River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1873-07-25
a Gold Miners story.
BY RDwARD b. NEALLrY.

> G'oiya
BY EDWARD b. NEALLEY.
My Uncle George is a miner, and has
recently returned from the gold mines
of Montana. With him he brought
home buckskin pouch of gold-dust,
which he sent to the Mint at Philadel-
phla to be coined into money. II has
just come back in glittering little gold
pieces, and he has given my sister
Minnie, my brother Frank, ahd INC,
each bright gold dollar.
" Now, what will you do with your
money, children 7" he asked us.
Sedate Minnie, aged thirteen, who is
reading g The Lives of the Three Mrs.
Judsons, and wants to be missionary,
answered promptly, Z" shall put mine
III the eontrlbutlon-box to buy bibles
for the heatheh.
l am not so good as Minnie, anu
afraid, for said, " | shall have hole
bored in mine, and wear it for charm
on my watch chain when get one"
But frankie, aged nine, said. 81
shall sell niue and put what / get in
the savings. bank and never spend it,
bOt u w kCb lhOlC anu HUH
" Why, you sorry little miser ~ said
my Uncle, 81 am afraid you are be-
ginning wrong, Money is very good
servant, but terrible master DO You
know, children, that nothing that
comes near you can tell so sad
a story # hardship and sin and
Suffering 10 your gold dollar Shall /
tell you its little history 81
OF course, we all said I" Yes I"
Well, said he, / will try TO tell
you how we used to dig it in Montana;
and when you don't understand you
must ask me to explain. Minnie read
TO us the other evening how poor Evan
geline wandered III search of her lover.
+" Far in the West there lies desert land,
where the mountains
Lift, through perpetual SHOWS, their lofty and
luminous summits.
Westward the Oregon flows end the Walleway
and 0wyhee;
Eastward, with devious course, among the
Wind-river Mountains,
Through the Swset-water Valley precipitate
leaps the Nebraska.
A little farther north, where the
mountains are thickest, are the head
waters of the Missouri, a myriad of
little brooks trickling from the noun
tain sides. The bleak, brown mountains
,are dteary wastes indeed. Grass does
not grow on them only Wild cactus,
and sage-brush, and a few stUntsd
pines. The earth is parched like a
desert. But if you dig deep enough,
you will find there solid bases of gran
tie, aud through the granite, like
seams, run long veins Of Quartz, where
lie hidden the gold and silver"
"Can you see it, uncle 2" asked |.
Sometimes you can, but usually it
is in particles as fine as meal
Glow did Ii come there, uncle2
"Ah you must write to Mr.. Agassis
to tell you that. | am only miner,
not a geologist. But / think he would
tell you that thousands and thousands
Of years ago the rock was driven asun-
der by volcanoes now extinct ami into
the seams thus made were deposited,
one little atom at time, our gold and
quartz. Then for centuries more the
volcanoes burned, and great glaciers
came down from the north, and under
the heat and cold the rock rotted and
crumblcd away and set our gold dol
lars free from their walls of stone
Then came the rains and melting snow
Of more and more centuries, and
formed little brooks, eating their beds
into the mountain sides, aud bearing
little by little the gold and sand and
gravel down towards the valleys The
gold, being the heaviest, sank always
to the rock at the bottom. Tins every
passing year the careful brook has
brought gravel and sand and clay 60
hide your dollars from greedy men, till
IL bui - them sometimes one hundred
feet deep. Do you understand IT.,
Minnie3"
"a little. But should think the
gold would not all be on the rock at
the bottom, but scattered all through
the earth under the brook"
So il is, Minnie but il il mostly
at the bottom. II you take a few shot
and little sand, and shake them to-
gether in pan of water, you will find
the shot at the bottom, and the sand
above them. Just so the brook on a
larger scale, has shaken the gold and
sand together for years.
"And ! should think, uncle, that the
largest pieces Of gold"
Miners callthem nuggets, Minnie. "
Would be near the beginning Of
the brook, and the finest gold washed
farther down the Valleys
So il is, Minnie. DO you under
stand, frankie
"No. but no matter. ! don't care
so much how the gold gets into the
earth as how they get il out
Well, you see how hard Dame Ma
ture has tined TO keep her gold Fl, an
US. She has hidden II deep in the
earth, ia a desolate wilderness, land
has put a rapid river above It, 10 set al
naught all efforts to dig for IL. Per.
haps your gold dollars felt 80 secure
tina; they laughed when few miners,
hunting for gold, rested by the alder,
Of their brook one noon for dinner
While dinners cooking, III pan a IT.
1 tie dirt. and see II can't fnd color.
I snid one Of them. "a huge, brawny fel