The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1880-10-15
Bret Harte on the California Miners.


Bret Harte on the California Miners.
Bret Harte said in recent lecture:
Salt Lake City supplied resting place
fer the Argonauts from the East, and
they had so little confidence in the sue
cess of their mission that one of them
said that the sluiee-boxes which they
carried to wash the gold would, in the
event Of i'll success, make first. class
collins. They fell on strange tates and
exile revealed to them unsupported ca
pacitics. The lecturer was attended at
n restaurant by waiter who bore
strange resemblance TO IA person he had
always admired as the model of refined
good breeding. Not caring TO wound
the feelings of the waiter-who carried
a revolver-Mr. Harte had inquired of
the proprietor OF the hotel whether the
waiter was not in fact person who in
the East had filled much higher posi-
tion. The landlord confirmed the sus-
picion. and added that his servants
command OF language often beguiled tho
visitor who was waiting for plate de-
layed. The varied capabilities of these
emigrants depended ON their character;
but what their character was he had
rather not say. Some had left behind
them wives and families; some OF them
had left behind them officers of the law,
deploring their absence. But their past
was no clew to their future. 1.-THE
boys seem to have taken n fresh deal all
around" observed a noted gambler to
MIR. Harle; and the gambler was himself
an illustration. lie came of family
who would not touch cards because they
held such things too trifling and anus
ing, but might perhaps have been con-
certed by the remark their descendant
made on rising with $4,000 after ten
minutes play, "to think there is folks
as believes that keards is waste OF
time' In San Francisco in those early
days everybody played; and when a
gambler died at the table, and three
doctors who happened to be there ex-
anime him and pronounced that the
cause of death was disease of the heart,
the coroner, who was accidentally pres
ent, impaneled jury from the other
players, who returned verdict in ac-
cordance with the evidence, and went
on with the game.
Female society was 40 scarce that even
a gratuitously ugly face was followed
by admirers. A married captains wife
was escorted home from ball by every
officer in the garrison, and observed
that now at length she understood the
meaning of the expression, the pleas
ure of your company" When a baby
cried in the tbeater everybody shouted
encore" The miner lived a wilder
life upon the hills. For clothes his reli-
ance was on the meal sack that robcd his
outer after it had nourished his inner
man, his track was marked with empty
oyster cans; he met the native upon the
common footing of beans. He was gem
erous TO fault. The sanitary" sub
scription by which North and South
benefited alike, was started in Caliior-
MIA bar. ut is rough upon them poor
fellows; l am sorry tor them" How
much are you sorrypn Four hundred
dollars" The nextm man gave coo; in
halt an hour donations OF $4,000 were
telegraphed to Washington, and the total
subscription of California was S3,000.-
600 gold. The miners were, above all.
faithful TO their partners, and loved
them with Il love surprising that of
women. It was dangerous TO interfere
with partners quarrels. and once a
stranger at bar, who had not, so tar as
he knew, given oilense to any person
present, suddenly found himself upon
the floor and tall kentuckian standing
over him with his revolver out. When
the tail gentleman was cOurteousiy
asked for an explanation, he said:
amt nothing against the stranger my
self, but he said something just now
against Quakers, and | want him to un-
derstand that my partner is a Quaker
and peaceful man."
The Argonauts were not prone to SEN
timen,aisms, although they knew what
homesickness was; and when they dealt
in sarcasm their lnnuendo was grim and
striking Lynch law determined that
horse stealing should be punished by
death; but once jury took several
minutes after retiring to consider their
verdict. perhaps from humanity. per-
haps because there had, in consequence
of the rigor of the law, been n great
mortality among the male population.
The leader of the crowd put his head
in the jury room and said he did not
wish to hurry the gentlemen, but they
wanted that room TO lay out the corpse
in.