American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-08-16
The Loves of the GOld-Miners.

The Loves of the GoId-Miners.
THESE men are mostly shy with their
letters and their tales of love That was
a sacred ground, upon which no strange,
tude feet could pass. No gold hunter
here, perhaps, but had his love-his one,
only love, without a change or possibility
for changing the object of his devotion
even if he had desired it. Men must love
as well as women. II is the most natural
and, consequently, the most proper thing
on earth. Imagine how intensified and
how tender Il mans devotion would be-
come under circumstances like these. The
one image in his heart, the one hope
her. So much time to think, bending to
the work in the running waters under the
trees, on the narrow trail beneath the
shadows of the forest, by the camp and
cabin-fire, her face and hers only, with no
new face rising up, crossing her path,
confronting him for days, for months, for
years-see how holy thing his love
would grow to be. This, you observe, is
n new man, new manner of lover. Love,
| say, is as a requirement, necessity. 1t
is as necessary for complete man to love
as it is for him to breathe pure air. And
it is as natural.
These men, being so far removed from
any personal contact with the objects of
their affections, and only now and then at
long intervals receiving letters, all marked
and remarked across the backs from the
remailings from camp to camp, of course,
knew no Interruptions in the current of
their devotion, and loved in a singularly
earnest and sincere way. / doubt if there
be anything like it in history.
When men 90 to war they have the
glory and excitement of battle TO allure
them, then the eyes of many women are
upon them; they are not locked up like
these men of the sierras, with only their
work and the one thing to think of. When
they go to sea, the sailors find new faces
in every port; but these men, from the
time they crossed the Missouri or left the
Atlantic coast, have known no strange gods,
hardly heard woman's voice till they re-
turned.
was in the confidence of one young
| fellow here, very young and very verdant
not of the grand type at all; in fact, he
was of Pacific growth as far as he had yet
developed, and not a representative man
at all. But he is the only one who took
| me wholly into his confidence, and of
whom 1 can truthfully speak by the card,
| as they say. He had three letters stained,
and worn, and torn. They looked as old
as some of the sacred relics you see under
the glass cases in the British museum.
| These letters were his treasures. True, he
had bag or two of gold, a bowie knife, a
i VI.
\ really a marvel and a mark of extrava-
gance, an extra red flannel shirt; but these
were trifles. These three letters We're the
boys chief pride. Every Sunday, up on
| the hillside, where little sun broke
through the cedar tops and split itself in
shifting pools and pillows along the leaves,
| we two would sit and read and re-read
these letters, and talk, and think, and plan,
and prophesy in way that was as earnest
as it was absurd.
| remember but one of these letters en-
tirely-the tamest and shortest one. But
that one, no doubt, is quite enough. 1t
| had no date or postmark, and was signed
Merinda only, with a small initial letter.
The name was followed by many stars,
the significance of which is too well
| known to repeat:
| mi deer love want TO see Won so bad I was in
| the hay lofte Yesterday when you druv the cows
past our hons on yore spotid horse and sede you
thru the crack and think he is mise only he holds
| his he'd out tn mulch and steps tn longe You must
lern him to lift his legs quker and not step so long
nor silk his he'd out killed rattle snaik 10 da and
| aboute an our befour sun down j will 90 out to
| drive in the shepe from of the rocky butte and il
Will be very Ion some with mi silver tale pony
think mi silver tale pony and your spottd pony
will both drive shepe altogether furst rate mi one
There was hollow tree that stood at
the edge of grove that lay partly be-
tween the parental ranches, which was
fitted up for a post-office. These were i'm
aginative young lovers, it seemed to me-
with disposition to make the most OF
their limited resources for innocent amuse
ment. There was an old bushy-tailed
squirrel in the branches, adorned with
side-whiskers like an English military
gentleman, and always civil and very talk
alive when they walked together in the
gxpve, and him they named their postmas
ter general.
A hundred little things like this were
told and related Sunday after Sunday or
the hillside, when the sun split through
the leaves in the majestic calm of a noun
tain Sabbath. That boy had not the
shadow of Il doubt. 1t was his first love
| How royal how earnest and unSelfiShi
She was the older of the two, and hi.
overthrow was, of course, only a question
of time. Who does not know that mucl
now?
How the news came to him at last, how
it sifted and drifted little at Il time
vaguely at first, to this boy in the forest
with his great faith; how he refused t,
listen or to believe, the agony of the frs
doubt that struck and lodged like IA poi
soned arrow up to the feathers in his heart
would be long to tell and very sad.
But it came to him at last. The great
big, ugly fact lay like Il bowlder in th,
trail before him, that he could not &c
around, yet could not muster courage t.
mount: and so he sat down on tn
leaves and hid his face in his hands, an,
wept like a child that he was. She la,
married man with bcard-a great. six
foot, aw-boned, muscular monster, with
rancho and herds of his own, and hand
like slabs of pine.
This young mans name was Ginger; OF
j at least that is the name, and the onl,
. name, by which he was known in In
mines.
In this forlorn state of mind somchoy
he and the man with the leather nos
t came in contact, and they became sur
friends.
| have observed that in the mines
where men mate together much as MAJ
: and wife in civilization, You rarely Sc
. the strong mated to the strong, or the OLE
r to the old. The weak are attached to tn
strong, and the strong sympathizc wit
the weak. Here is something to thin
J0oquia WHler, in tie Indepe5
r dent
Weeds in lawns are II trouble. Fro
| quent moving soon disposes of the an
nual ones, and the pcrcnnials under hi
r treatment, being generally broad lcavcd
are so weakened that the grass sool
= crowds them out. In England they hav
! n continuance that lets down IA few drop
= | Of sulphuric acid into the heart of plan
: tain or other weed, and is said to b
effective in discriminating them.
4 Moss-RosE is beautiful because it j
: bordered il is n landscape seen througl
= trees SO is view through halfraise,
window curtains and distant sccncr
! through long suite of rooms; so ar