Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1873-08-14
The Loves Of the GOId-Miners.

letters and their tales of love. That was
a sacred ground, upon which no strange
rude feet could pass No gold-hunter
there, perhaps, but had his love-his one
only love, without change or possibility
of changing the object of his devotion
even if he had desired it, Men must love
as we'll as women. 1t is the most natural
and, consequently, the most proper thing
on earth. Imagine how intensified and
how tender 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-tire, 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
new man, a new manner of lover. Love,
| say, is as a requirement, a necessity. 1t
is as necessary for a 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
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
nnDn thpnl. fhpN- 1nclTa1 III, ILL n
these men Of the sierras, with only their
work and the one thing to think of. When
they 90 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 a Woman's voice till they re
turned.
| was in the confidence of one Young
fellow here, very young and very verdant
hot 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 | 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,
pistol, pair of blankets, and, what was
really marvel and a mark of extrava-
gance, an extra red flannel shirt but these
were trifles. These three letters were the
boys chief pride. Every Sunday, up on
the hillside, where a 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 reread
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 small initial letter.
The name was followed by many stars,
the significance of which is too well
known to repeat:
mi deer love i want to see Won so bad I was in
the hay lufte Yesterday when you druv the cows
past our hous on yore spotd horse and scde You
thrH the crack, and think he is Mise only he holds
his he'd ont tn mulch and steps tn lonpc YOU must
lern him to lift his legs quker and step long
nor silk his he'd ont killed rattle snaik to da and
aboute an our befour sun down i will 90 out to
drive in the shepe from of the rocky butte and it
VIII be very Ion some with mi silver tale pony
think mi silver tale pony and your spOttid pony
VIII both drive shepe altogether furst rate mi one
dere low
There was hollow tree that stood at
the edge of a grove that Law partly be-
tween the parental ranches, which was
fitted up for 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
grove, and him they named their postmas-
ter-general.
A hundred little things like this were
told and related Sunday after Sunday on
the hillside, when the sun split through
the leaves in the majestic calm of noun
tain Sabbath. That boy had not the
shadow of doubt. 1t was his first love
How royal. how earnest and unselfish!
She was the older Of the two, and his
overthrow was, Of course, only a question
OF time. Who does not know that much
nOWr
How the news came to him at last, how
it sifted and drifted a little at a time,
vaguely at first to this boy in the forest,
with his great faith; how he refused to
ltNttli VI q btiltNt, tlt agony Oh inc IllSt
doubt that struck and lodged like 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 bowlder in the
trail before him, that he could not get
around, yet could nor muster courage to
mount: and so he sat down on the
leaves and Ind his face in his hands, and
wept like a child that he was. She had
married a man with beard-a great, six
foot, raW-bOned, muscular monster, with a
rancho and herds of his own, and hands
like slabs of pine.
This young mans name was Ginger; or,
at least that is the name. and the only
name, by which he was known in the
mines.
In this forlorn state of mind somehow
he and the man with the leather nose
came in contact and they became sure
friends
| have observed that in the mines,
where men mate together much as man
and wife in civilization, you rarely see
the strong mated to the strong, or the old
10 the old. The weak are attached to the
strong, and the strong sympathize with
the weak. Here is something to think
about JoaquiR NjHer, III tie Iadep6n-
dent
The Whip
THE term whip" has great variety of
meanings, all derived from one root To