Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-08-25
In a few days mastered the rocker.

i WduI W Iltko Us QulCh "OIh do poooi
BILE, be continued, 'of the Bank up the noun
tain. don't think it's vein that'll hold ou
long. It's not the right formation. Th'
ledge is the same on both sideS-granite-ant
that's not good holding ledge for gold. A
quartz vein to hold out should lie between two
different kinds of rock-say, granite ant
slate How this gold-bearing quartz get
poured in between them, as it is apt to lie, tht
Lord only knows. I think ours is short
lived deposit-mighty rich so long as it lasts
but when it gives out it will peter all at once
like some peoples goodness when the temp
tation becomes too strong"
1t was about the first of March wher
Broener made this trip to San Francisco. Or
leaving he said to me:
"Watch the Bank. very carefully, but DOM
touch it. I want to do all the work on il
myself. Go to it every day, and keep al
eye on all stragglers, prospectors and stran
gers, and the more ragged and mo account 6
man looks, the more you want to look out
for him"
I was left alone. But six months had
elapsed since I left Eastport. I had now
time and solitude to think things and myself
over. l seemed to have lived ten years in as
many weeks Eastport and my Eastport
self seemed of some remote period. / was
part and parcel of new life, amid new sur.
roundings and new men-not a mere locker
on, but watcher vitality interested in every
movement about me, because it might deeply
affect my own fortunes.
Above and beyond all in my reflections
stood out this man Broener. In one sense,
was his follower, absorbed by him, led by
him. He was entire master of the situation
looked up to him and admired his keenness
of Judgment, his ease and adaptability to mer
and circumstances, his outside appearance OF
recklessness, which seemed but cloak fol
the caution underneath.
Yet did not feel wholly to like Broener.
One reason was, he repelled anything like @
warm expression of friendship.
Don't try to thank ME for what you say
I've done for you," he remarked one evening
when in certain set and to some extent pre-
viously-composed phraseology, attempted to
do so. "You owe me nothing. You are as
useful to me as am to you. We suit and fit
into each other for the time being Some
wer fashioned us to do so. Thank that
,hatever it is, not me. When things shape
themselves for us to part, we part according
to the same law-for our mutual advantage.
We may part friends, perhaps enemies. We
can't tell what we shall grow into or what
may grow into us thatll make us friendly,
Indifferent or hostile to each other. That's
nv doctrine In plain, old-fashioned words,
its every man for himself in reality and the
Old Scratch take the hindmost You don't
like it, I see. You believe in friendship to
the last and clinging to whatever you like
until it's in the last stage Of decay and killing
YOU with its poison. You believe in hanging
on to friend while he, maybe, out Of pure
ignorance or selfishness, is, through his weak
ness, dragging you to ruin along with him.
I don't. like strong people, so long as they
are strong. I pity them if they become
weak. 1 cut from cripple when he leans
on me too heavily"
"And how with womenF' asked.
THAT'S somewhat another affair." am as
to women tyrant in this way. I, or rather
the nature inside of me, exacts of woman
who attracts my admiration-or compels it,
rather-that she shall continue to do so. II
she doesn't, cut, the same as with men. To
remain true as it is called, is for me to re.
main hypocrite and pretend a sentiment
which is not felt"
Broener seemed to me an iceberg, glitter.
ing in the sunlight and rejecting that light
from thousand pinnacles, but cold to the
touch; full of power, too, but unpleasant to
near approach; pleasing only so long as one
maintained the proper distance.
Yet socially, he was ever to lie most fas-
cinati1g, and when he chose could make one
forget him as the iceberg An educated
man, but not pedant; book learned, but
not bookish or book talkative; alive to the
past, but as much if not more fully SO to the
present, and especially keen i'll seeing and
more in making others see the points" in the
varied array of human nature on Bull Bar.
1t is true much of his conversation was in
terlarded with the slang and common phrase
olo V of the day.
II like" he said, ''the luxury at times Of
talking ell deshabille. It's hard work to feel
obliged continually to express oneself in a
dinner dress of nouns, verbs and propositions
previously arranged for you by some old
pedant. Why couldn't there be q compromise
made between book English and every day
English! Twould make life easier. There's
good deal of slang, too, born of necessity
which can only belong to that time and era
People must have their every day words as
they have their every day clothes"
In letter from home it was casually men
toned that Blanche Seton had left East
port and was living, they believed, in New
York. She had become, it was added, more
mysterious than ever, and had quite sun
dered herself from Eastport people. From
Blanche herself heard nothing. One Of hel
remarks on the evening we parted was that
she would "write if she had anything tc
write" and would like me to do the same
She disliked, she said, to have letters eX
pected of her at regular intervals by any
one 1t was too much like correspondence
by machinery.
About fortnight after Broener left, 6
stranger came sauntering along the banl
and stopped at the hole from which I wa!
taking and washing gravel. I was some
what excited that day from having come or
a deposit of hard, heavy gravel lying on the
ledge and in a deep crevice. 1t was yielding
richly and without aid of any of Broener:
''salting" When man knows that every
bucket he dumps into his head seive" is tx
wash out fifteen or twenty dollars work be
comes more like play Occasionally would
pick bit of "shot" or coarse gold from the
dirt, and dirt must be very rich to show golc
on the surface. Usually that metal is about
the last thing to be seen, so marked is its ten
dency to sink underneath the lighter gravel,
The stranger watched ME some minutes il
silence. He was a man of middle age, peakeC
in feature, and without further describing
his appearance will say only that he made
me feel disagreeable. The air felt meddle
some about him. / felt from the moment
his look was fixed on me a danger-and NJ
small one.
My apprchensions were increased on seeing
that he carried hammer-a mineralogist:
hammer, shaped expressly for breaking W
small pieces of rock. knew by this he wa!
one of the "new men" Broener had feared
who would so soon come here to hunt quartz
"How's't payin'!" asked the stranger.
"Middling," replied, curtly.
"Been here long,"
"No," said.
"Any ground open here to new comers:"
II don't know"
"Ground claimed next to your
"You must try for yourself. Take up {
claim, and if anybody holds it they'll bt
around quick enough"
The stranger came close to the edge of thu
hole, peered into it, and then, without further
ceremony, jumped therein as l was on my
way to the rocker l heard the clatter h'