The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1874-11-20

You JIldJ IL Is n terrible charge on
sensitive man TO cry out crazy after hiI
as he passes through this life! Call hiI
a rogue. a thief, a swindler, a villain c
a fool. If you must, for, on these char.
e., he can settle in his own way wht.
he hear them; but this charge that one
mind is affected, is something whic
rests in the estimation of the public, an
is practically true or not true. as tn
public sees fit to receive it. The sound
ness of ones mind is like the price O
greenbacks-a matter of opinion. N
odds how well secured, that rises an,
falls with the public pulse. There is n,
surveyed boundary between sanity an,
insanity. How do you know you are o
sound mind."
How do | know
Yes"
well, | know-because I've got gooC
horse-sense, anyway. ] eat when In
hungry, drink when I'm dry, restwheI
tired, work hard when | can't do any
better, sleep when I'm sleepy, and TAKE
myself in out of the wet; that's what
call sOund-minded."
Yes. so far as it goes. But now
about your ambition, wherein you i'm
agine yOerself wealthy from finding a
great mine, rolling in your carriage
enjoying the fine things of life and the
batteries of the fair, the foolish and the
false? Do you never dream, with your
eyes wide open, of being great fellow,
big capitualist, as they call it,"
Certainly, l believe every man is to
have his streaks of luck"
''Then, William, you are a dreamer;
we are all dreamers. and dreams are
made of 'perilous stuff When a man
dreams in a full waking state, his horse
senses slips away from him into a cloud
and he is partly out of his mind. He
may, from this state, go all the way out,
or he may return to his 'horse-senses.'
The floating cloud-land from sanity and
insanity admits of no permanent bound
ary."
Then how's feller to know he's got
sound senses" asked Bill, with tired
of-the-discussion expression, as we rode
across the gray valley"
''He can't know. 1t is the public, the
coz pOpWii, which puts the value on the
soundness of sense. That is why all
new doctrines are first resisted, then
ridieuled, then examined, then stolen.
The public itself is not often sure of its
own wits. In Utah it is sensible to see
angels and hear voices from heaven. In
Boston, Mass, it is sensible to worship
your own intellect. In Nevada and
California it is the height of good sense
to worship the power of money. 1t is
wisdom i'll China to bow before ones
fathers ghost; in Japan, before Budha;
in India, before Brahma; in Rome, be-
fore the Pope; in Mecca, before a black
stone. So you see that any sense above
horse sense is risky and uncertain
property in the market of the world.
Like ball of quicksilver, it has weight,
color, power and great brilliancy; but it
is liable to roll away from you, at any
moment, i'll thousand glittering pieces. !"
Bill made no answer in the pause 1
left open for him, so | added:
THAT man back yonder in the mine
is a dreamer, Bill; and whatever his
dream, sad or happy, it weighs upon,
and makes him a stranger in all the real
world-in the horse sense congregation,
mean"
'Weil, said Bill, throwing away his
cap, ''d-n him, let him dream
it out. I'll not trouble him again soon.'
The conversations between William
Wilson and myself, as we rode, day after
day, across broken mountains and gray,
valleys, were to us twain in
teresting enough, but need not, there
fore, y interesting TO other people.
And yet, though L do say it myself, we
made some pretty sharp remarks on a
great variety of subjects, into which
William at times threw his unbookish
mind with startling effect. Upon one
occasion he ''got off," as he called it,
his opinion of talk"
''Some fellows" he said, care always
putting up that talk is cheap but say
that talk is precious at twenty to the
pan. Blab is cheap; but the first thing
in my mothers old Bible is talk: God
said let there be, and the words started
off into the darkness and sluIngullion of
putting up stuff for heavy
crops, and leaves, and flowers, and busi-
ness generally"
''Why, William, you are poetm
Not much! l despise poetry But
good sound talk set the world agoing,
and keeps her humming on the pin. I'd
ike TO know what would be the use if
people couldn't talk, or didn't talk, I'd
Is soon be a bump on a log as not to be
able to talk. When fellow says to me,
%, it's all talk say, You bet your life
t is. Newspapers and books is talk.
Law and gospel are talk. Money is talk,
lone up in tens and 'twenties;' take
he talk out of it, anu it's nothing"
Thus, one way or another, he whiled
away the journey back TO town, where
left William, and proceeded about my
business, far away from the high alti-
.udes and dry valleys of Nevada.
Some months later returned, to find
he town in one of those mining fevers,
which invariably follow the discovery of
,ich silver ores. Picking up the lively
little daily newspaper from the clerks
counter at the hotel where ! stopped,
md glancing over it, my eyes fell upon
he following:
erich strike in the Silver Chamber.
wires, ropes, spangles, fiecks and cakes
IF silverl Chloride ores, by tons and
Ons, all through the mines. with rich
iulphurets at the water level"
Nothing except an ownership in the
could give us more satisfaction
han we now enjoy in chroniciing the
yrand success which has crowned with
gorgeous silver crown the long and tedi-
,us labOrs of the genial Brothers Rock
aw.
by invitation of Mr. George Rock
aw, we stepped into his buggy on Satur-
lay last, and after a pleasant drive of
wo DAYS, and stiff climb up the side of
oranghorn mountain, we were permitted
o descend into the mine. In the de-
cent of the main shaft, and for a hun
lred feet along the main drift, there is
nothing worth mentioning: but at the
nd of this hundred feet there opens a
Gene more gorgeous than the dream of
he Count de Monte Chrlsto- AL along
he drift, overhead, underfoOt, and upon
he hanging wall, for distance of four
hundred feet, the precious wealth of
nature glitters in the 'lamp-light gioat-
ng o'er.' Below this drift, on the lower
evel distance in perpendicular depth Of
fifty feet, and in the mountain over one
lnndred feet. there is even richer pie
ure. The mine Is not describable, eX-
,ept by excIaInatiOns. 1t magnificent.
The mine Is patented under tine broad
cal of Uncle Sam, 10 George Rocksaw
md Andrew Rocksaw, their heirs and
.ssigns. 70 have and TO hold forever"
So Bill was mistaken, after all, about
hat mine aud the ROcksaws.
# thought is commonly regarded as un-
urnaeaa1 in uarura a notion Whiplt i