The Ketchum keystone. (Ketchum, Idaho) 1881-1884, 1884-05-10
ssOver the Isa,,ge.-

1
stumpy Wicks was dead. Tho noun
tain fever had killed him. A few days
before he had started off into the hills,
telling the boys he would find some
thing rict, or never 90 out again. He
did not find anything rich, and he never
went out again. The fever laid its grip
upon him, and in three days he was
dead. He had gone over tho range"
| tho boys said.
II became necessary to bury Stumpy
Wicks. And how was he To be buried?
| by his reatives7 He had no relatives.
By the town? There was no town. BY
his pord2 He Ind no para Forty years
ago stumpy Wieks left his home--no
one knew where--and his people--no
one knew whom--so wander alone ia
the west. He died alone. His wife, his
mother, his sister, IL he lind one, will
never know where he died, or what
hands laid him In the grave.
1t wns tho boys. They got together
and made coffin ont Of a box or two,
and covered IL with black cloth. They
put Stumpy into 1t, with clean -four
sack over his poor, dead face. They
clipped in aud hired mn ex- parson who
for some years had abandoned his pro-
fession, to s'give stnnpy send off,
| They dug d grave To q good and honest
| depth in the tough red earth. They
went out and found a flat rock for n head
stone, and ON IL. with an engineers grn-
yer, they scratched the brief epitath.
'sstumpy Wicks.' Then they followed
the cofiin-wagon to the grave, walking
through the mud and rain.
There were forty men ia that funeral
procession, aud not Que woman. Very
few were drunk, and nearly all had TAX
en- off their six shooters There were
forty men who stood around that open
grave. and not one woman to drop
tear, as the OK parson read q brief por-
ton Of the Episcopal burial service and
offered u short prayer for the safe jour-
ney Of Stumpys soul over the range.
There was no history Of Stumpys life.
No one knew that history. 1t WINS doubt
less a sud enought one, full of slips and
stumbies; full Of hope, perhaps, before
he finally ''lost his grip They found
a woman's picture, very old, and quite
worn out indeed, In stumpy's pocket,
aud this wns buried with him. This was
probably his history.
There WIS not tear shed at Stumpys
| funeral. Not d sob was heard But
| neither was there any oath or any laugh
| ter.
When the time came to fill mp the
| grave. ready hearts assisted ready hands,
and the experienced miners quickly did
| tile work, They rounded up the mound
and lifted up the head stone When
the ox-parson stepped back from the
1 grave he stumbled over the head stone
| Of Billy Robbins, the gambler, whom
| Antoine Sanchez knitted. There were o
| good many Of the boys resting there.
The bullet, the knife, and the noun
tain fever had finished them, except
| those whom the committee assisted 1t
1 was tile committee who put Antoine
| Sanchez at the foot of Billy Robbins
grave
| There was no green thing In this grave
| yard, no living plants, no little flowers.
II lay red and bare, upon Il red and hare
hill side. There were no white stones
to mark the homes of the sleepers; those
used ware of the rough. red granite.
The boys were quiet. They were
thinking. perhaps. They looked up at
the sky, which. strangely enough, Ind
In II no tint OF blue. and the sky. in pity
TINT no tear was shed, wept some over
them.
As the procession broke up and moved
back ia the saloons, one WINS heard to
saY that 1t was the ID dest mournfuIest
plantin' he ever had hand in" In fact,
the camp did not get baek to its normal
condition until the next day. There was
something too SUD even for these rough
souls in the lonly, broken life the lonely,
unwept denth Of Stnmpy Wicks. II
nude them think--and | wonder ii some
Of them did not reach out their arms
from their blankets that night aud hold
themnp and call out softly. "0h Stumpy.
Stumpyl What is it you see over the
ranger After wretehed, broken life,
what Ia there for man, over the range
Weekly Eagle.