Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-02-13
IN OLD TUOLUMNE.
A DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION TWEEN.
TY-sIx YEARS AGO.
Hard -Fisted Miners Who Delighted In
. Gathering of the Boys - Men
with stOmachs Injured to
bacon and Fiapjacka

Prentice Mulford in San Francisco Chronicle.
Hot is. the summers day. Very hot.
But not so heated is the physical atmos
phere Of Sonora. Tuolumne county. as
the mental The mental2 Ay. the moral.
the immoral, the intellectual WhyS
'Tis the day of the Democratic conven'
tion, met now twenty y.six long years
agone-the convention ratifying the nom
nations of Breckenridge and Lane for
president and vice president of these then
United States. but more especially and
vitality to nominate good sound Eemo
Gratis to certain county ofiices-ofices Of
importance, because then offices of great
profit
They are pouring in from Pine Log.
from Columbia 81 ringfe!d, Shaws Flat,
the mountains Jimtown. Montezuma.
Chinese camp, Don edros, Red noun
tain. Hawkins Bar. Marshs Flat.
Eattlesnake. jacksonville, stevens Bar.
Oak Flat. First Garrote. Second
Carrote. the Green springs and
Moccasin's creek They poured in
last night They poured much down
last night They came clad in long linen
busters. on raw boned mustangs. and
some on foot They are men of mark in
iDtlT IccptCtiNt DttNiuCts, hcu vi iHuu-
ence, strong men, and fighting men.
They are men Who day after day, stand
knee deep in the mud of the golden allu.
vial as il is being sliced away. or waist.
deep in the river creek stream, laying
walls and wing dams.
They have the dinero in their pockets
They have the ore in their buckskins
They have left their ranches their ranch
eros their casas, their ramadas They
bestride caballos-not bufros They are
not burros Call one Of them burro.
and he'd blow off the top of your cabeza
They disdain the English Of their eastern
homes They speak the English trimmed
with Spanish-wirh spanish learned from
senors-and senoritas-of course.
Most of them are "heeled- They carry
stern. .chasers-under their linen busters
They are ready for war They are on the
warpath The war paint is on their faces
The war whisky is in their stomachs.
They love war. They do not exactly
pray to day for shooting scrape. But II
one comes along they are on hand to en-
joy it.
They are men with hands hard and
horny. with stomachs indurated to bull
beef bacon and fiapjacks They live in log
cabins of their own building-logs now
old and rotten-logs oft full Of creeping
crawling things centipedes and such:
the tarantula burrows near their
doors; the horned toad frisks near
by in the June sunshine; the
rattiesnake becomes sociable and crawls
down TO pay them visits. About
the noses of these men at
meal times buzz the yellow jackets
-uninl tied guests-whose b te is worse
than their bark-lovers of sweet condi-
ments. apple sauce and molasses. adjuncts
to the meals of these hard and horny.
handed men of the southern mines
Near their doors also is a thickly popu
lated tree city of red ants-the red
ant of California. the biting aut-s dis
tinctly smelling, and, when crushed. not
pleasant smelling snt-an ant which can
never be driven out of its place of settle.
ment These Democrats-these men of
Don Fedro's and Hawkins Bar and Alge-
rine and Poverty Hill-have ofttimes
fought hard and perseveringly against
these red ants-have dug up their holes,
have poured kettle on kettle of boiling
water into their city-have parboiled,
boiled and otherwise destroyed them BY
the thousand unto the tens of thousands.
yet ultimately to NO purpose; there is Of
them no cessation.
These are Jimtown Democrats, quartz
crushers, pocket hunters, roosters of
Whisky Hill-burrowers from Table
mountain-traye'ers of dead river beds,
delving in grave. eternity buried. bringing
forth TO Eight bones of the megsiherium
and icthyosaurus-poor beasts who. Il ons
ago. never knew their scientific names
This gray -shirted, humble panied. wild
el ed man is Allen Oliver. ever sanguins
of untold treasure in Table mountain.
ever sanguine, also. as Democrat Here
be the utton brothers Of Eirginia-fid-
dlers. fighters. horsemen and miners
good fellows, large story -tellers; ready to sit
IN all night; spirits always at high water,
though coin In the purse has touched the
lowest water mark These are the
men of 1.-The river"-of the Tuolumne
of Jacksonville. Stevens bar Red noun
tain, Hawkins. Swett's and Indian bars;
men of stout hearts and broad feet. sand
bar diggers, red-dirt singers: wing dam
side dam. head wall builders: rock. bank
crevicers packers of their own flour and
bacon for mics over rocky trails from the
bar store to their cabins hermits secluded
In deep gulch recesses; ugly men when
water is backed in upon them from the
ri 5er claim below: men worth, cabin
blankets and tools included. say 800:
men never discouraged because the bed
of the river did not pay this year. but
resolved to tackle the same old claim the
next-the same old claim which for
years. from May 10 November, has
claimed their muscle, their money, their
time. their credit-and never did pay
and never will
Hard baked and red is the soil of the
hIllsides or which stand their cabins.
Muddy and red the ditch. water flowing
past their doors. Thick, viscid and glut-
inous the slum deposit made monthly in
their reservoirs Toilsome the job Of q
Saturday afternoon cleaning it out A
smell of rubber peryades their humble
houes-rubber garments, rubber boots,
rub er pants
Some have shaved themselves in this
b. auiiful county convention morn A
country town shave costs a quarter. A
quarter will buy two drinks. Economy
with dull raZors They have gashed
themselves literally in spots They do
not mind this, so long as they root out
the stubby heard A little blOod-letting
does them good. Blood tinges their shirt
collars Ii has dried there. A scent of
yellow soap hangs a out them. 1t was
an honest miner shave.
These are the men of the mountain east
OF Sonora-dwellers mid snow. ice and
sugar pines; bear hunters. fox trappers.
road builders. quartz delivers. hill climb
ers, loggers, lumberers, sawmillers.
dwellers on the ~-North Fork of the
Tuolumne.
Americans these, all who pour into So
nora Americans from the bayous of
Louisiana. from the Alabama cotton
fields, from the South Carolina Rice
swamps and the North Carolina tar for
ests; Maine lumbermen, Illinois bred
men. Massachusetts men, Americans from
c NADIA, Americans from Ireland, Ameri-
rs from every where-tut still Amer
leans.
Alarmed Hawaiisns.