Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1863-11-23
Ross Browne Taketh a SquiRt at
Gold Hill. - '-T-.

This somewhat noHd traveller is writing
letters for the s. F. Bulletin, and in his last,
gives the following graphic hof a squins
at our town: -..
A STRANGE ScENE.-Decending the slope
of the ridge that divides Gold Hill from Vlr-
pinia City, q strange scene attracts the eye
He who Qazes upon il for the first time IS
apt to doubt if it be real. Perhaps there IL
not another spot upon the face OF the giooe
that presents a scene 30 wierd and desOlate
in its natural aspect, yet 80 replete with BUSY
life, SO animate with human interest. IL Is
as if wondrous battle ragged, in which the
combatants were man and earth. Myrlads
of swarthy, bearded, dust-covered men are
piercing i..tI the grim Old naountains, ripping
them open thrusting murderous holes through
their naked bottles piiing up engines to cut
out their vital arteries stamping and crush,
ing ap their disemboweled fragments, and
holding fendish revels amid the chaos Of de-
struction; whilst the mighty earth, blasted,
barren and SCARED by the tempests OF ages
fercey ahronts the foe, smiling him with
disease and death; scuthng at his pmy as
saults with a grim scorn; ever grand IN his
desolation, ever dominant in the lnhnlly OF
his endurance. "Come !" he seems TO NUT
ter, "dig, delve, pierce and bore, with your
picks, your shoyels, and your Internal ma
chimes; wiring out my veins few glooules
of the precious blood hoard it, spend Il,
bring perdition upon your souls with lido
what YOU will, puny insects sooner or later
the death-blow smites you, and Earth s"ai-
lows you! From earth you came-to eartn
you go again .r,l, .-,..
The city lies on rugged slope, and is sim
gularly picturesque at the first yle~. Inc
0ddity Of its plan and the variety OF Its archi'
lecture, combining all the styles known 70
the ancients and great many but little
known to the moderns, give it somewhat
grotesque appearance, which Is rather IN
creased upon a close inspection.
Immense freight-wagons, with ponderous
wheels and axles, piled up with .prodlgous
c. goes of merchandise in boxes. bales, bags
and crates, block the narrow streets. rover
ful teams of horses, mules or oxen, number
ing from two to dozen animals TO eacn
wagon, make frantic efforts to drag these
land-schooners over the ruts and up the sud
den rises or through the sinks OF this rut'
smitten, eyer-rising. ever-sinking city. Smok-
ing hot, reeking with sweat, dripping with
liquifed d st, they pull. jerk, groan, fall back
and dash forward, tumble down, kick, plunge,
and bite; then buckle to it again; and so
/ live and so struggle for their pittance OF bar
lev and hay till they drop down never more
to rise. How welcope death would be TO
these poor animals ifSthey had souls Yet
men have souls, and work hard too for their
miserable pittance of food. How many OF the
countless millions Of the earth yearn for
death or welcome its coming'. Even the
teImste:s tlat drive these struggling labor.
worn teams, seem 80 fond Of life that
they scorn eietnity. Brlwny, bearded fel;;
lows they are. their faces so ingrained
with the dust and grit of earth, and tanned
t. such an uncertain hue by the scorchinng
suns. and dry winds Of the road, that for the
doos or Belooches. With what malignan.
zeal they crack their leatheT-thonged Whips.
and with what ferocious vigor they rend the
air with their impreeations Oh Plutus
such swearing-a sliding-scale Of oaths tc
which swearing in all other parts ofthe world
is as the mnrmuring of a gentle brook to the
volume and rush and thunder of cataract