Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1879-09-18
LUCK IN A TUNNEL.
An Old Miners Story.


I am an old miner. Not,o9s
of the nowadays, Washoc and
Ncyada.stripe, but maoktIfDEtys
nine California miner. = / have
been engaged III all descriptions
of mining transactiieens, SeKeSepiI
shc new tangled one. Of mining
stock in companies-ssfeetn /
believe they call it,. AiAhiong NY
varied undertakingshswas sOne
operation in a-tannelgin (which
/ and my partner engaged in
the summer of 1852. ~. -. q, .f' :; 81 i
One afternoonin that year, as
/ was carrying up a bucket of
waterfom the riyertoiour tent
at the top Of the. bank, my foot
caught under large stone, and
my perpendicular was at once
changed to a horizontal posture,
while the water from the over
turned bucket. spread itself fiIa
various objections. With a1ca
expletives Of rather a forcible
character, quite customary Aand
common in That region and, ype5
riod, II raised myself TO h1y feet
again, and picking up. the buck
eft, was about 10 siretIiace my
steps to the riyerwl1en my7sa at
tention was attracted. 81 a folded
paper, which had beenfplaccd
underthe stone which, caused
my far, When myg,foot trips
ped, the stone was overturned,
and the paper folatd III letter
FORM Lay exposed .tosfxiew.
Bending over, | picked at up,
and pdoeeeded TO fe2altiihe it.
1t was written in pencil, charac-
ters very irregular and stiffiy
formed, as if made by a person
with a wounded hand. The
contents were as follows:
"If this letter should fall into the hands
Of any person, wish to inform him that
have been attacked and mortaiiy wounded
by my two partners, who wished TO discov-
er1nS; money y FaiiiSg tosst Ii$eSyeF it after
wounding nie, they have 1Ied,, 1esvTiig me
here TO die. Whoever gets this letter will
find, buried in "a raTihen vt the foot Of
'blazed' tree, twenty-five PAGES due north
of this, bag cont aiming $1,000 iHyvgold
dust .Fltat itshasi prove 1nofe f6rtIfnate TO
him than /. has 10 me is the wish OF .arl
-------- ANDREW -FoREsP.n
/ stoed for some moments af-
ter reading the letterlike one a.
wakcned from adream. 81 could
not convincl myself that the
letter in my hand was genuine,
and read it over and over again,
thinking l might get Some clcw
from the handwriting of the
real author. It-might be a trick
got up by my partners to- raise
a laugh at my expense No;
the place where it was found,
and the purely -accidelltaiE ydis-I
covelY. Rendered slscll q siifInise
very improbable II sat down.
on a log and atai4icd the matter
over in, my mindfor some time
At last i got up, and, pacing
off the required distance hake
direction Observation-Disclosures
ter, | came TO q large tree.
Carefullysk kRiniAing; ifJ / dis
covered~a~ seasS><eiearly~rindiea<-
ting that EKeS sfee had Seen,
''blazed" at some remote period.
histwsls sScenfirmafien etfong
as Holy Writ and I immedi--
ateIy went to work 10 discRssa'
the locality Of the ravinc. Here
[ was at ,fapltsI Nothing of the
kind was TO be seen. To all
appeaIanceslna astream ofiaWa-
ter never had passed in. the
neighborhood of The tree.d This
was not encouraging, and | sat-
down on the ground and read
the letter again, to- see it, / had
not mistaken some of its di1'ec-1
tions. lNos / WasyiIl The 1ighfI
place; but where was tho r5-1
yine?o a unw xa
A tap on the shoulder arous-
ed me from my meditation, and
looking mp, j saw myotwos part
ners, who leuilydabusett me for
having neglected. ttheqpregIpsa9lE;as;z- a
ton for their supper. AS an
excuse, l showedithem0the let
ter and detailed the manner Of l
Hseb Ioif my ieSufprlse,
hey were as much elatea btits
perusal as T had been, mil we |
all looked around persevcringly
for the ravine, but without eff
fect for some time. ssAt last
Jack Nesbitt, whohad been a
nlner smce AS, said: sKu}I
@Itllpk !hcre has been q rA5
vine here, but it has been filled
Up by thesrainssp,tv vi Ber EsdzT /
On clasc aexuninatiohwc del
sided fhat1hie supposition was
correct, and after some sconsul-
alton we determined toSscom-l !
nence digging early on,the foi-
owing nlorningsA hso5k-
Morning came, and we ahre-
paired to the spot with pickqaud |
shovel. Jack proposed that We
follow the. course of the
,avilse, which appeared Ito rum
ntoa,1,o - Ent1x, tnf f1tn hill rafhor