The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1874-03-13

me forward WITH some tninB oi u III
umphant air.
I" Boys" he said / take it all back.
This is my old skipper +; come out with
him in 40. He amt no preacher-he
spends his money like man, and don't
whine. Any one that don't like him,
call ON Bill Thorp. That's me Let's
take suthin' |" I'D -5T ~
Finding that things had Ia IN an I'M
expected turn, / Immediately took adj
vantage of the new situation. Thorp
stood sponsor for me, and his emphatic
assurance of my unpreacherllke charac-
ter and proper disregard OF the value OF
money put the Bar in good humor SO
/ explained my business, and hoped to
deserve well of the boys. And won the
friendship of these people-not by pan
dering to their tastes or falling into their
practices, but by minding my own bust
ness. While abstaining from rubbing
against their prejudices, and scrupulous-
ly avoiding all interference with their
pleasures, [ sympathized with them
in all their little troubles, and they
respected me. The Bar, by day, did
not seem to be very bad or boisterous
place; in working hours ii INDUCED in
kind of feverish rest. But it was by
night that it shown in the full glory of
its appropriate name. Then it was that
the vampires that sucked the blood of
honest labor came forth. Short
card men, poker sharps, monte
dealers, faro dealers and others of the
fraternity sneaked out to prey on the
earnings of the day, and the Bar ran
riot. 1t was then that the great strong
fellows, who were wearing out their
lives in daily conflict with nature
tearing open the mountains and wrest-
ling with the streams, that others might
wear the gold they won, would gather
round the gambling tables to "try their
luck and this thing called luck" in
the early days was strange thing.
Existing on the superstition that is found
in the composition CT every man, in a
greater or less degree, it was a phantom
that haunted all classes and entered into
all human calculations. Luck shamed
reason and set at naught all mathemati-
cal certainties, and forgetting that
mans luck was much of his own max
ing, it was followed with persistent
faulty that led the feet of too many
into bad and dangerous places. 1t was
the scapegoat for all sins and short
comings. 1t was the rock upon which
were built the golden castles of the
hopeful future the shifting sand that
carried away with it the unfruitful and
disastrous past the harvest whose
sheaves OF promise often yielded only
bitterness and disappointment. In
these tits with fortune the Bar drank
deep. 1t was dry by day, it was un-
quenchable by night. If luck was with
the boys they drank, and dallied with
1t; if against them, they drank still
deeper and cursed it.
Altogether, the Bar was wild and
abandoned place but attrition with
these people taught me that there are
solvents for even crystallized wicked
ness, that there is no cloud so dark as
to be without q single streak of silver,
no nature so rugged as to be lmpene-
trable or beyond the reach of humaniz-
ing influences.
1 had been domesticated i'll my new
home about month, when circum-
stance took place which seemed to
change entirely the whole routine of
He'll Roaring. There was an arrival
one morning, and the Bar throbbed with
"A new sensation, "a quiet, unassuming
lady-a Mrs. Hampton-and her little
daughter, who sought rest and health
in the mountains. Mrs. Hampton was
widowed, but no one inquired into her
history. She was welcomed as a new
and strange element among so much
wild, reckless life, that brought back
memories of mother, or sister, or sweet
heart far away, and the Bar was pleased.
The Bar christened the little daughter
Daisy" and she was well named.
From this day a marked change took
place. Every one desired to be well
thought of by the new corners, dress
became an object of solicitude, drunken
wells rending the quiet night were less
frequent, spirits of evil seemed to be
quelled, and the Bar was on its good
behavior.
Little Daisy was everywhere as
ministering angel. If there was sick
bed in the camp, Daisy was beside it
with the little Injuries that the hand of
woman only knows how to prepare. If
poor fellow was about to "pan OUT
his few last sands of life, Daisy was
there to wet the parched lips, to fill the
poor neglected heart with hope, or to
write the last message to loved ones over
and beyond the Plains. Quiet and un-
obtrusive, Daisy moved about in her
ministrations. As she passed the saloon
ON her errands of mercy-her brown
hair neatly folded over the pale forhead,
her little basket of "goodies" on her
arm, and word and smile for every one
-oaths half uttered would be choked
back, and rough and brutal iests shrunk
unspoken as if ashamed in her presence.
Even Oregon Sis-to whom blush was
would hang her head silently
when Daisy was near, and her eyes
would swell-perhaps, poor thing with
looking back to the old days among the
apple blossoms, when she, too, was pure
and innocent-at least, L thought so.
Somehow the Bar was not so dry as
formerly and Joe Miles. it's ruling
spirit, neglected his business and said
he was tired of whisky-selling. He laid
aside his six-shooter that, reports said,
had served him only too well on more
than one occasion, with the remark that
"the Bar was so quiet now, it warn't no
use to carry it" Joe was very particu-
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