Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-05-28
STACY'S GAL.
A Story of the San Juan Mines.

STACY'S GAL.
A Story of the San Juan Mines.
The Colonel, I think, was the first
person to propose to her. He did il IN
the oratorical style, for which he was
noted in the camp, and was promptly
refused, much to his own and the boys
astonishment. I believe the Judge was
the next, but as he had fortified his
courage with large quantity of whisky
his breath was strong enough and his
words thick enough to insure speedy re-
lection. He was considerably mortified
at it, and was never able to explain the
cause of his defeat, but when Mexican
woman drifted into the camp shortly
afterward and engaged in washing for
the men the Judge tried his hand again
and was accepted. 1t took him month
to get loose from the bonds, and he swore
he would "never give any darned female
critter a chance to hook him again"
and he carefully avoided all Indian
squaws and homely senoritas who occa-
sionally passed through Mineral City.
After the Judge dozen or more Of the
boys offered their hands and fortunes to
"Stacy,s gal" and Jared precisely in
the same manner, while Old Stacy HIM
self chuckled and "bet on his gal every
trip, as he afterward explained.
She had come into camp a 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 so
great was his grief that be could not be
induced to remain longer in the place
she had made little heaven for him.
So he placed his daughter-his only
child-in the fashionable female semin-
airy of the State, provided her with
everything that was necessary for her
comfort or happiness and then struck
out for the San Juan silver mines to for
get his recent loss among the excite
ments and privations of the frontier.
Stacy was one Of the fortunate few out
of the unlucky many that enter mining
country, and in few years he was pos
sessed of properties Welding him an ex-
cellent income from their hard, white
quartz. BE regularly correspondent with
his daughter and kept her supplied with
pocket-money far iii excess Of her needs
or requirements, but never went back
on visit, and when that young lady
was duly graduated with high honors
she determined to seek out her ]ong-ab-
sent paternal progenitor. With an IN
dependence and courage the wonder
ment of the boys, she travelled across the
plains, took passage on the stages and
finally rode into Mineral City, on horse
back, the first white woman in camp and
the object of the shy alteration of the
men.
It was some time before the boys could
stand their ground and face her. instead
of scampering away at her approach, as
had hitherto been the case, but the
Western miner is not long In getting &C.
custcmed to strange things, and it was
not over ten days after her arrival shat
the Colonel inundated himself ON the
altar OF his affections. Encouraged by
his example and unterrified by his I'M
ceremonious defeat, the boys one after
another tried their luck though, as I
have before mentioned, with no better
success.
Stacy was a partner of mine In the Ajax
mine, in which there were three of us
interested, and as we were doing consid-
cradle development on the vein was of
necessity much in his company, and
consequently. in that of his daughter.
She was a very pretty girl, with dainty,
delicate ways far more BETTING house
on Walnut street than a rough mining
camp; but she loved 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 summer of 1876.
don't know when it was that [ WAS
unduly attracted toward Nellie. think
it was when she asked me to call her
thereafter by that name. She made the
request so innocently, SO sweetly
and so tenderly, alleging that as I
was her fathers partner, gentleman
by birth and education, and such kind
friend to her, it would be ever so much
nicer for me to say Nellie, instead of
Miss Stacy, which sounded so formal.
that I came very near adding other
words to the name that our short ac-
quaintance would not justify. After
that I spent most of my evenings with
Nellie, and sometimes Of an afternoon
we took delicious little rambles together
on the mountain sides and into the heavy
timber lining the valley or canon OF
the Uncompaghre. One evening, as we
were returning home, we stopped to rest
on the rock crested summit of Mineral
Point. A few hundred feet below Us lay
the little mining camp, its log cabins
looking doubly picturesque in the gath
ering cleaning. The blue smoke was
curling from dozen chimneys as the
men prepared their evening meals; and,
here and there, over the various trails,
blue-shirted miner, with pick and drills
across his shoulder, came striding home.
The sun, sinking behind the Wasatch
mountains. 165 miles distant, cast great
long shadows across the surrounding
peaks, and yelled the ravines and gulches
In deepening darkness.
Nellie sat on the groupings of vein
of quartz and lay stretched out at her
feet, watching her pretty tender eyes as
they wandered about the horizon, drink
ing in the beauty and the grandeur of
the scene. She had some light, feecy
arrangement nubia, I believe it is
called-wrapped loosely about her head
and shoulders, and her hair, in whose
meshes the sunbeams seemed to have
canpht Deaped from beneath. helping