Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-06-28

cllIuD5 ulkueT duu SCSo hVteSL'
WATERFALL is frequently visited. Ire
backs Of the gray shirts are wet with
perspiration. In an easy, companion.
able claim, where the partners are al!
good fellows and on good terms, ana
not too insane in the matter OF getting
an enormous quantity Of dirt through
the sluices each day, they may, be more
or less brief suspensions from the work,
when all hands lean on their shovels
and talk politics, or horse, last nights
poker game, or have q short service OF
tobacco smoke, with the usual solemn
preliminaries Of cutting the plug aud
filling pipes. But if the company"
are a mean, Grabbed, close-fisted lot, the
misery goes on without cessation.
Ii is near II O'Clock. There stands in
q cool corner of the claim and carefully
shielded from any stray, flying pe6ble,a
black bottle. 1t is nearly full OF whlskey
VERY common corn whisky. Ii Is
most welcome at this hour. Poison II
may he, but
AErausht From ise Tin Cup Brightens
Up
ard makes all things new. The sun
shine is more cheerful. The picks de5-
cend with increased force, and a host OF
new day-dreamS start into being. III Is
high-noon. The III is over our heads,
and the shadows are at their shortest
length. One of our number trudges
YEARLY up to the reservoir to shut OIL
the water. So soon as its flow lessons
we trudge of in wet overalls or heavy
rubbers to our respective cabins. We
are now ground -sluicing at or about the
wear 1860, when miners generally had
each man kept house by himself. Cause
general incompatibility of temper,
temperament, disposition and habit.
The sober miner found it disagreeable
to live permanently with the spreeing
miner, and the miner nice in his do
nestle economy and particular about
his food soon became tired of a compan-
ion who never aired his blankets and
didn't care whether his bread was
light or heavy, sweet or sOur. Trudging
to our cabins we pick up the dried I wigs
in our path. These are to kindle
the dinner fire. Diuner is very much
like breakfast, beef or bacon, bread, tea,
dried apple sauce. The boots are kick
ed off and thumped into a corner. The
temperature is up to that notch that
induces preparation without any eX-
ertion at all, and the ugly little stove
makes it hotter still. We sit down TO
the noon meal in a melting condition
and rise from it in the same state.
Dineris eaten, the ''nOoning' is over,
back again to the claim, turn on the
water, pick, shovel, scrape, pry, toss
slipped from their supports. Between
> and 3 o'clock q snOw-white cloud
rises over a distant peak to the east
ward. 1t seems like a great bank OF
snow against the blue sky, and the
longer We look at it the farther we seem
to peer
Into the Translucent. Clear-Wh ite
Depths.
Ii rises over that peak at almost the
same hour every afternoon, and is al
most of the same shape. 1t is the con-
densed vapOr of the higher Sierra sum-
mitS eigi ty-siX miles distant. 1t is
imposing in its silent imperceptible
rising, its wonderful whiteness, its ma
iesty, its distance. 1t seems a fit bed OF
snowy splendor for fairies or some some
sOlt Of etheral beings to bask and revel
in, 1t seems to be looking down half
in scorn, half in pity at US four weary
miserable worms Of the dust, feebly
pecking at a bit of mother earth, mud
dy, wet and feebly squirming in and
about this bank dirt.
At4 o'clock there are longer pauses
in our labors. There is more leaning
on shovels and more frequent glances
at our timepiece, the sun, as he sinks
in the western heavens. The shadow
of the hill opposite creeps slowly down
| its side. 1t Is a cool, welcome shadow.
| The strongest worker secretly welcomes
il. Though he be a "hOrse of q man"
| his muscles also feel the effects OF the
long days labor. 1t is more in his
| strong will than his body which keeps
him swinging the pick. We are i'll
duty bound to work till Is o'clock.
Everybody works till 8 O'clock. Every
body is more or less tired at 1 o'clock,
but it is not the capacity OF the body
for labor that fixes the time. 1t is GUS
tom, stupid custom. The gauge is the
limit of physical strength, not for the
weakest, but the strongest. The great,
hrawny-armed, big-boned Hercules of
u company doesn't feel it much. lie
NAV walk three mixes after supper To
the bar store, play cards and drink
whisky till 8 O'clock and then walk
| back again and be up fresh for work
next morning by $50 O'Clock. This is
in 1860. In 1870 he showed it, however,
and in the marks of age was
Ten Years Ahead of His Time.
You can't keep up this sort of thing
digging, Juggling, lifting, wet to the
skin day after day, summer and winter,
with no interval of rest, but a steady
drag of twelve months of the year
without paying for it. There's dissipa-
ton in the use of muscle as well as in
the use of whisky. Every old miner
knows it now and feels it. Don't you?
How does the muscle of 45years in 1882
| compare with that of % In 1862? OF
course, man must live by the sweat OF
his brow, or the sweat of his brain; but
many of you sweat too long III those
! days, and | hear you all saying, That's
SOP Start anew the fire in the little
stove; thum p the wei boots in the cor
| ner; drag yourself down to the spring
a few hundred yards distant for a pail
of fr, sh water; hack q few more chips
from the dried stump; mix some flour,
water and yeast powder for the days
baking: set down a minute on your
ur-barrel chair and look on your
earthly possessions. The worn and
Scared trunk you brought years ago
| from the States; it holds your best suit
of a forgotten fashion, two or three
white shirts, a bundle of letters from
home, a few photographs, a Bible-not
worn out with use, q quartz crystal, a
few gold specimens" a tarantula's
nest, the tail of a rattlesnake and six
vests. DO YOU remember how vests
would accumulate in the mines: Pants,
coat, everything else would wear out
,-octS nayar