The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1886-11-17
SANDERSON'S KID.

SOle Lem Sandcrson? You'll find him
straight ahead up Saw-Mill gulch,
stranger. Foller tn trail bout half a
mile beyont the Mollie Brisbane tunnel
can't miss It'll tunnel-th' dump jest
backs up over the trail like n balky hoss
ar north of tn trail, direct under the
shadder Their of Horn Silver mount'n,
you'll, run chuck up agin LENS cabin.
8 tn same ranch he ulster have, unly
rs frilled un' fixed up with chromos Of
angils an SIGH. AMI ole Lem amt
readin' his Bible or hummin' some new.
tangled church hymns III Civ y, quit
claim deed to q half int'rest in IN Joe
Boss
Reading the Bible? Singing hymnsy"
l echoed in anlaZemcnt. Ny lank, web
footed informant smiled sardonically,
nodded his head, and led me across the
rocky street to a dingy cabin, dis
tinguished from its neighbors by tho
axle-grease legend: "Do-Drop Inn"
Lem Sanderson, grown religious, must
thought. Five years before, when the
camp was founded, | had known him as
the most inpious mar in the Rocky
Mountains, with n pronounced dis
respect for all things divine and a shock.
ing depravlty of speech. No one knew
whence he came, and the most adroit
inquiries or genuine expressions OF SYM
pathy rarely invciglcd him into refer
ence to his past. His eel-like movements,
flaming red hair, and beard-unkempt
and uncombed-steel gray eyes, and
moody made him rcpulsive to
every II who obeyed the border social
law of taking people az n finds them.
He was one of the first to cross the
snowy range, after the rumors of tho
rich carbonate discovers on Battle
mountain had reached the Arkansas val
ley, carving his way through the thick
underground and huge snow banks Of
Tennessee pass, and down the dismal
Eagle river, which, only Il few seasons
previous, had been the hunting-ground
of Colorow and his band of murderous
Utes. Old diem Sanderson never faltercd
at the SHOWS and blasts and besoms
which impeded his lonely invasion and
imPeriled his life. He saw no sugges-
ions OF a supreme power in the lofty
pyramids whose white winding sheets
reflected smiles from sunlit spots, or in
the cavernous r%avines, where the gloom
was almost P%lutonian and where one
false step would end with dea.n in he
rapids below. He only realized that it
was nat'ral." His trust was not rcrosed
In God, but in a superannuated burro
that, unaccustomed to the chills and ices
OF the north, slipped and staggered at
every step. His anxiety and fears were
alone concerned in "A little golden-haired
lad who lay tightly, though tenderly,
lashed upon the hammock of camp uten-
sils and provender under which the dom
key groaned and labored.
For many days the perilous journey
was continued without mishap, and for
as many nights the queer trinity en-
dured the hardships of the icy wilder
ness without suffering a single i'll, old
Len Sanderson. his infant boy, and
faithful four footed slave arriving at
length in safety at their destination, the
present site of Red Cliff. The triangu-
lar basin at the confluence Of Eagle
river and Saw Mill gulch rapidly filled
up with log cabins, whisky, and law
%iessness. Through all the transforma-
tionsO old Lem remained the head of the
communicates mayor and recorder.
The rougher denizens held him in awe
and fear. They affected to know him,
but when pinned down to the extent of
acquaintance rarely went beyond
admitting that he was from Arkansas,
Georgia, or some indefinite place at the
south, and that really they ,uld tell no
more abou him. He never manifested
nm ambition 10 b, o-l
~ was it eve related of him
that he made a conspicuous pistol
play, but somehow-and | must confess
that wa a victim 70 the sensation my
self-eyerybody got the impression that
old Lem would kill on anything like a
reasonable provocation. found him at
n a time a queer complexity. He
was hospitality ~personifod. I'm
himself, he enjoyed the
of intellectual converse,
but even the dignity of that in
diligence could never stay nor soften
dreadful blasphemies which came
rushing to his lips, and filled his
listeners with the vague dread that a
lightning bolt or paralysis might any in
silence him. Old mo~untaineers,
10 the vices OF the frontier,
insensibly within hearing of
ais TRADES against the Creator, and
.urned their backs upon him. He be-
ieved in neither God, man nor devil,
the church in particular, and
at Christianity In general. His
boy, hen 3 years old, was the
'nly living thing in whose presence he
orgot himself so far as to stihe his
speeches. If ever a child was
he exclusive custodian of a fathers
and romance, it was "Lem San
kid" the "junier." A gypsy
ORR was never more Indifferent or mn.
raiDed TO fear. Perched on his fathers
ack, the scaling OF s. quartzite bluff or
dash down the mountain eide on bift
'crweaSaR s~nowshoes was tho kdshest