Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1880-11-06

are you going to ido?'''" Where "a are re
you from ~ nls.Will you not stop here,
If you Will we will bald You house.
furnish. 1t, set You up with supply
of grub, and all come and board
at your house." The offer was
gladly aecepted. with such = r,ide
thanks as honest ignorance can master.
In less than six months after this event
"Pike," his wife and baby departed
from that camp on stage and six. and
in fine style. with a. purse of $1,000.
They returned to the Western States.
and were never again heard of by their
benefactors. The slightest insult to a
woman was resented on the spot with
out regard to her character, education
or condition The man who cheated n
woman in his board or wash bill was
treated as . thief and driven out of
camp as pariah. There are unrecord-
ed deeds Of mercy and charity done in
those early days, the simple truth of
which would shame all dramatic effort.
Mr.. and Mrs We're among the
early arrivals by the Panama route.
They had opportunities of doing well at
San Francisco and Stockton; but the
husband had started for 1.-the Mines"
and, like thousands of others. he could
not be satisfied short of seeing them.
He possessed the instincts. education
and manners Of gentleman. The
wife, a delicate, warm-hearted, intelli-
gent and very motherly little New En-
gland woman. was in all respects fit to
be the friend and companion of such n
man. They brought their only child
a girl of five or six years, as beautiful
As fawn, and the life of the family
circle, which was soon enlarged by
bearders. Mr.. was physically I'M
able to work in the mines. Mrs. -
cheerfully supported him in his illness
panama fever), hoping for his ulti-
mate recovery, which never came.
Within a month or six weeks after his
arrival he died. and the Argonauts
kindly and tenderly laid him away
in his eternal rest. The brave
hearted wife attended to her
duties as usual, until one morning lit
tie Elias flushed cheek and languid ex-
preston indicated that she, too, was
wanted on the other side of the river.
Night and day the mother hung over
the fading form of her darling. alter
nately hoping, fearing, despairing.
And night and day the Argonauts
gathered about to cheer, comfort, assist
and encourage. At last the supreme
hour came, and the sweet little flower
that had delighted and humanized the
rntrrh Of 80 hAn,ntA-c
childless and wifeless men closed its
leaves and faded away into a memory.
With little Elias death the light of
life persisted from the eyes and heart of
the mother. Her utter loneliness and
melancholy was sadder than death itself
She was left in destitute circumstances.
The miners OWNED as much. and in less
than fortnight after the burial of the
child the widowed mother was started
on her way back to her New
England home with $1,000 and a
through ticket in her purse. This is
but one instance of thousands. The
demands upon benevolence were fire.
quent and always pressing, but the Ar
gOnauts, though their avarice must be
albeit among the meanesr of
passions, brought hearts with them
which on occasion could glow with all
the warmth of a California summer
sun.
1t has gone abroad with the brand Of
popular Endorsement that there is for
literature in the annals and traditions
Of early life in this State nothing worth
but humor Of the broadcast
and lowest type. This is a grave mis-
Judgment of the case; and no man IA
miliar with the inner life of those times
will assent to it. There was, to be
sure, humorous and a ridiculous.
side to it; but by comparison
with the serious. earnest. dramatic side,
I is as the laughing rill to the mighty
river. Every camp. bar, rayine. which
mas materially helped to swell the vol