The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-11-23
IN OLD TUOLUMNE.
A DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION TWEEN
TY-SlX YEARS AGO.
Hard-Fisted Miners Who Delighted In
Gathering of the Boys - 1Ien
with StOmachs Injured to
Bacon and F1apjacks.


Hot is the summers day Very hot.
But not so heated IS the physical atmos
phere Of Sonora Tuolumne county, as
the mental The mental? Ay, the moral,
the immoral, the intellectual Why?
It's the day of the Democratic COnven-
ton, met now twenty-siX 10 z years
agone-the convention ratifying the nom
nations of breckenridge and Lane for
president and vice president Of these then
United States but more especially and
vitality to nominate good sound Demo
Gratis TO certain county Offices offices of
importance, because then offices of great
profit.
They are pouring in from Pine Log.
from Columbia, Springfield, Shaw's Flat.
the mountains, JimtOwn, MOntezuma,
Chinese camp. Don Pedros. Red noun
tain. Hawkins Bar. Marshs Flat,
Fattlesnake, Jacksonville, Stevens Bar.
Oak Flat, First Garrote, Second
Carrote, the Green springs and
Mo,casin's creek. They poured in
last night They poured much down
last night They came clad in long linen
busters, on raw boned mustangs, and
some on foot. They are men of mark in
their respective precincts, men of intiu
ence, strong men, and fighting men.
They are men who, day after day, stand
knee deep in the mud of the golden allu-
vial as it is being sliced away. or waist
0ceD III the river creek stream, ldylUS
walls and wing dams.
They have the dinero in their pockets.
They have the ore in their buckskins.
They have left their ranches, their ranch
eros their Casas, their ramadaS. They
bestride caballos-not burros. They are
not burrOs. Call one of them a burrO,
aud he'd blow of the top of your cabeza
They disdain the English of their eastern
homes. They speak the English trimmed
,r-ftT h oh
senors-and senoritas-of course.
Most of them are "heeled They carry
stern chasers-under their linen busters.
They are ready for war. They are on the
warpath. The war paint is on their faces.
The war whisky is in their stOmachs.
They JOve war. They do not exactly
pray to day for a shooting scrape. But
one comes along they are on hand to en-
JOY it
They are men with hands hard and
horny, with stomachs indurated to bull
beef bacon and tlapiacks They live in log
cabins of their own building-lOgs now
old and rotten-logs oft full of creeping
crawling things-centipedes and such;
the tarantula burrows near their
doors; the horned toad frisks near
by in the June sunshine; the
rattlesnake becomes sociable and crawls
down to pay them visits About
the noses of these men at
meal times buzz the yellow jackets
unlimited guests-whOse bite is worse
than their bark-lovers of sweet condi-
ments, apple sauce and mOlasses, adjuncts
to the meals of these hard and horny
handed men of the southern mines.
Near their doors also is a thickly popu-
lated tree-a city of red ants-the red
ant of California, the biting aut-a dis
tinctly smelling, and, when crushed, not
pleasant smelling ant-an ant which can
"a, .1-z,1 e -,NkI 10
ment. These DemocratS-theSe men or
Don Pedro's and Hawkins Bar and Alge-
rine and Poverty Hill-have ofttimes
fought hard and perseveringly against
these red ants-have dug up their holes,
have poured kettle on kettle of boiling
water into their city-have parboiled,
boiled and otherwise destroyed them by
the thousand unto the tens of thousands,
yet ultimately to no purpose; there IS OF
them no cessation.
These are Jimtown Democrats, quartz
crushers pocket hunters, rOosters of
Whisky Hill-burrowers from Table
mountain-travelers of dead river beds,
delving in gravel eternity buried, bringing
/ forth to light bones of the megatherium
and icthyosaurus-poo beasts who, GOns
ago, never knew their scientific names.
! This graY-shirted, humble panied wild
eyed man is Allen Oliver, ever Sangulne
! of untold treasure in Table mountain,
/ ever sanguine also, as a Democrat Here
! be the sutton brothers of Nirginia-fd-
| dlers fighters, horsemen and miners
! good fellows large story telleTs; ready to sit
! up all night; spirits always at high water,
| though coin in the purse has touched the
| lowest water mark. These are the
men of 1.-The river"-of the Tuolumne,
! of Jacksonville, Stevens bar Red noun
tain, Hawkins, SWEETS and Indian bars;
men of stout hearts and broad feet, sand
! bar diggerS, red-dlrt singers; wing dam,
| side-dam, head wall builders; rock bank
crevicers; packers of their own -four and
! bacon for miles over rocky trails from the
| bar store TO their cabins; hermits secluded
! in deep gulch recesses; ugly men when
/ water is "backed" in upon them from the
river claim below; men worth, cabin
blankets and tools included, say 500;
men never discouraged because the bed
of the river did not pay this year, but
resolved to tackle the same old claim the
| neXt-the same old claim which for
years. from May TO November, has
claimed their muscle, their money, their
time, their credit-and never did pay
and never Will
Hard baked and red is the soil of the
hillsides on which stand their cabins
Muddy and red the ditch water foYing
their TeeeesppEFS5Sfrs Toiis5me the lob q
Saturday afternoon cleaning it out.
smell of rubber peTvades their hum
OF hOmes-rubber garments. rubber boz
eir rubber pants.
oct Some have shaved themselves in [
y. beautiful county convention morn
Tor country town shave costs quarter.
ub- quarter will buy two drinks. Econo
At is wealth if not health. They have SHAY
= with dull razors They have gasl
LETT themselves literally in spots. They
Ger not mind this, so long as they root {
ear the stubby beard. 4 little blood-letti
does them good Blood tinges their 81
eeI collars. 1t has dried there A scent
ear yellow soap hangs about them. 1t '
ida an honest miner shave.
These are the men of the mountain G
> Is of SOnOra-dwellers mid snow, ice q
wn sugar pines bear hunters fox trappe
ase road builders, quartz delivers. hill elm
ers logcers. lumberers, sawmille
ee' jewellers on the North Fork" of
nts Tuolumue.
an Americans these, all who pour into
= nora americans from the bayous
TO Louisiana, from the Alabama colt,
rn- fields from the South Carolina Il
of swamps and the North Carolina tar f
- cstS Maine lumbermen, Illinois bl
~.