Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1872-02-08
THE LAST MAN OF MEXICAN
CAMP.
BY JOAQUIN MILLER.

BY JOAQUIN MILLER.
Mexican Camp was nest of snow
white miners tents huddled down n
dimple Of the Sierras. If you had stood
near he fag.pole in the centre of TIE
camp, on which the stars and stripes
were raised or 10 wered on the arrival or
the departure of the Mustang express
the only regular thread connecting
the camp with the outer woodland
looked intently west, you might have
seen, on day of singular clearness, be-
yond some newborn cities, the flash Of
the Pacific in the sun. At your back,
mountains black with pine and cedar,
and cinder, then, white with everlasting
snow, made you feel strong and secure
of intrusion in the rear. Close about
you, on the hillside and in the gulch,
you had seen trees lifting their limbs
above the heads of thousands of men
who knew for the time no other shelter !;
while at your feet in the guIch, and as
far down as the eye could follow it, the
little muddy stream struggled through
little fleets of tin and iron pans, great
Mexican wooden bowls, and through
cradles, toms and sluices. You had
seen long gray lines of Mexican mules
stringing around the mountains, wind
ing into the camp with their heavy bur-
dens; you had heard the shouts spiced
thick with oaths, of the tawny packers.
You had heard the sound of the ham
mer and axe on every hand, for a new
city had been born as it were the night
before, and this was its first struggle-cry
and reaching of uncertain hands. AL
day on either side the stream sat wal
of men washing for gold. The Mexican
and American were side by side that hao
been breast to breast at Monterey the
lawyer wrought beside his client the
porter found his strong arms made him
the superior here to the dainty gentle
man to whose wants he had once minis
tered.
Mexican Camp fourished like palm
for many years, then, Ike all placer
mining camps, it began to decline. The
gold was washed from the best part O.
the gulch, and the best men of the
camp, one by one, returned to thei
homes in other lands, or retired tt
camps deeper in the mountains, as theil
fortunes directed. AS the Saxon wen
out, the Celestial came in. but gave nt
new blood to the camp. Vacant cabin.
and adobe chimneys stood all up ant
down the. gulch, and lizards summed
themselves upon them undisturbed
The butcher. the great autocrat of the
mining camp, began to come around
with his laden mules but twice weel
instead of twice a day. A bad sign fo
the camp. ssss -sss.-s, --...,..- 49,.
But there was one cabin that was neve
vacant; it stood apart from town, on tn,
brown hillside, and as it was one of tn,
first so it promised to be the last of tn,
camp. 1t always had an ugly bull-dos
tied to the door, and was itself low
susplcious-looking structure that yea
by year sank lower rs the grass grew
taller around it, till it seemed trying tc
hide in the chapparel 1t had but ONT
occupant, a silent, selfish man, wht
never came out by day except to bury
himself alone in his claim at work
Nothing was known of him at all, save
the story that he had killed his partnel
IN gambling house away back some
where in 40. He was Stunned ant
feared by all and be approached ano
spoke to noone, except the butcher, tn,
grocer, and expressman; and to thes'
only briefly on business. believe, how
ever, that the old outcast known a
" Forty nine Jimmy" sometimes sat Oh
the bank and talked to the murdere
at work in his claim, It was even sal,
that Forty nine was on fair terms witt
the dog at the door |; but as this wa
doubted by the man who kept the onl
saloon now remaining IN Mexican Camp
and who was consequently an authority
the reportawas not believed. sl
Let 1t be here observed that when
mining camp sinks to the chronic stat
of decay that this now presented, tn
men remaining in it as a rule are idlers
and by no means representative miner.