The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1875-07-08
A LAST CARD.
BY HARRIET PRESCOTT spoFFoRD.

BY HARRIET PRESCOTT sPoFFoRD.
In a canyon of the Sierras, nobody
knows how many thousand feet above the
level of the sea, and shut away from the
outer world by impenetrable SHOWS during
the last six months, was the Camp of the
Dead-beats.
1t was curiosity among camps, hang
ing on the rocks, as it did, nearly up and
down, in the air; but as several of the
inhabitants would have been hangine
quite up and down in the air if Justice hid
her due, it was accepted as an agreeable
substitute.
Not that the camp of the Dead beats had
begun life with that sad title, however.
Far from it. 1t had as high hopes as the
rest of the world in the beginning. When
the first claim was staked out, 10 Rogers,
the inspiring soul of the crowd. had gal
lantly christened it Camp Topside Galow,
and the miners had laid out their work in
a spirit that bade fair to fulfill his predic-
ton. But the heartiest spirit needs some
reality to sustain itself upon; and after a
little the find had panned out so poorly
that gradual depression fell upon the
miners, as gently as the snow was falling
on the heights that surrounded them and
lost themselves i'm the clouds. till they were
all, in 10 Rogers expressive phrase, as
blue as whetstones and he was not slow
TO sharpen his wits on them. . Blue
Blues no color to you," said Jo. ''Y on re
black and blue"
And well they might be. The gold,
whose blossoms had promised so well,
had come to little or nothing; and that
first snow, which fell so gently that they
hardly knew If was falling, had filed the
passes far and wide, imprisoning them as
securely as stone walls could do, and had
been foil owed by snow upon snow, till. as,
dishearted with the prospects of their
work, they began TO look about them. it
seemed TO the miners that they were buried
alive.
But little snow had fallen in their canyon
indeed and much OF that had gradually
worn away, yet when they had made eN
cursions IN any direction for mile or
two, they encountered fine drifts of blow
ing snow-dust that were impossible, and
they returned to their camp in despera-
ton, only to find their pans frozen and
work impossible. The state of their pro-
visions had long since threatened famine,
and there was no way of getting any
more. Beans had vanished with coffee
the little jews chickens had taken the
wings of the dove: hard-tack had follow
ed suit. They mace common cause, and
lived on an allowance of salt and bitter
beef, and now and then they grubbed fAr
some root or other in the cretices or in
the wet places beneath that had escaped
the frost, but where not even camas bulb
could flourish. At length dreadful ru-
NOR went about. "The whisky" said
Old Peachblow, hoarselv, sis on the point
of petering out. 1t is a-drying up, sir.
There's bottle of Richardson's Bitters
in the camp, and that's all' The whisky
was gone, and they were lost indeed.
They knew, of course, that spring
would come, and whisky with it, that
with the blowing of April flowers the
mountain dew would be once more dis
TILED into their demijohns, but 1T was hard
to keep their faith always alive even as to
the coming of spring. In the gloom of
the dreary camp they would not have be
lieved that the earth continued TO turn
round but for the regularity of day and
night. Yet it couldn't be but the SHOWS
would melt and they would get out, or
some pack-muie would find its way up TO
them. Wait, horse, till the grass grows" :"
Old PeachblOw-sO called in refel ence TO
the ruddy prominence of his cOuntenance
would remark when he heard 10 Rogers
say as much. They had not seen a wo-
man, a child, flower, for six months
not that either of the three was once men-
toned or bemOaned among them. They
had not received a mail in all that time
they had no news Of tie way the world
was going; and they were as thoroughly
disorganized as half Of any living thing
would be without its other half-its better
halfin this ease, certainly, it was to be
hoped.
With all this, though desperate, they
were by no means a penniless, crew.
There was as much "perilous stuff in
ha OF or Iaa hac 1itfla
more, since the mining had made some
slight return and it would have required
genius to disSipate it where there was
nothing to dissipate il on. Once or twice,
indeed, when any individual was seen to
be more dispirited than was becoming, 10
Rogers collected gratuities from the find
of one and another and planted the col
lection in some suitable portion of the
claim belonging to the dOwncast man /;
but it all slowly gravitated toward one
fixed point again, and accumulated itself
in the hands OF Old PeachblOw's partner,
and there il rested. Ii is true that on sew
eral occasions the banker let little of this
capital out. since il was found at last quite
impossible to play round game any
more with an appetite and nothing but
promises for when one lost a good deal
and paid in promises, and then won lit
tie and was paid back few of the prom
ises, and then lost some more, and lost
rashly, with the indefinite postponement
of the day of reckoning. the affair became
too complicated for computation. As for
10 Rogers, he stood old Peachblow's part
ner in for something like a million; and
the amount of this airy Indebtedness
abroad in the camp would have hoated
the national debt. "Don't know" said
10, las | care 10 get away-mortgaged
for life to old Peach's partner. Grab
mortgage and no redemption" But
sooner or later the amount thus let out
trickled back to its original sounce, and
nobody regretted il very much while con-
scious that at need old Peachblow's part
ner would always do the handsome thing.
But without luck as the camp was,
without news, without food, without
whisky, il was nevertheless not without
one crowning misfortune that came to
make the rest seem small-the scurvy.
And when it came, it came to stay, old
Peachblow (who had known the thing
on shipboarO cheeriully assured them.
They had no medicines, such arti-
cles as were in the shape of tinctures,
extracts. inhlsions, bitters, having been
rapidlr absorbed, with all sorts OF results.
upon the disappearance of the whisky,
Tad Evans, sometimes called the Doctor,
had been found the mere wreck OF himself
after following a draught OF rhubard cor
dial with one of sirup OF ipecac, ana rectl-
flying the compound from Burning bot
tie OF Railways Ready Relief; while 10
warned every body not TO strike malch