The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1884-04-09
AN UNKNOWN FRIEND.

Half-Moon was new mining camp in
q deep canon at the head waters of the
Gunnison. One of that adventurous
class known as prospectors had, in
the fall of 1881, wandered through that
country, following burro which bore
upon its back all his worldly wealth,
and had brought into winter quarters in
the valley of the Arkansas such promis-
ing specimens of brittle and ruby silver
that many, seeing them, were induced to
go in the spring to spy out the land.
And so it happened, on March night in
1882, that a dozen camp-tires were
brightly burning, a dozen tents were
dimly outlined in the shadows and open
ings of the stunted pines, and forty or
fifty men, in groups of from three to six,
were gathered around the fires smoking
their evening pipes and relating their ex-
periences and wonderful finds of the year
before.
Among fifty men brought together
from every part of the world, in wild
country, by a purpose born, to some ex-
tent at least, of selfishhess and greed,
some are likely to be found in whom
brutishness predominates, There were
several such in the camp at HalfMoon.
Bill Lewis had seen nature in all her
majesty, moods and aspects for more
than thirty years; had traversed the
country from the Missouri to the Pacific
shore; lunched on the highest SUBMITS
and camped in the deepest gorges. And
yet his depravity was immensel He had
been convicted of a dozen crimes, and
committed an hundred Others without
conviction.
There was another manor rather boy
lin that camp; but ne could not be seen
that evening around any of the fires. He
had come into the gulch in crowd Of
seven, who had been on the trail some
twenty days together and Bill Lewis was
another of the seven. His name was
Zeno Brown. His comrades had failed
to catch or comprehend his first name
and he had come to be called 'Little
John"
He would have been remarked any
where in a mining region as one wholly
out of place. He was light, delicate and
fragile-though seemingly in good health
before coming to the gulch-and was lily
fitted to meet the vicissitudes of noun
tain life He might have been born for
an artist or poet, or both; he certainly
was never intended for miner.
In coming into the gulch the party had
an unusually serious trip. The trial was
lily defined; the snow was deep and soft,
they had been compelled to unpack their
animals score of times, and to sleep in
wet clothes and wet snow. For all this,
however, most of them cared but little.
They were not invalid tourists, and they
had crossed the range too many times in
bad weather to be much troubled by one
trip more.
But with Little John the case was diff
ferent He had never before been thus
exposed, and was evidently not sustained
to any considerable extent by hopeful
spirit. and he had succumbed. He lay
in his tent in his rough blanket bed, sick,
prostrated, exhausted.
They had been talking of him around
the fire when some one, coming from a
tent in a grove near by said;
81 think Little John'llg 60 up tonight.
He's crazy now. an thinks he's in Ohio
an keeps tall1in' of his mother" "
Bill Lewis, before silent and sullen,
started up at once. "pllg go see the kid, u
he said
He went, and all followed in wonder.
The bed was warm enough, and soft
enough. But it and its surroundings
were terribly rough for one like him IL
his condition, The pale face amid the
shaggy blankets, lit up by tallow candle
burning in can; the saddles, ropes
kettles and tools scattered around among