Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1880-02-26
from the Philadelphis Times]
''STACY'S GAL

The colonel, think, was the first per-
on to propose to her. He did it in the
oratoricau style for which he was noted
in the camp and was promptly refused,
much to his own and the boys astonish-
ment. believe the Judge was the next,
but as he had fortified his courage with
large quantity of whisky; his breath
was strong enough md his words thick
enough to ensure. speedy rejection. He
was considerably mortified at 1t and
never able to explain the cause of his
defeat, but when a Mexican woman
arifted into the camp shortly afterward
and engaged in washing for the men the
Judge tried his hand again apd was &C.
copied. It took him a month to get
loose from the bonds and he swore he
would "never give any other female
critter d chance to hook him again, " and
he carefully avoided all Indian squaws
and homely senoritas who occasionally
passed through Mineral City. After the
judge and a dozen or more of the bows
offered their hands and fortunes to
"Staey's gal and. Jared III precisely tho
same manner, while old Stacy himself
quietly chuckled and "bet on his gal
every trip, as he afterward explained.
She had come into the camp week or
two previously to the greatest surprise
Of everybody, including her father. Old
Stacy good many Years before, some
eight or ten, had lost his wife, and 80
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 only
chAd-in the fashionable female semi
nary Of the state, provided her with
everything that was necessary for her
comfort or happiness, and then struck
out for San the 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-
lucky many that enter mining country,
and In few years he was possessed Of
properties yielding him an excellent in
come from their hard, white quartz.
he regularity: correspondent with his
daughter, and kept her supplied in
pocket-money far in excess Of her needs
or requirements, but he never went back
on visit, and when that young lady was
duly graduated with high honors she
determined to seek out her long-absent
! paternal progenitor. With an mdepen-
dence and courage, the wonderment of
the boys, she travelled across the plains.
took passage on~the stages and finally
rode into Mineral City on horseback, the
; ,nst White woman in camp and the OBJ
]ecs OF the shy, alteration Of the men. .
Ii was some time before the boys could
stand their ground and face her. instead
OF ssampering away at her approach. as
had hitherto been. the case; but the
YES ten miner is not long in getting &C
custoned to strange things, and it was
. notovG ten days after her arrival that
the colonel inundated himself on the
altar Of his affections. ENCOURAGED bv
his example and unterrifed by his uncer-
enormous iefeat, the boys one after an
other tried their luck, though, as + have
before mentioned, with no better success.
stacy Wa a partner Of mine in the
Ajax mine, = which there were three of
US interested, and as we were doing con-
. siderable Development on the vein I was
OF necessity much in his company and
consequently Ii that of his daughter.
: She was very pretty girl, with dainty,
: dehcate ways fa1more BETTING house
. Oh Walnut stree, than rough mining
camp; but she lev.d her father with an
:. earnest, clinging Affection that would not
listen to her leaving him, and 80 she
continued to reign queen of Mineral City
all through the sumner of 1876. - '
1 don't know when It was that I was
unduly attracted toward Nellie, I think
it was when she asked me to call her
thereafter by that name. She made the
request 80 innocently, sosweetlv. and 40
tenderly, alleging that as was her
fathers partner, gentleman bv birth
and education, and such hind friend 70
her: it would be ever 30 much n;car for
me TO say Nellie, instead of M;aa Stocv
which sounded 80 formal. tlat r coIo.
very near adding other words +o +h<
name that our short acouaintancs .vo' ~
not justify. After that I spent m %etl -,
my EVENING" with Nellie; and sometime,
OF an afternoon We took delicious littl,
rambles together on the mountain aide,
and into the heavy timber lining tn,
valley or cannon OF the Unoompahere
One evening, as we were returning home
we stopped to rest on the rock-crestei
summit OF Mineral point. A. few hun,
dred rect below us lay the little ,minino
camp, It's log cabins looking doubly pic.
t9resque in the gathering cleaning
The blue smoke was curling from dozen
chimneys as the men prepared their even.
ing meals; ahd Here and there, over the
various trails, a blue-shirted miner. with
PICK and drills across his shoulder. came
strHa1Y home. The sun sinking behind
the Wasatch mountains, one hundred and
gxtYrtve miles: distant, cast oreat. lone
shadowy across the surrounding naaLs'
and yelled the ravines and onlchea ~
deepening darkness. ' -
Nellie sat on the groupings of a vein
Of quartz and I lay stretched out at her
feet, matching her pretty; tender. ewes as
they wandered about the horizon. drink
ing IN the beauty and the grandeur of the
scene. She had some light. Aeecv ar
aQeemPntSa nubia, I believe Sc .is cali.
wrapped loosely about FER head and
shoulders, and her hair, in whose meshes
the sunbeams seemed to have caught.
peeped from beneath, helped to frame =
lace stamped with innocence and nnr;tv
Young people always get sentimental In
the evening, when SURROUNDED. Inv nn;et
and was no exception to tha rnle and
almost before I kpew it Iwas towing with
the hstle handa ~ &6ite and ~. sNino
carelessly on the AintJ Quartz. = .
Nellie, said. after few. moment.,