The hydraulic press. (North San Juan, Nev. Co., Cal.) 1858-18??, 1858-10-02

He had now been several years a
miner, working ever with an unfinch-
ing courage that surprised his back
woods companions, one of whom was
"Kentuck," who never could under
stand the phenomenon of Counter
jumping Yankee" taking SO easily to
hard labor.
Such transformations Of city weak
lings into sturdy, persevering workers
have not been rare in California, and
perhaps this change of habits has
been more valuable to thousands than
the discovery of gold. It was about
the only benefit which accrued to
Frank, who was often quite melan-
choly over his bad luck, and talked
mournfully of"the old folks at home. .
But he retained some traces Of his
early habits, in spite of ridicule and
the opposing difficulties of an out>door
migratory existence. He always
wore wrinkled white shirt on the
seventh day, and went on lonely
stroll through the woods, bringing
back wild flowers and different colored
leaves, which he presented for our
admiration. Occasionally he would
obtain newspaper, and I have often
seen him tearing from one-for he
had no scissors-some gem of youth
full poesy, which he would stow away
in his pocket. His pointed nose
blossomed with eternal red, but, al
though I joked him about strong po-
tations, | believe he never imbibed
them.
He had certain fuency and cor
rectncss of speech which made his
personal "reminiscences always enter
tanning, and rendered him quite a
general fayorite at the evening fire.
One night when we had all been
talking over our mining haps, Frank
gave the following chapter from his
own experience:
Ihad been mining at the Honecut
for several weeks with moderate sue
cess, and had got a few hundred dol
lars on hand, when my claim gave
out and I fell into a streak of bad
luck. This continued so long that,in
spite of my resolution never to get
discouraged, my heart began to sick
en- of the diggings and I almost con-
Guided to leave them forever. Pro-
visions were very high, and my daily
expenses, while living on the coarsest
food common to miners, were not less
than three dollars; and you know
boys that prospecting is hard work on
clothes; so my money was getting
pretty low. At this critical time a
mining acquaintance tall, good
looking fellow from Maine, who had
made $4,000 that summer-ofered
to sell me his claim, as he wished to
90 home. After consulting my part
ner we came to the conclusion that it
was better to buy claim that would
pay small wages than to prospect for
fortune, and struck bargain with
our tall friend for $4,000. After
we had paid him the money, and were
feeling very INDECENT all at once, he
said-"Now boys, you just stick to
mining and you'll come out all right
We then shook hands; he turned to-
wards home and we to our new hopes
in our new claim.
Well, we worked hard Tor three
months, and only made twenty two
dollars, and that was in one piece
for the gold in those diggings is all
coarse. This was dreadful. Our
money, hard earned and badly need
ed, all gone, and our prospects not a
whit better than before our purchase.
I could not help imagining our tall
friend enjoying himself on our money
in the pine woods of Maine, and am
afraid my wishes in his behalf were
anything but benevolent: red haired
Tartar for a wife, was the mildest
blessing I invoked for bin. One at
ternoon in an ungovernable fit Of rage
against my Internal, but not unusual
lnck, I threw down my pick on the
edge Of the claim, and danced wildly
around like a Dervish. cursing furi>
ously the while everything within
sight.
Finally my own excess cooled me
down to a dull despair, somewhat
tinctured with sense of foolishness.
I left the claim, crawled into an
adjoining coyote hole, and settled down
in the damp earth ond darkness to
brood sullenly over my condition. A
more listless mood succeeded to this,
Il