Litchfield enquirer., 1874-10-22
THE FOOL OF FIVE FORKS.
BY BRETE HARTE.

1 hls foolishtess iron, :.IH lest oE tne camp nor was # probable that .ha coEi:,iIet wisdom of Five Forks ever .iroye him int exile. Ny impression is that he lives alone from choice-a choice ha made lon; before the camp indGigej in any criticism l of his meiital capacity. He Was mncl i gwen ;o moody Iet:ceEca, and, slthOugl to outsard apbearances a strong man, Wal i alwas s mpiain:ug Of Ill health. Indeed ore theory of his issolation was that i
 afforded him better opportunity for talk ing medicine of which he habituaIly con ! snmed large quantities.
 l His folly first dawned upon Five Fork l through the post-ofiice windows. He was for long time the only man who wrote
 home Dy every mail, his letters being al ways directed to the same persona wo. 1 man. Now 1t so happened that the bnlk ! of the Five Forks correspondence was
 usnally the other way; there were many
 letters receiVed-the majority being in
 the female hand-but very few answered. The men received them inditferently, o1 l as matter of course; few opened and l read them on the spot witt. a barely re-
 pressed smile of self-eonceit, or quite as | frequently glanced over them with undis- guised impatience. Some of tne letters began with My dear husband" and some
 were never called for. But the fact that the only regular correspondent of Five
 Forks never received any reply became at
 last quite notorious. Consequently, when
 an envelope was received bearing the stamp of the 'Dead Letter Office" ad-
 dressed to the Fool under the the more
 conventional title of Cyrus Hawkins. ''
 there was quite fever of excitement. d dn not hon 4 ~,,k but 1t was eventually known to the camp that the envelope contained Hawkins's s own letters returned. This was the first evidence of his weakness; any man who repeatedly wrote to a woman who did not suspected that his folly was known to the camp, but he took refuge in symptoms of chills and fever. which he at one devel- oped, and effected diversion with three bottles of Indian chologogue and two boxes of pills. At all events, at the end of a week he resumed pen, stiffened by tonics, with all his old epistolatory perti- nacity This time the letters had new address.
 In those days popular belief obtained in the mines that Luck particularly favor- ed the foolish and unscientific. Conse- quently, when Hawkins struck ''pocket" i'll the hillside near h1s solitary cabin, there was but little surprise. ''He will sink it all in the next hole," was the pre- vailing belief, predicted upon the usual manner in which the posssssor of ''nigger luck" disposed of his fortune. To every body's astonishment, Hawkins, after talk ing out about eight thousand dollars and exhausting the pocket, did not prospect for another. The camp then waited pa tiently to see what he would do with his money. I think, however, that it was with the greatest difficulty their indigna- tion was kept from taking the form of a personal assault when it became known that he had purchased draft for eight thousand dollars in favor f"that woman.' More than this, it was finally whispered that the draft was returned to him as his 1ottoD0 he'd boe.., s>->1 <iA& A<. ----N-~-l-~.-~ ed to reclaim the money at the express office. Ut wouldn't be bad speculation to go East, get some smart gal for hun dred dollars to dress herself up and rep resent that hag, and freeze on to that eight thousand" suggested a far-seeing dancier. l may state here that we always alluded to Hawkins's fair unknown as 1.-The flag" without having, I am confi- dent. the least justification for. that cpl thet.
 That the Fool should gamble seemed eminently fit and proper. That he should occasionally win large stake, according to that popular theory which I have re- corded in the proceeding paragraph, ap- peared also improbable or inconsistent fact. That he should, however, break the faro bank which Mir. John Hamlin mad set up i'll Five Forks, and carry of a sum variously estimated at from ten to twenty thousand dollars, and not return, the next day, and lose the money at the same table, really appeared incredible. Yet such was the fact. 4 day or two passed without any known investment of MT. Hawkins's recently acquired capital If he allows to send it to that lag, said one prominent citizen, "sutthln ought to be done It's jest ruinia' the reputa- tion of thls yer camp-this sloshin' around O capital on non residents ez don claim it!" ''It S settin' an example O extrava- gance, said another, ''ez Is little better nor swindle. Thais morn five men in this camp thet. hearin' thet Hawkins he'd sent home eight thousand dollars, must jest rise up and send home their hard earnin's too. And, then, think thet that eight thousand was only bluff, after all, and thet it's lyin' there on call in Adams X Co., s bank! We'll. I say it's one O them things a vigilance committee oughter look into!'
 When there seemed no possibility of this repetition of Hawkins's folly, the anxiety to know what he had really done with his money became intense. At last a self appointed committee of four citi- zens dropped artfully, but to outward ap- pearances carelessly, upon him in his Sc clusion. When some polite .formalities had been exchanged, and some easy vitu- peration of a backward season offered by each of the parties, Tom Wingate ap- preached the subject:
 ''Sorter dropped heavy on Jack Ham, lin the other. night, didn't ye? He allows you didn't give hlm no show for revenge. I said you wasn't no such d-d fool didn't I, Dick?" continued the artful Win gate, appealing to confederate.
 "Yes," said Dick promptly. ''You said twenty thousand dollars wasn't goin' to be thrown around recklessly. You said Cyrus had sathin' better to dc with his capital, superadded Dick, with gratui- tous mendacity. ''I disremember now what particular investment you said he was goin' to make with it" be continued, dppcdAuS Hltu easy 1uUlucEouC0 tO HIS friend.
 Of course Wingate did not reply. but looked at the Fool, who. with troubled face. was rubbing his legs softly. After pause he turned deprecatingly toward
 his visitors.
 ''Ye didn't enny of ye ever hev sort of
 tremblin' in your legs-a kind O shah-
 ness from the knee down? Suthin'," he
 continued, slightly frightening with his topic, .'suthin' that begins like chills, and | yet ain't chills. A kind O sensation of goneness here, and kind O feeling as if you might die suddept! When Wright's
 Pills don't somehow reach the spot, and
 Quinine don't feet you?"
 "'No," said Wingate with curt direct
 ness, and the air of authoritatively re-
 spending for his friends. ''No, never
 had. You was speakin' of this yer invest ment."
 ''And your bowels all the time irregu-
 lar?" continued Hawkins, blushing under WinCata'S avn and rlipo1pU 1cspoi r;p rI VI