News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-11-25
A Rocky Mountain Christmas.

A Rocky Mountain Christmas.
BY j. L. HARBOUR.
OF all odd names for town I think
Hard Luck was the oldest. The town
was as odd as its name, and the people
in 1t did not seem like the people in other
places.
The town consisted of little group
of log huts, several slab shanties. half n
dozen tents, and three or four dug outs
in the mountain side; for Hard Luck
was almost on the summit of one of the
most rugged, the dreariest and most
desolate of the Rocky Mountains.
One of its inhabitants, Dad Kinzie,
told me that the town was ''forty mi!e
from anywhar.' The shabby little
dwellings were indeed a good many
miles from any other houses, and the
forlorn little town, or camp, did seem
removed even further than forty miles
from the good and pleasant things of
this life
To reach Hard Luck, travellers had to
go long distance on a wearisome stage
coach; and the last twenty miles of the
trip must be made on horseback, over
rough, steep, and dangerous trails,
winding in and ont of dark gulches,
through gloomy groves of somber zines,
and over mountain peaks.
l thought l was in good luck to reach
Hard Luck alive. My horse. a decrepit,
clumsy animal, had fallen many times
on the trail, and a snow storm had
ragged with great fury during the latter
part of the journey. 1t was nearly dark
when l stopped before a small slab
house with a square front, in which
were two small windows and a door.
Over the door, in charcoal letters on a
pine slab, was this sign:
9th aYeneW hoeteLL
Bord an login.
felt doubtful as to the quality of the
chord and login;" but there was no
other house in Hard Luck better than
the 18th Avenew," cherries as that
The hotel had but two rooms.- Three
blankets, attached to a rope by means
of clothes pins, formed the partition
between the rooms.
The guests of the house, together
y,
slept, made their toilets, and lived in
one room, while the apartment back of
the curtain was used as a kitchen.
The floors of both rooms were an
inch thick with sawdust The rooms
were upholstered; there was no ceiling
but the roof, and the walls were COW
cred with papers containing pictures of
narrowing and blood curdling kind
There was a silver mine in the town
called Hard Luck's Pride" / was
glad that the poor little place had
something of which it could he proud.
Had it not been for this silver mine,
there would not have been any town of
Hard Luck; Tor all the men in the
place were employed in the mine.
Ordinarily there are very few children
in the small Rocky Mountain mining
camps, but Hard Luck was a marked
exception to the general rule, for as
many as thirty children lived in the
fifteen or twenty houses that made up
the village.
| reached Hard Luck the day before
Christmas, and thought, as l rode up
the one rocky, narrow street of the for
lorn little place, half buried in snow,
that the prospects for merry Christ
mas were very small indeed.
Before | had been two hours in the
Fifth Avenue, the proprietor, Mr.
Tompkins, said: ''You got hyar Jest in
time fer the Christmas doin's up to the
nine"
Indeed ?'' l said, surprised at the
possibility of Christmas ''doin's" in such
place as Hard Luck.
''Qaas, sir" drawled out Mr.. Tomp-
kins. sits goin' ter be somethin' out'n
the common run o. Christmas doin's,
few, fer they're goin' ter hev tree an
supper fer the youngsters right in the
mine itself. Mis- Tompkins an lot O.
other wimmin is up thar now, ixin' the
the tree up"
At that moment Mrs. Tompkins came
home. She was large, rosy-cheeked,
motherly woman, with a wonderful
capacity for laughing and talking. She
began doing both before taking off her
snow covered wraps
ITS splendid, pap" she cried in
loud, CHEEKY voice. You'd never
reckon we could make hit look so purity
with what we had to do with. But, as
sez to Mis' Dad Kiuzie, sez I, "A body
never knows what they kin do tell
they've given it trial. How de do, sir 2'
Her last words were to me.
''Just come in Must o. had hard
trip over Muskeeter Pass It's all |
want to do to 90 from hyar to the m1ne
not more'n three hundred yards off. Ben
up thar workin on a Christmas ree."
Your husband told me so, [ said
81 am surprised to know that there are
any children here to enjoy tree"
1T IS uncommon" replied Mrs. |
Tompkins. ''But thars six little fellers
In the Barton family alone Jed Jacobs |
has four, 'Lijah Moore has five, Tim |
Martin has three; and there's the two !
Binns, the three tepners, and the three |
Henry youngsters; an Dan Conaker's |
little girl, an Pat Lann;gan's little boy.
an the four blonging to that Mr.. Hill
ker that's just moved hyar from Aspen
an their mother died only this day
week, poor things Ne an Mis- Dad
Cinzie, we saw to it that the biggest
sticks O. candy went on the tree for them
children"
''But where can you get things for
tree in such place as this p l asked.
LA, bless you!' laughed Mrs. Tomp-
kins. 1--WE never got nOthin' hyar
Sile Hendershott keeps kind of a store
hyar, but most he's got is bacon an
powder an flour an brown sugar an
canned goods, none o. which would per-
ticklerly adorn a Christmas tree So
tile didn't git our trade.
''You see / got up this tree, tho
amt chick nor child to git anything
oH'n it; but ! like babies an children
better'n anything else on earth, an not
havin' any o my owns ben a great cross
to me-
well, Mandy Barton she was in
hyar bout two weeks ago, complainin'
bout havin' TO live with her six children
in place like this. She said it went
pertickler hard at Christmas m ., fer