Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1871-09-23
THIRTY PROPOSALS.
A California Lovs story.

"You don't say that Is his wife Z
Well. she is a sumner, and no mis-
take. 1 confess to an overwhelming
curiosity concerning that marriage.
Why, in the States he was consider
ed an inveterste bachelor. Somehow
he never cared to 60 round with the
girls as the rest of us did but al
WAYS took his mother everywhere
and waited on her as though she had
been queen of England. All the girls
liked him, and If he ever ventured
where they were, they would fiutter
round him, but it was plain that he
never gave them q second thought.
His mother used to say, eff my son
ever marries, twill be a very supe-
rior woman, quite different from the
girls one ordinarily meets"
When we heard at home that he
was married, the girls said, a little
spitefully, reckon "There must be
one wonderful woman in Califor-
MAJ and they hoped she would be
superior" enough to teach the old
bachelor lesson ol two. How 1slt!
Is she likely to %
''Well, there's more to her than
you'd think at first sight. She must
be real good herself, or she never
would have appreciated our friend.
He is solid and substantial, but not
very snowy. Pve known him inti-
mately for years, and / never knew
him to say or do a mean thing. He
deserves his good luck, and / will
own it /; though to be honest, wan
ted that woman for my wife, and
have not reached a point yet where
l can take much pleasure in thinking
of the wedding. Come over here
under the trees, and Pl tell you how
il came about; but you'd better not
let on you know it, for tits sort of
understood thing that we are to keep
it on the square, and it's rather q
tender subject with us boys.
at was in the summer of go, we
lived over the canon l was telling
you about-there were thirty of us
in the gang, and we had four cabins,
with storehouse, which were public
property. We worked hard through
the week, and ON Sunday did our
washing and brought eur house
work up a little. / suppose we
should be called hard set, but we
were not any rougher than men gem
orally who get a living by themselves
for a year or two.
Eight of us camped together, and
each of us had as distinct an individ-
uality as though we represented diff
ferent nations. Somehow or other
we had acquired q asoubriquet which
was acknowledged to be character
istic, and we were called by it in
camp to the complete ignoring OF
our real names.
There was Hal Winterton, "a South
erner, and a fierce secessionist: we
called him "South Carolina" Dave
Austin, a Connecticut man and a
regular sell, we called him 'tNut-
meQ.o "Dandies stuck to Charlie
Chaplin, for he was q regular fop.
Then there was Ned Simpson, reg
ular "Aunt-Betty"-you'd know his
name at the first glimpse without
my SAYING q word. Otis Allen
would faint if he jammed his finger
or had sight ofblood. He was "Our
Baby" Jack Cummings was a wag,
and he certainly deserved his cogno-
men, "Jack the Wicked" Jim
Woodruff was known all over the
country by the appeiistion OF
Judge" and your humble servant,
from his black eyes, swarthy COM
plexion, and jetty locks, perhaps
something, too, in my manner, was
styled 'sSenor."
"Well, we were a good nstured
set of fellows, always making allow
ance for each others peculiarities,
and never having any friction in the
camp. Sometimes | used TO think
we jokedS''Aunt Betty" and ''OuI
Baby'' rather numerically, but s
word from our "Judge" would
straighten us at once.
If one was sick, we all took turn
about in nursing and watching, but
the Judge was one that knew just
what TO do, and was always near to
do it. Tender and patient as wo-
man, we all honored him, and held
him little higher in our estimation
than we did any one else in the
camp.
l forgot to tell you that month
before, and when "Dandy" and
S'Aunt Betty" were not of our mum
Der, we had in their place Viii
Browning, who was equal to two
men, any day. Good to work and
good to play, as smart as need be
and true to the core. l think mosl
of us would have been glad to hay,
gone with viii over the mountains
but he said "No, stay where you are
boys; you are doing well, and if
find anything better, will let yoI
know at once. Then come all hand!
OF you, and it will be a jolly tim,
when we get together again"
You know it wasn't the pleasan
test travelling in the world to ge
around two years ago.
We hadn't heard n word from
VIII, though he had been gone for
long time. Several letters had com,
for him, but of course we couldn'
forward them, having no idea of hi