Mohave County miner., 1884-02-17
Life ih a Mining Camp.

| fantastic ana the sad, ID ones lm-
 pressiens; hard to decide which has
 more pathos, the camp deserted
 or the camp newly begun, the pic
 lure of disappointment oser and
 past or that of enthusiastic hopes,
 nine out of ten of which are doomed
 to die. I have sometimes thought
 that the newest, liveliest. most san
 guine camps were the saddest sights
 of all.
 The expression of fresh minirg
 camp at the height of its boom is
 something which must be seen to be
 comprehended. The camp is in the
 heart of fir forest, perhaps, or on
 the stony side of a gulch, Trees fall
 here, there, everywhere, day and
 night. Nobody draws breath till he
 has got cabin, Of bough hut over
 his head. As if by magic, there
 grows up sort of street, dozen or
 two board shanties, with that cheap
 est and silliest of all shanis, the bat clement front, Haunting its ugly squares all along the hne. Glaring signs painted on strips of cotton sheeting, bleached and unbleached, are nailed over doors. In next to no time, there will be a mint, an ex- change, a band, Vienna bakery, a Chinese laundry, and hotel and q livery stable. Between each night and morning will blossom out crops of real estate offices, and where min ing properties are bought and sold, claims located, proved, bought and sold, surveys of mining claims made, etc; crops also, alas, Ot whisky sa- looms, with wicked names and lurid red curtains, danger and death sig nals.
 The stumps are not taken out of the pretense of road, neither are tbe boulders; nobody minds driving over them or over anything in fact. so he gets quickly to his claim or the tract in which he is feyerishIy pros 1 pecting. If brook trickIe through | the camp, so much the better: it can | do double duty as drain and we'll. ! Luckiest they who drink highest up, but they who drink lowest down do | not mind. The women, if women are there, are nerce and restless like the men. They make shifty sem blances of homes out of their one roomed cabins. It is not worth while to have things comfortable or keep them in order, for there is no knowing whether the camp will turn out to be a good one or not; and to- morrow they may pack up their chat tels and move on. At the faintest rumor of a bigger find, in another camp, the men to whom these belong will be of and they must follow. They stand in their doorways, ,idling, wondering, waiting, gossiping and quarreling. The only placid crea- lures are the babies, whose simple needs of sun, dirt and being let alone are amply supplied. They are hap py, and they only, in all the camp.
 It is a strange life, unnatural, un wholesome, leading to no good, com fortless to degree which many of those who lead it would not endure a day, except for the hope of gain which fires their very veins, The worst of it is that the life is az fas cinating as it is unwholesome. - Once a miner, always a miner" Is proverb which Is little less than an exact truth. The life is simply gamester's life, with the Wide earth for hazard table, and the instances are rare in which a person who has once come under its spell ever breaks away. It is no uncommon thing, in Colorado. to meet and old grey haired man who has been prospect ing and mining all his life, and has not yet made dollar, but is bouy- antly sure that he will strike it soon. HI. H., in December Atlantic.