The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-07-28
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENTS.

being in Idaho City, behold us on Sun
day afternoon aboard the stage and
bound for Placerville, where we were
engaged to speak in the evening.
Brother Kingsley and his excellent
lady had previously written to several
of their personal acquaintance appris-
ing them of our expected arrival, and
had also fortified US with letters of in
PRODUCTION to the landlord of the hotel,
and Mr.. Weller, the principal merchant,
both of whom, with many other gentle
men and ladies, treated us with that
whoIe-souled hospitality for which the
great Northwest is everywhere remark
able.
Our road lay through, or rather over,
the great Idaho Basin for twelve miles.
We have never in our life seen but one
thoroughfare that equaled it in crook
edness, and that is the tidal river
Skipanon, which lies like raveled
crochet loops between Astoria and Clat-
sop beach. All the afternoon we rode
through the interminable mountain
gorges, now gazing high upon the sur
rounding and distant peaks, bald here
and there in mighty patches, and again
clothed in primevaI forests of pine and
fir, and now peering from our precari-
Gus perch beside the driver into awful
abysses, so deep and dark and solemn in
their silent dignity that we would hold
our breath and ask, as did the Psalmist
of old, "Lord, what is man, that thou
art mindful of him, or the son of man,
that thou visitest him ?'' Oftentimes
the road lay alongside of purling, crys-
tai streams that laughed at the feet of
vernal groves of stinted cottonwood,
wild cherry, willow, and alder, flanked
by syringas in snowy bloom, and cur
rants loaded with yellow fruit. Again,
we would ascend sidelong ridge where
mother nature had carpeted the parched
earth with variegated hues, too beauti-
full to be allowed TO
''Waste their sweetness on the desert air."
Then we struck the bed of Grimes
Creek, an erewhile mining camp from
its source to it's mouth, but now COM
paratively deserted, where evidences o.
the toiI'of thousands of miners will re-
main for aye, to tell of
"Scenes and sounds departed,
And the end of hopes deferred"
Like Moore's Creek, of which we las
week gave description, the bed of thi
stream has been stripped to the bed
rock, and all the soil turned over ant
burrowed out. And there is yet mucl
gold that but for the scarcity of waite
would yield constant wages to the in
dustrious miner. Indeed, water here
in many places fabulously rich in ore, i
quite as precious as the gold itself
Great ghosts of what were once grea
fumes for carrying water long distance
for hydraulic mining yet rear thei
skeleton frames high in the air, an
speak to you of days departed when th
busy hum of human voices, the reso
nant clangor of pickaXes, and the dul
rumbling of disemboweled and fallin
earth were heard in the haunts that nov
contain but scattering squads of miner:
mainly Cinnamon, who wade in tn
muddy water Of the creek in gum boot
reaching to their waists, and WELD long
: handled spades and clumsy wheel-bal
rows with dexterity and profit. Th
whole country abounds in gold. Yo
can take a painful of earth from an
U | IL ipE oil ha old nd orf
prospect" anywhere. Some day
Is when chemical analysis has solved th
= problem of securing the gold that heI
a abounds, without water, the histori
E. wealth of ancient Ophir will pale int
a insignifieance.
e. 1t was four o'clock when the ope
L coach emerged from the gravelly bed (
Of the literally uprooted creek and bore I
h into Placerville, where Mr.. and Mr.
le Davidson, of the well-kept hotel, gay
" us cordial welcome.
ID The evening brought us fine aud
N ence. Miners from Quartzburg, Grani
is Creek, and Gold Hill, valuable and pa,
Id ing quartz mines within radius of
III few miles, came in to hear the gospel
peace oD earth and goodwill to me
- and women, and the citizens of Place
= vile turned out en- nasse. We su
- posed we had at last reached a pla
where nobody knew US, but were agre
- ably surprised when, at the close of Il
g lecture, the Garret brothers and the
!; wives and Miss Emma, their sister, o
"Hardscrabble" neighbors of ours
the land of Webfeet and red apple
came up and spoke to US with gladson
- greeting.
e We had intended 10 return to Idal
III City on Monday, but as fate would ha
it, awoke with one of those excruciatil
n headaches which ,OiH visit US abo
" three times in every year. A stage ri
and that headache were not to
y thought of in the same day, so we
~ signed our rebellious Uranium to a W
towel and ourself to the solitude of
cozy chamber till P. NJ, when |
racking pain in eyes and temples ha
~, ing somewhat subsided, we went a-ca
h. wasting, accompanied by Miss Emr
- Garrett, who knew everybody. T
~ Journal of Peace will henceforth be
stranger to the denizens of Placervil
As our headacha was too seVere