# Old Misery

Arduous toil, and wild excitement far from civilization in the California of the Fifties, made very real. —The Bookman, May 1924
“It’s just to match the card, Señor Americano.
OLD MISERY
By HUGH PENDEXTER
Author of “Pay Gravel,” etc.
A. L. BURT COMPANY
Publishers New York
Published by arrangement with The Bobbs-Merrill Company Printed in U. S. A.
Copyright, 1923 By HUGH PENDEXTER
Copyright, 1924 By HUGH PENDEXTER
Printed in the United States of America
To Delbert M. Stewart, M.D., Whose Friendship Has Been An Enduring Satisfaction, This Book is Affectionately Dedicated
FOREWORD
   The foundations of the thirty-first state in the Union consisted of placer gold and were unwittingly laid. The precious metal was a magnet that drew from all portions of the globe. No corner was so remote as not to heed the imperious summons once the news leaped oceans and climbed mountains. Men in the prime of life responded, as the adventure was only for the physically fit and resolute. Never was there a land of promise where nature more generously laid down waterways in pleasant valleys for the convenience of the newcomers, nor where the climate was more beneficially arranged. And the bold and eager swarmed to the lonely shore and turned the vast treasure house topsy-turvy. What had been fair vales and majestic forests were shoveled and sluiced into a chaos of raw earth and mud-choked streams.
   Among the thousands who flocked to California were many desperate characters from all climes. Penal colonies in Australia were contributed. England sent her worst from home. France was rid of many villains. A strange mixture of little-understood people, meek and evil, swarmed in from the Orient. South American men were among the first to arrive. No section of the Union that failed to send its good and bad. No laws awaited the in sweeping hordes. In desperation the decent element patched up a system of justice called Vigilance Commit tees whenever conditions in spots became intolerable. San Francisco hanged and terrified and scattered the rogues up and down the great valleys to infect the smaller and more remote communities. The outlying centers imitated the bay, and there were rare hangings.
   But crime and gold are ever pals under certain conditions, or so long as a new mining country is without homes, and is not interested in homes. The law-abiding are actuated by the selfish desire to secure plenty of gold and return whence they came. Doctors abandoned their practices, lawyers deserted the court-room, ministers of the gospel ceased from preaching, tradesmen and work men of all classes forgot their helpful vocations in the mad scramble for gold. When the entire mass of migratory males, unleavened at first by the presence of good women, sought only to “strike it rich.” it naturally resulted that the less righteous hunted gold by direct and reprehensible methods.
   A woman with an immigrant train, slowly making her way across the plains and throughout the long, dangerous journey caring for two hives of bees, was more prophetic of a majestic state than a gulch full of gold-mad miners. The man who opened a school in San Francisco was a far more valuable citizen than a judge who left the bench to swing a pick. It was the woman with the beehives and the school master, who planted the idea of “Home” in the rich valleys and along the coast, and made possible a stately structure on foundations of placer gold.

### CONTENTS

* chapterpage
* I. Expensive Entertainment 1
* II. Mr. Peters to the Rescue 35
* III. Old Misery 59
* IV. The Hidden Valley 91
* V. Circumstantial Evidence 124
* VI. A New Medicine 152
* VII. A Mining Transaction 183
* VIII. The Whisperers 215
* IX. Old Miguel Goes to Town 245
* X. “Like a Wolf I Roam” 274
* XI. Seeds of Mutiny 306
* XII. As Proclaimed by Tunkan 346
* author's note*
* catalogue*
* Not included in listing
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1940, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 83 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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