Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1870-12-29
The California Yam.

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other day and went over there to
see what the chances were for ma.
king good bargain. Sam is dis
satisfied sort Of a fellow, and is al
ways trying to buy into something
rich. So, as l was saying, he
bnlged right over to Groundhog's s
Glory the moment he heard of it..
When he got there he found that
the owner of this claim aud his wife
had gone on visit to another fam
lily in the Big Rug Canon. The
only person about tue premises was
a small boy about twelve years old.
From him Sam obtained some in
formation which the owner himself
might not have communicated.
Sam went down with the boy and
took look at the claim. While
he was casting his eyes around, the
boy sat on the bank, and w9istled
"Oh Gosh ! my ocon Jemina." -
Having finished his survey, Sam
went up and sat down beside the in
nocent juvenile.
"Bub," said he, 1--WE heard that
this is a rich claim, al d it does
pretty well. Now, to tell the truth,
what does your father want to sell
out for, if it's as rich as they sayy'
The small boy stopped whistling,
cooked his head to one side, closed
one eye, and squinted thoughtfully
at Sam with the other.
"Stranger, have you got half
dollar about you? If you have,
perhaps | wouldn't mind telling
you"
Sam forked over the half dollar
and the boy looked at it a moment
and whistled the tune, Get out oI
the Wilderness"
"Well, fellow, bein' as it is you
don't object to saying that the
reason dad wants to sell this claim
is, cause it is too rich.
eTo rich Played outY put in
Sam.
"Now, stranger, you jest hold
yer hosses till get through, 'an
I'm explain it to you You see
this amt like other claims where
the gold is in sandy gravel and
mostly in the bedrock, but tbe
bank here is nearly all clay, and
there's heaps and gobs of fine
gold all through it, The clay is
the allfredest stickiest stuff that
ever wuz,- and yon can't begin to
work it. When dad gets to work
down there he materially gets the
darned stuff all over him, and when
he comes in at night he's jest coat
ed with it about six inches deer
more or less, and this clay is plum
full of gold"
III don't see that that's any rea-
son for his wantingto sell out, in
tcrrupted Sam.
well old hoss, you keep coe
and don't get rampagions, and III
tell you how it is. When dad
comes in at night he's mighty tired
but nam, you see, is such an econ
emical woman that she don't like
to see so much gold wasted as dad
has about him in the clay every
night, so nam she alters in anc
cleans him up. At first she usec
to be satisfied with scraping hin
down with a hoe and panning hin
out. She made lots Of money a
that. He used to pan out rich,
tell you, But pretty soon nam go
unsatisfed, cause it took too long
to pan him out every night, anc
besides she didn't get half the gold
The clay was so stlckey it wouldn'
wash good. Then she got a string
of sluices out IN front Of the hous'
and put up a little hydraulic, an(
used to pipe him off. Dad wa'
dreadful mad about it. You ough
to hear him growl and cuss. HI
said it was too wearin' for a man t.
work all day in the drain and thel
be worked hisself at night. II
had to give in, though. Nam SAT-
he shouldn't board with her If h
didn't, and that fetched him, yo
bet,
"Things ran on this way 70
some time. The old woman mad
two or three hundred dollars wee
regular. But as l told You before
she was awful savin' and she foun
she couldn't pipe him off clean an
lost ever so much in the tailin's.-
You don't know how sticky tn
clay is around here. The only wa,
in which you can WORK IL cleai,
to chuck it into a kettle Of bilr
water and bile it for two or tire
hours. That's the way the telloy
what struck the claim used to wor
the rich crevices. Nam heard o
this, and she thought if she coul,
work the old man in some sucI
way, she could save the gold Y
course she didn't expect to bile hlr
RIGHT down, you know. Ina
wouldn't have been exactly on tn
square, but she thought if she coul
let him stand in the middlin' no
water for an hour or two ever
night, she could run HIM throug
the hydraulic then and wash him o
pretty clean.
Well, stranger, you mightn
think it, but dad was so pesky con
trary that he wouldn't do it. Mar
said he'd got to do it, cause sh
wasn't goin' to see money throw
No euoh acontrainesS. -