother miners, Herbert Ashley and Samuel Harding. This +was signed by the superintendent of the Bullion company.</p> + +<p>The superintendent also made a written statement that he had examined +the effects of Brewster and found that, less the expenses of embalming, +transportation, etc., together with $80 due Brewster from the Bullion +company, there was left the sum of $840.25. With this statement a bill +of exchange on Boston for the $840.25 was enclosed, and Ashley took +charge of it.</p> + +<p>The bills were all paid. The money due Brewster's orphans, according to +Miller's calculation, was also converted into a bill of exchange payable +to Mabel and Mildred Brewster. Ashley and Harding took charge of the +first and left the second of exchange to be forwarded by Colonel Savage, +and before night all preparations for leaving the next day were made.</p> + +<p>The next morning Corrigan's funeral took place with all the ostentatious +parade which Virginia City was famous for in the flush times when some +one who had been a favorite had passed away. At the hall of the Miners' +Union Colonel Savage delivered a eulogy which was infinitely more +beautiful than some of the orations which have been treasured among the +gems of the century.</p> + +<p>He was followed by Strong in a eulogy that touched every heart. Here is +a sample:</p> + +<p>"Gentle and unpretentious was Barney Corrigan. There was no disguise in +his nature. Could his heart have been worn outside his breast, and could +it, every moment, have thrown off pictures of the emotions that warmed +it, to those who knew him well, those pictures would have thrown no new +light on his nature.</p> + +<p>"Generous and true was he; true as a man, a friend a citizen. His walk +through life was an humble one, but it was, nevertheless, grand. So +brave was he that he performed heroic acts as a matter of course, and +all unconscious that he was a hero.</p> + +<p>"So he toiled on, his path lighted by his own genial eyes, and strewn +behind him with generous deeds.</p> + +<p>"When death came to him the blessed anæsthetic which made him +indifferent to his sufferings was the thought that in a little while he +would rescue a friend in peril, or feel the grasp of the spirit hand of +his mother.</p> + +<p>"Noble was his life; consecrated will be the ground that receives his +mortal part. The world was better that he lived; it is sadder that he +has died.</p> + +<p>"With tears we part with him; our souls send tender 'all hails and +farewells' out to his soul that has fled, and we pray that his sleep may +be sweet."</p> + +<p>The Colonel, Professor and Alex, with Miller, Carlin, Ashley and +Harding, rode in the mourning carriages. These were followed by a long +line of carriages and quite one thousand miners on foot. At the grave +the services were simply a prayer and a hymn sung by the Cornish +quartette. They made his grave close beside that of Wright's; they +ordered a duplicate stone to be placed above it, and left him to his +long sleep.</p> + +<p>Yap Sing was paid off and a handsome present made him, the furniture and +food in the Club house was distributed among poor families in the +neighborhood, and on the evening train the four living men, with the +body of their dead friend, moved out of Virginia City.</p> + +<p>A great crowd was at the depot to see them off, and the last hands wrung +were those of the Professor, the Colonel and Alex.</p> + +<p>On the way to Reno, Carlin said to Miller: "One thing I cannot +understand, Miller; whatever possessed that broker to turn over that +money to you when he was not compelled to?"</p> + +<p>"I have no idea in the world," said Miller, "except that we are old +friends."</p> + +<p>"But did you never do him any great favor, Miller—any particularly +great favor?" asked Carlin.</p> + +<p>"No," said Miller, "I cannot think of any." But after a moment's silence +he added: "By the way, come to think of it, I did do him a little favor +once. I saved his life."</p> + +<p>"How was it?" asked Carlin. "Why," answered Miller, "he and myself had a +running fight with a band of renegade Indians. There were seven or eight +of them at first, and we got them reduced to four, when one of them +killed the broker's horse. It was a very close game then. It required +the promptest kind of work. When the horse fell the broker was thrown +violently on his shoulder and the side of his head and was too stunned +to gather his wits together for a few minutes. I had a gentle horse, so +sprang down from him and let him go. I got behind a low rock and +succeeded in stopping two of the Indians, when the others concluded it +was no even thing and took the back track. But the broker was "powerful" +nervous when I got up to him. The worst of all was, I had to ride and +tie with him for seventeen miles, and he was so badly demoralized that I +had to do all the walking."</p> + +<p>At Reno Miller bade the others good-bye and took the west-bound train. +Carlin sent a dispatch to an Illinois town. Late in the night the +east-bound Overland express came in; the body of Brewster was put on +board, the three friends entered a sleeper and the long ride began.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + + +<p>Following a long established habit our three travelers were up next +morning shortly after dawn.</p> + +<p>The train was then thundering over the desert northeast of Wadsworth. +Carlin noticed the country and said:</p> + +<p>"This must be almost on the spot where poor Wright saw his wonderful +mirage."</p> + +<p>As he spoke the bending rays of the rising sun swept along the sterile +earth, and a shimmer in the air close to the ground revealed how swiftly +the heat waves were advancing.</p> + +<p>"It is as Wright said; the desert grows warm at once, so soon as the +morning sun strikes it," said Harding. "Heavens, how awful a desolation. +It is as though the face-cloth had been lifted from a dead world."</p> + +<p>"Do you remember what Wright told us, about the appalling stillness of +this region?" asked Ashley. "One can realize a little of it by looking +out. Were the train not here what would there be for sound to act upon?"</p> + +<p>"Is it not pitiful," said Harding, "to think of a grand life like +Wright's being worn out as his was? He met the terrors here when but a +boy. From that time on there was but blow after blow of this merciless +world's buffetings until the struggle closed in a violent and untimely +death."</p> + +<p>"You forget," said Ashley, "that a self-contained soul and royal heart +like his, are their own comforters. He had joys that the selfish men of +this world never know."</p> + +<p>All that day the conversation was only awakened at intervals and then +was not long continued. Not only the sorrow in their hearts was claiming +their thoughts and imposing the silence which real sorrow covets; but +the swift changes wrought in the week just passed, had really resulted +in an entire revolution in all their thoughts and plans.</p> + +<p>It was to them an epoch. The breakfast station came, later the dinner, +later the supper station. All the day the train swept on up the Humboldt +valley. Along the river bottom were meadows, but about the only change +in the monotonous scenery, was from desert plains to desert mountains +and back again to the plains.</p> + +<p>Night came down in Eastern Nevada. When they awoke next morning the +train was skirting the northwest shore of Great Salt Lake and the rising +sun was painting the splendors that, with lavish extravagance, the dawn +always pictures there on clear days, and no spot has more clear days +during the year.</p> + +<p>Ogden was reached at nine o'clock in the morning, the transfer to the +Union Pacific train was made; breakfast eaten, and toward noon, the +beauties of Echo Canyon began to unfold. Green River was crossed in the +gloaming; in the morning Laramie was passed, at noon Cheyenne, and the +train was now on a down grade toward the East. With the next morning men +were seen gathering their crops; the desert had been left behind and the +travelers were now entering the granary of the Republic.</p> + +<p>Late that night the train entered Omaha. The usual delay was made; the +transfers effected and early next morning the journey across Iowa, so +wonderful to one who has been long in the desert, began. Ashley darted +from side to side of the coach that he might not lose one bit of the +view; but Harding sat still, by the window, hardly moving, but straining +his eyes over the low waves of green, which, in the stillness of the +summer day, seemed like a sea transfixed.</p> + +<p>Carlin was strangely restless. He did not seem to heed the scenery +around him. He studied his guidebook and every quarter of an hour looked +at his watch. When spoken to, he answered in an absent-minded way; it +was plain that he was absorbed by some overmastering thought.</p> + +<p>Noon came at length, then one o'clock, then two; the train gave a long +whistle, slackened speed, and in a moment was brought to a standstill in +front of a station.</p> + +<p>With the first signal Carlin had sprang from his seat and walked rapidly +toward the end of the car.</p> + +<p>"What can the matter be with Carlin?" asked Harding. "He has been half +wild all day and altogether different from his usual self."</p> + +<p>"He will be home sometime to-night," replied Ashley. "He has been absent +a long time, and I do not wonder at his unrest. I expect to have my +attack next week when the southern hills of Pennsylvania lift up their +crests, and the old familiar haunts begin to take form."</p> + +<p>"Look! Look!" said Harding. "Carlin's unrest is taking a delicious form, +truly."</p> + +<p>Two ladies were standing on the platform. Carlin had leaped from the +train while yet it was moving quite rapidly. He bent and kissed the +first lady, but the second one he caught in his arms, held her in a long +embrace and kissed her over and over again.</p> + +<p>"He has struck a bonanza," said Ashley.</p> + +<p>"And the formation is kindly," said Harding.</p> + +<p>"The indications are splendid," said Ashley. "Mark the trend of the +vein; it is exquisite."</p> + +<p>"It does not seem to be rebellious or obstinate ore to manipulate +either. Carlin's process seems to work like a fire assay," said Harding.</p> + +<p>"Just by the surface showing the claim is worth a thousand dollars a +share," said Ashley. "I wonder if Carlin has secured a patent yet?"</p> + +<p>"And I wonder," said Harding, "if we are not a pair of blackguards to be +talking this way. Let us go and meet them."</p> + +<p>The friends arose and started for the platform, but were met half way by +Carlin and the ladies. There were formal introductions to Mrs. and Miss +Richards. Under the blushes of the young lady could be traced the +lineaments of the "Susie Dick" that Carlin had shown to the Club in the +photograph.</p> + +<p>Crimson, but still smiling, the young lady said: "Gentlemen, did you see +Mr. Carlin at the station, before a whole depot of giggling ninnies, +too? Was ever anything half so ridiculous?" Then glancing up at Carlin +with a forgiving look, but still in a delicious scolding tone, she +added: "I really had hoped that the West had partly civilized him."</p> + +<p>Harding and Ashley glanced at each other with a look which said plainly +enough, "Carlin has proved up without any contest; even if the patent is +not already issued, his title is secure."</p> + +<p>The friends had the drawing room and a section outside. With a quick +instinct Ashley seated the elder lady in the section, bade Harding +entertain her, then swinging back the drawing room door, said: "Miss +Richards, I know that you want to scold Carlin for the next hour, and he +deserves it. Right in here is the best place on the car for the purpose. +Please walk in." Saying which he stepped back and seated himself beside +Harding.</p> + +<p>The elder lady was a charming traveling companion. She wanted to know +all about the West. She knew all about the region they were passing +through, and the whole afternoon ride was a delight.</p> + +<p>During the journey Harding and Ashley had been begging Carlin to +accompany them to Massachusetts, and he had finally promised to give +them a positive answer that day. After a while he emerged from the +drawing room and said: "I am sorry, but I cannot go East with you. These +ladies have been good enough to come out and meet me. We will all go on +as far as Chicago and see you off, but we cannot very well extend the +journey further. Indeed, Miss Susie intimates that I am too awkward a +man to be safe east of Chicago."</p> + +<p>The others saw how it was and did not further importune him. Next day +they separated, Carlin's last words being, "If you ever come within five +hundred miles of Peoria stop and stay a month."</p> + +<p>The grand city was passed. The train swung around the end of Lake +Michigan, leaving the magical city in its wake. Through the beautiful +region of Southern Michigan it hurried on. Detroit was reached and +passed; the arm of the Dominion was crossed, and finally, when in the +early morning the train stopped, the boom of Niagara filled the air, and +the enchantment of the picture which the river and the sunlight suspend +there before mortals, was in full view. Next the valley of the Genesee +was unfolded, and with each increasing mile more and more distinct grew +the clamors of toiling millions, jubilant with life and measureless in +energy. Swifter and more frequent was the rush of the chariots on which +modern commerce is borne, and all the time to the eyes of the men of the +desert the lovely homes which fill that region flitted by like the +castles of dreamland.</p> + +<p>Later in the day the panorama of the Mohawk Valley began to unroll and +was drawn out in picture after picture of rare loveliness.</p> + +<p>Ashley and Harding were enchanted. It was as though they had emerged +into a new world.</p> + +<p>"Think of it, Ashley," said Harding. "It is but eight days—at this very +hour—since we were having that wrestle with death in the depths of the +Bullion mine. Think of that and then look around upon these serene homes +and the lavish loveliness of this scenery."</p> + +<p>"I know now how Moses felt, when from the crest of Pisgah he looked down +to where the Promised Land was outstretched before him," was the reply. +"I feel as I fancy a soul must feel, when at last it realizes there is a +second birth."</p> + +<p>Said Harding: "I dread more and more to meet these people where we are +going. How uncouth we will seem to them and to ourselves."</p> + +<p>"Our errand will plead our excuses," said Ashley; "besides they will be +too much absorbed with something else to pay much attention to us. +Moreover they will know that our lives of late have been passed mostly +under ground, and they will not expect us to reflect much light."</p> + +<p>"What are your plans, Ashley, for the near future, after this business +which we have in hand shall be over?" asked Harding.</p> + +<p>"A home in old Pennsylvania is to be purchased," said Ashley, "and then +a trial with my fellow men for a fortune and for such honors as may be +fairly won. And you Harding, what have you marked out?"</p> + +<p>Said Harding: "My father's estate is to be redeemed; after that, +whatever a strong right arm backing an honest purpose, can win. But one +thing we must not forget. We must be the semi-guardians of those +children of Brewster, until they shall pass beyond our care."</p> + +<p>"You are very right, my boy," said Ashley. "Brewster was altogether +grand and his children must ever be our concernment."</p> + +<p>In the early night the Hudson was crossed and the train plunged on +through the hills beyond. At Walpole early next morning the train was +boarded by three gentlemen who searched out Harding and Ashley and +introduced themselves as old friends of Brewster and his family. They +had come out to escort the body of Brewster to Taunton, now only a few +miles off. The names of these men were respectively Hartwell, Hill and +Burroughs.</p> + +<p>Hartwell explained that the remains would be taken to an undertaker, and +examined to see if it would be possible for the children and Mrs. +Wolcott, the sister of Brewster, to look upon their father's and +brother's face. He also said the funeral would be on the succeeding day. +Then the particulars of the accident were asked.</p> + +<p>A full and graphic account of the whole affair had been published in the +Virginia City papers.</p> + +<p>Copies of these were produced and handed over as giving a full idea of +the calamity.</p> + +<p>The statement made by the superintendent of the Bullion including the +smaller certificate of deposit, also the other effects of Brewster, all +but the money obtained from Miller, were transferred to Mr. Hartwell.</p> + +<p>On reaching Taunton a great number of sympathizing friends were in +waiting, for Brewster had lived there all his life until he went West +three years before, and he was much esteemed. The manner of his death +added to the general sympathy.</p> + +<p>A hearse in waiting, at once took the body away. The young men were +taken to his home by Mr. Hartwell. They begged to be permitted to go to +a hotel, but the request would not be listened to.</p> + +<p>On examination it was found that the work of the embalmer had been most +thorough. The face of Brewster was quite natural and placid, as though +in sleep.</p> + +<p>Breakfast was in waiting for the young men, and when it was disposed of +they were shown again to the parlors and introduced to a score of people +who had gathered in to hear the story of Brewster's death from the lips +of the men who had taken his body from the deep pit and brought it home +for burial.</p> + +<p>In the conversation which followed two or three hours were consumed.</p> + +<p>When the callers had gone, Hartwell said:</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen, I advise you to go to your rooms and try and get some rest. +In two or three hours I shall want you to go and make a call with me, if +the poor family of my friend can bear it."</p> + +<p>Late that afternoon Hartwell knocked on the door of the sitting room, +which, with sleeping apartments on either side, had been given Harding +and Ashley, and when the door was opened, he said:</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen, please come with me, the children of James Brewster desire +to see you!"</p> + +<p>The young men arose and followed their host. Brewster had always +referred to his daughters as his "little girls;" the man who had the +young men to go and meet them, spoke of them as "the children of James +Brewster." Both Harding and Ashley, as they followed Hartwell, were +mentally framing words of comfort to speak to school misses just +entering their teens, who were in sorrow.</p> + +<p>When then, they were ushered into the presence of two thoroughly +accomplished young women, and when these ladies, with tears streaming +down their faces, came forward, shook their hands, and, in broken words +of warmest gratitude, thanked them for all they had done and were doing, +and for all they had been to their father in life and in death, the men +from the desert were lost in surprise and astonishment.</p> + +<p>As Harding said later: "I felt as though I was in a drift on the +2,800-foot level, into which no air pipe had been carried."</p> + +<p>This apparition was all the more startling to them, because during the +two or three years that they had been at work on the Comstock, the very +nature of their occupation forbade their mingling in the society of +refined women to any but a most limited extent.</p> + +<p>From the papers given the family by Hartwell that day, matters were +fully understood by the sister of Brewster and the young ladies, so no +explanations were asked. At first the conversation was little more than +warm thanks on the part of the young ladies and modest and half +incoherent replies.</p> + +<p>The ladies were in the humble home of their father's widowed sister, +Mrs. Wolcott. That they were all poor was apparent from all the +surroundings. This fact at length forced its way through the bewildered +brain of Harding and furnished him a happy expedient to say something +without advertising himself the idiot that he, in that hour, would have +been willing to make an affidavit that he was. Said he:</p> + +<p>"Ladies, amid all the sorrows that we bring to you, we have, what but +for your grief would be good news. Tell them, Ashley!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," said Ashley, "we have something which is yours, and which, +while no balm for sorrow like yours, will, we sincerely hope, be the +means of driving some cares from your lives."</p> + +<p>Taking a memorandum from his pocket, he continued:</p> + +<p>"Your father left more property than he himself knew of. How it was +Harding and myself will explain at some other time, if you desire. At +present it is only necessary to say that the amount is forty-two +thousand and six hundred dollars, for which we have brought you a bill +of exchange." With that he extended the paper to Miss Brewster. Then +these brave girls began to tremble and quake indeed. "It can not be," +said Mabel. "There must be some mistake," said Mildred.</p> + +<p>"Indeed, there is no mistake," said Harding. "See, it is a banker's +order on a Boston bank, and is payable to your joint order. No one can +draw it until you have both endorsed it, for it is yours."</p> + +<p>Then these girls fell into each others arms and sobbed afresh.</p> + +<p>As soon as they could the miners retired.</p> + +<p>Mabel Brewster was tall, of slender form and severely classic face. She +had blue eyes, inherited from her mother, and that shade of hair which +is dusky in a faint light, but which turns to gold in sunlight. Her +complexion was very fair, her hands and arms were exquisite and her +manners most winsome.</p> + +<p>Mildred, her sister, was of quite another type. A year and a half +younger than Mabel, she looked older than her sister. She had her +father's black eyes, and like him, a prominent nose and resolute mouth. +She was lower of statue and fuller of form than her sister. She had also +a larger hand and stronger arm. Over all was poised a superb head, +crowned with masses of tawny hair.</p> + +<p>Standing in their simple mourning robes, with the afternoon sun shining +around them, they looked as Helen and Cassandra might have looked, while +yet the innocence and splendor of early womanhood were upon them.</p> + +<p>Mabel was such a woman as men dream of and struggle to possess; Mildred +was such an one as men die for when necessary, and do not count it a +sacrifice.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/illus3.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>MABEL AND MILDRED.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>From the house the young men walked rapidly away, and so busy were they +with their own thoughts that neither spoke until they entered a wooded +park or common, and finding a rustic bench sat down.</p> + +<p>Harding was the first to speak. "After all his mighty toil; after his +self-sacrificing life; after all his struggles, Brewster died and was +not permitted to see his children. It is most pitiable."</p> + +<p>"May be he sees them now," said Ashley, softly. "It can not be far from +here to Heaven."</p> + +<p>"I wish I had never seen her," said Harding, impetuously. And then all +his reserve breaking down he arose, stretched out his arms and cried:</p> + +<p>"I wish I had died in Brewster's stead."</p> + +<p>"Is she not divine?" said Ashley. "A very Iris, goddess of the rainbow, +bringing divine commands to man, his guide and his adviser."</p> + +<p>"Say not so," said Harding. "Rather she is Ceres, in her original purity +returned to earth; flowers bloom under the soft light of her divine +eyes, and all bountifulness rests in the heaven of her white arms. I +tell you, Ashley, the man who could have that woman's eyes to smile up +approvingly upon him, would have to move on from conquest to conquest so +long as life lasted."</p> + +<p>An anxious look came over the face of Ashley. "Which lady do you mean?" +he asked.</p> + +<p>"Mean!" echoed Harding. "I mean she of the royal brow and starry eyes, +Mildred Brewster."</p> + +<p>"Thank God," said Ashley with a great sigh of relief.</p> + +<p>"And why do you thank God?" asked Harding.</p> + +<p>"Because," said Ashley, "to me Mabel is the dainty, the divine one. She +comes upon the eye as a perfect soprano voice smites on a musical ear."</p> + +<p>"You are growing musical, are you?" said Harding. "Well then, the other +is a celestial contralto, deep-toned and full and sweet, materialized."</p> + +<p>After this both were silent for a moment and then Ashley began to laugh +low to himself.</p> + +<p>"What is your hilarity occasioned by?" asked Harding.</p> + +<p>"I was thinking what fools we have been making of ourselves," said +Ashley.</p> + +<p>"And how did you reach that estimate, pray?" asked Harding.</p> + +<p>"Why, Harding," was the answer, "an hour ago we met two ladies. They +were not what we expected to find, and they brought a sort of +enchantment to us. We saw them first an hour ago; we will to-morrow see +them once more, and that will be all; and still we have been raving like +two lunatics for the past half hour about them."</p> + +<p>"You are right," was the sad reply. "See yonder on the street corner."</p> + +<p>Just then a dainty carriage and a set of heavy trucks met on the corner +and passed each other, the carriage turning to the east, the trucks to +the west.</p> + +<p>"Typical, is it not?" said Ashley. "The trucks go west—at least they +will to-morrow night."</p> + +<p>"Most true," said Harding, "and still I think I would like to kiss the +carpet that has been sanctified by the footfalls of Mildred Brewster."</p> + +<p>Ashley reached out, seized Harding's wrist and felt his pulse.</p> + +<p>"You have got it bad, Harding," said he, "and I don't feel very well +myself. If poor Corrigan were alive again and here we would get him to +tell us about Maggie Murphy."</p> + +<p>"We have had a mirage, Ashley. Let us pray that it will soon pass by," +said Harding.</p> + +<p>And then without another word being spoken, they returned to the +hospitable house of Hartwell.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + + +<p>The following is the copy of a letter written by Mrs. Wolcott to the +widow of her deceased husband's brother, Mrs. Abby Roberts, of Eastport, +Maine:</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Taunton</span>, Sept. 20th, 1878.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Sister</span>:—I wrote you briefly of the dispatch announcing +the death of my brother James, in a Nevada mine, and that his +embalmed body was being brought home by two miners. Since then +events have crowded upon me so swiftly that I have not had +composure enough to think of writing.</p> + +<p>The remains of my brother reached here on the 29th ultimo. Mr. +Hartwell, Mr. Hill and Mr. Burroughs went out as far as Walpole +on the railroad to meet the train on which the body was being +brought.</p> + +<p>The miners were taken home by Mr. Hartwell. On examination my +poor brother's face was found to look quite natural, and it +wore an expression so restful that I could not help but feel as +though it was an indictation that after his hard physical toil +and fierce mental troubles, he was at peace at last.</p> + +<p>Mabel, you know, has been with me since she graduated in June. +On receiving the dispatch we telegraphed to Mildred at Mt. +Holyoke to come home at once, so both girls were with me when +the remains arrived.</p> + +<p>From the two miners who came with the body Mr. Hartwell +received the Nevada papers giving an account of the accident in +which James was killed; also a letter from the superintendent +of the mine, stating that after all expenses were paid my poor +brother left eight hundred and forty dollars to his children. +This we all thought was most wonderful, considering the amount +regularly sent the children. It shows that poor James lived a +most economical life in the West and that the wages paid there +are generous.</p> + +<p>The letter of the superintendent stated that the two miners who +were to accompany the remains home had risked their lives in +trying to rescue James, and the published account showed that +one of them had fainted in the dreadful chamber of the mine +while the exhaustion of the other was so extreme that he was +entirely prostrated and seized with chills and vomiting upon +being brought out into the open air.</p> + +<p>Of course myself and the girls were anxious to meet and thank +these men, but I confess that at the same time we all dreaded +the interview awfully. Good land! You know what we have been +reading about Western miners for the last twenty-five years, +and we could not help but feel that if they should prove to be +quiet men it would only at best be a case of wild beast with a +collar and chain on. And what to do with them at the funeral +was something which had been troubling us ever since the +receipt of the dispatch. It was to be in church and on Sunday +and it was certain that there would be a church full of people. +How to be polite, and at the same time how to get those men in +and out of a church without their doing something dreadful was +a question which I confess had worried me and I could see that +it was worrying Mabel, too. Mildred did not seem to think much +about it.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hartwell called upon us and told us he was going to bring +them over at once and we sat down in fear and trembling to wait +their arrival.</p> + +<p>You can never imagine our surprise when Mr. Hartwell showed +them into our parlor and we saw them for the first time. Both +were young men, one not more than thirty, and the other not +more than twenty-four years of age; both were dressed with +perfect taste, in dark business suits of fashionable clothes, +and though slightly confused—I guess startled is a better +word—both, with considerate gentleness, and with a grave +courtesy, in low voices, addressed me first and then the +children.</p> + +<p>They expected to find school children, they met young ladies—I +may say beautiful young ladies if I am their aunt—and I think +the surprise for a moment threw them off their guard.</p> + +<p>But they certainly were not more astonished than were we. Mabel +well nigh broke down, but Mildred, with her more matter-of-fact +nature, bore the ordeal nobly.</p> + +<p>While the girls were talking I stole the opportunity to look +more closely at the men. My surprise increased every moment. +Instead of a pair of bronzed bruisers, they stood there with +faces that were as free from tan as the face of a +closely-housed woman. They were each of about medium height, +but with broad shoulders, tremendous chests and powerful arms. +The younger one had a firm foot and large hand and the frankest +open face you ever looked into. The other had smaller hands, +feet and features, but their heads were both superb, and the +first words they spoke revealed that both were fairly educated. +The younger one was light with auburn hair. He wore a heavy +mustache; the rest of his face was clean shaven. The other was +darker with gray eyes, brown hair, with full beard, but neatly +trimmed, and the hair of both was of fashionable cut. I tell +you, sister, as they stood there they would have borne +inspection even in Boston.</p> + +<p>After the first greetings were over and we had all gained a +little composure, the men explained to us that James was +possessed of more property than he himself was aware of, and +one of them handed to Mabel a paper which he called "a bill of +exchange" on a Boston bank for forty two thousand six hundred +dollars. Since then they have explained that the money was made +by a friend of my brother, and that it was accomplished by +buying stocks when they were low and selling them when they +were high, which seems to me to be a most profitable business. +You see it makes the girls rich when they thought they were so +poor, and were counting only on lives of hard work.</p> + +<p>The visit of the young men was only a very brief one, not five +minutes in duration it seemed to me, but they were moments of +great excitement to our little household as you may well +believe. When they were gone Mabel said: "Are they not +perfectly splendid?" and I said: "Indeed, they are," but +Mildred merely said: "They seem to be real gentlemen." That +Mildred is the strangest girl.</p> + +<p>The funeral was to be the next day, and in anticipation of it +we had bought cheap mourning hats and plain bombazine mourning +habits, such as I thought would be becoming to people in our +circumstances. But when I learned that the girls were no longer +poor, I thought it would be only proper that they should have +more expensive dresses. So as soon as the young men had gone, I +sent a message to Mrs. Buffets, the dressmaker, and Mrs. +Tibbetts, the milliner, asking them to do me the favor to call +upon me at once, if possible. They both called within a few +minutes. Before they came, however, I explained to the girls +what I had done, at which Mabel was very glad, but Mildred +seemed perfectly indifferent. She hardly spoke after the young +men went away for several minutes. I think their coming had +turned her thoughts back more intently upon her father. Mrs. +Tibbetts came first and from her Mabel ordered three expensive +hats. I expostulated against her buying a hat for me but she +would have it so. When we explained what was wanted to Mrs. +Buffets, she declared at first that it was impossible without +working after twelve o'clock on Saturday night which she did +not like to do as she was a member in good standing in the +First Baptist church, but she finally agreed that she would +try, provided we would pay what would be extra for her sewing +girls. This she estimated would amount on three dresses to at +least seven dollars and a half. I have no idea that the girls +got more than half a dollar apiece extra and there were but +seven of them, and that the rest was clear gain to Mrs. +Buffets, but that is the advantage which is always taken of +people when there is a funeral.</p> + +<p>We had a hard time with Mildred. She insisted that two dresses +and hats were all that were required, one for Mabel and one for +aunty; that as yet she was a school girl and the cheap raiment +was good enough for her. I think she would have refused to +yield had I not told her that unless she did I would not accept +either hat or habit; then she consented.</p> + +<p>Of course, it may seem like vanity to speak of such a thing in +so sad a connection, but the dresses were most lovely. The +girls' were of rich and soft cashmere, mine was of Henrietta +cloth. I must say that in the new clothes the girls did look +beautiful at the funeral, and I was as proud of them as I could +be on so sad an occasion.</p> + +<p>That Saturday evening after we talked the matter over, the +girls sent an invitation over to Mr. Hartwell's house to the +miners to attend the funeral with us. The invitation was +answered by the younger miner, Harding. He accepted the +invitation for himself and his friend, stating that Ashley (the +other one) was temporarily absent in the city. The note was +beautifully written and every word was spelled correctly.</p> + +<p>Next morning, a few minutes before it was time to proceed to +the church, the young men came in.</p> + +<p>They were scrupulously dressed in black and their attire even +to their hats and gloves was in perfect taste.</p> + +<p>Mildred betrayed more agitation than on the first meeting. She +is a strange girl and the loss of her father almost crushed +her. Mabel, however, received them with a grace which was +queenly and in her new robes she looked like a queen indeed.</p> + +<p>When it came time to go to the church, I supposed, of course, +the young men would offer to escort the girls. Besides Mildred, +Mabel and myself, Aunt Abigail, James' wife's grandmother had +come down to the funeral. You know she is old now—past 73; she +never was very pretty and coming down from the country her +dress and bonnet—good land, she was a sight.</p> + +<p>Mabel could not conceal her mortification, and I must say I +should have been glad if she had not come.</p> + +<p>As we stood up to go, the younger miner said gently: "Ashley, +will you not see to Mrs. Wolcott?" and then he went up to Aunt +Abigail and with as much kindly politeness as I ever saw +displayed, asked her to lean upon him in the walk to the +church. The other one gave me his arm, at the same time saying: +"The young ladies are the nearer relatives, they should walk in +front." His face was fair, but the arm I took was as hard as +iron.</p> + +<p>I said: "No matter, Mildred take the other arm of Mr. Ashley +and Mabel take that of Mr. Harding!" This was done except that +somehow in the confusion Mildred took the arm of Harding and +Mabel sought the disengaged arm of Ashley.</p> + +<p>At the church we were seated in the front pew, of course. You +never saw such a crowd at a funeral. I noticed as we worked our +way up the aisle, men there that had not been in a church +before for years.</p> + +<p>There were, besides, the Brown, the Smith and the Jones +families who were never before known to attend an ordinary +funeral.</p> + +<p>I mention this merely to show how much James was respected.</p> + +<p>The services were most impressive. The organ was played as we +entered the church. When we were seated there was a short +prayer, then a chant with organ accompaniment was rendered. +Professor Van Dyke, the music teacher at the seminary, presided +at the organ and Jane Emerson led the sopranos. She sang her +best and people do tell me that they have paid money to hear +women sing in concerts that could not sing as well as Jane +Emerson. If Jane was only a little better looking and knew how +to dress in better style and if her father only belonged to a +better family, there would not be a young woman in Taunton with +brighter prospects than hers.</p> + +<p>Mr. Ashman's main prayer was a most touching one and it moved +many in the congregation to tears. He preached from John, the +fourteenth chapter and eighteenth verse.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It was generally conceded that the sermon was one of the +minister's best efforts since be preached in Taunton. Miss Hume +who was present says she never heard a finer discourse in +Boston.</p> + +<p>The burden of the sermon was that the promise to send a +comforter to the disciples was a promise made for all time, to +those in sorrow, that if they would but ask, the comforter +would come to them. When the sermon was over and the choir had +sung again; the minister said, as many persons present would +like to know the particulars of James' death he would read the +account from the <i>Territorial Enterprise</i>, a paper published in +Virginia City only a few miles from the Nevada mines. He said +further that the report was written by a Mr. De Quille, who he +presumed was a descendant of the distinguished family of France +of that name, that the account showed that he was a very +learned man and graphic writer, and such a man could only be +retained by the receipt of an enormous salary.</p> + +<p>He further explained that where the word shaft was used it +meant a hole like a well which men sunk in order to get the +rock out from underground that had silver in it, that drifts +were places in the mines where the rock that had the silver in +it lay in ridges like snow drifts; that stations were where men +kept lunch stands for the miners, that tunnels were holes made +in the shape of a funnel to get air down in the mine, that a +winze was a corruption for windlass, and cages were simply +elevators, like those in use in hotels, but made like cages so +that men could not fall out, that run up and down in the well.</p> + +<p>You never at a revival saw a congregation so excited as that +one was during the reading of that account. They tell me that +men were as pale as death all over the house while the sobbing +of women could be heard above the reading.</p> + +<p>But our two miners never showed a bit of emotion and never +seemed conscious that every eye in the church was on them. The +only things I noticed were that during the singing the older +one was softly beating time on his hymn book, and both moved a +little uneasily in their seats when the minister was explaining +the mining terms.</p> + +<p>After the children had looked for the last time on their +father's face, the young men who had been standing at the foot +of the coffin, walked up to the head, one on each side. After a +long gaze at James' face they turned facing each other and +stretching out their hands, clasped hands a moment over the +coffin. I suppose that is a custom among miners in the west.</p> + +<p>Brother's body was buried beside that of his wife.</p> + +<p>The young men remained in Taunton two weeks after the funeral. +We all went on a little excursion to Buzzards Bay and to Cape +Cod. I never saw better behaved men, even those that come down +from Boston, than those two miners. They received a great many +attentions, too, here in Taunton and every day were obliged to +decline invitations to dinner.</p> + +<p>There is a story going around, but I do not believe it is true, +that one morning early they went to a livery stable and asked +for two wild horses, regular furies, that had thrown their +riders the previous day, that they mounted them and the horses +reared and plunged awfully but they rode rapidly out of town; +that they were gone an hour and a half and when they returned +the horses were covered with foam and seemed perfectly gentle.</p> + +<p>Just before going away they came over one day to my house and +telling the girls that they had received so many kindnesses +from so many people that they wanted to make a little picnic +festival in Mr. Hartwell's grounds, asked them to help suggest +names for the invitations. The festival was to be the next +afternoon. What do you think? That morning carpenters came and +fixed benches and tables on the grounds, the three o'clock +train brought the —— Cornet Band from Boston, and at five +o'clock in the afternoon the waiters in the —— Hotel +appeared, set the tables and waited on the guests. They had +sent up to Boston for the dinner and I never saw anything like +it in my life.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hartwell says the expense must have been at least two +hundred and twenty-five dollars. Those Western men are awfully +extravagant.</p> + +<p>Next morning they went away. The older one to Pennsylvania, +where he will live hereafter, and the other one to California, +where he has property. We have been real lonesome ever since +they went away.</p> + +<p>Mildred left us yesterday to return to school, and will +graduate next June, she says on the day she is eighteen. Mabel, +you know, was eighteen and a half when she graduated last June, +but Mildred always was a little the most forward scholar of her +age. Since the funeral the girls have purchased some beautiful +clothing, and it would do your heart good to see them. My +letter is pretty long but I could tell you as much more if I +had time.</p> + +<p>Your loving sister,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha Wolcott</span>.</p> + +<p>P. S.—I want to tell you a secret. I think that Ashley, the +older miner, and Mabel have a liking for each other, though I +don't know, except that I saw Ashley kiss Mabel as he was going +away. All I can say is that if they should make a match, there +would not be a handsomer couple in Massachusetts. It is only a +surmise on my part that they are fond of each other. After the +young men had been gone for several hours I asked Mabel if +there were any serious relations between her and Ashley, and +she answered: "Not the least serious auntie, our relations are +altogether pleasant."</p> + +<p>M. W.</p></blockquote> + +<p>The next letter from Mrs. Wolcott to Mrs. Roberts read like this:</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Taunton</span>, Sept. 13th, 1879.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Sister</span>:—It is now almost a year since I wrote you the +letter telling you of brother James' funeral and that I half +suspected a fondness had sprung up between one of the men who +came with the remains of James and Mabel. Well, I was correct +in my suspicion for last Thursday they were married and left by +the evening train for their future home in Pennsylvania. He has +an iron mine in the mountains and reduction works at Pittsburg +and is making money very fast. Their home is in Pittsburg.</p> + +<p>I thought at first that I was mistaken because no letters came +to Mabel, but it seems Mabel made a confident of her cousin +George who is a conductor on a train which runs between here +and Providence, he hired a box in the postoffice there, Mabel's +letters were sent to that postoffice and George brought them to +her. This was done to thwart the curiosity of the wife of the +postmaster here. The postmaster himself is a good meaning man, +but his wife is a real gossip and had frequent letters come +from one place to Mabel the whole town would have known it in +no time. When it was known that the girls had received a large +amount of money the Browns, the Smiths and the Proctors, who +had never called before, all came and begged Mabel, now that +she had graduated, (look at the hypocrisy) to come out more in +the world. Young Henry Proctor called several times and in less +than a fortnight asked Mabel if he might not sit up with her on +Saturday nights. He is a very proud young man and it is said he +will have twelve thousand dollars when he goes out for himself +next year, but Mabel declined any particular attentions from +him. She did the same thing with half a dozen more young men of +the best families. I was perplexed. Of course I was in no hurry +for Mabel to marry, but good opportunities for girls are none +too plenty, so many young men go West, and when I saw her throw +away chance after chance, and some of them so eligible, I was +afraid she would be sorry sometime, for careless as girls are, +they all expect sometime to be married. It went on so until six +weeks ago when suddenly one evening Mabel said: "Auntie come go +with me to Boston to-morrow." "What are you going to Boston +for?" I asked. "There is a young man coming here to carry me +away in a few weeks, Aunty, and I need a few things," said she. +"And who is the young man, Mabel?" I asked. "Herbert Ashley," +was the answer, and then she fell on her knees and burying her +face in my lap sobbed for joy. I cried a little, too, it was so +sudden. "But when were you engaged?" I asked after she grew a +little composed. "We have had a perfect understanding since the +week after father's funeral," said she, and then added: "My +heart followed him out of the house on that first day when I +had only looked once in his eyes. Is he not grand, Auntie?" +"But why have you never told me?" I asked. Then she put her +arms around me and said: "Because, dear Aunty, you know you +could not have kept my secret." I was hurt at this, because +every body knows how close mouthed I am. But I went to Boston +and, what do you think? that girl spent over seven hundred +dollars just for clothes. I remonstrated, but she cut me short, +saying, "I am going with my king, and I must not disgrace his +court." Did you ever hear such talk? When I was married I had +just two merino dresses, one brown and one blue, four muslin +dresses and some plain underclothing. But I had a beautiful +feather bed that I had made myself, four comforters, two +quilted bed spreads in small patterns, and a full set of dishes +that cost six dollars and a half in Portland. Things are +greatly changed since I was a girl. Well, Mr. Ashley came; he +is a splendid man. Mabel slipped away with her cousin and went +down to Providence to meet him. He brought Mabel jewelry that +the best judges here think cost as much as a thousand dollars. +It is shameful, the extravagance of those Western men. Why, he +gave the minister that married them fifty dollars, which you +know yourself was a clear waste of forty-five dollars. Five +dollars is certainly enough for five minutes work of a +minister, especially if he and his wife are also given a fine +supper. Mr. Ashley also gave Mildred some beautiful jewelry. It +must have cost two hundred and fifty dollars, and he was most +generous to me, too. On his wedding day he got five dispatches +from the West; one from Illinois, two from Virginia City, +Nevada, and two from California, congratulating him, and they +must have cost the senders as much as fifty dollars. Thank +goodness, they all came marked "paid." The wedding was in the +church in the evening. It had been whispered around and the +church was full. Land sakes, but they were a lovely couple. +Mabel's dress was white satin with princesse train of brocaded +satin. The front of the skirt was trimmed with lace flounces, +headed with garlands of lilies of the valley and orange +blossoms. She wore also a long tulle veil, with orange blossoms +in the hair. Her dress cost one hundred and fifty-three dollars +and thirty-seven cents. I did not think the train was necessary +and there was no need of a veil, leastwise not so long a one, +but it was Mabel's wish to have them, so I did not object. Mrs. +White said she never saw a handsomer bride in Boston nor a more +manly looking groom. I confess I was proud of them both. We had +a quiet little party at my house and a supper, and at ten +o'clock they went away by special train to Providence. Think of +the foolishness of hiring a special train, when the regular +train would have come by next morning. Mr. Ashley wanted to +have what he called a "boss wedding;" wanted to ask half the +town and, as he said, "shake up Taunton for once," but Mabel +coaxed him out of the idea. He wanted me to sell or rent my +place and with Mildred go and make his home mine, but I don't +think that is the best way. Young married folks want to be let +alone mostly, while they are getting acquainted with each +other. Mildred has been home since she graduated in June. I +think she has discouraged more men since she came home than +ever Mabel did. She has improved greatly in her personal +appearance and is a girl of most decided character. When she +first came home we used to tease her about her beaux, but we do +not any more. When the young men were here last year, after we +got pretty well acquainted, one day when they had called +Mildred took a sheet of paper and pen and going to Mr. Harding, +said: "Mr. Harding, please write an inscription to put upon +Father's monument." He took the pen and wrote: "The truest, +best of men." Well, one day about a month ago Mildred had gone +down town for something when Mabel wanting scissors, or thimble +or something which she had mislaid, went to Mildred's work +basket to get hers. There under some soft wools that Mildred +had been working upon Mabel saw the end of a ribbon and picking +it up drew out a locket which was attached to it. She could not +control her curiosity but brought it to me. I gave Mabel +liberty to open it though my sense of perfect justice was a +good deal shocked. To tell the truth I was dying to see what +was in it. Mabel opened it and inside there was nothing but +that bit of paper with the words in Harding's hand-writing: +"The truest, best of men." There were some stains on the paper +but whether they were made by kisses or tears we could not make +out though I put on my gold-rimmed spectacles, which are +powerful magnifiers, and looked my best. Mabel put the locket +back, but to this day there has not been a word said to give me +any idea whether there is anything like an engagement or not. +Mildred is so quiet and self-contained that if her heart was +breaking I do not believe she would say a word. I should be +glad to think they were engaged, for privately, I liked Mr. +Harding a little the best, but if they had been it seems to me +he would have been here to the wedding. I don't know when I +have been so worked up about anything. If I was fifteen years +younger, and I thought the majority of men in the West were +like the two that I have seen, I would sell my place and go +West, too.</p> + +<p>Your affectionate sister,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha Wolcott</span>.</p> + +<p>P. S.—When Mr. Ashley was here he took the girls out to James' +grave. We had put up a plain stone but Mr. Ashley did not like +it. When he came in he ordered the finest monument in the +marble works. Those that have seen it say it is real Italian +marble, and that it is handsomer than the one that the banker +Sherman erected over his wife and that cost over five hundred +and fifty dollars.</p> + +<p>M. W.</p></blockquote> + +<p>This letter explains itself:</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Los Angeles</span>, Cal., March 20, 1880.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Darling Sister</span>:—We reached our home here last night. While +I write the perfume of almonds and orange blossoms, of climbing +vines, and roses shedding their incense in lavish fragrance +steals in through the open window. A mocking bird is mimicking +an oriole's warblings, and I fancy I feel at this moment as do +ransomed souls when amid the mansions of the redeemed they open +their eyes and know that for them joy is to be eternal. You +have always called me "Old Matter-of-Fact." Well, then, just +imagine me sitting here half blinded by the tears of happiness +that I can not restrain.</p> + +<p>But let me tell you of my journey. You remember that though the +sky was bright overhead—as bright as it can be in +Pittsburg—on the morning that we were married, when we took +the train in the evening it was snowing hard. Before morning +the train was delayed by the snow. We worried along, however, +and the next evening arrived at Peoria, Illinois. Here an old +friend of my husband (is not that word husband lovely?) your +husband and father's, with his wife met us at the depot and we +had to go home with them and stay two days. The man's name is +Carlin and he is "a splendid fellow," as they say out this way. +He was one of the Club to which our husbands belonged. He has a +mill, store and farm a few miles from Peoria and seems to be +the first man in that region. He has, too, a charming wife whom +he calls "Susie Dick," and a six months' old baby which he +calls "Brewster Miller Carlin." They are as hearty people in +their friendship as I ever met. They asked all about your +husband, and yourself, and I had to get out your photograph to +convince them that you were far more beautiful than myself. +When we arrived Mr. Carlin sent out and got in some twenty +couples, and to use his own expression, "we made a night of +it," and "painted the town red," that is until midnight. They +made me sing and play, and one old gentleman present made me +proud, by telling me "you beat ord'nary primer donners." After +the company retired Mr. Carlin asked me how I liked the old +gentleman's pronunciation, and then husband said the old +gentleman knew as much about music as our minister in Taunton +did about mining. Then he told Mr. Carlin what Mr. Ashman said +about tunnels, drifts, stations, etc., and the man laughed +until the tears ran down his cheeks. Well, at length, with +blessings, presents, and packed lunch baskets, we got away. All +through Illinois and Iowa the world was hid by the snow, we +passed Omaha, crossed Nebraska, climbed the Rocky Mountains and +came down on this side, and swept across the desert of Nevada +to Reno. Here we stopped and next day went to Virginia City. I +wanted to visit the place where our father died. In Virginia +City—which is a city on a desert mountain side—you cannot +conceive of such a place—the wind was blowing a hurricane; +blowing as at the old home, it comes in sometimes from the +ocean in a southeaster. Husband took me to the fatal Bullion +shaft. The men were just then changing shift as they call it; +the men who had worked eight hours were coming out of the mine, +those who were to work the next eight hours were going down. +The shaft is half a mile deep and the cage loaded with nine men +shoots up out of the dreadful gloom or drops back into it as +though it were nothing. Many of the miners greeted husband +warmly, and were hearty in their welcomes to me, though they +were not encumbered by any great amount of clothing. I turned +away from the shaft almost in a panic, I could not bear to took +at it. But Virginia City is a wonderful place, I would tell you +more of it, if you had not some one near you who can tell it +much better than I can. We met a great many pleasant people +there, especially a lawyer named Col. Savage, a journalist, a +Mr. Strong and a Professor Stoneman. They met us like brothers +and spoke of your Herbert as another brother. We left that same +evening and returning to Reno started up the Sierras. I confess +that a feeling of something like desolation took possession of +me. The region was so dreary, it seemed to me that only my +husband was between me and chaos. After leaving Reno a couple +of hours, we entered the snow sheds and I went to sleep with a +thought that I was under a mountain of snow. I wakened next +morning in Sacramento and when I looked out the birds were +singing and flowers were blooming around me. Before noon we +reached San Francisco and drove to the Palace. There we were +met by a gentleman named Miller, the one that made for father +our money. He is very rich. He told husband that he had been +"coppering" the market ever since he came to the city and had +"taken every trick." Later I asked husband what "coppering" +meant and he smiled and said: "betting that it will not win." I +do not quite understand it yet, but I know it is right for +husband says so. This Mr. Miller told husband that he was going +to make me a present and that he must not say a word at which +Sammy said "go ahead." Then he handed me a little package but +said I must not open it until I reached home. What do you +think? It is a diamond cluster which the cost of must have been +fifteen hundred dollars. In San Francisco I found the most +delicious flowers I ever saw. Tell aunty, too, that there are +no such hotels, as one or two in San Francisco, "not even in +Boston." There are splendid churches and theatres. The Bay is +beautiful, the park is going to be grand, the ladies dress most +richly. We sailed over to Saucelito and San Rafael, looked out +through the Golden Gate—in short, ran around for a week. Then +we came directly home, reaching this place last night.</p> + +<p>A charming supper was in waiting, and, all smiles, the Chinaman +who prepared it was in attendance. His name is Yap Sing, and he +has been with husband ever since his first return from the +East. He was the cook for the Club which you have heard our +husbands talk about, and of course knew father. He fairly ran +over with joy at our coming, and such a cook as he is. I would +like to hear what Aunt Martha would say to one of his dinners. +But husband pays him forty dollars a month. Is not that a +dreadful price for a cook?</p> + +<p>We have received good news since coming home. Husband's mine in +Arizona is yielding him for his one-half interest twelve +hundred and fifty dollars per month.</p> + +<p>My house is a beautiful cottage, with broad halls and verandas, +and is furnished elegantly all through.</p> + +<p>My heart runs over with gratitude. My soul is on its knees in +thankfulness all the time. I believe I am the happiest woman in +the world. "The truest and best of men" sits across the room +writing letter after letter, clearing up a delayed +correspondence. He is handsomer than on that day when I first +looked in his eyes, and knew in an instant that he was my fate, +that I should worship him forever, whether he knew it or not; +that if he did not ask me to be his wife, I should never be a +wife, but by myself should walk through life bearing my burdens +as humbly and bravely as I could, and keeping my heart warm by +the flame in the vestal lamp which his smile had kindled within +it.</p> + +<p>Now heaven has opened to me, and so jubilant is my heart that I +can feel it throbbing as I write, and with a thankfulness +unspeakable I worship at my hero's feet.</p> + +<p>With warmest love to you, dear sister, and to your husband and +Auntie, in which my other self joins heartily, I am</p> + +<p>Your loving sister,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mildred Brewster Harding</span>.</p> + +<p>P. S.—Sister: This morning as we sat here I asked my lord why +he and your husband clasped hands over our father's coffin. +Waiting a moment, he answered that on the journey East with +father's body, your husband and himself made a covenant +together that henceforth, whatever might happen, they would +watch over us as a sacred trust received from our father, and +that the hand-clasp was but an involuntary pledge of the +sincerity of that compact.</p> + +<p>Can we ever be good enough wives to these men who do not half +realize how grand they are?</p> + +<p>Love and kisses,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mildred</span>.</p></blockquote> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Comstock Club, by Charles Carroll Goodwin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMSTOCK CLUB *** + +***** This file should be named 36123-h.htm or 36123-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/1/2/36123/ + +Produced by David Garcia, Justin Gillbank, Mary Meehan and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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