The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1872-04-20
THE LUCK OF ROARING CAMP.
By FRANCIS BRET IIARTE.


Camp. 1t could not have been a fight,
for in 1850 that was not novel enough
to have called together the entire set
tlement. The bitches and claims were
not only deserted, but "Tuttle's gro
cery' had contributed its gamblers,
who, it will be remembered, calmly
continued their game that day that
French Pete and Kanaka Joe shot each
other to death over the bar in the front
room. The whole camp was collect
ed before Il rude cabin on the outer
edge of the clearing. Conversation
was carried on in a low tone, but the
name of a woman was frequently re-
peated. 1t was name familiar enough
in the camp,-"Cherokee Sal.'
Perhaps the less said of her the bet
ter. She was a coarse, and, it is to be
feared very sinful woman. But at
that time she was the only woman in
Roaring Camp, and was just then ly-
needed the ministration Of her own
sex. Dissolute, abandoned, and ire
claimable she was yet suffering Il mar
tyr(lonl hard enough to bear even
when yelled by sympathizing woman
hood, but now terrible in her loneli-
ness. The primal curse had come to
her i'll that original isolation which
must have made the punishment of the
first transgression SO dreadful. It was,
perhaps part Of the eXpiation Of her sin,
that, at a moment when she most lack
ed her seN's intuitive tenderness and
care, she met only the half-contemptu-
GUS faces Of her masculine associates.
Yet Il few Of the spectators were, I
think, touched by her suferings. San
dy Upton thought it was ssrough on
Sal" and, in the contemplation of her
condition, for a moment rose superior
to the fact that he had an ace and two
bowers in his sleeve.
1t will be seen, also, that the situa-
ton was novel. Deaths were by no
means uncommon in Roaring Camp,
but a birth was Il new thing. People
had been dismissed the camp effective
ly, finally, and with no possibility of
return; but this was the first time that
anybody had been introduced ab iuitio.
Hence the excitement.
"You go in there Stumpy," said a
prominent citizen known as "Ken-
tucl<,' addressing one of the loungers.
'sGo in there, and see what you kin
do. You've had experience in them
things.'
Perhaps there was fitness in the
selection. Stumpy, in other climes,
had been the putatiVe head of two
families; in fact, it was owing to some
legal informality in these proceedings
that Roaring Camp-a city Of refuge
was indebted to his company. The
crowd approved the choice, and Stun
py was wise enough to bow to the
majority. The door closed on the ex-
tempore surgeon and midwife, and
Roaring Camp sat down outside, smok-
ing its pipe, and awaited the issue.
The assemblage numbered about a
hundred men. One or two of these
were actual fugitives from justice,
some We're criminal, and all were reck-
less. Physically, they exhibited no
indication of their past lives and char
acter. The greatest scamp had a
Raphael face, with a profusion of blonde
hair; Oakhurst, a gambler, had the
melancholy air and intellectual abstrac-
ton of a Hamlet; the coolest and most
courageous man was scarcely over five
feet in hight, with q soft voice and an
embarrassed, timid manner. The term
"roughs' applied to them was dis
tinction rather than a definition. Per-
haps in the minor details of fingers,
toes, ears, etc, the camp may have
been deficient, but these Slight omis-
sions did not detract from their aggre-
but three fingers on his right hand;
the best shot had but one eye.
Such was the physical aspect of the
men that We're dispersed around the
cabin. The camp lay in Il triangular
valley, between two hills and river.
The only outlet was steep trail over
the summit of a hill that faced the cab
in, now illuminated by the rising
moon. The suffering woman might
have seen it from the rude bunk wher-
on she iay-seen it winding like Il sill
Yer thread until it was lost in the stars
above.
y fire of withcrcd pinc-boughs adj
dcd sociability to the gathering. BY
degrees the natural lcvity of Roaring
Camp returned. Bets were freely Of
ferel and taken regarding the result.
Three to five that "Sal would get
through with it," even, that the child
would survive; side bets as to the sex
and complexion of the coming stran-
ger. In the midst of an excited dis
cussion an exclamation came from
those nearest the door, and the camp
stopped to listen. Above the sway
ing and moaning OF the pines, the swift
rush of the river, and cracking of the
fire, rose Il sharp, queruious cry;-a cry
unlike anything heard before in the
camp. The pines stopped moaning,
tho riIar ,.aoSnI fn fi,SJ, and tho fro