Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1879-04-18

NARRATED By DICK BARBER, As REPORT
Ep BY THE vEIACIoUS CHEoNICLEE,
MAnL TIx aT<

NARRATED By DICK BAEBER, A. EEfoRi-
ED BY THE VEIACIOUS CHEoNICLER,
MARX TWAIN.
"Geutlemcn. | used to have cat here,
by the name of Tom Quartz. which you'd
4 took an interest, in | reckon-moSt any
body would. had him here eight years
and he was the remaIkablest cat | ever
see. He was large gray one oithe Tom
specie, and he lad more hard, natchral
sense than any man in this camp-an' a
p0rcy OF dignity-hc wouldn't let the
Gov'ncr of Calilonv be familiar with him.
He never kctchcd a rat in his !ife-'peared
to be above it. He never cared for noth-
inc but mining He knOwed more
about mining. that cat did, than any
man ever see. You couldn't tell hBt
nothin' about placer diggin'>-an' as for
pocket mining, why he was lust BON
for it,
lie would DIG ont after me and Jim
VIXEN be went over the hills prospect
in, and he would rot along behind Us
for as much as five mile, if we went so
fur. An he had the best Judgment about
mining ground-why YOU never see any
thing like it, When we went to work,
he'd scatter 4 glance around, an il he
didn't think much OF the indications, he
would give look as much as TO say,
We'll, I'll have to get You TO excuse me,
an without another word he'd hyste his
his nose into the air an shove for home.
But If the ground suited him he would
lay low an keep dark till the first pan
was washed, an then he would sidlc up
ar take look, an il :here was about
six or seven grains Of gold he was salts
fied-hc didn't want no better prospect N
ihat-an' then he would lay down on
our coats and snore like 4 steamboat till
we'd struck the pocket, an then get up
an supcrintend lie was nearly lightin'
on supcrinicndin.
We'll. bye, an bye, up comes this yer
quartz excitement. Every body was into
it-overybody was pick n an blast'n
instead OF shoyelin' dirt on the hillside
everybody was putin down shaft instead
of scrapin the surface NOthin' would
do Jim, but we must tackle the lcdges
too, an so we did. Wecommenced putin,
down shaft. an Tom Quartz he begin To
to wonder what in the Dickens it was all
about. H. hadn't ever seen any minin'
like that before, an hr was all upset, As
YOU may say-hc couldn't come 10 Il right
understandin' Of no way-it was 10 many
for him. He was down on it, too You
bet you-he was down on it powerful
an always appeared To- consider II the
cussedest iOolshness out. But that cat,
YOU know, was a',rry. agin new tangled
arrangements somehow he never could
abide 'em lou know how it is with
old habits But bye an bye Tom Quartz
begin to ut sort 81 recouciled little,
though he never could altogether under
stand that eternal ,iukiu' ot a Shaft an
never pannin' out ANYTHING At last he
got to comm down in the shaft hi-~clf,
10 try to cipher il out. An when he'd
CIT the blues. an feel Kind % scruflv. an
aggravated an disguised KNOWN a he
did that The Gll- wa luuuiu' up all the
time an We waru't maxim a ccnt-hc
would cml up ON a "unuy sack u the cor
ner an 20 To- sleep.
well, one day when the shaft was
down about eight foot, the rock got 50
hard that we had to put in 4 blast the
first blastin' we'd ever done since Tom
Quartz was born. An then we lit the
fuse an climb ont an got ont alrut
fftv yards m forgot an left Tom,
Dnartz souud a-iecr am tie 0upuv sack
In a minute we seen Il nun of smoke bursr
up ont Of the hole. an then everything
let 90 with an awful crash. an aIoui
tour million tom Of rocks nm dirr an
smoke an Splintcls -hot up about mile
an y half into the air, an hv George,
right in the centre Of it was old Tom
Quartz a goin' end over end. an snort
in an sncezin' an clawin' an a
reachin' for thing like al possessed But
it warnt no use An that was the last
we see OF G,m tor about two minutes an
halt, an then all ot "A sudden 1t begin