The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1878-04-25
A ROMANCE OF THE FOOTHILLS

IL Is only one wee romance OF the
many which are interviewer with the
pioneer history of Ell Dorado County.
A romance of woman's grave. The
tiny mound is upon the crest of pretty
knoll, overlooking the desolate, desert
ed mining camp of Cold Springs,
half way between Placerville and
Coloma. The shifted sunlight, trem-
bling through the leaves of a grand
old live oak, falls lovingly, tenderly
upon the grave, just as it did twenty
years ago. Marvellous changes have
crept with the years over all the sur
roundings. Five thousand miners work
ed in the flats and gulches of the little
mountain-rimmed camp in those early,
golden days. No claim was allowed to
be over Is feet square, and even then,
the ravines and hollows, the valleys and
hill-slopes, were all located, and there
were miners to spare. 1t was one of
the lovelieSt camps in the foothills.
There were some of the grandest men,
the most generous, the most heroic, in
the mines in those days, that ever the
sun shone on. Men whose nobility of
soul would have stamped them heroes
in any age or cline. And one such was
large, broad-shouldered man-hand-
some, well educated, a general fayorite
among his fellows, and who was always
known as "Judge.' There! I.had al
most written his name, and you would
all know him, and it is the one tender
event of his life l am telling.
When any of the boys were sick, the
Judge was the first to see that they were
properly cared for, and when they re-
covered he invariably gave them a
ssstake," as it was called, and helped
them to find employment. When the
Flynn boys and their friends attempted
to jump the claim of poor old &c Tennes-
see Bob," just because he had struck
rich diggings, and was too aged to pro-
tect himself, the Judge knocked down
their sluices and couple of their chief
DULLES, ran the whole crowd off the
premises, and reinstated the old miner.
Once when Hangtown Greek - had
become swollen by the rain until it was
atorrent, great boiling, seething flood.
filled with driftwood and remnants of
cabins which it had borne away, the
young doctor was washed from his horse
while attempting to ford the stream. A
thousand men gathered on the banks to
witness the struggles of the drowning
man, but never a one thought of BRAY
ing the angry torrent. The doctor was
nearly exhausted, and it seemed as if he
could hold out only a moment longer,
when, just as they reached the great
curve below town, there was a splash
and two men were struggling in the
water.
You should have heard the hurrahs
that went up for the Judge as he reach
ed the dying man! When way down by
the Falls claims he managed to catch a
rope thrown from the land, and was
drawn ashore with the doctor, who was
unconscious from exhaustion. You
should have seen how the boys lifted the
Judge upon their shoulders and bore him
triumphantly back to town.
If you CHANGED to be in Cold SPRINGS
on the day June Meredith and her hus-
band came to town, you were doubtless
standing with the crowd by the hotel,
watching the stage as it came numbering
down the Hangtown Hill. The news
had flown ahead of the stage that gen.
uine, respectable married woman was
coming with her husband to live at the
Springs! Every claim was vacated that
afternoon TO see the phenomenon. For,
in that little valley, with its hundreds
of men, it was indeed phenomenon to
have a real lady to come and settle
among them. just as the plump, pretty
figure, the blue eyes and the light-brown
hair emerged from the stage and thou
sand breathless voices were whispering