The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1873-07-17
A Tale Of the California Mines.
BY JOAQUIN MILLER.

W uS q Soth Pouy UP suiS
above us. Portuguese were these
quiet, unobtrusive set of men, wit
dogs and shot guns, and the quaintes
little cabins in the world. Brow
men, sailors mostly, with earrings il
their ears, and their shirt bosom
open; clannish people. silent and re
spectful. Then there were other com
panies below, not unlike our own
hundred men er mere on this littl
mountain stream. Trees above us i,
eternal green, chapparal along th,
fierce and steep old mountain side
that pitched almost perpendicularly
on either side the stream upon US
from which whistled the partridg,
through the day, and called the gray
coyote at night. No other sound.
than these, but the rattling of tn.
stones in the cradle or the tom, anc
the pick and shovel on the rocks. NJ
doctors, no law, no lawyers, no thieves
forty miles the nearest trading camp
All things were brought from there
across wall Of everlasting snow upon
our backs-bread, bacon and beans
and beans and bacon and bread, the
whole year through. At last the
dreadful scurvy came. Men suddenly
fell i'll, lost the use Of their limbs. fell
helpless on our hands. No help
nothing would do them good but
change Of place and change OF diet.
We could not carry them across the
snow. This was dreadful. You could
not have seen these strong, brave men
stricken there helpless, dying day by
day, without hope, and been silent.
Sad! fearful.
There were six of them, and the
worst of case in the six was a man
with the leather nose, all brought to-
gether, looking helplessiy, sadly into
each others faces, thinking Of other
faces, other scenes, in other lands. A,
last an old sailor suggested as last
resort, Q remedy He had seen a
ships crew saved in some lands in the
tropics. We wou a try that. 1t was
to place the men, stripped nude as na-
ture, up to the chin in the earth. and
leave them there through the night,
till the loose warm rich soil should
draw the poison from their bodies.
There was reason In this. Besides.
we had some evidence that it wou Id
save our men for once, when q party
Of Indians attacked us, we won the
fight, and, following them little way
found a wounded Indian buried up to
the eyes In the earth. They had done
this In the hope Of saving him, to try
and heal his wound, aud they are good
physicians.
We dug six pits in the shadow of a
pine, in the loose and warm alluvial
soil and there, as the sun went down,
we stood the men up to the chin, and
filled the earth in about them.
It was lovely moonlight night,
balmy aud peaceful as n paradise. Not
a sound save the doleful howl Of wolf
ia the crags above. Even in this con-
dition the grim Russian was the CEN
tre of interest But he was as silent
as helpless. His head inclined to one
side, and rested on the loose, warm
soil beside him. His hand was half
hid den In the earth.
Oregon Jake was there, assisting as
well as he might, in his awkward and
loose way, in the singular experiment
and effort to save the lves of the
men.
Bnt he was not gifted with any spe-
,ial gravity of bearing, aud the gro
.esaue picture before him, with all its
sadness, had Its comical feature.
He went up to Ginger and began to
.alk, as he looked now and then at the
Ru ssian over his shoulder. He half
aughed as he did so.
The buried man heard him, lifted
MS head with an effort, and cried out,
n ghostly, graveyard voice:
"Knock him down, Ginger! Knock
lim down ~
Ginger, true to his helpless friend,
him down on the spot.
Again the feeble head of the help
ess man settled over the soft soil. He
.losed his eyes with the most perfect
and then smiled till his
white teeth looked like the entire roof
% miniature cemetery.
After a while the tired miners began
o retire, and with silent prayer for
he success Of the experiment, left II
20 time.
The invalids were cheerful, and now
with a little hope, chattea gayly
enough together, but looked strange
beyond description-the six shaggy
heads just bursting through the earth,
ike Banquo's, three in row, In fit
ful moonlight. 1t looked like men
rising from the earth aud coming up
10 judgment. Their voices sounded
weird and ghost!y, too, as Of another
world. After while one by one they
fell asleep, and all was still save the
Of the wolf on the bluff above
| grew frightened like. l think the
others did too. And one by one we
stole away and left them there, as the
light went on, and sought our hunks
inside the cabins, and threw US down
in our clothes. and slept. 1t was an
for life and death.
What a strange stupor overcomes
men sometimes at night who have
been hard at work all day. Singular
that we should have left those six men
here at midnight in the black sh ad-
ows, with only here and there ray of
to relieve the scene
Strange that we could not keep
awake.
The experiment was failure. The
wolves came down in the night, and
ate off every head level with the
ground.
'I.ame!n sighed Mrs. Partington,