The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-09-05

VI IL
Brady half an hour afterward was car
ried upstairs, and forty minutes later
the bridegroom was also borne to his
chamber insensible. After these to-be-
expected preliminaries the company set
tied down to solid enjoyment. In three
hours after the retirement of the bride,
every table was n roof to ut least one
deeply slumbering Platter. BY mid
night only party of four had not sue
cumbed. Their employment was poker.
Gen. Hardinge had One-eyed Jim for a
vis-a-pis, and the District Attorney sat
opposite Lanky Tom. They were play
ing with that self-posssssed excitement
and quick-eyed eagerness belonging to
old poker devotees.
"Bet an ounce" said the General, in
the professional low voice, and reaching
over to snuff the candle.
I'm out, said the District Attorney,
so softly rs scarcely to be heard above
the snores and gasps of the sleepers,
who covered the floor.
"So'm L, !" said Lanky Jim, giving a
sharp little kick to gentleman on whom
he was warming his feet, for moving.
"See your ounceand raise you two, !"
said One-eyed Jim.
Give better" quoth the General.
"See it-call.
"Four kings"
"You stole EN-" said One-eyed Jim,
drawing his revolver and putting his
hand on the pile of gold.
"You lie" answered the General, and
shot him through the head.
Jim could raise his pistol, as the Gen.
eral would in all probability have been
killed himself but for his promptness.
Nobody can blame him. Whether or
not he stole the kings, is another and
irrelevant question.
This was the view taken of it by the
Flat next morning, and, as public man
Hesitation of confidence in the purity of
the Generals motives, every Platter felt
it duty to ask the General to drink.
And then, poor One-eyed Jim had not
been a favorite at the Flat. His pro-
fession having been poker, many of the
Flatters recalled sundry losses and had
their private belief in an overriding
Providence strengthened.
But there was nothing mean about the
Flat. 1t cheerfully voted holiday to
bury One-eyed Jim. The District At
torney was again pressed into the SER
vice as Master of the Ceremonies. A
party was detailed to dig the grave in
an old claim that had once been the
property of the deceased.
One eyed Jim, in life, had habit Of
cursing this possession as the means Of
driving him to poker, for he had never
seen the color in it after months of
patient working. Another party knocked
up rough coffin for the body, and then,
after a solemn drink all round, the flu
neral cortege left the Cosmopolitan-th
coffin on a rough bier, and General Har-
dinge following, as chief mourner-for
the General feelingly declared that no
one more than himself regretted the
gentleman's misfortune.
The District Attorney began to think
he had mistaken his profession. Pre-
vious to the funeral, and while drinking
ut the bar with the General. he had con-
fded to that gentleman that the minis
try might have been more congenial
field. He also made secret resolve TO
brush up on the sacraments. We may
write it to the credit of the District At
torney that he made no pretense of fol-
lowing the burial service over the body
of poor One-eyed Jim. He spoke NOV
ingly of the increased uncertainty of
life and the many accidents incident
peculiarly to this new Western civil a
ton. 1.-The gentleman who has been
the unwilling cause of this unfortunate
fellow-citizen' decease," said the Dis
trict Attorney, looking soberly around
among the solemn crowd, and indicating
the General, who stood at the head of
the grave, hat in hand, with a woe
begone expression, "must, while re-
GREETING the necessity, thank God that
no lower law than that universal one Of
self-preservation has" At this in
slant, to the establishment of every one,
the General threw up his hat with a
shout of Joy and jumped into the grave.
In a second he stood up with his head
just above the surface, and called aloud
to the amazed crowd, as he exhibited Il
half-ounce nugget: Gentlemen, L give
notice that | take up this claim for sixty
yards, two hundred feet each side, with
all its dips, spurs, etc, according to the
avs of the mining district of Brandy
l. lat.
The body of poor One-eyed Jim was
not buried that day, nor the next, nor
the next, for all Brandy Flat was wild
with tearing up the ground of the new
diggings and taking ont the chunks OF
gold that have made the fiat famous.
Then the disagreeable duty was done
by the District Attorney and Mr.. Fin
negan at night, in ground that they
made sure was not auriferous.
"That marriage of Finnegan's was a
lucky speculation for me" Mr.. Brown
says, when talking of 40, "for, besides
getting seven hundred dollars from the
bridegroom for my services, I had n
quarrel with the rascally General. He
wasn't so quick with me as he had been
with poor Jim, so had the satisfaction
of burying him beside that poor fellow
two days after, and then l jumped his
claim and made my fortune. "-Oakland
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