Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1877-08-15
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
YASxs STATION, Eldorado Co., Cal.
AUGUST II, 1877.

August IL, 1877.
EDITOR APPEAL: | have q notion that my
last letter was dated one day ahead of its act
ual time of writing seem to have had the
extra day and spent it; and as one cant have
his pudding and eat it too, suppose l must
content myself with having Father Time make
his own terms, whatever the consequences
may be to 1ne,-unduly anticipative and
tasteful There is all the less excuse for my
mistake inaslnuch as 1 have been making
Westing and not the gainful Fasting Of far
cruiser, Stewards But my logarithna got
mislaid and my sextant was afoul. And yet,
if any man is to be excused for tampering
with the movements Of the planetary system
it is the man who seeks to hold the mirror up
to nature by such brief thinning and coloring
as he may command withal The shades and
lights of the fast -heeting sun are all too evan
escent for him who would catch the rich eff
fects of mellowed rays and brosdened, deep
ened and long-slanting shadows. One may,
if the arrows of his wit be swift, sharp pointed
and well aimed, ''Shoot folly as it flies" and
ones hands must be not less skilled and ones
fingers not less nimble to impart, with even
moderate success, the transient and ever
changing effects of the memorable and never
waiting sun My last letter WAS dated (or
ante -dated), at Sailor Jacks cottage, Elmer
aid Bay. That was Thursday night. On
Friday, Jack rowed me and the boys over to
Cap'n Dicks Island and left us there to our
investigations and our studies. This island
rises, in its highest part, something over (or
under) two hundred feet above the surface of
the Bay. 1t is huge granite boulder,
cracked and split in many places and much
of its material detached, here and there, and
piled up in great, jagged heaps of rocks.
There are many precipices, and few hardy
pines and cedars have got foothold. Also
the undeniable chaparral asserts itself wher
ever it can find clinging place-and its pow
ers of tenacity are exceeding keen. So, that,
with its greys and its browns and its greens
and sudden shades this famous little island
is very picturesque It IS nigh by the stony
apex of this island that Cap'n Dick excavated
his burial place and erected over it the little |
white, cross tipped house which is seen by |
oil NOtd3cIS WIN CiScI Day &lll tx |
plore its charming recesses. The tomb is |
narrow cell, just of q size to admit one coffin |
The excavation is numbered up" as the mi |
ners say; and the tagging or roof being COW
cred with earth, the top of the place of sepul-
chre is the fiat earth floor of the little white
house aforesaid Cap'n Jack was tough old
mariner; and like all old sea-dogs he had
an undisguised contempt for all lakes and
puddles and other fresh water demonstrations
and ambitious limitations of the great ocean
Thus he made his brag, like true tar, that
"this damned frog pond, (meaning Lake Big
ler), would never turn him up. But it did
turn him up--or down, rather, at last; and
IS to the whited sepulchrl house which
he SO painfully made, is it not besmeared as
out of the black contents of marking pot,
across its roof, with the names OF Abraham
Heyman and Solomon Tausig of Gold Hill,
and with lesser fragmentary signs and legends
of famous squatters upon poor Dicks chosen
but forever-to-b e-emptv last resting place? {
All talk of tastefulness and the sweet pro- {
prieties are silenced in presence Of these ,
~ AStS
Jack has promised ne that he will obliterate Y
these binding impertinences with bucket of :
white wash The story OF the final catastrophe y
of dead and drowned Cap'n Dick may not be +
sn uninteresting one to the readers Of the ?
MORNING APPEAL, albeit it has doubtless i.
been told before. By reference to the p
British Mercantile Navy List and Annual 4
OF the Commercial Code of -
Signals for all nations, of 1861, edited by ]. =
FL. Brown, Registrar General of Seamen and -
Shipping, it will be discovered that one
RICHARD BARTER was granted by the Exam y
ming Board for London, in the year 1913, q p
as First Mate in the Mercantile -
Marine Service of the Kingdom. This said -
Richard Barter was the Identical Cap'n Dick
whose name is SO closely woven in with all
he life, history and legendary lore of Sc
Emerald Bay. Sailor Jack, whose real name II
S John Sullivan, and who is native of St. SC
John, New Brunswick, says that Cap'n Dick m
vas Bristol man and that time was when he OIL
ook part in the romantical risks of the pc
muggler's trade. 1t was four years ago, ar
ONE this next month of September, that B
'apn Dick was to be seen taking a IN
ut of spree at and about the Glenbrook
+bot