The union Democrat., 1869-06-05
The TuoiuEfae,

ed the Tuolumpe. from the brow OF Red Noun
taine, I took of my hat out of reverence tor
old memories and associations. The oc-
casion was worthy better hattoo. For there
was the Red Mountain House. surrounded
with trees and vines. Bob Garner Gsei
10 keep store in that house. The "heys
used TO trade there. ana board there and drink
whisky there ia the river turning season.
Ard in mere quiet times Pete lIalieman and
myself used 10 come up there o'nIghts and
talk politics and Lecomp;on ana anti -Leeomp-
tonism with that same " Bob Garner" That
was ten years ago. All that has passed away
Stony Bar is quiet ana deserted save ty a
few Cinnamon, whose light yelowiSh garb
they are eruhhing amongst the cabins which
lined the river bank, the wheels, the pumps,
the fumes, all the paraphernaiia Of river min
ing have passed away, and SO have the hopes,
fears and disappaintments connected with
them. Bur the ruolumne fre;s and roars
among the rocks and boulders, and covers
bars JUS, as ever. Quiet and grand. the noun
outliLe of their SUBMITS. They have seen
the beginning and nearly the end OF the fuSs
which the man mites made in the river bed
The mites looked up ard said. Behold MS! /!
are not we and our works mighty" The
mountains laughed and she'd from their sides
the food to relieve the tortured aud damned
up river Twenty years ago, the primeval
solitude was broken by the rush Of 10 "
To day, it is nearlv restored
pass through Hawkins Br. One 49er.
Alex. Smith holds possession of the place
saw none of the porulace as passed through
There was one house standing, and a cow and
her litter of pigs were prcmenadirg the hill
sides.
Stop under this bush aud rest. Shut your
ewes! Twenty years ago these banks were
lined with men and rockers. The crash of
gravel rafting III the sioves Of the cradles
fell Oh the ear of the conner. as for the
first time from the road up y0nder. his eye
caught the river, Ike the chatter and roar Of
Is cotton factory. There was a coming and
going OF men with blankets, teams were bring
nag supplies down that quilted track which
was once a road; cabins Of log, cabins Of
brush. cabins of canvass were gong NJ. Sun
per time. and squads If miners were seer
coming up the bank 10 their evening meal.
carving pans. on whose bottoms shoue mar
vellous pile Of the yellow metal for DAYS
work Gawlpy was taking cut his regular
round day from Gawley's point. and Bob
Garner" was behind his counter selling whi<-
XIV at two bits per g'asa, boots an ounce per
pair and srolding Mike Kpnugh for huving
such miserable cigars in Stockton. or if he
must bring them. telling him to brig some
miserable men along, who could smoke them.
Opea yonr eyes, All is still md quie.
The river rolls. and roars, and fams as IT did
ere Mar>hal's eva fell on the first nugget at
Snuer's Mill; but the rattling rockers and
busy crowd ere gone; gone. save few lying
Wonder on the hill side, among those falling
palings. The dead generally prove rerma-
merit settlers. Half mile down on Wonder
point something moves. 1t is an Asiatic
rocking out three hits per dav. where n har-
EN- scarem hov in 40, made his regular two
ounces. Gene! the gold has gone also. Take
that awav, and there is peace anywhere.
It is Ike standing among ruins. \ sad
feeling comes over US rs we gaze on tteSe old
cabin sites. rotting log or two, or shattered
mud plasttred chimney marking where they
stood. and then look from them on the piles
of tailings and cobhe stones. the heaping up
of which has cost narhaps such vain expen-
diture of labor. They seem the gravey ard Of
buried hopes and anticipations
Swerts BAR. Here is another Of "Bob
Garnpr's' store sites. In the golden age.
-" Bob Garner" kept store all along this river.
That accounts for the amount he weighed in
those County Conventions He was a good
man. The Lord makes some good men.
Thank God! He put his trust in the river
anys; the boys put theirs in the he'd of the
river The bed rock didn't honor the trust
reposed in it. and hn7ce, that trust reposcs
there still Swett's Bar WAS the abode of
many "hnnest miners" In those DAYS an
"honest miner" was a man who would get
credit at n river store if he could, and wait
until the bed of the river panned out. ere he
linuidated. 1t would have been money in
al Bob Gamers pocket if the river had never
bad any bed and all hands had stuck to bank
cradling.
And there on the ether hank Of the river
was nv old claim. and white man packing
and rocking dirt frc m a cut in the hill side
witch dug myself ter years ago. That's
the way we come down to each others leav-
ings in the r1ineS. | satdnwn few moments
under a hush to have the required s'ghs much
to the disturbance Of a spruce gentleman quail
who chippered and scolded violently. evident
lv anxious on account or MS WE VINO was
probably under some hush hard by, prepar-
ing to make him the happy father of fifteen
or twenty children at a birth. These quails
bring forth their vonng in freshets.
/ passed on to Indian Bar s. Bob Garner"
once kept store at Indian Bar. Say. do you
recollect that Fourth of july dinner eighteen
years ago? when somebody patrio;ically drunk
made speech on the table, and Cesti"uIated
with a hand full of pudding sauce which was
brought down at every extra cutturst OF elo-
oapnce on old -'s bald tead, who was
of course too drunk to notice it. So you re-
collect the after performance. when every
bod tore everybody else : shirt of and Tom
made them un in bundle, tied them 10
water pail and set them adrift down the fu-
olumne. affxing label. notifying wh ever
ricked them up that thew were the tales OF the
Indian Bar. Fourth of July celebration?
And here survive Jim Mur1hy. Jack Ward
and Dick Clcmp. Forty miners are getting
scarce. II is time we knew their names.
VIII Indian Far ever new excitement?
John Sanbnrn's bank claim " hich proved so
rich is n vawning. worked ont gapin the brow
of the hill The copper mines which did not