St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1878-03-09
Jim Oaks.
HOW HE FOUND THE GOSPEL.

On Christmas eve a strange tragedy
was enacted in the far northwest. Away
up in Montana a mining camp was
in days when women we're as
scarce in that country as they were in
the early days of the settlement of Cali
fornia there was, in fact, but one woman
in the camp. She was young, of fine
appearance, great physical strength and
endurance, and indomitable nerve. Two
years before she had left an unhappy
home in Wisconsin to become the wife
of reckless daredevil named Jim Oaks,
with whom she shared the vicissitudes
OF long, slow journey across the plains.
This man just missed being ruffian
through his wife's influence. She loved
him with a noble devotion, and, although
he was incapable of like attachment,
he loved her, too, after fashion of his
own. She was made much of by the
camp; it would have been sorry day
for the miner who should have showed
any disrespect to Minerva Oaks.
The day before. Christmas dawned
lowering. Toward the middle of the
afternoon huge, numbering clouds began
to loom in the northwest. 4 meurnful
wind soughed through the gulches. The
miners, housing their picks, shovels and
pans, took their axes. into the neighbor-
ing bottoms and set at wood-cutting
with vengeance. All signs portended
one of those fierce cold storms that occa-
sionally descend upon the border, arrest
ing torrents in chains Of ice, and freezing
even the shaggy-coated bufaloes. -
The wagons, heaped with freshly chop
ped sticks of cottonwood and aspen, had
hardly distributed their loads at night
fall when the wind, changing to the
northeast, grew stronger and brought
snow. Higher and higher it rose as
darkness came on !; faster and faster fell
the snow. AS the cold increased the
snow was condensed into fine particles
that bit like needles into the cheeks of
belated miners struggling toward their
cabins. Still swelling in volume the
roar of the tempest appeared to affect
the earth as well as the air the plains
and distant mountains were shaken, and
the ground under the camp :trembled
like the floors of dwelling in a city
when heavy trucks roll by along the
pavement; the heavens swirled gigan-
tically overhead, and at length the tenn
pest became hurricane. The volumes
of pulverized snow in the atmosphere
were now SO dense and piercing, and the
gusts were SO violent that it was impos-
sible to see even lighted window at a
few yards distance. e.
It was considerably past Jim Oaks
supper time. But as Oaks was the only
man in the camp who didn't have to
cook his own meals, he had lapsed into q
habit of coming in late to supper, for
which fault his wife, who was not of a
complaining or nagging disposition, never
reproached him. 50 ...@ go. - .-. .,'- 49,
Seven o'clock. Mrs. Oaks fed the fire
from the ample supply Of wood which
one of the wagons had dropped at her
door, then stepped to the pane of glass
which formed the only window in the
diggings, and essayed to. look out into the
night. The glass was caked inside with
frost and covered on the outside by a
snowdrift. Signing, the young wife re-
turned to her seat by the fire. She snuff.
ed the candle with a pair Of shutters
which Jim Oaks had ingeniously carved
out Of an antelepe's horn for her last
birthday present, and then putting her
hand into the bosom of her dress she
drew eut-what? "a 5'15;<
A well worn copy of the new tesla
ment. ~ .f4 -..t-.
There was something covert in the
manner in which she brought this vol
ume into the light, and, thinking she
heard noise at the door, she thrust it
back again. Jim Oaks had somehow
and somewhere acquired so rank de-
testation of the holy scriptures that he
could not bear to hear them quoted from
or even mentioned. The sight of bible
affected him exactly as the devil was
described by Pat O. Grady's grandfather
to have been affected by holy water.
Finding that the noise was nothing
but the crunching of a setting drift she
opened the little book and began to
read 80 . I'll
For if ye forgive men their trespasses
your Father viii also forgive you.
But if ye forgive not men their tres
passes, neither will your Father forgive
your trespasses. sassts*
Come unto Me, allss We that labor and
are heavy laden, and will give YOU
rest. .<4. .5 HID
Then said Jesus unto His disciples if
any man will come after Me, let, him
deny himself and take UP his cross and
follow Me. & HI 49, : - :
q ] am the resurrection and the life he.
that believeth in Me, though he were
dead, yet shall he live and whoaoeyer
liveth and believeth in Me shall never
die.