The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1875-07-23


and the leather belts and tin can
slowed away among the other rut
bish up in the loft Of the Howlin
| Wilderness.
Then the fist came down again
and the big mouth opened, and th
big mouth said, slow and loud an,
long and savage, like the growl Of
grizzly:
"Swallermy grandmothers boots!
Then the man fell back and melt
ed into the crowd, and whatever ro
nance there was in his life, whateve
sentiment he may have had, what
ever poetry there was pent up in tn,
heart of this great Titan, it found NJ
other expression than this.
The genteel gambler, who sat be-
hind table, with his green clotl
and silver faro boz, forgot to throw
his card, but held his arm poised il
the air till any man could have seen
the jack of clubs, though a thousand
dollars worth Of gold dust depended
on the turn. Yet all this soon had
an end, of course, and there was a
confusion Of tongues and noise
that settled gradually over against
the bar. Even there it was afterward
remarked, though the men really in
terested did not know it at the time,
that the cinnamon-headed dealer Of
drinks put cayenne pepper in gin
cocktail, and Schiedam schnapps in
a tom and jerry.
Timber Tim was there in their
midst, but was sad and silent man.
Perhaps he had been told all about
it before, and perhaps not. Tim was
not a talker, but a thinker. This to
him meant the loss Of his partner,
the man he loved - a divorce.
Poor LimberI he only backed up
the wall, screwed his back
there, twisted one leg in behind the
other, stuck his hands in behind him
and so stood there until he saw a
man looking at him. Then he
Topped over with his face to the wall,
dug up his great pencil from his
great pocket and fell to writing on
The wall and trying to hide his face
from his fellows.
Rather sudden, amt it, iudgeP"
"Well, not so sudden-not so sud
den, considerin' this-this glorious
climate of Californy."
The wedding-day came. The camp
had been invited to man. There
was but one place in the camp that
could hold a 1.-THE OF its people, and
hat was the Howling Wilderness.
The plan had been to have the we'd
ling under the pines on the hill; but
he wind came pitching down the
with frost and snow in its
beard that morning, and drove them
10 the shelter. What a place was
hat Howling Wildernessi It was
battlefield, prize-ring, dead-house,
gambling hell, courthouse, chapel,
everything by turns. There they
stood, side by side and hand In hand,
before the cracking fire, before the
title Judge. The house was hot. 1t
vas crowded as thick as the men
'ould stand. Tighter than sardines
n tin box the men stood there
,areheaded, with hardly room to
breathe. The fat little magistrate. was
erribly embarrassed. He had sent
ii the way across the mountains by
he last pack-train, by the last ex-
,ress, by the last man who had dared |
he SHOWS; but no pack-train, no ex-
,ress, nothing had returned with the |
coveted, the so much needed mar
ige ceremony and service, which he
lad resolved to read to the people,
nterspersed with such remarks and |
moral observations rs the case might |
'equire. Alas! the form of the cere-
nony had not arrived. He had moth
ng Of the kind to guide him. He
lad never officiated In this way be-
ore. He had never studied up this
ranch. Why should he have studied
lp in this line when there was but
me woman in all the camp, in all
lis little world?
As the form had not arrived, he had
Iothingt in the world bnt his moral
to use on this imposing
occasion, and he was embarrassed be-
ore. He could hear ihemen breathe.
The pretty little woman was troubled
90. Her face was all the time held
lown, her eyes drooped, and she did
lot look up-did not look right or
eft or any where, hut seemed to sur
ender herself to fate, to give herself
way. Her soul seemed elsewhere,
IS if she sat on a high bank above all
his, and was not Of it or in it all.
"Do you solemnly swearYr
The Judge had jerked himself to-
,ether with an effort that made his
oinls fairly rattle. He hoisted his
light hand in the air as be said this,
md, having once broken ground, be
vent on: ado you solemnly swear TO
owe. honor and obey?"
Poor Timber Tim, who had inst
oom enough behind the Judge TO
urn over, here became embarrassed
through sympathy for the little red
aced magistrate, and Of course Topped
,ver a6d began to write bis name and
be date and made pictures ON the
vail with a nervous rapidity proper
.ionate TO his embarrassment.
do you solemnly swear?"
II was very painful The little msn
ook down bis little flag staff to wipe
lis little bald bead, and be could not
,et it up again, but STOOD there still
nd helpless.
You could hear .he men breathe a.
hey leaned and listened with all their
night 10 hear. They heard the walef
outside gurgling on down over the
reat bowlders, over their dams. and
N through the canon. They heard
he little brown wood-mice nibble a.
he bits Of bacon rind and old leather
,oots up in the loft above their heads