Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1878-11-14
The Stnrp Teller.
FERGUSON.
A MINERS STORY.

do not believe that Quasomodo was q
more pitiably deformed creature, or Quilp q
more hideously unnaturallooking object, than
was Dandy Ferguson. when saw him for the
first time, that calm summer afternoon, laugh
ing and Joking with crowd of boon compan-
ions, in the cool shade of an awning at Quartz
Mountain.
His face was scanned and distorted by pecu-
liarly glossy scars-the ineradicable evidence
of close and long contact with that shriveling
element, fire. His body was bent, and he
walked with sliding movement. He was a
sickeniug spectacle at first sight, suggesting
fearful suffering in the past, and my curiosity
in regard to him was thoroughly aroused.
"Who is that man :" asked, accosting q
tall, blue.shirted miner who was standing in
front of the post Office.
Don't you know him 7" answered the man /;
"uhy that is Dandy Ferguson. thought
every body kuowed Dandy Ferguson" -,
"Why do they call him Dandy Ferguson =
"Because-well, because he used to be
dandy-a regular out-and out sport. When
Dandy Ferguson first came to this camp, he
was u gilt-edged gentleman and no mistake.
He worea plug, an flashed spark in his
billed shirt-front as big as peanut. he put on
more dog n mine superintendent, an most
of the boys were down on him from the start
That was about three years ago, an be come
up here from the Bay to get Whit O. fresh
air, an make nature an the pines give him
back what he'd lost spreein' round with them
sharps an young bloods O. Frisco.
"No, he don't look like he was more'n half
human, that's fact; but I'd ruther have
them scars O. his than wear the clothes of the
richest man in Californy, that is, if Id gone
through what he has an suffered what he did.
Proud of 'em! Mister, there amt man In
this yere county-no, sir, nor in this yere
State-as is prouder'n Dandy Ferguson of
what other men might grieve over an sigh
about, an no mans got better right to be
proud, either. When he first came to Quartz
Mountain, he used to parade the streets with
his nose cooked up so he'd hydraulic himself
with pat cheuly an smell-water till you cou!l
lot get within mile of him. He was del
icate te.looking cuss, an his hands we're as soft
as barber's. The boys used to bet that if
Big Bridget Sullivan-our washer-woman-
was to take it into her head to jump him, she
would knock spots out O him in derned short
order. That was our opinion of him when be
played his small cards in this yere camp-but
be showed down both bowers an the ace be-
fore be quit the game, you bet yer life. Dye
see that quartz mill over thar on the side hill
That's the Chapparral mine, you know, an
it's thar that Dandy Ferguson showed US what
sand was.
"One night, about month after Ferguson
got here, somebody out there yelled Fire!
an the camp turned out The h'istin' works
was in light blaze, and the flames shootin'
high up in the dark. We all rushed to the
spot like pack O. wild animals-you know
how fire stirs men up an excites 'em. VI
course, nobody knowed what to do, an for
minute we all stood round lookin' at the fire
creepin' along the caves, an the burnin' shin
gies droppiu' down the shaft. Purity soon
some one says, 'Whatp kinder sharp an fierce
like. Then there was a little movement in
the crowd, an man as pale as death springs
away from the mouth O the shaft yellin' fran.
tic, Water! Water! For the love O God
turn on the water-the night shifts in the
lower drift
"There was an awful agony in that mans
voice; he had jist remembered that his broth
or was down there, an that the fire under the
bier of the engine was banked, that the cage
was too heavy to work by hand, and the tim
bers in the shaft pitch pine, an dry as a bone,
with great sparks droppin' down like flakes
in snow Storm You've heerd how fast a
man thinks in times of danger. Jim Slocum
thought of his brother, the dry timbers, the
engine, the cage, an water, all in second,
but that was all. He didn't hev time to think
of the fact that there wasn't bar'l O water
within mile O the mine.
Somebody rushed up to the tank-there
was about tubful there. The fire was play
in around the biler, and the engineer had
turned the safety cocks to let that out. They
all rushed every which way, yellin' fur ropes,
ladders, anything-as eff ladders could reach
down two hundred feet to where the men
were. They were clean gone with excitement,
an didn't know what to do, an the fire roar.
in an crscklin' like the DEVILS own blaze.
"Some rushed one way an some another,
while some of them stood staring into the
hot black smoke an yaller fire, dazed, scared,
helpless. Qucker'n it takes man to tell it,
a man jumped through the door of the histin'
works an caught hold of the chains. His
coat and hat we're gone, an he looked like an
angel-almost-a he swung over the shaft
in bis white frilled shirt an his long, yaller
hair.
"It was Dandy Ferguson.
"He didn't wait fur nobody, but jammed
big scantlin', that two men couldn't lifted,
down over the shaft. Then he yelled fur
rope, an told some men near the door to
fetch him the old win'lass that was YIN out
side, near the dummy.
"You never see men work like they did as
soon as ther was head. The rope an the
win lass was brought into the works on a
Jump, an fastened to the scantlin.' Down
went the rope an Ferguson shootin' after it.
I'm here, boys, an I'll stay till l roast.
Then be grabbed the crank an spun the rope
round the bar'l EASTERN it ever was rolled be.
fore. He used one hand first, an when she
frightened, he laid the other on.
Isl Holden wanted to help him, but he
wouldn't hev no Interference. Time enough,
says Ferguson, when I drop 1t wasn't
long before half naked body came up, an
they got the rope off as quick as they could,
draggin' Harry Miller out of the works more
dead'n alive, tremblin' like leaf. They
thought at the time that he was scared at the
danger he'd been in, an didn't notice how
much exhausted he was, but they found out
afterwards that he'd played it down in that
shaft as mean as one man can play it on an
other at sich time.
"You see there was FIVE of em' in the lower
drift, an when the burning timbers Of the
upper works began to drop down, they all
made rush for the main shaft. The cage
was on, an they couldn't get out till a rope
J.-n rTh,1 oonld GOO Hinkor of