Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-05-06
From the State House.

in bindings and editions, precious in the eyes of
book fancier.
From the State House.
BosToN, Friday, May 8.
There was good attendance at the state house to-
day, in spite of the rain which has kept on so per-
sistently for two days.
The senate, as usual, relented, reconsidered, and
received the bill to incorporate the Merose savings
bank. An adverse report was made on the bill con-
corning the tenure of Office of the members of the
the board of education. Messrs. Crosby of Hamp-
shire, Frost of Suffolk, and Stickney of Bristol,
were Joined to the house committee on the recep
| ton of President Grant
The bills relating to the appointment of guardians
and for the maintenance and repairs of Haverhill
| bridge, were rejected. The bill to authorize Ma
| thaniel Holmes and others to maintain a boom
across the Connecticut river was passed to be en-
SiiI yyss daheted sbv supnorted by Mr. Thsyer Of
Worcester and laid over TIL Tuesday next.
In the house an order was adopted on the expe-
| diencv of providing by law that all railroad cor
porations chartered, but not built, on which the
| minimum amount of capital Is not definitely deter
mined shall have capital stock bearing proper
proportion to each mile of road. The committee on
agriculture, on the governors message reported a
resolve to give the state agricultural college, $780,
900 Internationally and $4,000 more in 1872, pro-
vided that like sum is raised by other means The
| resolve Is accompanied by report in which the
committee speak in warm terms OF the success which
the college has attained and they express the hope
that If these appropriations are granted the college
| will become selfsustaining. constitutional
| amendment was reported in the form of an amend
ment to the third article OF the constitution that
every person shall have the right to vote at any
state election in the place where he has resided for
six months.
| wharf company; authorizing the sale of meeting
house in Mibury; snd the bill to amend an act re-
lating to the state visiting agency were passed to be
ossa1 Thn 10 oh ha hirht " 10
to apporion and assess state tax of 81 100000 and
relating to the payment of state aid to soldiers and
sailors and the families of the SLAIN, were passed to
third reading.
The railroad police bill elected warm debate,
the question being concurrence with the senate
amendment striking out the house amendment Its
opponents urged that the amendment was uuneces-
sary, and would tend to defeat the bill. The
advocates were determined that railroad COM
panies should not be permitted TO shirk
their responsibilities, and Mr.. adams mo-
tion to recede was negatved-60 to 81. The house
then insisted on its amendment, and MeSsrs COgS-
well OF Salem, Thompson OF Gloucester, and Wood
bury of Boston, We're appointed committee of con-
ference. The bill to incorporate the Commonwealth
savings bank in ward eleven of Boston was rejected
MessrS. Kimball and Washburn of Boston, saying
that sixteen savings banks were enough for the city
The report of the committee on agriculture, mex
pedient the killing of black duck in Barnstable
county, was accepted.
The bill relating 10 the state visiting agency and
juvenile offenders was also passed to be engrossed
after it had been amended, on motion of Mr. 5iscOe
of Westboro as to provide for the local settle
ment, on the spot, of juvenile offences.
The arguments before the committee on the con-
stablery occupied the whole day, Mr.. Aldrich
making very long and able plea in defence of the
state police.
"Caved"-A Miners Story.
"Ifs cavedP exclaimed Bill BeaVe, bursting
into the cabin where | was leisurcly eating
breakfast and reading the news from some last
years papers that were pasted on the wall.
"The ground has cayed! 1t came down mighty
sudden; and Little Jimmy was at the breast.
was further out in the drift, and had the start
of it but it made such close call for me, that
know he musta got ketched."
This technical iargon revealed to me the fact
that our mine had caved and had buried one of
our companions, for Little Jimmy" was not an
infant, but a mana miner and a friend. He
had been working at the "breast' or farthest
end of the "drift," but was now perhaps sleep
ing his last sleep in the bosom Of the mother of
us all.
Three years before this we had come to this
creek. We had prospected the "side gulches"
and the bars, and found "colors" everywhere.
| Indications were favorable, so we "staked"
body of ground along the main creek, built
cabins, organized a company, of which the
writer was elected president, and went TO work
| TO open our claim.
Those three years had been years of toll and
| privation. We were in the heart of the Rocky
mountains. Our camp was pitched in little
at the entrance of a deep and gloomy canon,
which we named "The DEVILS Gate" and
| through which our sparkling little stream
| foamed and fumbled down to that great river,
the Missouri. Our ground was deep and very
| wet. Drainage was necessary, and we had
driven tunnel for this purpose through the
earth and boulders that filled the primeval bed
| of the creek, until we bad attained horizontal
| distance of a thousand yards; but the slope OF
| the gulch was so gradual that we bad not
I,aI l.nI I,a,.n 81
the gold laid in heaps. "Bed rock being the
| objective point, must be reached, so we sank
shaft at the head of our tunnel and betook our
selves to a pump.
As it was a couple thousand miles to the near
est foundry, and we could not afford to await
the completion Of the North Pacific railroad,
pump under the circumstances was problem;
so will tell now how we got one. We had
blacksmiths's and carpenters tools which most
of us could use; there was plenty of timber
growing on the mountains, and a pair of dilaDi-
dated freight wagons supplied our stock of iron.
Great slabs of segments were cut from fur trees
and hewn and dressed on one side to q smooth
| plane. The other side was rounded to an arc or
| convex surface, so that when four such seq
ments were placed together lengthwise, secured
with pins at the edge, which were first squared
| and then made parallel, they formed a long
hollow trunk or barrel four-square within, but
| outside cylindrical, and tapering slightly from
| one end to the other Upon this were driven
hoops or bands of iron which forced the joints
| close like those of cask, fnd thus we had
pumps or pipes of considerable length and
| solidity. 1t was easy to fit them with valves
and pistons, and to work them with a wooden
walking-beam moved by the crank of a water
| wheel. This crank was a masterpiece. 1t
| had arm or leverage of two feet; and was
| formed from the iron axle of one of our wag-
| ons and its gudgeons or bearings were turned in
| lathe of our own contrlVing. This was a
heavy job for our resources, but it was finished
after an age lit seemed to us) of toll, puzzlng,
and perspiration; and we had produced ma
| chinery that was capable of raising to q height
of nearly thirty feet many tons of water per
day, and which answered all our requirement
for drainage, so that we were able to reach that
long sought bedrock at depth of ninety
feet below the present bed of the crank. | will
mention here that our pump was twelve inches
square inside, and had stroke of four feet,
raising the water twenty-nine feet into our drain
tunnel, whence it flowed out to the surface a
thousand yards down the canon.
| We had reached "bed-rock" but had not
Struck it very rich" and were running drift
or tunnel on bedrock across and up the gulch
in search of the "pay-streak" which we were
hoping every day to find, when the announce
ment of startling accident was made. Here
was the ruin of our hopes and the death of our
friend; for there was little room to hope for
any other result
1t must not be supposed that much time was
|
rouse the entire camp, rushed off to the mine.
Snch of the men as had heard of the occurrence
hurried from their work, bringing with them
their picks and shovels as likely to be needed,
and the miners from wet diggings came clad in
coats, high boots, and helmet-shaped caps of
India rubber, and looking like knights in armor.
Knights they were, too, for that matter, for
though armed only with shovel and pick, they
were as daring and as generous as ever 6elted
prince who rode with lance in rest to right inn
aginary wrongs; and they were ready nov to
risk every danger to save the poor fellow buried
in the mine beneath.
On reaching the scene found our machinery
apparently uninjured, but looking more closely
discovered that the Ipump was raising not a
drop of water, and it would not be long before
the entire main would be flooded. The pump
must be relieved at once OF we could not hope to
save the mine, much less to save our friend.
Calling Bob Piper, a tall black-bearded miner,
who had worked at his trade in every mining
country from the English Channel to the Pacific
Ocean, and who, for his Skill courage and ex-
perience was the mining oracle of our camp-I
pointed him to the pump, which was wearing
itself out in vain, for it lifted no water.
Bob, " said l. eve must fix that pump. 1t is