Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-02-02

through all this, William Barnes has chung
to Dozeyille, and D0zevilie has clung to
him, and he has kept stationary.
"Samuel Scoy, attorney at law" an
other old playmate. Samuel Scoy was a
very troublesome boy in the neighborhood.
He does well to practice law now, for be
was always breaking it in his oath. He
was your partner in ringing door-b:lls,
changing signs and robbing melon patches
| He is now sober man OF family. Your
conversation with Samuel Scoy psrtakes
not of the easy, hilarious nature OF former
! days somehow you cannot find the scape-
grace of old. The Satan in him seems to
| have entirely died out. But the door
| opens and an elegant woman enters. Sam
Scoy-no, Samuel Scoy, Esq, attorney at
law-introduces you to his eldest dsugh-
ter. Why are you surprised You might
have known this. Sam Scoy was married
before you left home. This is Samuel
Scoy, attorney at law, with whiskers in
clined to gray and manner rather stern
and severe and this is his daughter. You
are old enough to be the father of that self
possessed, elegant young woman. GU
never thought of that before; yet were
she to visit Coyote Camp, you and half a
dozen other middle.aged bachelors would
be ordering new suits from the bay"
What steady old worker is Time Tad
poles will grow to frogs infants will de-
yelon into elegant women. And this is
Miss Scoy, the daughter Of Sam Scoy,
whom old Tom Bangs once gathered up by
the coat. collar and the baggy portion OF
his pantaloons and chucked off the end of
Little Neck wharf for tampering with his
eeI.pots and you nearly old enough to be
a grandfather. Now you begin to feel
your years.
You are invited to a Dozeville evening
party, Being single man you are deemed
eligible for this sort of thing. There are
present score of schOolmstes' daughters
lust like Miss Scoy. Bat Bill Barnes and
Sam Scoy are not there. They renowned
such parties years and years ago-they are
old men. They would as soon be caught
playing marbles on the sidewalk. You
prepare 20 90, and attire yourself with all
| the scrupulousness. the care and the
anxiety Of youth. You 60, and lind your.
self worn, out.of-plsce, aged bovine,
amid crowd OF calves. The young ladies
Misses Scoy and Barnes-charming olive
branches of your school fellows, survey
Won curiously. They have often heard
their parents speak of you. You were
young and gay along with their sires.
That period, by the glass in which they
survey life, was ages and ages ago-coeval
with the American Revolution ; or the Dis
covery of America, or the Flood. You
are " an old fellow" You are introduced
to one after another but there is no affilis.
tion as in the days of yore. The gap Of
years, crows feet, and struggling gray
hairs, lie between yoG and them. They
listen for period consistent with civility
TO the cracked old love song OF this their
fathers friend, and then fly away to young
Mr.. Cock Sparrow, just returned from his
first collegiate term. Cock Sparrow was
not even an infant when you left. Now,
you feel older. More apples have withered.
II s your first Sunday at DoZeville, and
you sit once more IN the family pew at the
old church. But the congregation seems
thin. You miss many stately gray head.
| The elders are the young men of 1852 Still
the edidce is for you thiokly peopei, bet
not with the living When last you sat
| here another and Older minister preached a
/ farewell and admonitory sermon TO the COM
/ pauy OF young men bound for California
/ They sat together IN that pew yonder.
| They were to return in i've years, at least,
with much gold. All had sweetheavts, and
/ those sweethearts expected 1T the eXpira-
! ton of those five years TO become wIves
/ Most of them sat il the choir. Some of
/ their daughters sing in the choir to-day.
/ Bat the fathers of those Young songstresses
| never went to California and forgot the
| pastors admonitory sermon while they
mined, and traded, aud drank and gam
bled. and fought, and talked a language
half Mexican half Eaglish, and ran for
office. and died violent deaths or were
elected to magnificent shrievalties worth
$50 900 per aunum, and learned TO bake
their own break aad cook their own beans
and wash their own clothes. They never
d" made their piles in the dry diggings and
lost them in turning the bed of the river, or
were "broke, strapped" or "panned out
at faro; then made more piles to be ''broke, "
strapped or 'panned out at monte. They
never went to Kern river, Gold Bluffs,
Frazer, Colorado, Montana or Nevada.
They remained at home and when those
/ five years were up they married the girls,
wearied OF waiting for the California ad-
venturers, but few Of whom ever returned,
! and those who did brought back sad tales
/ OF many who remained. Thomas Spring
was a bartender, William Dinple a mule
driver jeremiah GoodboY a confirmed
gambler, and it was whispered that Isaiah
Sweetbriar. the Deacons son, bad been
/ hanged in the southern mines for stealing
/ a mule. So the girls became Mrs. Barnes
and Scoy, instead OF Goodboy and Sweet
briar All these memories come cTowding
/ thickly upon you, as you look on the pew
where the young men bound for California
sat twenty years ago, Are not D0zevll-
/ Iians impress also by these remembrances
on comm, here every sunday No the
/ change has been gradual for them. They
are net looking now over the wide and
/ freshly.cut sap of twenty years. They
are thinking OF their diners of Monday S
washiug-ot the forthcoming festival for
raising funds to repsint the steeple What
a lofty steeple that was once Now the
vane reaches up to the first limb OF the
right hand Sentinel at the Big Tree
Grove.
Some Of The Dozevilians hold but dim
remembrance Of Clifornia's grand opening
day-the rush and gold fever Of 1919 yet
vessels. twenty three years ago, carrying
away the pick Of the young men, sailed
directly from Dozeville to San Francisco
But other and greater events have since
I transpired. California, II many OF these
/ Dozsvilians. is almost the California of
/ thirty years ago-a land remote and IN
/ known. Some Of them scarcely know the
, existence Of the Yosemite valley or the big
/ trees. You are disguised. Worse than this
some of them have quite forgotten certain
/ of the young men, born and bred in D,zs-
vile. long resident in ol'fornia. \ GU speak
/ of Tom Travers, who was "D5zeville boy. u
/ Half of California knows Tom Travers,
/ Here are men in Dozeville who shake their
heads feebly at mention OF Tom Travers.
/ Why, Uncle Abraham Travers' son, next
TO the oldest, say you. Well, pears as il
| do remember something ct him And
then they stop for they are hardly Ger
tain whether they do or not. II is
not strange. Year after year in Dazs
Vile thav have trottsd around htti,
c;-cus ring Of life, sitting about tn,
same grocery stove in winter, sit
/ ting in the same chairs in front Of that
grocery IN summer, droning over tht
weighs of the last murdered hog OF
the last strange face seen IN the vii
'laee; reviewing all the Dozeville tat
tie. until all other recollection
is beaten and stamped out. The menta
horizon Of these DlzsviIians has settled
thick Just out side their little circus rims
Of thought No wonder that they should
forget the we'll known Tom Travers.