Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1869-05-21
Come home, Sc.


Efoh 'ie ooHuch hE"
There Is fellow over at Ground
hogs's Glory who has rich claim
for sale. Sam Hodgers heard of IL
the other day and went over there to
see what the chances were for max
Ing bargain. Sam Ii dissatisfied
sort of a fellow, and IL always try.
Ing to buy into something rich. So,
as was saying, he bulged right over
to Groundhog's Glory the moment
he heard of IL, ...u... ....gH
When he got there he found that
the owner of the claim and his wife
had gone on visit to another family
on the Big Bug canon. The only
person about the place was q small
boy, about IL years old. From him
Sam obtained some information
which the owner himself might moi
have communicated.
Sam went down with the boy and
took look at the claim. While Inc
was casting his eye about the boy sa,
on the bank whistling "Oh, Gosh
my own Jemima."
Having finished his survey, San
went mp and sat down beside the In
nocent Juvenile. '."t
"Bub," said he, "I've heard this 1
a rich claim, and 1t does look prett,
vel, now to tell the honest truth
what does your father want to sci
out for If it's as rich as they say ?p
The small boy stepped VIII istllng
cooked his head OH one side, close,
one eye and squinted ut Sam with
the other. ..
stranger, have you got half dol
lar about your If you have, per
haps / wouldn't mind telling you.'
Sam forked over the half dollar
and the boy looked at it a momen
and whistled "Get out of the wilder
ness" .
"Well, felIer, bein' as It's you,
don't objec' to saying that the reason
dad wants to sell this 'ere claim i
cause it's too rich.n .
'Too rich! Played out" put il
Sam. '
Now, stranger. yon jest hol,
your hosses till / get through, and
will explain 1t to you. You see thi
amt like claims where the gold Is II
sandy gravel, and mostly In the be,
rock, but the bank here Is nearly al
clay, and there Is heaps and gobs o
fine gold all the way through it,
The clay Is the alkfiredest stickies
stuff that ever wuz, and you can't be
gin to work IL. When dad gets I,
work down there he maturity get
the darned stuff all over him, an,
when he comes home at night he'
jest coated with IL about six inche
deep, more or less, and this clay
plum full of gold"
III don't see that that is any reason
for his wanting to sell out" inter
rupted Sam.
well, old hoss, you keep cool an
don't get rampagious an I'll tell yo
how 1t Is. When dad comes In a
night he's mighty tired; but man
you see, Is such an awful economics
woman that she don't like to see q
much gold wasted as dad has abou
him in the clay every night, 50 mar
she alters turns in and cleans hir
up. AT first she used to be satisfie
with scraping him down with ho
and panning him out. They mad
lots of money at that. He used
pan out rich, / tell you. But prett,
soon mann got unsatisfied cause
took too long to pan him out ever
night, besides, she didn't get half th
gold. The clay was SO sticky
wouldn't wash good. Then she ge
a string of sluices out in front OF til
house and put up little hydrauli
and used to pipe him Off Dad wa
dreadful mad about 1t. You ougl
to hear him growl and euss. ii
said that 1t was too wearin' for
man to work in the drain all day an
then to be worked himself at night
He had toSgive In, though. Mar
said he shouldn't board with her
he didn't and that fetched him, yo
bet.
"Things ran on i'm this way fc
some time. The old woman mad
two or three hundred dollars a wee
reg, liar. But as told you before
she was awful savin', and she foun
she couldn't pipe him Off clean an
lost ever so much in the tailins.-
You don't know how sticky the ella
Ii around here. The only ~ay yo
can work 1t clean is to chuck 1t int
a kittle of bilin' water and bile II fc
two or three hours. That's the wa
the fellow that first struck the clair
used to work the rich crevices.
Nam heard of this, and she though
! that II she could work tho old ma
in some such way she could save til