Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1880-01-30
"STACY'S GAL"


person to propose to her. He did it in
the oratorical style for which he was
noted in the camp and was promptly re-
fused, much to his own and the boys
astonishment. l believe the Judge was
the next, but as he had fortified his
courage with large quantity of whisky
his breath was strong enough and his
words thick enough to ensure speedy
rejection. He was considerably NOR
tilted at it and never able to explain the
cause of his defeat, but when Mexican
woman drifted into the camp shortly
atterward and engaged in washing for
the men the judge tried his hand again
and was accepted. Ittook him a month
to get loose from the bonds and he
swore he would never give any other
female critter a chance to hook him
again." and he carefully avoided all
Indian squaws and homely senoritas
who occasionally passed through Min
eral City. After the judge dozen or
more ofthe boys offered their hands and
fortunes to "Stacy's gal" and Jared in
precisely the same manner, while old
Stacy himself quietly chuckled and "bet
on his gal every trip" as he afterward
explained.
She had come into camp a week OF
two previously to the greatest surprise
of everybody, including her father.
Old Stacy a good many years before,
some eight or ten, had lost his wife, and
so great was his grief that he could not
be induced to remain longer in the place
she had made little heaven for him
So he placed his daughter-his only
child-in the fashionable female semi
nary of the State, provided her with
every thing that was necessary for her
comfort or happiness, and then struck
out for the San Juan silver mines to for
get his loss among the excitements and
privations of the frontier. Stacy was
one of the fortunate few out of the un-
ucky many that enter a mining country,
and in few years he was possessed of
properties yielding him an excellent in
come from their hard, white quartz.
He regularly corresponded with his
daughter, and kept her supplied in
pocket-money far in excess of her needs
or requirements, but he never went back
on a visit, and when that young lady
was duly graduated with high honors
she determined to seek out her long.
absent paternal progenitor. With an
independence and courage, the wonder
ment of the boys, she travelled across the
| plains, took passage on the stages and
finally rode into Mineral City on horse
back, the first white woman in camp
and the object of the shy alteration of
| the men.
1t was some time before the bows
could stand their ground and face her,
instead of scampering away at her APP
proach, as had hitherto been the case /;
but the Western miner is not long in
getting accustomed to strange things,
and it was not over ten days after her
arrival that the colonel inundated him
self on the altar of his affections. En-
couraged by his example and unterri-
fed by his unceremonious defeat, the
hoys one after another tried their luck,
though, as / have before mentioned,
with no better success.
Stacy was partner of mine in the
Ajax mine, in which there were three OF
US interested, and as we were doing con-
siderable development on the vein /
was OF necessity much in his company
and consequently in that of his daughter.
She was very pretty girl, with dainty,
delicate ways far more beftting house
on Walnut street than rough mining
camp; but she loved her father with an
earnest, clinging affection that would
not listen to her leaving him. and so she
continued to reign queen ofMineral City
all through the summer of 1876. ri
don't know when it was that was
unduly attracted toward Nellie. | think
it was when she asked me to call hei
thereafter by that name. She made the
request so innocently, so sweetly, and
so tenderly, alleging that as was hel
fathers partner, a gentleman by birth
and education, and such kind friend tC
her, it would be ever so much nicer fol
me to say Nellie, instead of Miss Stacy
which sounded so formal. that came
very nearly adding other words to the
name that our short acquaintance would
not justify. After that spent most O
my evenings with Nellie, and sometimes
of an afternoon we took delicious littlt
rambles together on the mountain side.
and into the heavy timber lining th,
valley or canon of the Uncompahgre
One evening, as we were returninl
home, we stopped to rest on the rock
crested summit of Mineral Point.
few hundred feet below us lay the littl
mining camp. its log cabins looking
doubly picturesque in the gathering
cleaning The blue smoke was curlinJ
from dozen cbimneys as the men pre-
pared their evening meals; and here an,
! there, over the various trails, a blue
, shirted miner, with pick and drills acros
{ his shoulder, came striding home. TIL
sun sinking behind the Wasatch noun
| tains, one hundred and sixty-five mile
distant. cast great long shadows acros
the surrounding peaks, and veiled th
ravines and gulches in deepening darl
: ness. T
Nellie sat on the groupings of a vel