The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1882-12-07

Red Mountain Bar.
4 MINING CAMP DURING IFS DECLINE. QUEER
CHARACTERS A PIONEER MONGOLIAN. A
PERHoCa MOONLIGHT ADVENTURE. THE
HEGIRA.
lived at Red Mountain Bar during its
period Of decay. saw its decay | may
sa! that as Il mining camp | Witnessed
its fail lived there when the few
''bOys' left used daily, after the close oi
an unsuccessful river season, to sit in d
row Oh Il log by the rivers edge, and
there, surveying their broken dam, would
chant curses on their luck The Bar
store was then still in existence. lhOmp-
son was its proprietor. The stock on
hard had uNndIeG down to Whiskty.
The ban and one filled bottle alone sur
yived. Oh rainy nights, when the few
miners lett would gather about the
stove, Thompson would take down his
fiddle, and fiddle and sing, "What can't t
he cnred mast he endured, OF, The
Lord into his garden came; the spices
smelt about the samoa quotation Of
unknown authorship. OF neighb0rs, liv-
ing il their cabins strung along the
banks fox half a mile above the store,
there was Keen Fam, an aged mercan-
tile and mining Chinamal, with a colony
about him of lesser and taclally indls-
tnguiShable countrymen Of varying num-
bers. second, cold Harry an aged
negro, a skilled performer on the bugle
and a singer. who offered at times to
favor us with What he termed 4 'little
ditto" He was the EtbiOpic king of Il
knot Of Kanakas gathered about him.
Third, "Bloody BILL 50 called from his
frequent use Of the sanauinary adjective
and, as may be guessed, an Englishman.
Fourth, an old ScOtchman, one Of the
Bars oldest inhabitants, who would come
to the store With the little bit OF gold
dust, gathered after hard days "crevic-
ing, complaining that gold was getting
as scarce as the grace Of God in the
IIeclands Of Scotland" Fifth, McFar-
lane, white bearded old fellow, another
pioneer, WHO after a yearly venture into
some strange and distant locality to
"change bis luck, was certain eyentu-
ally to drift back again to the Bar, which
he regarded as home Down the river
nestled high up in a steep and pictur-
esque gulch, stood the buckeye -emb0w-
cred cabin Of old Jonathan Brown, the
ditch tender, great reader Of weekly
''Story papers," who lived like a h0y in
the literature of the Western Frontier
Penny Awful, and who, coming to the
store and perchng himself On the count
er, would sometimes break out in re
marks about how Them thar Indians
got the better Of 'em at last to the as
constituent OF the "boys," who imagined
at first that he referred to Indians in
the locality, suggesting possibilities of a
repetition of the great oak Flat uprising
of 1870.
AN UNPROFITABLE INDUSTRY.
At the top of the hill,'' a mile and a
half away, stood the yankee Ranch, J"
kept 10y bustling, uneasy and rather
uncomfortable man from Massachusetts,
aided by his good natured, easy going
son law. One rainy winters day the
"boys'' congregated about Thompson s
store became seized with whim for the
manufacture of little pasteboard men
turning grindstones, which, fastened to
the stove, were inpelled to action by
the ascending current Of hot air. SO
they smoked their pipes, and wrought
all day until the area of st0vepipe be-
came thickly covered with little paste
board men busily turning pasteboard
grindstones. Then, George NJ. g., the
son-in-la law Of the Yankee Ranch, came
down the Hill to borrow an ak. George
was of that temperament ana inclination
to be of all things charmed with warm
stove on a cold, rainy day, knot OF
good fellows about it, a frequent pipe Of
tobacco, maybe an occasional punch and
the pleasing manufacture of hot air
driven little pastebOard men turning
pasteboard grindstOneS. He forgot his
aX-sat down and began with the rest
the manufacture of pastcboard men and
grindstones. And he kept on till a late
hour of the night, and stad at the bar
all night and all the next day and that
next night, until the stovepipe was
| covered to its very top with little men,
all working away for dear life turning
grindstonea; and on the second day Of
his stay the eXaSperated father in law
suddenly appeared and delivered him
sc + in impatient inVectiye with regt rd to
such conduct Oh the part of a son in law
sent forty eight hours previously to bor-
row an AK Such was the circle oft gath
cred on the long, rainy winters eve about
the Thompson store stove. All smoked.
Keen Fam frequently dropped in. He
stood respectfully, as a heather should
in such a Christian assemblage, on its
outer edge, or humbly appropriated some
unOccupied keg, and for the lest-glin-
ned. From his little piggy eyes to his
double chin keen's face was IA perma-
nently settled grin.
A PIONEER CHINAMAN.
Keen Fam had learned about twenty
words of English and would learn no
more. In his estimation, these twenty
words, variously used, after sort OF
grammatical Kaleidoscope fashion, seem
ed adequate to convey everything re-
quired One of his presumed English
expressions long puzzled the boys. Ask
ing the price of articles at the store he
would say "Too muchee pollytoot." At
last the riddle was correctly guessed. He
meant "TOo much profit"
For protection Keen Fam built his
house opposite the store. The MeXicans
were then attacking and robbing isolated
bands of Cinnamon. AT one bar a few
miles below, then deserted by the whites,
the Chinese had inclosed their camp with
a high stockade of logs. Yet one night
they were attacked. The Mexicans be-
sieged their fortress for hours, peppering
them from the hillside with revOlvers, and