The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1880-05-25
THE MINERS STORY.

T AM an old miner. Not one of the
L now i days Washoe and Nevada
stripe, but an old forty-nine California
miner. have been engaged in all de-
scriptions of mining transactions, ex-
eept the new-fangled one of mining in
companies-"feet" believe they call it.
Among my varied undertakings was
one operation in tunnel, in which l
and my partner engaged in the summer
of 1852.
One afternoon in that year, as l was
carrying up bucket of water from the
river to our tent at the top of the bank,
my foot caught under large stone and
my perpendicular was at once changed
to horizontal posture, while the water
from the overturned bucket spread itself
in various directions. With a few ex-
pletives of forcible character, quite
customary and common in that region
and period, raised myself to my feet
again, and, picking up the bucket, was
about to retrace my steps to the river,
when my attention was attracted by
folded paper, which had been placed
under the stone which caused my fall.
When my foot tripped, the stone was
overturned, and the paper folded in letter
form, lay exposed to view. Bending
over 1 picked it up and proceeded to
examine it. 1t was written in pencil,
in characters very irregular and stiffly
formed, as if made by person with a
wounded hand. The contents were as
follows:
If this letter should fall in the hands
of any person, l wish to inform him
that have been attacked and mortally
wounded by my two partners, who
wished to discover my money. Failing
to find it, after wounding me they have
fled, leaving me here to die. Whoever
gets this letter will find, buried in a
ravine at the foot of 'blazed' tree,
twenty-five PAGES due north of this, a
bag containing $4,000 in gold dust. That
it may prove more fortunate to him
than 1t has to me is the wish of
ANDREW FOREST"
l stood for some moments after read
ing the letter like one awakened from a
dream. / could not convince myself
that the letter in my hand was genuine,
and read it over and over again, think
ing might get some clue from the
handwriting to the real author. 1t
might be trick got up by my partners
to raise a laugh at my expense. No !;
the place where it was found, and the
purely accidental discovery, rendered
such surmise very improbable. 1 sat
down on log and turned the matter
over in my mind for some time. AT
last ] got up, and pacing off the required
distance In the direction mentioned in
the letter, came to large tree. Care
fully examining it, / discovered a scar,
clearly indicating that the tree had been
''blazed" at some remote period. This
was confirmation strong as Holy
Writ" and / Immediately went to work
to discover the locality of the ravine.
Here was at fault. Nothing of the
kind was to be seen. To all appearance
a stream of water had never passed in
the neighborhood of the tree. This was
not encouraging, and sat down on the
ground and read the letter again, to see
If had not mistaken some of its di.
rections. No; was in the right place,
but where was the ravine?
A tap on the shoulder aroused me
from my meditation, and, looking up,
saw my two partners, who loudly abus.
ed me for having neglected the prepara.
ton for their supper. AS an excuse,
showed them the letter, and detailed the
manner of my finding it. To my sur,
prise, they were as much elated by its
perusal as had been, and we all looked
around perseyeringly for the rayine, bui