American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-01-13


door,
A quartz lead had been struck little
way farther up the gulch, and rival
town established. The proprictors
named the new camp Orodelphi," but
the man of the saloon of Mexican Camp,
who always insisted he was born a genius,
called it " lIogenr." 1t stuck like wax
and Hogem" is the only name by which
the little town is known to this day
One evening there was CONSERVATION
among the oilers of Mexican Camp. 1t
was announced that the last saloon was
to be removed to Hogem A remon-
STRANGE was talked of but when man
known as the Judge" from his calm
demeanor in the face of the gravest
| trouble, urged that the calamity was not
so great after all, since each man could
easily transport his blankets and frying
pan to the vacant cabins of lTOgem, no
more was said.
The next winter The Gopher was left
utterly alone, and, in January that fol
lowed, the grass and clover crept down
strong and thick from the hills, and
spread in a pretty carpet across the un-
measured streets of the once populous
and prosperous Mexican Camp. Little
gray hOrncd-toads summed themselves on
the great flat rocks that had served for
arthstoncs, and the wild hop-vnes
clambered up and across the toppling and
shapcless chImncys.
Some iders sat, at sunset, on the ve-
randall Of the saloon at Hogem, looking
down the gulch as the manzanita- smoke
curled up from The Gopher's cabin.
A sailor broke silence: Clocks like a
Feeiee camp on South Sea Island"
"Robinson Crusoe-the last man Of
Mexican Camp-thc last rose of sum
mcr." This was said by a young man
who had sent some verses to the HaRg-
torn Wcehly.
Looks to me, in its crows nest of
chapparal, like the lucky ace of spades"
added a man who sat apart contemplating
the wax under the nail of his right fore
finger.
The schoolmaster here picked up the |
ace of hearts, drew out his pencil, and |
figured rapidly,
"Thcre!" he cried, tiourishing the
card, II put it at an ounce a day for
eighteen years, and that is the result" |
The figures astonished them all 1t was
decided that the old miser had at least a
mule-load of gold in his cabin.
at is my opinion" said the Squire,
quently insolcnt and impertinent, "he
had ought to be taken up, tried and hung
for killing his partner in 40"
"Tbc time has run out, ;" said the Cor
oner who came up, adjusting tall hat
to which he was evidently not accustomed;
g the time for such cases. by the law made
and provided has run out, and it is my
opinion it can't be did,
Not lGDr after tbig II yyoc IiCppVGrnl /
that The Gopher was not at work Then
it came out that he was very i'll, and that
old Forty-nine was seen TO enter his
cabin.
Early one frosty morning in the fall fol
lowing, old Forty-nine Jimmy sat by the
door of the only saloon at Hogem. He
held an old bulldog by a tow string, and
both man and dog were pictures Of dis
trcSS as they shiyered from the keen cold
wind that came pitching down from the
As | approached, the man
till his teeth Chattered, and,
at his string, looked heiplessly
over his shoulder at the uncOmprOmiSing
barkeepCr, who had Just arisen and opened
The door to let out the bad odors of his
den. The dog shIvered, too, and came up
and sat down close enough to receive the
hand of old Forty-nine on I
his broad bowed head This man was
relic and wreck Nearly twenty years
Of miners life and labor in the mountains, t
interrupted only by periodical sprees {
governed in their duration solely by the {
result of his last clean up" had made
aim one of n type of men known {
only to the Pacific. True, he t
allied to negotiate with the say. t
lge cinnamon-headed vender of poison;
)ut he was no bcggar. 1t was simply a {
allure to obtain Wall Street accommo- 5
lation in a small way. | doubt if the t
barkeeper himself Ques- {
ioned the honesty of Forty-ninc. 1t was l
merely Il question Of ability to pay, and
he decision of the autOcrat had been '
promptly and firmly given against the APP
,licant. Perhaps, in strict Justice to the |
ed-haired wretch that washed his tum- |
Dlers and watched for victims that frosty
morning, | should state that appear /
nces were decidedly against Fony-nine. c
t is nothing at all against brave, frugal V
lifting his heart out of and G
ver the Sierras to group awaiting him 5
way in the East, to be found wearing $
atches on his clothes, and even patches |
N the patches; in fact, | have known v
many who, coupling quaint humorwith 7
WOrc--ncatly stitched on that II
ortion of a certain garment most liable h
0 wear and tear when the owner had only
Oulders and hard benches to sit upon t
be last weeks -four sack, bearing this in a
cription in bold, black letters, Warrant
d supertne, 80 lbs But Forty-nine had
o patch, therefore no flour sack, ergo,
o flour. The most certain sign of the
)tal wreck of California miner is the
af. # tNt,- .,n oil
gns fail, this one is infallible. You can
18th tolerable certainty, in the placer =
lines, tell how a miners claim is paving h
y the condition of his top-boots Forty o
inc had no boots only pair of slippers 1
nprovised from "what had been" and fl
ctwcen the top of these and the legs Of d
is pantalOons there was no compromise q
ross the naked, cold-buc ankles. These p
gns, together with buttonless blue Il
lirt that showed his hairy bosom, a q
'ightful beard and hair beneath a hat t,
rat dropped like wilted palm-leaf, were
le circumStantial evidences from which O
udge Barkeep made his decision "
j have noticed that those who stop, ST
and, and look longest at the tempting al
splay of viands in cook-shop windows, it
re those that have not penny to pur-
laSe with. Perhaps there was something 81
this nature in old Forty-nine that i'm c.
alled him to look again and again over b.
IS shoulders he clutched tighter to the i(
w string-at the cinnamon- headed bot b
e-washer behind the bar at Hogcm. Il
AsI stood before this man, he turned it
5 eyes from the bar-kecper and lifted h
em helplessly TO mine ci
Charlie is dead" ot
" Charlie whoy Who is Charlie - al
Charlie Godfrey, The Gopher, and cl
re is his dog and, as lie spoke, the dog, 10
if knowing his masters name and feel C;
z his loss, crouched close TO the old hi
ans legs. hi
\ new Commotion in Hogem Saw
hat you will Of gold, whenever anyone m
uts his eyes and turns forever from IL. u,
If in contempt for day al least, he as m
mes majesty proportionate with the C
Mount hc has left behind him and seems tn
dcspise Al
The Coroner, who was candidate for tn