Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-02-13
A Frontier Wedding.
A MINING SKETCH OF THE DAYS OF 40.
"In the days OF old,
In the days of gold,
In the dayS of torty-ninp,"

of the old Arsonautic refrain cam,
echoing down the mountain-side
calling the idlers of Nugget Gulcl
in swarms from the saloons. In tn,
direction from which the singing
came solitary horseman was seer
slowly descending the rugged trail
which led over the mountains to
ward the South. Verse after verse
came rolling out in sonorous tones
the rocky battlements thrown up by
nature in one of her mad freak TAX
ing up the strain, aud repeating il
again and again in reyerberating
echoes. Half of the inhabitants oi
the Gulch were upon the street when
the stranger rode in, and three score
voices joined with his in grand
wind-up on the words:
There was New York Jake, the butcher
| He never would repent;
He never was known to miss IA meal,
And he never put up IL cent;
But poor old Jake, like all the rest,
To death he did incline,
| And ne rolled out his soul in u prospect
! hole,
| In the days of forty-ninc."
The traveller reined in his horse in
front of the Arcade saloon and sprang
to the ground. He was one of those
rough, good-natured mountaineers
with whom generosity is second
nature, and whose hospitality has
been proverbial ever since the first
settlement of the Rocky Mountains.
Dressed in buckskin from head to
foot, with hair falling in masses
over his brawny shoulders, he pre-
sented picture at once pleasing and
picturesque. Securing his horse to
II post with q riata, he stood mo-
ment surveying the crowd with q
half-quizzical expression; and then
said:
Howdy, boys? I'm pow'ful
glad to see you, by thunder. You
kin jist chaw me up for a pizen sar-
pint ef We amt the fust white COM
munity I've cooked an eye at, out
side O my own family an q neighbor
or two, fur morn six months. I'm
old Sam Dawson, from over on Rat
tlesnake Range, an I've KEN over
var on offisial bizness. Eff some O.
you'll Jest steer me up agin the blaze
marks thet holds the trail to a liquor
shop, we'll all hist in bowl O the
ardent, an then I'll perceed to biz
ness"
He was quickly escorted into the
Arcade" where all hands took a
drink at his expense. Throwing o
bag of gold dust on the bar, he con-
tinued:
"Thet booze goes right to bed
rock, an makes n man feel as ram
bunctious as bar cub in a wild
honey tree. Weigh yer pay outer
thet dust, barkeep; an now 1 want
ter give ye q conundrum. Is thar a
Jestice O the Peace in camp?"
A shade of disappointment crossed
his weather-beaten face when he was
informed that such an official was a
modern improvement of which the
Gulch could not yet boast. Bring
ing his clenched fist down on the
bar with vehemence that made the
glasses rattle, he said:
Thar she goes agin, leavin' the
old man, as usual. up stump.
Darn woman anyhow. Ye see,
boys, I'm the accidental father of an
eighteen y'ar-old darter ever to hum
an she's the boss heifer O. the range
by the biggest majority ever whopped
up! Killed she bar and packed
her cubs homo in Eer arms, when
she was only fourteen, an I'll back
her to-day fur shot bag full O. dust
in square fight with any animile
thet runs the hills. Thet's Mag.
Lawson, up one side and down
t'Other. Shes woman, though, an ,
I reckon jist like all the rest O the
petticoat brigade, an when Tom
Parker, the son O my nearest neigh.
bor, begin to hang round the cabin
an act like thoroughbred fool, !
know'd jist how it'd all pan out.
The young idiots hev unanermously
resolutioned to double up and econo.
mize in bed clothes, an they've sent
me down var to chase up q law
sharp to yoke 'em up. Bust the
luck, hev l got to ride cl' to Lead.
vile fur Justice ?"
1t really looked that way, and
many expressions OF coincidence
were rendered to the old man who
told the mixologist" behind th,
bar to "set 'em up ag'in." AfteI
drinking, one of the boys asked:
" Don't preachers marry folk
back in the States %
One-eyed Johnson replied that il
, his youth he had attended numerou
weddings, and they had always beel
engineered by ministers.
I. Then WHY in tbun1ar a;p't