New-York tribune., 1879-11-29
SOCIAL LIFE OF THE MINES.
THE PRESENT AND THE PAST.

frrou STAFF CORRESPONDENT OF THE rRBuSEl
SALT LAKE CITY Utah, Oct. 30-While | was
dining in q miners boarding-house in Park City.
two weeks ago. an intelligent man who sat at my
right hand. and whom l afterward ascertained to
he an engineer and machinst employed at the On
tar:o Mine. remarked casually that he had been a
pupl of Hawthorne and Mr.. George Ripley at the
Bronk Farm in Massachusetts, and that subse-
orently, when q member of the North American
phalanx il had been his privilege TO be intimately
acorainted with Horace Greeley and others who
have since distinguished themselves in literature
or the professions. An hour later | the
man six hundred feet under ground experimenting
the erection of an immense pump. The mining re-
;ons of the Rocky Mountains atracs all classes of
people and the stranger who expects to find in the
placcr or quartz camps only the ignorant. profane.
whiskey-drnking. gambling. fighting, kind
hearted. whole-s0uled set Of men so graphically
described by Bret Harte will be greatly disap-
pointed. Men no longer 60 about the mining towns
of the Territories carrying brace of Navy revolvers
in their belts and long knives in their bOOt-lcgs.
There are gambling ghells, dauce-hOuses and worse
haunts IN almost every mining camp, but the pco
ple who keep and patronize them do not rule
they once did; for almost with the first rush to
new region come men and women who prize de-
cency and good order, and numerous enough TO
secure them.
So every traveller in the Far West must learn to
measure the men he meets not by the clothes they
wear nor the work they are engaged in, nor should
he be surprised if the miner. clad in his woolen
shirt and gum boots and working his own placer.
begins to quote Latin to HIM to discuss the latest
scientific discovery Mining, with its excitements
aud uncertainties its high wages great profits and
frequent losses. has its attractions for all classes of
people. The old pioneers of FOrty-nIne and the
early ffes are still TO be found in all the Terrific
ries where gold and silver mines abound and upon
some Of them fortune has, from time TO time,
smiled These men are frequently original charac-
ters Not much versed in hook learning. they have.
by long experience. acquired sort Of lntultive
power to Judge of the value of mines. which has
oftener beeu of profit to their friends than
to themselves. Very few OF the old Forty-niners
have Kept their wealth when. by lucky strike.
they have secured It. Long years of roughing It
in the mountains generally unfit man for quiet
enjoyment of the fruits of his labors and have no
doubt that many aud many man who has spent
his fortune in riotous living some Eastern city
has felt an intense relief and return Of selfrespect
when he has found himself back among the old
scenes about to begin over again the fierce struggle
against hunger. exposure, fatigue and the thousand
discomforts which the prOspector and miner
have 60 endure.
The pioneers are growing oh and will soon dis
appear Already they are spoken OF with a sort of
reverence like that which past generation ac-
corded to the few survivors of the Revolutionary
War who remained among them, and many a good
story OF the personal peculiarites and exciting ad
ventures Of those who first sought for gold on the
Pacific coast is told over the evening fire. The
Quartz King of Montana" was well known
dozen years 20, not only at home but also IN New
York and Philadelphia lie discovered one of the
best mines in the Territory, operated 1t at grea
-f.ol, IN ha ID al
organ and finally sold his mine advantageously for
himself and the purchasers. But the Quart
KING" was an ignorant man so far as book learning
went " ueycr had much chance be said 10
friend one day when everything seemed 10 conspire
to increase his wealth and power in TIE community
where he lived "IhGve learned to read little since
I came here but something every day that
don't understand. Now would like TO know whata
link is."
=" A what v asked his friend.
a link. read something about one in tue
newspaper to-day. 1t said thata link had killed a
little girl in the mountains thought knew
every kind of beast that lives in the mountains but
never heard of link before
How was il spelled ~ asked the friend.
"L-y-n-x." sand the Quartz Kug.
"Why. that's a lynx
A lynxl H. rve shot hundred Of them
During my stay in Phillipsburg, Montana, I ac-
cpnteN
mining camp in embryo; that is, one in which the
prospect holes are sufficiently developed 10 be
called mines, but where 1t is expected that there
will be a great camp sometime the future. After
riding seven or eight miles down Flint Creek, we
iurned I'D into a narrow branch canon through
which flows a small stream called the Boulder. and
followed il up four or five miles into the mountains
Ii was one of the widest and lonelest places which
saw IN Montana. The mountains on either side
were high and steep. the gorge between them was
narrow and the ground was covered with grani5e
bouders some large and some small, which were
probably left there by great glacier in prehistoric
times. The stream Is the home of many beavers
who have left the evidences Of their industry IN tie
stuInps of small trees which they have fclled and
the dams they have constructed across the stream.
The rude hut OF an old-time trapper, rude in com
parisou even with the miners cabins. still stood TO
remind us OF the time when the agents and hunters
Of the Northwestern Fur Company were the only
white men who penetrated these remote regions.
Old Br.dger may have Wintercd there after his re-
turn in disgust from hls visit TO ~. LOUIS.
walked all the way up one cafion street. and down
another" said he 10 friend. IN describing his expe
renee " and not a man asked me If had mouth
on me-" Old Brdger would never have been guilfY
the dscOurtesy of negiectEg 10 sneak To any en-
zen Of II. Louis whom he should accidentaly meet
ID auy of his haunts IN tue Far West.
There near the headwaters of the little stream,
surrounded on all sides bv mountains over which
the s,,n does not appear until long after the hour
when the almanac says he Ought 10 rise, ana De-
hind which he is lost she middle of the alter
noon we found two lonely cabins and before TIE
door of one sat in the twilight an old man ana ms
son Our welcome could not have been more cor
dial Our horses turned out 20 FEED on the nl-
tritious bunch grass, good supper was speeatlIy
cooked and eaten with a good appetite. and afier
the dishes washed sat around the nIe Tor an
hour talking about mines aud politics the East ana
the Rocky Mountains, until accidentally mentioned
ric l-keeDer whom