The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-04-04

Praised by the lips of distinguished
report, fostered by the care and sus-
tanned by the pecuniary offerings of
their fellow citizens, the Saints led for
two years peaceful life of gentle alb
sorption. To relieve them from the
embarrassing appearance of eleemosy-
nary receipts-an embarrassment felt
more by the givers than the recipients
the postmastership of Rough-and-
Ready was procured for Daddy, and the
duty of receiving and delivering the
United States mails performed by him,
with the advice and assistance of the
boys. If few letters went astray at
this time, it was easily attributed to this
undisciplined aid, and the boys them
selves were always ready to make up the
value of missing money-letter and
"keep the old mans accounts square.
To these functions presently were added
the treasureships of the Masons' and
Odd Fellows charitable funds-the old
man being far advanced in their re-
spective degrees-and even the posi-
tion of almoner of their bounties
was superadded. Here, unfortu-
nately, Daddy's habits of economy
and avaricious propensity came near
making him unpopular, and very often
the quantity and quality of the help
extended. They always met with more
generous relief from the private hands
of the brothers themselves, and the re-
mark "that the Of man was trying to
set an example-that he meant well, -
and that they would yet be thankful for
his jealous care and economy. A few, I
think, suffered in noble silence, rather
than bring the old mans infrmity to the
public notice.
| And 80 with this honor of Daddy and
Nanny, the days of the miners were long
and profitable in the land of the foot
hills. The mines yielded their abun-
dance, the winters were singularly open,
and yet there was no drouth nor lack
of water, and peace and plenty smiled
on the Sierrean foothills, from their
highest sunny upland to the trailing
.talda of wild oats and poppies. If a
certain superstition got abroad among
the other camps, connecting the fortunes
of Rough-and- Ready with Daddy and
Nanny, it was gentle, harmless
fancy, and was not, think, altogether
rejected by the old people. A certain
large, patriarchal, bountiful manner,
of late visible in Daddy, and the in
crease of much white hair and beard,
kept up the poetic illusion, while
Nanny, day by day, grew more and
more like somebody's fairy godmother.
An attempt was made by rival camp
to emulate these paying virtues of rever-
ence, and an aged mariner was procur-
ed from the Sailors Snug Harbor in
San Francisco, on trial. But the unfort-
unate seaman was more or less diseased,
was not always presentable, through a
weakness for ardent spirits, and finally,
to use the powerful idiom of one of his
disappointed foster. chi dren, sup and
died in a week, without singing airy
blessin'."
But vicissitude reaches young and old
alike. Youthful Rough-and- Ready and
the Saints had climbed to their meridian
together, and it seemed fit that they
should together decline. The first
shadow fell with the immigration to
Rough-and- Ready of second aged pair
The landlady of the Independence Hotel
had not abated her malevolence toward
the Saints, and had imported at consider.
able expense her grand-aunt and grand
uncle, who had been enjoying for some
years a sequestered retirement in the
tpoor-house of East Machias. They
were indeed very old. By what miracle,
even as anatomical specimens, they mad
been preserved during their long jour.
ney was a mystery to the camp. In
some respects they had superior memo.
ries and "reminiscences. The old man
Abner Trix-had shouldered a musket
in the war of 1872, his wife, Abigail
had seen Lady Washington.
Whether it was jealousy, distrust OF
timidity that oyereame the Saints, was
never known, but they studiously de.
clinedto meet the strangers. When di.
rectly approached upon the subject
Daddy Downey pleaded illness, kept
himself in close seclusion, and the Sun.
day that the Trixes attended church in
the school-house on the hill, the triumph
of the Trix party was mitigated by the
fact that the Downeys were not in theil
accustomed pew. "You bet that Daddy
and Nanny is lying low jest to ketcf
them old mummies yet," explained 6
Downeyite. For by this time schism
and division had crept into the camp
the younger and later members of the
settlement adhering to the Trixes, while
the older pioneers stood not only loya
to their own favorites, but even, in the
true spirit Of partisanship, began te
seek for principle underlying theil
personal feeling. 81 tell ye what, boys,
observed Sweetwater Joe, if this ye,
camp is goin' to be run by greenhorns
and old pioneers, like Daddy and
the rest of us, must take bach
seats, it's time we emigrated anG
showed out, and TUX Daddy with
us. Why, they're talkin of rotation in
offiss and of putting that skeleton thai
Ma'am Decker sets up at the table to
take her boarders' appetites away-intc
the post Office in place O. Daddy" And
indeed, there were some fears of such 6
conclusion; the newer men of Rough
and Ready were in the majority, and
welded a more than equal influence o.
wealth and outside enterprise. "Fris
CO." as the Downeyite bitterly remarked
"already owned half the town." The
old friends that rallied around Daddy
and Nanny were, like most loyal friends
in adversely, in bad case themselves, and
were beginning to look and act, it was
observed, not unlike their old favorites.
At this juncture Nanny died.
The sudden blow for afew days seemed
to reunite discovered Rough-and- Ready.
Both factions hastened to the bereaved
Daddy with condolements, and offers OF
aid and assistance. But the old man
received them sternly. A change had
n