The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-11-03
BAKERS CAT.
Mark Tunsr

Mark Twain.
Speaking Of sagacity reminds me of Dick
Baker, pocket miner of Deadhorse guIch
whenever he was out Of luck and little
down hearted he would fall to mourning over
the loss of wonderful cat he used to own
flor, where women and children are not. men
OF kindly impulse took up with pets, for they
must love something). And he always spoke
of the strange sagacity of that cat with the air
OF man who believed in his secret heart that
there was something human about it-maybe
even supernatural
heard him talking about this animal once
He said: Gentlemen, used to have cat
here by the name of Tom Quartz, which you'd
took an interest In, reckon-most ANYBODY
would had him here eight yea1s-and he
was the remarkablest cat I ever see. He was
large gray one, of the Tom specie and he
had more hard, natral sense than any man in
this camp-and power of dignity-he
wouldn't let the gov'nor of California be ia
miliar with him He never ketched a rat in
his ife-'peared to be above it He never
cared for nothing but mining. He knowed
more about mining, that cat did, than any man
I ever see You couldn't tell him nothing
about placer diggings- as for pocket min
ing, why he was just born for it
&He would dig out after me and Jim when
we went over the hills prospecting, and he
would trot along behind us for as much as
five miles, if we went so far. And he had the
best judgment about mining ground-why
you never see anything like it When we
went to work he'd scatter glance around,
and if he didn't think much of the indica-
tons, he would give us look as much as to
say: We'll, I'll have to get you to excuse me- ,
and without another word he'd hyste his nose
into the air and shove for home. But if the
ground suited him he would lay low and keep
dark till the first pan was washed and then
he would sidle up and take look, and if there
was about six or seven grains of gold he was
satisfied-he didn't want any better prospect
n that-and then he would lay down on our
coats and snore like steamboat till we'd
struck the pocket, and then get up and super
intend
swell, by-and-by, up comes this quartz ex-
element. Everybody was into it; everybody
was picking and blasting, instead of shoYeling
dirt on the hillside; everybody was putting
down shaft instead of scraping the surface,
Nothing would do Jim but we must tackle the
lodges too, and SO we did. We commenced
putting down shaft, and Tom Quartz began
to wonder what in the dickens it was all about.
He hadn't ever seen any mining like that be-
fore, and he was all upset, as you may say.
He couldn't come to the right understanding
of it no way-it was too many for him He
was down on it, too you bet-he was down on
it powerful-and always appeared to consider
it the cussedest foo4shness out
&But that cat ye1 know-he was always
agin new-fangled ngements-somehow he
never could abide EN- You know how it is
with old habits. But by-and-by Tom Quartz
begin to git sort of reconciled little, though
he never could altogether understand the
eternal sinking of shaft and never panning
out anything. At last he got to coming down
the shaft hisself to try to cipher it out And
when he'd get the blues, and feel kind O.
scurvy, aggravated and disgusted- knowing.
as he did, that the bills was running up all the
time and we warn't making cent-he would
curl up on gunny sack in the corner and go
to sleep. Well, one day when the shaft was
down about eight feet, the rock got SO hard
that we had to put in blast-the first blast
ing we'd ever done since Tom Quartz was
born.
"And then we lit the fuse and clumb out and
got off about fifty yards-and forgot and left
Tom Quartz asleep on the gunny sack In
about a minute we seen puff of smoke bust
up out of the hole, and then everything let go
with an awful crash, and about four million
tons of rock and dirt and smoke and splinters
shot up about a mile and half into the air
and by George, right in the midst of it was
old Tom Quartz going end over enc, and a snort
ing and a clawing and a reaching for things
ikh all possessed; but it warn't no use, you
know; it warn't no use And that was the
last we see of him for about two minutes and
n hal nd fIooT,e oil 1f 11o,1. u L
rain rocks and rubbage, and directly he come
down ker-whop about ten feet from where we
stood.
swell, reckon he was p'raps the orneriest
looking beast you ever see. One ear was set
back on his neck, and his tail was stove up.
and his eye-winkers was swinged off, and he
was all blackened up with powder and smoke.
and all sloppy with mud and slush from one
end to the other. Well, sir, it warn't no use
to apologize-we couldn't say word. He
took sort of disguised look at hisself. and
then he looked at us, and it was just exactly
the same as if he had said: Gents, may be
you think it's smart to take advantage of cat
that amt had no experience of qnartz mining,
but think different'-and then he turned on
his heel and marched off home without ever
saying another word.
"That was jest his STYLE And may be YOU
won't believe it, but after that you never see
cat so prejudiced agin' quartz mining as what
he was. And by-and-by when he did get to
going down in the shaft agin', you'd been
astonished at his sagacity. The minute we'd
touch off a blast and the fused begin to sizzle,
he'd give look as much as to say: well, I'll
have to get you to excuse me, and it was sur
prising the way he'd skin out of that hole and
go for tree. Sagacity? 1t Amino name for
it Twas inspiration"
said: swell, Mr.. Baker, his prejudice
against quartz mining was remarkable, con-
sidering ho~he came by it Couldn't you
ever cure him of it?"
"Cure him! No When Tom Quartz was sot
once he was always sot-and you might a blow
him up as much as three million times and he
would be agin' quartz mining"
The affection and pride that. lit up Bakers
face when he delivered this tribute to the
frmness of his humble friend of other days
will always be a vivid memory with me-
Il trust you are putting few pennies aside
in your savings bank" said fond father to
his son, who was beginning to earn money by
doing errands and odd jobs. @Not any, papa
Ever since saw you shaking dime from it 1
have regarded it as blind pool I have no