The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1885-01-11
DEVOTION AND DEATH.
A Game of Cards Which was
Never Finished.
A TRUE woMAN's DEVOTION
The Experience of a Party OF miners
in the Mountains-The LoneiS
Graves.

The wind howled and roared through
tba trees in Newland gulch as though
ten thousands fiends had broken loose.
Anon it would sink into solemn and
rournful dirge, then, as if a whole
Linodom of furies had heen let loose,
the noise would be perfectly deatenlng;;
Every one in the camp had turned IN
exce6t the select poker party who had
- big game in the tent at 1.-THE forks. F"
Siv rough-loOking miners sat around
+be table intent as ifFtheir lives depend
ed .upon the various deals. AT tunes
the noise without precluded conyersa-
ton, and the betting was done chiefly
nv signs. Suddenly Bill Ahern, who
sat opposite the entrance, and who was
dealing, happening to cast his eyes up
ward, saw a-vision that
SEEMED TO TRANsFIX HIM
in the midst of the deal Noticing his
action and the fixed stare with which he
gazed over their heads, the others turn
ed quickly around, and there at the
opening stood woman, young and who
would have been prepossessing but for
her bedraggled state. Her hair was
disheveled and floating over her should
ers in a confused mass, and the water
was pouring from her soaked garments
in streams. Wildly and pleadlngly she
addressed them: 'sGh, gentlemen, help
please-my husbandEhe is dying down
the gulchi'' RI
Instantly that poker game was broken
up and these rough men, whose humane
instincts were easily stirred, ran out
into the darkness and storm; Down
the gulch went the woman, followed by
six men,
CROSSING or A ROCKY FORD
below where the mad. stream dashed
and roared, threatening to carry them
off their feet, to level mesa beyond,
across which she led them to sharp
bend in the creek, perhaps three-fourths
of mile below the camp. There in the
Scanty shelter of a scrub oak thicket a
a man was found lying, evidently dy-
ing Carefully he was taken from the
wet ground and carried back over the
slippery and perilous trail and taken
into one of the more substantial tents,
where he was laid on the floor and some
blankets before a huge fire which had
beed hndled purposely 1t was soon
evident that his life was slowly but surely
ebbing. Suddenly and with an atfort
he raised himself upon his elbow, star
ing around with eyes whose sights were
already dimmed
WITH THE SHADOWS OF DEATH,
and reached out his hands in such
suppliant, pitifuI manner; then in a
voice, husky ana weak, ne eJacuIaJed,
nMary." Quickly going to him and
taking his head in herlap, oh, so tender
". she stroked his hair, already damp
with the dews of death, and placing her
ear to his mouth, listened to his Iabored,
Whispered words with world of aztec
ton and love in her face. The gro2p
in the tent at this moment was striking !;
in the foreground and Immediately in
the freight the recumbent figure of the
diving man on the floor with his head
supported by the woman and the flicker
ing light from the blazing logs playing
Enthusiastically on the two central figures.
In the background, partly shrouded by
the gloom, was the group OF miners.
STANDING WITH THEIR HATS OFF,
in respectful attitude awaiting the pres
ence of the angel of death who was
AOVerlnS- near. Eli OAAAhOo0 A1'Uio III
the throat, aconvulsive gasp and all was
over. Oh, what helpless, pitiful look
came over the face of the woman as she
glanced at the pitying faces around her
and then buried her head in her hands.
Looking up shortly with tear-stained
face, she said in voice sad but sweet:
3'Gentlemen, thank you for your kind
ness to me more than can say. This
is my husband. We were on our way
to Denver in the stage, but the high
water made the ford impossible and as
he was very i'll and they told us of this
camp we started in the darkness and
the storm, but had not gone far before
he became exhausted and sank down on
the trail and l fastened here for assist
anee. We have just come from the East
for his health, which has been bad for
some time, thinking he would get relief
in milder climate,