Butte record. (Bidwell, Butte County, Cal.) 1853-1858, 1857-02-14

So placid the ferry.
Airy and light, and hiyh above the flood
it spans, hangs our famous bridge, and
g. Like n cloud,
Seems standing in mid air.
But it don't, although we have awaited our
self of the poetic license (which is allowable,
if others are mott and intimated that the
bridge rested on its own resources. 1t has
its firm support from ropes Of wire, which
were pulled together with others,) in
direction that eventually made the structure
what it is Over buttresses on either side
the stream, stretch the iron ropes, and over
all, there hcngs-a law suit--or so Dame
Eumor says, and out of respect to that un.
protected female, we forbear expressions of
disbelief, even If we had any. Bob, and
George, and the two Joes, planned its build
ing, and in time, let out a contract for the
parpose, and the contractor came and
brought workmen with him blacksmiths,
carpenters and masons he brought wire
pullers to, and his employers having learned
that latter trade, kept watch upon the work
ers, and helped to pull the wires, but they
and the contractor didn't pull together, and
to decide which was the proper direction to
pull in, old Mrs Rumor says they've gone
to law.
Cotemporaneously with the building of the
bridge, the time had come when the powers
to whom poor Savage had applied for leave
to run ferry, should give way to others,
and they did give way all but one, and he
sat with his newly elected coadjutors, and
settled the affairs OF his county for better
or worse. Hope had revived again in the
Savage breast, and visions of ferry boats and
strong ropes, and 1.-THE paying travellers
danced through his head, and in his delu-
again, to the new-made guardians of the
commonwealth. for aid and succor in his be-
half But more of this anon.
Our story opens in Bidweil's Bar, which
hamlet, we have said, stands as monument
of the uncertain location of shire towns, and
so indeed it does, for in its long gone days of
glory, courts were held there, and great,
momentous questions were decided in its
halls of Justice The proud form of its Tenn
pie of Astrea still rears its classic beauty
and majesty, high on the hill that over-looks
the the town, and deserted as it now is,
strange tales are told to wondering ears of
suicides committed within it's dungeons, (for
coupled with it is a gaol,) and of doomed
men whose bitterness and woe have erst been
pent therein; but these traditions are all
that occupy those cells, and blind Justice
was led from ont its hall, and to q newer
and better abode. At very respectable
distance from the blind Goddess, came her
wary agent, ice; but the twain did disa-
gree, and seldom consulted one another, ex-
cent on matters that pertained to business,
and even then, the truant Joe too often gave
no heed to his MISTRESS appeals, bat he too
went it blind, and pleased himself.
In the same house where Mademoiselle
Justice is said to abide, sit the deites who
have control of ferries, roads and bridges,
and there, too lives honest John, the chain
bearer, worthy man, with the fear of God
before his eyes, and some of the Judges kale
seed in his pocket. And he, too, plays his
part. but modestly, and we'll, as We shall
see in future.
We said that hope returned to Savage. 1t
did. The denizens of Ophir, through whose
clamor Bidwell was robbed Of its grandeur
as a shire town, and their town elected in
its stead, co -leagued with Savage, and with
many kindly words of encouragement urged
him to 'go in" under an assumed name,
(that of Lemons) and ask again for right to
do business upon the waters. The little
cloud that he'd arisen in the horizon Of the
mighty four Dob. and George, and the two
Joes,) at first no bigger than rich mans
hand, Savage had been one of a war ships
crew. grew larger and denser, and distant
murmurings gave indications of an ap-
preaching tempest, that might. perchance,