The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-08-06
TIMID SIMS.

% Timid Sims" as he was called, was
held in very inferior repute among the
boys atTeXas Bar because he had backed
down before n siX-shooter. A man on
Texas Bar might be lacking in many
qualities, but if he had "the sand" it
covered a multitude of sins. "Sand"
was the joculGr translation for "grit.
Sand, in a locality possessing but little
law and less order, was an absolute es-
sential to Il good standing III Texas Bar.
Iimid Sims was a pale, slender, in
offensive, dreamy character, whose gen.
eIal aspect and manner gave you the inn
preston that lie didn't know exactly
what he had come into the mines for
indeed, that he didn't exactly know
what he came into existence for. He
had body to clothe, shelter and feed,
and it was imperative that he should
work TO shelter, clothe and feed it. He
was not strong enough to do an able
bodied mans work. No one would en-
ploy him, even when hands were needed
in the river claims during the busiest
season a circumstance which seemed to
puzzle Sims exceedingly, until at last
he was plainly told by one of the rougher
and more outspoken miners that he
" couldn't keep his lick with other men
anyway, and the best thing he could do
was 10 go into grocery store, tend bar,
OF keen school"
Sims, however, would mine. He Dor
rowed rocker, procured n very limited
supply of flour, pork and potatoes on
credit at the store, took possession of a
deserted log cabin at the further end of
the Bar, patched up the roof with old
boards which came floating down the
river, and tried at night to sleep COM
fOrtably on the floor in his scanty
blankets. He worked here and there
along the bank, sometimes washing over
" old tailings, sometimes working some
bit OF a bar or rifle exposed during a
low stage of the river, which since
IS 40" bad been dug over q score of
times. He made six bits, " sometimes
dollar and a half a day, often nothing.
His were rcckoned Chinaman's wages.
Taken altogether, poor Sims hardly
passed for q whole man. 1t was not so
much that he was feele in body either,
for there were others resident near him,
able to lift no more pounds or swing a
pick hour after hour with no more vigor
thnn he but there was about Sims an
satmOsphere of weakness and self-depre-
clation. He was always shrinking into
holes and corners. He had no "bluff,
no self-assertion. If he went into a
room full of strangers, he seemed fright
ened at an imaginary something With
a few he became intimate, and they
called him "clever little fellow" To
these he chung, and desired no more &C
guam .ances. Every stranger he seemed
TO regard us an enemy. He was fond of
solitude, and, during the summer, would
neglect work altogether, wandering about
the surrounding mountains.
Sims had one merit. He was an indie
'lst;gable prospector, and ut last struck
gravel diggings on Bixel's Flat. Had he
been "smart" he might have monopo-
Lied the entire lead. He contented him
self with modest slice at one end Then
down came the able-bodied cutting and
shooting men of Texas Bar. Jim Free
mantle had worked bank claim facing
the Tat two years previously, without
suspeGti1g the diggings which existed an
eighth of mile back. No matter. On
the plea Of possessing n prior claim on
Bixeps, he and his compeers argued that
they had the right of running the first
boundary lines. Sims had already run
his own, which included, so far as he
could judge by external indications, a
fair slice OF the lead supposed to exist
underneath This Freemantle &c Co.
coveted. So they ran their lines, which
clashed with those of Sims. Sims found
'Freemantle's notices posted in the heart
OF his claim. He expostulated with
him. He renewed his own notices which
had been torn down. These were again
snatched of, and his boundary stakes
kicked over. This was accompanied by
threat from the proprietors of the
Conquer we Must claim, that "any
more of that sort of thing would lead TO
bullets. SO Sims "took water" and was
obliged 20 take up with fragment of the
ground he had discovered.
Wang Chu kept "China store " a