The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1877-03-09
! Graphic Picture of Life i'm the
Black Hills.

A facetious correspondent, writing
from Deadwood, says s'Therc is no
regularity about anything. A man
opens place of business and makes lots
OF money, then he gets the prospecting
fever, starts for the gulches and shuts
up his shebang. When a place is clos
ed up it means the owner is in a fight
or off on a spree. Every man thinks
he is mayor of the town. Every once
in while the boys call mass meeting,
draw up resolutions, ETC., and decide to
incorporate the town and have board
of aldermen, but at the end ofthe week
nobody knows what has become OF the
resolutions of the aldermen.
The orchestra chairs in the theatre
are made of stakes driven into the
ground with a round piece of board,
about the size Of Your hand, nailed on
top. Admission 81. so; reserved seats
SIS. They run sort of variety show,
and sling in the jokes and stage busi-
ness as broad as possible. The scan
can'' was danced for some time until
, the boys got tired of it, and they said,
"Give us some singin' or we'll clean out
the place we want something eleyat-
ing" and the manager had to import
female sentiDncntal vocalist at big ex-
pense to appease the patrons. She sung
"Sweet spirit hear my prayer" "Con-
slider the lilies" ""I know that my Re-
deemer liveth,' and other high-toned
music, and / thought the boys would
go crazy with delight. But they got
/ tired of it in about a week.
There are saloons all over the place,
and whisky two bits a drink. They put
two barrels up on end, nail board
across for a bar, and deal it out. A
miner who wants to treat polIrs some
gold dust on the barrel head and says
''Set 'em up" They never weigh the
dust. Sometimes mau won't put
down enough dust, but then they never
say word and if he is little tight
| and pours out ten or fifteen dollars
worth they never mention it. They have
three faro banks running all the while.
They don't use checks for the boys
when they won pile Of checks they
threw 'em all over the place, and some
were too drunk to handle 'em. So the
checks got played out. Now a man
PUlo q AlStiC gnu Nuce III d NOiSsA SiSSh-
back and it goes for two dollars. Ten
dollars worth of dust in ten dollar
greenback goes for twenty dollars, and
SO on. They never weigh dust at all,
but guess the amount.
The diggings are immensely rich. I
have known five men to take out s. 600
day right along. OF course every
place isn't alike. Every man doesn't
strike such rich deposits, but man who
is thrifty, saving and industrious, can
take away a big stake at the end of a
year. The men who come from there
broke are sIittless fellows, who gamble
and drink all the while, and squander
every cent they get. | have seen men
put down weeks run of dust on a sin
gle card. There is no limit to bets. ]
have seen 81 800 put down on the ace
and it was what the man had washed
out of the gulches in week. OF course
the dealer took it. Board is S12 week
and everything in proportion. The
quartz claims are also very rich. I saw
just before left piece of quartz liter
ally honeycombcd with free gold-morc
gold than quartz. The piece was not
as big as my hat, and there was $500
in gold in it."- Cheyenne Leader.