New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-11-20
LETTERS FROM NEXT DOOR.
".
A WOMAN IN THE MINES.


ground is all honey-combed. Occasionally building
breaks through the crust, and drops somewhere out
of sight. When the earth shyers under mans
house he makes up his mind to move as soon as he
shall have time and dismisses so triling care from
his busy brain. The streets are regular, those
running ength-wise lying one above the other like
terraces on the side of Mount Davidson, and the
Cross streets riding up hill perpendicular. like the
fiery Douglass. Up hill or down dale. straight line
or right angle all is one to these Neyadans who drove
MS out of Virginia and into Gold Hill on a simmerng
August morning. Gold Hill is that end of Virginia
lying across the Divide, where the main
street turns q sharp angle, and pitches down
hill with suddenness that has
broken its back in twenty places. But Gold Hill is
by no adjunct tributary. Its three thou
sand people are wise fellows enough to, and fell
lows that have had losses, millions at sweep, and
that have two gowns, and everything handsome
about them. go to! They are separate munich
pality, with daily paper little understood In
deed but strong in advertisements chiefly OF saloons,
and an Opera House, where, when we were in the
city, that distinguished and popular young actress,
Miss Emma Forestel the great female contOrtionist,
was delghtng crowded houses by lying on the backs
Of two chairs and sportivey insisting having large
stones broken on her chest with a sledge-hammer,
and by tying herself up in hard knots and rolling
about the stage with CELEBRITY which made hands
and feet wasteful and ridiculous excess, being as
sisted in these dramatic triumphs by Messrs. Tommy
Mclaughlin and Billy Wilkinson. though what
they did, unless it was TO WELD the sledge-
hammers the bills left to the imagination. Main
st. ia made up of low, square, white
board houses. with here and there more ambitions
one of pale brick. Of mining works pushing up behind
to look over of Saloons of busy, toylke shops, of
mule teams, of dumps of ORE of more saloons, more
houses of men Longing everywhere under the
shade of rude piaZZas, of more mule teams, more
loafers, and more saloons. Here and there up the
steep mountain side or down the wall Of the ravine
perches q miners cabin sort of vagrant shanty,
sitting down. apparently. TO rest a minute before
moving on, such an air of incompeteness and tran
sIent use belongs to it. Miles of narrow wooden
water-trOughs borne along by staggering, cross
legged, wooden trestles, meander everywhere over
the nights to carry little threads of water for the
silver washing. Whoever contTiyed to build them.
where foot of could not cling passes understand
ing All the surface of all the budding mountains
is pierced and broken and scanned with gashes
where ore has been washed for, picked for, blasted
for, dug for. At the famous Yellow Jacket
Mine we got down. going through the neat
plain offices of the Company TO the great
Works behind. From disused shaft filtered up
light, ilI-smeing vapor that has never ceased TO
rise since that dreadful morning in May when the
explosion gave the mine gloomy a nOtoriety
Standing there one felt how horrible thing it was
seeing in imagination the pale wives and children
shudderng over the mouth Of the shaft and feeling
for the first time what utter poverty and desolation
as well as what heartache accident in the
mines means TO so many wretched folk.
We found the same bustling and uncOmpromsing
energy on the part of the machinery the same rush
and hurry on the part of the wOrkmen, the same
enormous silver dustheaps. the costly and sa-
gacious engines the same genial kindness and well
come from Yellow Jackets factors that had made
Savage 80 pleasant remembrance | have forgotten
how rich were certain dul-lOOking Jumps of ore of
the size Of bushebasket, but il was something to
make an honest palm itch. Back in the
SecIetarys room again found a table
all gold and silver and purple with California fruit
Nobody having told the world of California fruit,
take leave 70 say that it is pretty sight as one
shall see in a Summers day. Great yellow and rose
peaches, punchbowls of them. as large rs an am
bitious apple; purple and straw-colored globes,
pulpy ripe, and looking like some big. translated
sort of egg asking name for which, we learned
that they were plums grapes, such beautiful per-
feet clusters of bloom aud perfume and color; pears
whose cunning red and white hid themselves under
the ripe, dark purple of figSi with their shadOwy
leaves; clear pale oranges, and little nuttylookng
lines Aud suppose that if we had wished for the
apples of the HesperIdes should have found them
III glitterng silver dish in the closet labeled From
SOnoma County, California" OF course there was
champagne. Whatever the occasion, there is cham
payne in Nevada and that of the costliest The hap
mess of the bride is quaed in its delicate Brightness
the health of the new baby is pledged; spectators
drink success their undertaking. friends toast each
other. Every festivlty commands 1t, and suppose
that at funerals glasses handed to the bereayed
survivors, and the hush that follows the prayer the
lingering spirit of the departed hears its noble deeds
i'll these their flowing cups freshly remembered.
SILVER CITY.
After much hOsptabe entreating. Yellow Jacket
and Gold Hill let us go at last, like my mammals
maid in the jingle, fruit in cur pockets and fruit
in our sleeves" Senator Nye, our imposing coachee,
gathering the six lines in hand, and waving the
whip in the other with general effect OF an army
with banners, uttered one tremendous GIT" the
explosive force of which Romans are quite made
quate to convey and we were OIL down the hill as if
the admiration had been . catapult, and we the
living missile There was another mile or two of
mills and sluices before we were fairly shet" of
Gold Hill which we then and there exchanged for
Silver CITY This is wonderful wild gorge. where
one of the Winds was born and has always
lived in q bosterous retirement. l not
sure whether il is Moths or Eurus, the
blast Euroclydon, for Nevada knows North, no
South, no East, no West and we could not find
out the points OF compass in orr four days journey
ngs. But, living alone many years, it has grown
up quite uneiyilizcd, aud bullets and bangs the in
offensive traveller in way to make his life burden
to HIM. In Winter there could be no living in the !
same town with it, Noise is quite strong as wind
in silver City, but less bellieose. Mill and foundery
forge and workshop. teamster. and tributary cur |
yunrilnt niu aud nennN- nitchlng 0anin rumble. |