The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1881-03-17
1'ne PrOd1gal Son.


visiting some friends in Brooklyn, and,
of one of the popular Methodist churches.
Invited to address the children, he de-
clined at first but finally consented, and
to illustrate the welcome of the sinner to
repentance related the following anec-
dote:
81 reckon most O you young ones
have hearn about thet old Teller in Egypt,
which was well fixed fer kids. The old
man was heeled clear tohis neck, and thar
wasn't a dip nor spur he wasn't onto,
sheers in every pay dirt claim on the di-
as a rifle bari, and without knot, rot, or
woodpecker hole from root to crows
nest. For a long time he'd been full
owner o an eighty stamp mill, and trav-
elers in them parts seen the smoke rising
from his chimney pretty steady, and they
knowed quartz was grinding and the
business about the old man. He knowed
prime wash from salt by the color, and
it warn't long afore the boys quit steal
ing his mules and set right down to the
levels and picked for trade. They
knowed he'd straddle any blind, but he
dealt fair, and they respected him.
Well, children, the old man banked
heap O quartz. He had big ranch,
and the sheep on it was as thick as
miners tents. Thar was antelope, and
prairie chickens, and jack rabbits, and
black-tail deer till you couldn't rest
shack, built O logs, with parlor in one
&o1I k1,ok{ I, ~
was fixed up to the trap, and don't you
kind O. restless. He wanted for to pros
pect for himself. The old man give him
the racket straight from the hip; told
him not to make dog-gone fool of him
self. Stay where he was. Thar was
more money in a stamp-miH than there
was in mines, and he advised the kid to
locate right thar. Why, children, thet
thar old man knew from the fust sour
tibet the short didn't have no show, even
for tailings, and what's tailings, even if
he played to win, to a squar divide on
the regular wash?''
'But the kid wanted long grass, and
and SO the old man started him, and gave
him his blessing, and told him for to al
ways deal level with the table and never
let man get his elbow behind his kid
ney on him, and SO the boy got away.
Fixed straight to his hair. All the dust
he wanted. Best advice boy ever got.
What do you think he did? He went
broke. I never knew whether he got
into a game whar they played straights,
or whether some fellow held over him on
bottom O his sock and struck bedrock.
Clean up dead gone. The yield didn't
pan cent to the ton. Gulch dried up.
Dips crossed his angles. Blind leads
fetched the only vein he had, except one,
but that he didn't know of. He was
digging for yellow in black rock and
couldn't see the glory that was only
waiting for him to assay and coin. Yes,
you bet Thar thet poor boy, without
money enough to buy box O matches,
was driving whar thar wasn't even pyrite,
while all the sky was pouring out the
best color ever panned, and he couldn't
get onto it. Wall, thar was only one
thing to do. Prospecting was no use.
So he went down on a ranch and told the
ranchmen he'd keep the coyotes off the
pigs. You know what an ornery derned
thing pig is. You've got to kill him
and smoke him and throw him away be-
fore you can eat him, and yet that thar
young man hived right down with them
pigs and drawed when it was his turn,
and if he got fair hand O shucks he
was goose on his luck. Bimeby the
racket got too stiff for him, and he
kicked. He made up his mind that he
would flock back to the mill and strike
the old man for another stake. Did the
old man go back on him? Well, not for
coin? Did he say he wasn't hiring any
new hands, but the kid might get onto
work at Hamilton's Hollow? I reckon
not. Says he, Put it here, pard, and
he Just fell clean over him. Thet's style.
Thet's trade from the origin. Thet AIM t
all. Thet thar old man fetched out q
buckskin trowsers, and an antelope
shirt, and some buffalo boots and a camp
hat, and drawed the young feller right
in. Eth? How's that? Citing you now,
am I? Begin to hook on to my racket?
Know who the old man was? Yes, you
bet your life, and for you to come to Him
| and be fitted out and started in the
stamp-mill again like you never hopped
the ti-ra-lu and hooked out from under
the family umbrella. Let up and be
saved. For I tell you children, the
lower level gets awful hot, sometimes,
and if you can do placer work with the
sky right around you keep away from
the tunnel business, for thar's no draw
ing after bet.
"Td like to have you sing hymn for
me that we sing in our Sunday school,
Baby Mine;' do you know it ?"
| And to the astonishment of the local
superintendent they did know it, and he
couldn't stop it.