The Placer herald., 1873-07-26
A TALE OF THE CA LlFORNIA MINES by
JOAQUIN MILLER.

JOAQUIN MllILEH.
From the New York Independent.
There was company up the gulch above
US. Portuguese were these-a quiet, unob-
strusive set of men, with dogs and shot
guns and the quietest little cabins in the
world. Brown men, sailors mostly, with
earrings in their ears, and their shirt bos-
oms open; clannsh people, silent and re-
spectacle. Then there were other compan-
les below, not unlike our own--a hundred
men or more on this little mountain stream.
Trees above us in eternal green, chaparral
along the fierce and steep old mountan-side,
that pitched almost perpendcularly on either
side of the stream upon ps,. from which
whistled the partridge through the day and
called the gray coyote at night. No other
sounds than these, but the rattling of the
stones in the cradle or the tom, and the pick
and shovel on the rocks. No doctors, no
law, no lawyers, no thieves. Forty miles
to the nearest trading port. All things were
brought from there across a wall of ever
lasting snow, upon our backs-bread and
bacon and beans, and beans and bacon and
bread the whole year through. AT last the
dreaded 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 ont
across the SNOW This was dreadful. on
could not have seen these strong, brave haen
stricken there, dying DAY Y. lo,-. u,;,hnnf
help, and been silent. Sad fearful!
There were six of them, and the worst
case in the six was That of man with a
leather. nose-all brought together, all lying
looking helplessly, sadly into ehch others
faces, thinking of other faces, other scenes
in other lands AT last an old sailor eug-
gestcd, as a last resort, a remedy. He had
seen a ships crew saved in some land in the
tropics. We would try that. 1t was to
place the men, stripped nude as nature, up
TO the chin in the earth and leave them there
through the night, till the loose and warm
rich soil should draw the poison from their,
bodies.
There was reason in this. Besides, we
had some evidence that it would save our
men, for once when party of Indians at
tackled us, we won the fight, and following
them little way, we found wounded H.
dian buried up to the eyes in the earth.
They had done this in the hope of saving
him to try aud heal his wounds; and they
are good physicians.
We dug six pits in the shadow of a pine,
in the warm, alluvial soil, and there, as the
sun went down, we stood the men up to the
chin, and filed the earth in about them.
1t was lovely moonlight night, balmy
and peaceful as a paradise. Not sound
save the doleful howl Of q wolf in the crags
above was to be heard. Even in this con-
dition the grim Russian was the center 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 hidden in the earth.
Oregon Jake was there, assisting as well
as he might, in his awkward and loose way,
in that singular experiment and effort to cave
the lives of the stricken men.
But he was not gifted with any special
gravity of bearing, and the grotesque pic
ture before him, with all its sadness, had
its 'comical feature.
He went up to Ginger and began to talk,
as he looked now and then at the Russian
over his shoulder. He half laughed as he
| did SO.
The buried man heard him, lifted his
head with an effort, and cried out in ghost
ly, graveyard voice:
"Knock him down, Ginger; knock him
down. ...
Ginger, true to his helpless friend,
knocked him down.
Again the feeble head of the helpless
man settled over on the soft soil. He
closed his eyes with the most perfect salts
faction, and then smiled till bis white teeth
looked like the entire roof to miniature
cemetery.
After awhile the tired miners began to
retire, and, with a silent prayer for the. sue
cess of the experiment, left it to time. The in
valids we're cheerful and now with little
hope cbatted gayly enough together, but
looked strange beyond description-the six
shaggy heads just bursting through the
earth, like Banquo's, there in row IN the
fitful moonlight. 1t looked like men rising
from the earth and coming up to judgment
Their voices sounded weird and ghostly,
too, as of another world. After awhile one
by one fell asleep and all was still save the