Norfolk day book. [volume] (Norfolk and Portsmouth Va.) 1868-1880, 1869-05-28
THE DAY BOOK.
FRIDAY MORNING, May %, 1869.
A CALIFORNIA YARN,

rlch claim Tor sale. Sam Hodg-
ers heard about it and went
over there to see what the
chances were for making a good
bargain. Sam is a dissatisfied
sort of fellow, and is always
trying to buy something rich.
50, as was saying, he bulged
right over to Groundhog's Glory
the moment he heard of it.
Sam went down with the boy
and took a look at the claim.
While he was casting his eye
around, the boy sat on the bank
and whistied, go Gosh my
own Jemima.
Having finished his survey
Sam went up and sat down be-
side the innocent juvenile.
"Bub,'' said he, give heard
that this is a rich claim, and it
does look pretty well. Now to
tell the honest truth, what does
your father want to sell out for
if it is as rich as they say p
The small boy stopped whist
ling, cecked his head to one
side, closed one eye and squinted
thoughtfully at Sam with the
other.
stranger, have you got half
a dollar about you? If you
have perhaps | would mt mind
telling you
Sam torked over the half dol
lar, and the boy looked at it a
moment and whistled, "Get out
Of the Wilderness. -
"Well, Teller, bein' as it is
you, / don't object to saying
that the reason dad wants to
sell this here claim, is cause it
is too rich
"Too rich ! played out, put
in Sam.
| CHOW, stranger you jest hold
yer horses till I get through,
and I'll explain it to you. You
see this amt like other claims
where the gold is in sandy
gravel and mostly in the bed
rock, but the bank here is nearly
all clay, and there's heaps and
| gobs Of fine gold all through
it. The clay is the all-fredest
stickiest stuff that ever wuz and
you can't begin to work it.
When dad gets to work down
there he materially gets the darn
stuff all over him, and when he
comes in at night he s jest coated
with it about six inches deep
more or less, and this clay is
plum full Of gold u
az don't see that that an !
reason for his wanting to sci
out, Y interrupted Sam. s-7
H'Well, old boss, you keep
cool and don't get rampagious,
and I'll tell you how it is.
When dad comes in at night
he's mighty tired, but mann,
you see, is such an awful wo-
man that she don't like to see
SO much gold wasted as dad has
about him in the clay every
night, SO nam she aller turns
in and cleans him up. At first
she used to be satisfied with
scraping him down with hoe
and panning him out. 81 (
made lots of money at that. H
used to pan out rich / tell you.
But pretty soon mann got IN
satisfied cause it took too long
to pan him out every night, land
besides, she didn't get half the
gold. The clay was so sticky
it wouldn't wash good. Then
she got a string OF sluices outin
front of the house and put up
little hydraulic and used to pipe
him off. Dad was dreadful mad
about it. You ought to hear
him growl and cuss. he said
it was too wearin' for a man to
work in the drain all day and
then to be worked hisself at
night. He had to give in,
though. Nam said he shouldn't
Ioard with her if he didn t,and
that fetched him, you bet. +a
CEILINGS ran on i this way
for sometime. The old woman
made too or three hundred dol
lars a week regular. But, as |
told you before, she was awful
savin' and found she couldn't
pipe him off clean and lost ever
so much in the tailin's. You
don't know how sticky the clay
is around here. The only way
in which you can work it clean
is to chuck it into a Kettle of
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