Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-12-17
miscellaneous.
Born 70 be Llcky.

Born 70 be Lacky.
An INCIDENT OF THE GOLD EXCITEMENT
on THE BIG BEND OF THE CoIuMBIA.
Three broad shouldered miners who sat
in the bar room of the Miners Arms, on
Front street, yesterday, and slipped their
drinks with the air Of men who could at
ford to pay for them. were talking OF the
ups and downs of miners in gold and ell
yer excitements among the Rocky Noun
taius. sGi = 1eii .i.ai III.
at beats ALL" said old Sam Whitaker.
as he filled his pipe. show some men
alters strike it rich, and others has to
hustle around to get grub stake. What's
bad luck for some alters turns out good
for them as is in for it."
liant luck" said the bar tender. wip-
ing his hands on his partly white apron,
ats the arly bird what catches the worm
and them that humps themselves gifts thar
sometime"
Without noticing the interruption, the
old miner scratched match on the bowl
of the pipe. and having thoroughly lighted
the tobacco, continued:
"There weren't none of you fellers up
at Big Bend in the Columbia, just after
the war, cause if you had been there Ia
seen YOU. There was chap there named
Frank Lablonde. Slick Frank they
called him, cause he never turned hair
and had stacks of dust all the time.
HE came into camp one night in ca
noe that he'd swiped from the Injuns, and
found lodgings alongside OF it on sand
pit, where little brook ran out OF the
gulch. Being that everybody got there
ahead of him, there weren't no show for
him to stake claim. Most folks would
have called that hard luck but after three
or four days couple OF chaps what had
prospected over bit of bottom half mile
away, gave it up as worthless.
"Slick Frank lowed that it would hold
shanty. and he'd build one and wait for
something to turn up. Being as winter
was coming on. Slick laid out to make a
shanty what he wouldn't freeze in noway,
and so began to cut away the side of the
keeping his eye peeled for traces of dust,
but seeing nothing. After about four days.
work he'd got perpendicular wal. about
10 feet high, to build his shanty against,
and had begun to cut his timber for the
hut when a smart chunk OF a sapllng that
he was chopping at fell the wrong way
and started big boulder down the noun
tain. That fetched couple of bigger
ones along. and they plunged right down
on the ground where he'd laid out to build
his shanty.
That was his first streak of cook luck.
Most folks would have called it hard luck,
but if the sapling hadn't started the rock
snow slide would. and the rocks would
have wiped out Slick Frank.
80 he went to work scooping out an
other place for shanty, taking care this
time that no loose rocks weren't hung up
above him. He was right under very
solid sort of a precipice this time that he
hadn't noticed before on account of the
bush. There was small stream of water
poured over on one side, which he lowed
would make things very comfortable when
he wanted to mix his grog and for cook
ing purposes. So he got good log hut
up after weeks work land rooted it over
with bark and turf banked it up. and
built good stone hearth and chimney
at one end. 1t was genuine home COM
fort, and Slick began to lay out for a good
time. when early one morning he walked
up to find stream of water trickling over
the precipice and square down his Chin
ney.
"Most men would have been exasper-
ated, but Slick didn't have such a word
in his sweet lexicon. He just dug a little
trench to carry the water out CT his parlor
door. as he called it. The stream was
about as big as your arm and mighty reg
ular in its flow when it once got its work
IN Cop,oth;rn hod Aor,p,aI tho hrooL
way up the mountain and turned part OF
the current into a new channel. Slick
watched it run for while, cogitating how
he should spout the water away from the
shanty, when he noticed that the sand
that came down with the water was form
ing little ring around the outer edge of
the hearth. Without thinking much about
it. he scooped up some sand and put it
under bit of a magnifier that he carried
He told me afterward that that was the
first time in his life that he ever hustled
He'd found the dust in uncommon quanti-
ties in that sand, for the new channel was
right over vein OF pay dirt, and he want
ed to get trough and cradle rugged with
out any delay"
| The miner here turned toward the bar
tender, who hastily set bottle holding a
yellow liquid on the table beside four
clean glasses, and the miner continued
impressivelv
"Some men humps themselves until
their fingers wears ont and never raises
an ounce, and others build houses. and
while they sleeps the dust gets spouted
down the chimney or in through the key
hole. or it gets to 'em some way, and all
they has to do is to ring up trough to
catch it. That's what | call luck. IN.
Y. Sun.