Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-01-24
Gales ano skettbes.
BENJAMIN JACQUES.

in the summer of 1892 by mining specu-
lation. His ruin did not mean so very
much in dollars and cents, perhaps less
than his previous failures in the same bar
rem field, but somehow this last failure
seemed TO mean great deal to him per
sonally. His open, honest face revealed
keen suffering.
Jacques had been very temperate and
industrious. lie would have gained sue
cess if there had been half chance. But
mining in the Adirondack Mountains was
hard. So long as a man was young, and
new at the business, he could endure the
disappointments after fashion: but when
he was turned of forty years of age, and
had learned that mining in the Adiron-
dacks was contendng against great COM
mercial odds if not natural laws, he was
apt to think that he needed change.
Ones best strength for lighting the
rocks" was likely to be impaired before
middle life. Jacques, however, was still
strong. 1t was the check upon earnest
purposes and honest hopes that wrung his
heart. He had tried SO many times. he
said, and so fair. and every time failure.
On this last occasion jacques brown
locks were turning to silver, as the assets
of his venture were made over to the
company leaving him without dollar;
and he explained TO his friends, in his sim
pie, direct way, with tears in his frank,
gray eyes, that he was tired.
More than twelve years ago" he said,
II brought little money and hopeful
heart to these mountains, and you all
know whether have worked faithful.
own am down now, and my heart is sore.
1t amt no use, boys he added. at is a
hard country Them few black holes over
there in the hill is all have to show for
my work. And them amt mine any
longer" he added, struggling with sob.
He said to a friend privately and with
tears, Its all right, George, to talk of
settling down, but when man has had
his hopes, and see it's too late, and he has
nothing to offer, what can,he sayp'' a
T. Three days after the failure. Ben Jacques
started away from the mining settlement
alone for walk among the mountains.
He was trying to get mental view of
what else there might be in the world be-
side iron ore and speculation and heart
ache. 1t was a July morning, all bright
ness, and, cheered by the birds, he walked
along little road up by cabin where his
newly-marricd friend, Nellie. and her hus-
band lived. The little home was sweet
picture. Beyond it were the woods and
the dark mountains. To the toilcr whose
existence had been for SO many years Il
struggle to wrench fortune from these
rocky hills, they seemed implacable and
pitiless. What was the serenity of their
heights but contempt for his feeble strug-
giles?
lie passed on from the settlement into
woods. There was an old mining road
that he knew of 1t led many miles into
the wilderness. 1t had been cut out and
speedily abandoned in a mining specula-
ton years ago. He followed this track FIVE
miles, to Cherry Lake. The lake was very
solitary. A dark rugged hill clothed with
black spruce, rose beyond it. Where
Jacques was, there was plain covered
with maple and beech trees. lie noticed
how fine the prospect was, and how won
derfully the blue waters sparkled in the
july noon. Then he sat down upon the
shore and smoked his pipe, and thought
it all over again. When he returned to
the settlement that evening, he remarked
that he had considered the matter fully,
and was sure that he had done with min
ing forever.
A week later the news was circulated
that Ben jacques had put up log cabin
away off in the woods at Cherry Lake,
and was going to turn hermit. There
were diverse comments upon this intelli-
gence. Some reckoned that he had found
anew mine out there, others were" aieared'
that Ben had soft spot in his head His
own statement of the case to Nellie was
plain. He said he was tired. He declared
also, that it was pleasant at the lake, and
that he loved to dream there in the silence
II remember world, outside of these
mountains. Nellie" said Jacques, ..that
YOU have not SEEN" When Nellie said.
anxiously, that she feared he was giving
way to some secret sorrow, he did not re-
ply. ,.et
Jacques cabin at the lake was pleas
ant place. During the autumn he cleared
little ground, that he might have gar
den in the spring, and he improved the old
road so that a team could be driven over
it, A few weeks labor at 'the Works"
supplied him with means to procure the
furniture and "A few books were taken to
the cabin, and the toiler settled down to
rest.
Jdcquts WIS sets1tlNe man. Inc $50
lation of his hermit-life soon had its natu-
raj effect upon him. That unseen world
that surrounds the living, both when they
wake and when they sleep, seemed to him
to come nearer and nearer. The strange
spirits that WOO and win the solitary found
him in the wilderness. 1t was observed
that he was becoming quiet and shy, and
that the little he saw Of society when he
visited the settlement oppressed him.
The seasons came and went with much
feverish anxiety, and many bafiled enter.
prises,at the mining settlement Annie
the worry and the failures. Ben Jacques
the hermit, was little cared for, and rare
" remembered.
The little settlement did not encroac
very rapidly upon the woods jacques
cabin was still miles away in the forest
His acre of garden was rose in the vas,
wilderness.
In spring the flowers bloomed around
his doorway, and the bees from his hives
hummed around the tiny clearing. Re
mote as it was. the robins and the blue
birds found this lonely home IL was one
OF die picnic Journeys in summer, for the
young folks to travel the long, unfrequent.
ed road through the woods, and visit
Iacouas tho barp,;t rrlaea ,.;s;,. ,,,o..e