Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1883-09-07
BALTI the MINER.

BALTI The MINER.
Balty came with the rest to Hawkins ia
49. Hawkins has proved Balty's l-al
destiny. For sixteen years he trick to
reach Sonora, only twenty miles distant.
Chinese Camp lay seven miles AWAY.
Chinese proved for Balty an impassihle
barri There Phoenix produced the black
bottle: Pike, q cut glass decanter, WELDON ::
ing drinks for Balty He always stag cd at
Chinese. Chinese proved Balty's Delilah.
There he was regularly shorn Of his dust,
his sobriety, his resolutions. Time after
time did he leave the river. resolved to be a
man, to be sbong, to procrastinate the
spree he had promised himself until he
reached Sonora. Time after time did he
fail. retreating back to Hawkins, his buck
skin purse depleted Of its last grain, and
bearing his receipt In full for dust depos-
tied IN various exchequers at Chinese in
the shape Of two black bottles tied together
by string. =., ss '*s<t<4.5s -,
In 1866 there happened to Balty one of
those events Of a moment which decide and
turn mans whole future career. Coming,
as usual, to Chinese from Hawkins on
hired horse, the animal ran away with him,
carrying him past the camp, against which
he had SO often dashed, and mp the road
toward Sonora. Balty kept on and accom-
plished the feat.
lit is often thus. We spend an existence
II endeavoring 20 accomplish an aim, to
solve q problem, and when at last we give
!, it up, accident takes hold, and in dash
carries MS straight TO the point Balty tried
| for sixteen years to reach Sonora. The
! man failed. The horse won. =.
Sonora was benefited. Balty always had
dust when he visited camp. Most of it
went, sooner or later, into the saloon keep
ers till. True, he purchased some pro-
Visions his verbal order for a winters
supply, ones ran thus; Iguess, jones, you
tmay bring me a sack of -four, ten pounds
| Of pork, ten pounds Of hsbacco, and bari
Eof whisky. % ss.>~~ .,...-.. ::
Phenix AMI Pike, saloon keepers, never
ia their hearts fpreaYe the man who let to
Balty the mustang which carried him be-
| yond the charmed circle Of Chinese. He
'never renewed his allegiance there. Twas
| clean loss of at least q thousand dollars
yearly to the camp. -
There seemed mysterious affinity be-
tween this man and gold. He was sure to
strike something in his range Of the river
and bank diggipgs rich deposit once in
! two years. People grew to have faith in
Baltys luck, and trusted him by reason of
| that faith. Balty was lucky; while honest,
sober, but penniless Industry stood by and
cursed.
Apart from the search FOR gold, Balty
was dull, uninteresting, even stupid. On
the trail after lead, he frightened up. All
sense and keenness poured through that
channel. The rest were dry. Something
Lied him unerringlYto the place In the Flat
twherA lay a asdollar- prospect. Industry
and Sobriety sank: their shafts through foot
and foot Of hard pan & and barren gravel.
On the ledge, Industry and Sobriety found
half "a cent to- the-pan prospect, afne-f1our
gold will cover your pans bottom with 4
thousand colors"- SO fine that the glass
| is needed to reveal them; but in weight
| they are as dust on the buttenAy's wing.
There was Crane Flat. For years, the
river and bank yielding richly, it had been
overlooked, But -Balty had ever kept an
eye on it. "A ragged scrawl on certain
| ve-oak informed the public that ~,
I'VE, the Undersigned, claim this:ground,
and are going to work the same as soon as
We have chance, BALTY.
GOTHAM"
Such notice was neither legal or def
| mite. It was not desired that it should be-.
Old settlers like Balty and Gotham felt
they had a certain feudal right to territory
| near which they had SO long lived.
Miners law required Of them to state
how many feet they claimed. That was
| what Balty and Gotham did not wish to do
| Their claim was indefinite. It overshadow-
ed the whole Flat. A stranger might come
along and ''jump'a portion, but in doing
so he would incur a dangerous unpopular
| ity with the whole community OF the
ubooo r<.a1ro,,
crashed and grated the river pebbles in so
from the Red Mountain to Indian Bar,
Balty and G. otham now alone remained.
Miners law in 1850 gave thirty feet front
| to the mrsn. Miners law in 1856 was expand
led. Tt gave one hundred feet front TO the
| man, Miners law in 1865 was whatever
Balty and Gotham chose to make it. In
| 1850 it concerned thousands, in 1855 hun
! flreds, in 1866 two Balty and Gotham.
! Voc l,opuIi, ct cetera. -
Out of the fag-end Of the Flat, out Of q
light, alluvial sand mix "a with irregularly-
shaped powders, Balty banned 1.-TWO BIT
prospect. Two sober hard working men,
! living near by, whose lives we're patterns of
| neatness and order; whose cabin was Il mar
! vel Of mans housekeeping; whose bread
was the ightest ON the river, but who fo1
| years had not been able to strike anything
| better than "two~ dollar per- day claim
! [Balty, in scorn, called such 'grub-and-
| whiskey diggin's) m ade him liberal offer
| for four hundred feet of this ground. Bal
ty never prospected another pan from thai
| "gouge" in the bank. He was in need oil
ready cash. He was ever thus. He owned
! much and indefinite ground above. Haac-
| copied the offer. That "gouge" proved the
only pay-spot in the claim. Balty's golden
instincts always told him not to prospec
salable ground too much. Leave well
! enough alone. When prospect hole de-
veleps two bits to the pan, leave it im stata
quo. Leave it with the biggest berries OF
| the top of the basket, as does the frui
dealer.
Balty accumulated stores Of whisky in hi
cabin. He stayed by it, and pursued ar
| industrious life Of inebriation. WI hen Haw.
kin Bar-once lively camp Of eighty souls
! --was reduced to it's last house and its two
last residents; when the traveller, on some
! still, hot summers afternoon, passed
| through, hearing the ceaseless roar of tn,
/ river over the rifle, seeing only in imagina
tion the. life and excitement Of $50, h
might then be hailed from the. last house
by one OF the last residents in tones Of jovi:
/ al inebriaton. This would be ;Balty, ar.
rived at the afternoon stage IN. his cups
when ne was DESTROYS Of Sfraternizing will
Everybody Is w hen the domestic whisky wal
exhausted, when the Chinese in the vicinity
would no longer Hospitality offer their tea
bowls Of t'blandy, = Balty, half erazed wit
thirst for stimnlant, would 60 home, disci
/ pine by degrees his stomach to its ..snatura
/ food. and restore, day by day, the stead
! ness of his nerves. In a week he was q
work. In a few months some overlooke,
spot on the fiat, Or bar, some rifle, IN
banned out" richly for Balty; and industr
and sobriety stood by and cursed. " !.
Balty was the principal owner in the Gen
! eral Scott. a riYer-had claim, None saw