Litchfield enquirer., 1872-02-29
From the Atlantic Monthly. HOW SANTA CLAUS CAME TO SIMPSONS BAR.
BY BRET HARTR.

| t-- J - 1 Sacramento. The North Fork had over l flowed it's banks and Rattlesnake Greet was impossible. The few boulders that
 had marked the summer ford at Simpson; Crossing were obliterated by vast shee
 of water stretching to the foothills The
 up stage was stopped at Changers; tho 1 last mail had been abandoned in the jules the rider swimming for his life. 'sA1 area, remarked the ''Sierra Avalanche, with pensiye local pride, ''as large as the State of Massachusetts Is now under wa ter"
 Nor was the weather any better in the foothills. The mud lay deep on the noun. tain road; wagons that neither physical force nor moral objurgation could move from the evil ways into which they had fallen, encountered the track, and the way to Simpsons Bar was indicated by broken down teams and hard swearing. And far ther on, cutoff and inaccessible, rained upon and bedraggled, smitten by high winds and threatened by high water, Simpsons Bar on the eve of Christmas day, 1862, chung like swallows nest to the rocky entablature and splintered capi- tals of Table Mountain, and shook in the blast.
 |. few lights gleamed through the mist rom the windows of cabins on either side ot the highway now crossed and gullied by lawless streams and swept by maraud- ing winds. Happily most of the popula- tion were gathered at Thompson's. store clustered around a red-hot stove, at which they silently spat in some accepted sense of social communion that perhaps ren- Txlo most methods of diversion had long since been exhausted on Simpsons Bar: high water had suspended the regular occupa- tions on gulch and on river, and a conse- quent lack of money and whiskey had taken the zest from most illegitimate re- creation. Even MT. Hamlin was fain to leave the Bar with fifty dollars in his pocket, ,-the only amount actually realized of the large sums won by him in the suc- cessful exercise of his arduous profession. ''Ef was asked, /" he remarked somewhat later, was asked to pint out pur- ty little village where retired sport as didn't care for money could exercise his- self, frequent and lively, I'd say Simp- sons Bar; but for young man with a 1t don't pay" AS MT. Hamlin's family consisted mainly of female adults, this re- mark is quoted rather to show the breadth of his humor than the exact extent of his responsibilities.
 Howbeit, the unconscious objects of this satire sat that evening in the listless apathy begotten of idleness and lack of excitement. Even the sudden splashing of hoofs before the door did not arouse them, Dick Bullen alone paused in the act of scraping out his pipe, and lifted his head, but no other one of the group indi- cated any interest in, or recognition of, the man who entered.
 It was figure familiar enough to the company, and known in Simpsons Bar as '"The Old Man." A man of perhaps fifty years; grizzled and scant of hair, but stiil fresh aPa Sf eenpsEen st tSe pathy, with chameleon-ike aptitude for taking on the shade and color of contigu- ous moods and feelings. He had evident ly just left some hilarious companions, and did not at first notice the gravity of the group, but clapped the shoulder of the nearest man jocularly, and threw himself into vacant chair.
 'Jest heard the best thing out, boys! Ye know Smiley, over yar,-Jim Smiley, funniest man in the Bar? We'll, Jim was just telling the richest yarn about"
 ''Smiley's - fool" interrupted gloomy voice.
 "A particular - skunk" added an- other in sepulchral accents.
 A silence followed these positive state mepts, The Old Man glanced quickly around the group. Then his face slowly changed. "That's so" he said reflective ly, after pause, "certaingly sort of skunk and suthin of fool In course" He was silent for moment as in painful contemplation of the unsavoriness and folly of the unpopular Smiley. "Dismal weather, ain't it?" he added, now fully embarked on the current of prevailing sentiment. Mighty rough papers on the boys, and no show for money this season. And to-morrow's Christmas
 There was movement among the men at this announcement, but whether of sat- isfaction or disgust was not plain, "Yes," ," continued the Old Man in the lugubrious tone he had, within the last few moments, unconsciously adopted,-yes, Christmas eve. Ye see, boys, I kinder thought that is, sorter had an idee, jest passin like you know-that may be ye'd all like to come over to my house tonight and have sort of tear round. But suppose, now, you wouldn't? Don't feel like it, may be?" he added with. anxious sympa- thy, peering into the faces of his compan- ions
 ''Wsll, don't know," responded Tom Flynn with some cheerfulness. ''P'r'aps we may. But how about your wife, Old Man? What does she say to it?"
 The Old Man hesitated. His coniugal experience had not been happy one, and the fact was known to Simpsons Bar His first wife, 8 delicate, pretty little wo- man, had suffered keenly and secretly from the jealous suspicious of her hus- band, until one day he invited the whole Bar to his house to expose her infidelity. On arriving, the party found the shy, pe- tite creature quietly engaged in her house. hold duties, and retired abashed and dis comtited. But the sensitive woman did not easily recover from the shock of this extraordinary outrage. It was with diff culty she regained her equanimity suffi- ciently to release her lover from the closet in which he was concealed and escape with him. She left boy of three years to comfort her bereayed husband. The Old Mans present wife had been his cook. She was large, loyal, and aggressive.
 Refofe he could reply, Joe Dimmick suggested with great directness that il was the ''Old Mans house, and that, in- voking the Divine Power, if the case were his own, he would invite who he pleased, even if in so doing he imperilled his sal vation. The Powers of Evil, he further remarked, should contend against him vainly. All this delivered with terse. ness and vigor lost in this necessary trans. latiea. !.
 ''In course. Certainly. That's it, : said the Old Man. with sympathetic frown. ''Thar's no trouble about thet It's my own house, built every stick on il myself. Don't you be afeard O her, boys She mag cut up trife rough,-ez vim min do,-but she'll come round" Secret ly the Old Man trusted to the exaltation o liquor and the power of courageous exam pie to sustain him in such an emergency
 As yet, Dick Bullen, the oracle .ani leader of Simpsons Bar, had not spoken
 He nov took his pipe from his lips ''Old Man, how's that yer Johnny gettin on? Seems to me he Int look SO pear