McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1884-09-25


on their lips an only sorrer in their
hearts.
.That's the way of it in mimi camps.
Some how or other folks don't allus
hear, an don't want to hear O. the
hundreds that lose their all where one
man strikes it rich. It's nothing on the
Lords earth but game o. chance,
mimi amt.
"Well, one day had woman pas
senger. She was the first one I'd took
up, and l hated to take her; for the
place hadn't decent house in it, an
she didn't look like woman that
roughed it much. She was a little,
cherry-faced an cheery-voiced woman,
all dressed in plain black, an bout
forty-fve, near's could jedge. But
spite o. that CHEEKY voice an smilin'
face, could see plain enough in the
woman's eye that she'd had her cross
to bear, an that its burden was on her
yit She'd kind of culver bout her
lips, even when she laug hed, an oncet
two that she'd give.
"She set by. me all the way to the
camp, an asked good many ques-
tons bout this an that an t'other, but
hadn't word to say bout herself or
her plans. managed to find out that
she was goin' up there total stranger
to every man in the camp; as for bein' a
stranger to the wimmin-why, there
want Twin woman there yit.
"Well, the boys they give her room
in the best shanty there was up, an |
come away an left her there.
81 got my wrist real badly sprained
goin' back next day, an it was three
weeks fore drive up to O-Be-Joyful
agin. Then L found this little woman
mistress O. the biggest boardin' house
an hotel in the camp, an the most
popler woman there. Myra Claffitt's
house was the house. She was Myra
Claffitt to everybody, but some O. the
boys was calm her Aunt Myra.'
''She did run stavin' good house.
They want any two ways bout that.
There wasn't anything slow bout Myra
Claffitt or her table. Ev'rybody was
welcome whether they could pay or
not. But the boys seen to it that
everybody paid. 1t wouldn't O. been
healthy for any one to try and sneak
out of it.
'Ireckon that Myra Claffitt was as
, good a woman as ever the Lord made.
The boys in O-Be-Joyful got so they
, swore by her fairly. She had kind of
way bout her that not one woman in a
million has. A man couldn' do thing
', she'd ask him not to do-anyhow l
! couldn't. I'd feel 'shamed o. myself
all my life if l did. Many's the row
that woman broke up. I've seen men
stripped fer fight an all ready to
buckle into each other with murder in
their hearts; n when Myra Claffitt' d
march through the crowd that'd give
way fore her, that fght'd be indef' nifty
, postponed. That's what it would!
;, ''But she never had the first word to
say bout herself. No one knowed if
she was wilder or not, or if she had
, children, or who or what she was. She
was kind of woman that, somehow
or other, you couldn't ask questions of,
an couldn't have suspicious bout.
You took her just like you'd take a
, clean, fresh, shinin' new dollar right
from the mint.
ssBut now it alters seemed to me that
that woman was lookin' for somebody.
The day she rid up with me on the stage
there wa mt man or boy on the road
she didn' tsee-and see good, too. An
. 1 never took a stage load O. passengers
to her house in my life that she wa MT
out an starin' sharp at ev'ry man of
'em. Then she'd 60 round on the hills
'mong the men at work there, an tell
you she saw all of 'em. Sometimes
, when all my passengers'd be out O. the
stage I've seen that little culver come
so pitiful-like to her lips, an there'd be
! tears in her eyes; but l never let on to
her or any one bout it.
'sAfter travel got so light that there
was hardly ever any passengers Myra
Claffitt got restless like an talked o
goin' away. But the boys they jest
wouldn't hear to it. So it happened
that she was the last as well as the first
woman in O-Be-Joyful.
''The camp it begin to wink out purity
fast (the mines never was no good)
when l driv up there one Saturday, an
in jumpin' down from my seat on the
stage my foot kind O. turned in like, an
first thing knowed there I was on the
ground with broken leg.
, sWell, sir, that Myra Clafitt gave me
the best bed in the house an took care
of me like as if I'd been a baby. I'd
, laid there over month an in that time
[ the bottom had nigh bout dropped out
O. O-Be-Joyful, an most O. the men was
| feelin' mighty blue an desp'rit-like, as
men will feel when they've been cheated
: or deceived or turribly disappointed.
/ Bout this time some claim jumpers
begun to show up round the only
l claims that showed any signs O.
} amountin' to anything. Now you
know, sir, as well as me jest how claim
t jumpin' affects lot O. miners that
[ worked hard for what they've found.
You know decent miner hates claim
t jumper like he hates pizen. They're
t logged like game an shown no more
4 mercy when found. When it got out
e that there was claim-jumpers round