Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1886-03-27
CHAPTER 1
MYSELF.

~ "ASnou1 uoue VI PAoHooson, ~A
away my time with no apparent anxiety to
be anything but a boy.
In some respects this was true. I did wish
that boyhood and youth could remain for
ever, since all the manhood, or rather ma
turity, about ME seemed a bumdlum affair,
full Of care and vexation, and the older people
grew the less fun they had in the world.
l wished, and even for a time thought, that
things would always remain as they were,
that the 'told men" Of my youth would al
a remain about so old aud no older, and
when I heard that William Lopez, the first
playmate Of my infancy, was engaged to be
married to Fannie Lugar, it seemed to me a
piece Of audacity as well as q serious innova-
ton on the established order of things.
Gradually it dawned upon me that l must
cut loose from tops, marbles, kites and quail
traps, march out into the world and do some
thing for a living. did SO grudgingly. In
deed, I held on to my boyish ways aud sports
years after my companions had laid them
aside forever, donned frock coats, high stand
ing collars, gaudy neckties, tight boots, aud
deemed themselves proper little len-as they
were.
l commenced 'doing for myself with a
series Of resolves to be something great, il
not good. I was one week a general, the
1it.-tU al ONeSIs luC u1lu 0u oiotoI. huAuJ a
sea captain. awoke from these dreams to
find myself still in. status quo, eating the
bread of idleness, parent and sundry rela-
ttves meantime broadly limiting that it was
high time I should do something.
lapplied to certain solid men of the village
as to the choice Of a profession. thought 1t,
might raise me in their estimation so to con-
suit them. They might see that / was in
earnest to set seriously t. work about life's
business. ! knew that my reputation already
was none of the best, because I was one Of a
set, perhaps the leader, whose pranks at night
had gained with the staid villagers all Ml-
favorable notoliety. We rang door bells,
changed store signs, impounded stray horses
in inipromptu stables, built in the middle Of
the street ut night Of empty dry goods boxes.
raised FALSE alarms OF fire, and did many
other things lin cases amounting to outrages
ON property which boys at a certain period
consider it remarkably clever to do, and
which may be the only means of venting their
surplus energy.
In 50 applying to the influential men Of the
village J had also a fond hope they might
lrelp he 10 a situation. My father had been
their peer in business. was not a stranger.
My family aud theirs had long dwelt in the
same The hope was natural.
lint there Mas no proffer of tho help |
cravcd. They talked well AMI wisely, gave
mo much good advice in a general way,
and seemed 10 think that any occupation or
calling ! might adopt would lie well for mo
il l ''stuck to it,"
had then such a profound respect for the
Judgment Of these men that I deemed they
llad, i'll telling. me nothing, told ME some
thing valuable, and Chat I had done u good
thing in consulting them. But, practically,
] tOund myself exactly where ] was before
my interviews, to wit: nowhere.
In the midst of my tribulations as to the
choice OF u profession, the California gold
fever Of ls49 broke out. The problem was
solved. I would go to California and ls
come u gold digger. There was something
fascinating in the idea Of digging for gold
much more so than digging potatoes,
though the difference between the two is not
worth mentioning.
The fever seized most Of the village youth
Of my own age. A ship was fitted out, a
tolmer whaling vessel. 1t was not SO much
OF an undertaking for our people to make
the long, dreary voyage around Cape Horn
To California. Two-thiltls OF the crew and
passengers OF the Ann Mary Ann had made
the trip before.
Seventy, all told, We're to sail in that ship
Matured men, young men aud boys, taken
all together, constituting the flower of tht
village.
The Sunday before sailing the pastor Of
the Presbyterian church preached us a fare
well ernon The church was crowded. TIL,
seventy about to sail felt themselves the at
fractions Of the hour, as they were.
The younger men aud boys came in a bod,
and occupied pews by themselves. We wen
f,N oP oraito,nonf aMN anfioSrnkson ~,
were the novelties of the hour. We coult
give but a moments fitting thought to til
sadness of the growing mothers we were tt
leave behind. We neither realized nor up
preciatel their many little daily cares for us
We hustled about with all tue Importance o
fielglings, proud of our pin feathers, aud re
gaIuing them quite as good as lnaturel plum
age. 1t was an impressive occasiol-not &
much to me then, but us l see it now-sadiy
solemnly impressive, since it was for so man,
the final departure, not merely from homes
relatives, friends and associations, but ais
in so many cases from our interest in then
aud their interest in us-a hard saying, bu
true. Gone a week, and memory is flesI
with those who leave and those who are left
a month, and the raw, bleeding wounds O
separation aud tearing asunder barely CON
mence to heal; six months, and new event,
situations, associations, circumstances CON
hence the process OF deadening grief; tt yea,
and we wonder where is the heart hunger 4
u t~welven,onth past; two years. and GU
friend is a memory; five years, u dream
with possibly half o dozen new personalitit
standing between US and her or him.
Boys, sat in those pews who We're to retur
gray headed, battered and worn from
rough encounter viii the world of til
49,, ,,,.$ .,l,1 ~ thai, .ov& rAA~,l~--
in that church would look IN vain for tt
standing erect during prayer time, after. Il
fashion which still fingered in the rul,
Presbyterian churches Of that day. 9th
boys OF that gathering, and OF these ii
majority, were never to return. Their IL
ters home, ut first v%oluminous, were to IL
sen in size, while the lapses Of time betwe.
each would increase. Searching for tin
ever reccdiug further in the distance, III,
were to wanier aud become entirely lost
/. home aud friends in the renoter regions
the west. lbeu unknown, unnamed, U
thought ~, discouraged, reckless, wear
tben. pride and spirit broken, they were
fill uinieless graves OH lone hillsides tn
sands of miles away, or else hurriedly bur.
III I'll. crowded city, their Zones would
y as lmsriaiiy turned up q few years after
the population extended its limits aud d
ami plowei its way through waste land q
cemetery.
J, in Company with several Of my asse
ates, were grouped that evening about
Seft0ns' front door. There were three of
Seton sisters-Blanche, the eldest; Mary
Phoebe. The Seftons' was q favorite res
Eoa. our s:set" Of young folk. The pare
were plain, "~easy-going" people, and ALLOW