The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1872-01-25
The Last Man of MerfcGTl
Camp.
BY JOAQUIN MILLER.

Mexican Camp was a nest of snow
white miners tents huddled down in
q dimple of the Sierras. If you had
stood near the fiag-pole in the center
of the field, on which the stars and
stripes raised or lowered on the arriv-
al OF departure of the mustang express
the only regular thread connecting
the camp with the outer world-and
looked intently west, you might have
seen, on a day ofsingular clearness be-
yond some newborn cities, the flash
of the Pacific in the sun. At your
back, mountains black with pine and
cedar, then bald and gray with gram
ite, basalt and cindeT, then white with
everlasting snow, had made you feel
strong and secure of intrusion in the
rear. Close about you, on the hill
sides 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 gulch, and as far down
as the eye could follow it, the little
muddy stream struggled on through
little fleets of tin and iron pans, great
Mexican wooden bowls, and through
cradles, toms, and sluices. You had
seen long grey lines of Mexican mules
stringing around the mountain, wind
ing into the camp with their heavy
burdens; YOU had heard the shouts,
spiced thick with Oaths, OF the tawny
packers. You had heard the sound Of
the hammer and AK on every hand
For new city had bean born, as 1t
were, the night before, and this was
the first struggle-cry and reaching of
uncertain hands. All day on either
side of the stream sat a wall of men
washing for gold. The Mexicans and
American were side by side that had
been breast to breast at Monterey; the
LAWYER wrought beside his client; the
porter found his strong arm made him
superior to the dainty gentleman to
whose wants he had once ministered.
That was a democracy pure and
simple. Life, energy, earnestness.-
That was the beginning of race in
life in which all had an even start
What an impulse it was! 1t inspired
the most sluggish. 1t thrilled the
most Indifferent, dignified and ennob-
led the basest soul that was there.
Mexican Camp has perished but it has
left its lesson-a verdict clear and un-
qualified in favor of the absolute
! equality of men, without any recon-
mendation of mercy to masters.
Each man, peer or peOn, had six
| feet of ground. That was made a law
at a miners meeting held around the
flagstaff the day it was raised, at
whick kangaroo Brown presided with
uncommon dignity, considering his
] -,Fr- ~ Ewrnnnry MT IN
mention the many indiscretions laid
I to his charge before leaving his native
country at his country's expense, for
! his country's good. 1t was first pass
( ed that a miner should hold five feet
only, but yankee who had an un-
commonly rich Calm, moved a re-
| consideration, and, without waiting
! to get q second, made a speech and
nut his own motion. This was his
speech and melton delivered at the
top of his voice: "BOys, 1 go you a
foot better. Blast it let's give a fel-
! low enough to be buried in, anyhow.
! All those that say six feet is the law
make it manifest by saying aye"
There was a chorus. "The ayes
have it, and six feet is the law; and ]
now declare this meeting adjourned
/ sign die,u and the convict chairman
! descended from the pine stump where
he had stood in his shirt sleeves, took
up his pick and pan, and, divested ot
1 his authority of an hour, entered his
claim and bent his back to toll, as did
/ the thousands of men all around him.
! Mexican Camp fiourished like q
palm for many years, then, like all
[ the placer-mining camps, it began to
decline. The gold was washed from
from the best parts of the gulch- and
/ the best men of the camp, one by one
returned to their homes in other lands,
or retired to camps deeper in the
mountains as their fortunes directed.
As the Saxon went out, the Celestial
came in, but gave no new blood to the
camp. Vacant cabins and adobe
chimneys stood all up and down the
| gulch, and lizards summed themselves
under them undisturbed. The butch
er, autocrat OF the mining camp, be-
gan to come around with his laden
mules but twicea week instead of twice
day. a bad sign for the camp.
But there was one cabin that was
never vacant; it stood apart from
town, on the brown hillside, and as
it was one of the first, so it promised
to be the last in the camp. 1t always
had an ugly bull dog tied to the door,
and was itself low, suspicious look
ing structure, that year by year sank
lower as the grass grew taller around
it, till it seemed trying to hide in the
chaparral. 1t had but one occupants 8
silent, selfish man, who never came
out by day except to bury himself alone
in his claim at work. Nothing wa
known of him at all, save the story
that he had killed his partner in {
gambling house away back some
where in '49. He was Stunned anC
feared by all, and he approached anC
smoke to no one, except the butcher
and the grocer, and eXpressman; anC
to those only only on business. 1 be
Iieve however, that the old outcast
known as s;Forty-nine Jimmy some
times sat on the bank and talked Z
the murderer at work in his claim. L
was even said that FOrty-ntne wa
on good terms with the dog at tn
door; but as this was doubted by th'
! man who kept the only saloon nov
J remaining in Mexican Camp, and whit
was consequently authority the repor
was not believed.