Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1871-06-07
Miscellany
Prom the Overland Monthly.
MP"
~ rRENuCE HULTURD.

trONlhH, ciaiiln llci"ihE itehili uuet at
lollar a pinch for currency, monte, faro,
Ind fandango. The Camp" of 1870 is
quiet, sleepy, shrunken, poor, "gone in,
'' gone up" We speak Of " Camp " as 1t
is and has been, say, since 1868.
After the first harvest of gold ia Cali
fornia came the harvest of individuality. /
In Camp" as il were in one household, .
met men from the North, the South, the .
East, the West, add froHi every nation Of
Europe. In 1857, or thereabout, the ex
citemcnt attendan, on the first flush of the
gold discovery had abated and men were
lying on their oars, knowing hardly what
to do; their natures rebclled against fur
ther continuance of the toiling and ex-
hausting miners life they demanded
more employment for mind, and less for
muscle. So, some took to law, some to
medicine, some TO theology, some to poll
tics and many, who had no idea for what
purpose they had been fashioned, to mis-
chief. Camps" contained two classes Of
people: the outsiders and insiders.
The outsiders were hard working min
ers, dwelling around within a radius of a
mile or two, coming into Camp" chiefly
on Sunday, or perhaps for an hour or so
in the evening, to hear the gossip, and to
read the papers. They constituted the
financial backbone of the country. 1t was
their dust which still refreshed the TIL oI
the trader and the salcon-keeper.
The Camp" insiders were made up o
more or less doctors, lawyers, saloon-keep
ers, town or county officials, hotel-keep
ers, gamblers, one cxpress-agent, one stage
agent, one school-master. one postmaster
and reserve of clever fellows, with moth
ing to do, living alongirom hand to mouth
they scarcely knew how. All these dwell
within stone's-throw of the express-ofhce
which may be considered the proper nu
cleus of " Camp"
A Camp" is disposed to combustibiI
ity the hot summer sun, which beats dow
steadily for six or eight months, so dryin
the shingles and clapboards that mate
will set them ablaze. For this reaso
there is a camp -watchman, who walks u
and down the street the whole night ella
in great-coat and carrying big cane
stopping occasionally at the " Rlfie,"
watch the progress of poker-game, an
with familiar audacity taking quartz
from the "pot," as it lies on the tabl
to treat himself at the bar. The cam
watchman has many little responsibilitie
He calls up the express-agent for the ear
morning stage; and as the heavy Concol
coach thunders over the bridge at the ia
ther end Of Camp" the two commen
the exercises of the day with early NOR
ing bitters at the 4" Union always a
cessible to them, at night by a privat
back passagc.way to the bar. He kee
:, strict watch on all suspicious nocturr
movements. He knows and reports v
goes in and out at unsccmly hours.
knows when every bedroom lamp shou
be extinguished, He has many of t
"Camp" secrets in his possession.
ends his duties for the night by calling
the butcher Before the first streak
the summer mornings dawn the ca
candle flares ia the place Of beef, POI
and mutton; the sound of saw graft
through bone, of cleaver upon the me
block, falls short and sharp upon
sleepers ear. The camp.watchman, !!
bird of night, disappears, and is seen
more until late in the afternoon. I'll
comes the dawn, and the front doors
the =" Magnolia :" open silently, and
half-dressed, frouzy- haired, unwashed r
prietor is seen behind his bar, putting dc
his dose of bitters, and stirring up the
ternal fires for another day. The cal
butcher slips across the street for his dr.
The Justice of the Peace crawls out,
stands in his accustomed place before
bar-exactly where he has stood Of 81
mers morning at the same time for n
teen years past and then the hot sun
rily rises above the horizon; the cool
the dawn almost instantly gives place
GLOW of heat, and these town worthless
languidly to each other, Another SEQ
er to-day" The mercury at nine o'c
stands at 600. At ten, it reaches 81
at eleven, 100 . at twelve, los ?
until four OF five o'clock, anywhere
that point to lis or 100 2.
By nine or ten the Boys comm
working out. There arc breakfasts {
ed in tenantless stores and Offices.
''Camp" has passed its maximum of g
ness, and there are many empty build