The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-03-16
Editor Butte Miner.

sioners met in Spring session last week, a full
board being present-Messrs. Metlin, Carter
and Hamilton. The usual work of the board
was performed with dispatch. The annual
report, prepared by County Clerk Al. E.
Graeter, was approved and ordered to be pub
lished. From the report, which will appear
soon in a tabulated and itemizeG form, it is
ascertained that the county Indebtedness on
March L, 1880, was $29, 494. sc, which is all
increase over last year of $3,76s.1S. This
includes the interest on all outstanding war
rants not heretofore computed.
During the si:tings OF the board a lively
discussion of the merits and dement's of the
printing law of Montana was enjoyed. The
working of this law appears to be annoying a
few individuals. 1t is a good law for the
people, but a bad law for the printers, as it
cuts dow the prices of former years very
materially. AT the time OF The passage of
this law its enactment was urged for two
reasons first, as an economic measure Sec
onG, to aid two i~mpecunious newspapers of
Democratic proclivities. 1t has proven an
economic measure for the taxpayers and
people. Now the law has little political sig
nificance. In the late awards the printing
boards distributed the public patronage re-
gardless of party politics.
Last Saturday afternoon, the 9th, as Mr..
Joe Gotche was crossing over the Rocky Hill
road to Bannack, he found a man lying on a
snow drift hear the forks Of the road at the
head of Hangman's gulch, about two miles
ce-, Ao.-o nh ,,.r ,,o, s> - 1,olly f.oxon
condition and perfectly helpless. Mr.. Gotche
lifted the man into his wagon and brought
him in. He proved to be Mr.. Henry Smidt, a
German and a butcher by trade, belonging at
Virginia City, this Territory. Smidt was
almost gone. He was taken to DR.. Kings
office. The Doctor, assisted by a number of
volunteers, commenced the work of thawing
out the unfortunate man. His feet the W
part of his legs, his hands and one side of his
head was frozen stiff. After two or three
hours work in applying lce-water and snow
to the frozen parts, Smidt was resurrected and
able to give an account of himself. He was
travelling afoot, bound for Bannack, when on
the afternoon of the 9th, last Friday, he be-
came snow-blind, lost his reckoning, and
when wearied and worn out he laid down
on the snow-drift where Gotche found him.
He had laid there Ole night and day, and the
wonder is that he escaped death. He is
kindly cared for, but the chances are that
amputation of his hands and feet will be
necessary. Smidt is an old resident Of Vir-
ginia City, where for years he has been en-
ployed in the butcher shops.
Fame and notoriety 90 hand in hand. Col.
Sanders, of Helena, recently gained much of
both. Lately the Herald, of the capital,
issued a double-ender edition, so reported, of
something less than 2O,0O0,O 900 copies. The
sarcastic, not egotistic Colonel, contributed
3 thereto a paper modestly entitled (personal)
"Reminiscences" 1t was a fiction founded
! Oh some facts, and all admirable production
2 of the kind. Yesterday the Oldest pioneer of
Montana, for the first time, secured a copy.
The suns Of seventy summers have shone on
that good old mans silvery head. The old
pioneer wiped his specs with his cotton 'ker,
chief, and then waded through the REM.
niscerces" in silent delight. Then, laying
the paper down, the old man raised his honey
Il skeleton-like hand toward high heaven and
. spake thus -" Why, that's the same do
yarn the Colonel always spins when he get.
Il Tight" Of SIGH is notoriety-of SIGH is all
& thorship.
Mining operations in this district are revlv
:, ing somewhat. Mcssrs. Trask Il Graves arr
running levels OH No. ) on the Dakota. join
: Carllart is extracting gold quartz on Nos. 8,
and I on the Dakota. Mr.. Mcpherson ha
started a unnel through the Marysville bar t.
tap deep down on Nos. S and 8 on the Dako
ia vein. The Cherokee Excelsior is bein.
driven ahead, but is in hard rock. Most al
other mining enterprises are standing pat
patiently awaiting the CHEEKY song of the blu
bird.
II The regular term of the Probate court wa
held last week, Judge Searson the bench an
w All Z. Crater as ex-officio clerk. The tern
s. was occupied in transacting administrator
and probate business, and was of no specia
10 interest to the reading public.
E. Nell Trask has just returned from
visit to the "Kaliforny Roast" whittier h
went to see the old folks his " domesti
boss " and the little Trasks. He had a plea:
as ant trip and returns looking as corpulent as
la tallow candle.
G. Prof. Tate Taylor is in from the far East
IS, He went to Halifax, where he obtained
y. squint at her yice-royal highness, the Pril
We cess Louise. He says the Princess is n,
ng handsome-but, then, Tate is a confirme
al bachelor, and hence his opinion.
a Fielding L. Graves, of Trask & Graves, d,
Is. parts for the United States soon to make pu
k chases for their house. While absent Field
ed ing will take IN his " old Kentucky home