Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1884-02-07
AN UNKNOWN FRIEND.


AN UNKNOWN FRIEND.
Half-Moon was new mining camp
in deep canyon 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 a burro which bore
upon its back all his worldly wealth,
and had brought into winter quarters
in the valley of the Arkansas such
promising specimens of brittle and ruby
silver that many, seeing them, were in
duced to go in the spring to spy out
the land. And SO it happened, on a
March night i'm 1882, that dozen
camp-fires were brightly burning, a
dozen tents were dimly outlined in the
shadows and openings 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 experiences and
wonderful finds of the year before.
Among fifty men brought together
from every part of the world. in a wild
country, by a purpose born, to some ex-
tent at least, of selfishness and greed,
some are likely to be found in whom
brutishness predOminates. There were
several such in the camp at Half-Moon.
The poets say that communion with
nature reIineS and elevateS the soul, and
leads men onward and upward toward
natures God. The poets are somewhat
wrong. The kindly spirit born and
reared amid the best influences of a
city home, where all the surroundings
are of refining character, will become
kindlier and better as the years 90 on
while the dull man will become duller,
and the mean man meaner, i'm the very
presence and hush of nature. At least
1t is sometimes so; and it was so with
Bill Lewis.
he had seen nature i'm all her ma 'esty,
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 immense! He
had been convicted of a dozen crimes,
and committed an hundred others with
out conviction. Each succeeding fall
had found him worse in every way than
the preceding spring, and those who
knew him best frequently remarked upon
the new and ever.increasing capabilities
tor sin which he was constantly unfold
ing.
But he was not wholly bad. Perhaps
no man ever was. There was rumor
among the miners. credited by few.
that once or twice during his career his
rough voice had become gentlcr, and
the light in his fierce eye softer, when
he had been surprised into speaking of
his mother. Where he had come from,
''what made him leave, where his moth
er lived. Or whether she lived ut all, no
one knew or had the hardihood to ask.
There was another manor rather
boy--in that camp; but he could not be
seen that evening around am of the
hres. He had come into the gulch in a
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 COM
rades had failed to catch or compre-
bend his first name. and he had come to
oe called Little JOHN
He would have been remarked any,
where in mining region as one wholly
put of place. He was light. delicate
and fragile-though seemingly in good
health before com ng to the gulch- and
was lily fitted to meet the vic ssitudes
Of mountain life. He night have
been born for an artist or poet, or both;
ne certainly was never intended for
miner. Everybody except Bill Lewis
liked and pitied him. Bill apparently
did not hate him; but he despised him
for his soft, tender nature; was in the
habit of calling him ''Sus e. and mel
lie, and other feminine diminutives,
and never let pass an opportunity to hui
initiate and wound him.
In coming into the gulch the party
had an unusually serious trip. The
trail was lily defined: the snow was
deep and soft; they had been compelled
to unpack their animals a 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
Dad weather to be much troubled by one
rip more.
But with Little Joha the case was
different. He had never before been
thus exposed, and was evidently not
sustained to any considerable extent by
q hopeful spirit, and he had succumbed.
de lay in his tent in his rough blanket
bed, sick. Frustrated, exhausted. There
was no physician there, although most
OF those men knew something of sick
ness, and in discussing his case, while
none could say that he had this or that
disease, all agreed that he was ..clean
gone an likely to croak."
They had been talking of him around
the fire when some one, coming from q
tent in grove near BY, said:
Il think Little John IL 90 up to-
night. He's crazy now. an thinks he's
IN Ohio; an keeps talkin' of his moth
Bill Lewis, before silent and sullen,
started up at once. '.I'll 90 see the
kid" he said
He went, and all followed in wonder.
The bed was warm enough. and soft
enough. But il and its snrronndiouS