Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-07-18
BILL NYE
TELLS OF An INPosrER AT NIL CREEK
A Mining Camp Startled BY the AppaniOn Of Sran-
ger Who Claimed TO Be John the Baptist But
Who Turned Out to Be an Migrate.
Chiodoo NnR.

l was imposed upon once in a way that
l despise. do not say it because it was
the first time was ever imposed upon, for
it was not, To be imposed upon seems to
be my sphere, Eight years ago, while
was doing some assessment work on the old
Boomerang claim on Mill creek, our camp
was startled by the appearance of man
with hopeless droop in the lower part of
his pantaloons and indications of a terrible
nervous strain on the only suspender he
wore. There was something about the
man that instantly caught and retained the
interest Of the spectator. II was the sus-
pender. Unconsciously we looked at it
with horror and apprehension for it might
give way at any moment
He was a small man with dark-red ewes
They seemed to be all the time floating
about in sea of unshed tears. He did not
wear good clothes. His raiment had origi-
nally been that of man rather below the
middle walks of life. The original owner
had evidently worn them along for years
below the middle walks of life, and then he
had thrown them away. After reasonable
delay this gentleman had gone to the rag
pile and appropriated them. We were not
vain of our personal appearance in the camp
in those days, but when we saw this man
and his shaggy bark we felt more content
with our lot.
can still see John the Baptist, as he
called himself, in the clear, red light of
A MOUNTAIN SUNSET IN JULY,
as he wound up the crooked road that
crossed and recrossed the little irrigation
canal. He wore full beard with cracker
crumbs in it, but otherwise perfectly plain
1t was one of these long, reddish boards
with little fiecks of sunshine and other
natural phenomena in it.. 1t was the kind
of beard that an old Etruscan MOemOn gen
orally banks up his windpipe with.
He was a meek man with a retreating
manner, and forehead of the same style
His ears hung low on the side of his head,
and little tufts of red bunch grass grew out
OF each. They were pale ears with little
bronze freckels on them, and he wore small
eardrops in the puffy bottom of each lobe
He wore Derby hat. II was not the
kind of Derby hat worn so much now.
1t was about the first one that was made
and it had wire run through the brim to
hold it it shape. twas not jaunty hat.
1t was rather what might be called plain,
unassuming hat that didn't intend to brag
or boast, but was willing to let its work
show for itself
His other clothes were plain also. He
was not vain of them. He simply wore
them ont of Difference TO the statutes in
such case made aud provided. The coat
had flowing sleeves to it; and it was held in
place at the throat by the use of tenpenny
nail. His pantOloons were once giddy and
checked, but now they had lost all spirit
and all hope. They dropped like forgot
ten political boom, and they chung to John
the Baptist because there was absolutely
no one else on whom to cling.
THESE PANTALooNs
were simply the wreck of former grandeur;
once proud and naughty, they were now
used simply rs an evasion of the law; once
sgrightly and springy about the bottoms
they were now the saddest of all pictures
pair Of battered, neglected, baggy, plaid
pantalOons, plain in front, looped over one
shoulder and caught at intervals by bull
dogs.
This man was said to be little warped
intellectually, but | didn't notice it. OF
course it was a little eccentric for him TO
come into camp and register rs John the
Baptist. without giving his surname, but
most all of us wore nom de plumes there
in the camp, and so so we were not inquisi-
tive about peoples home names. There is
nothing that feels easier To eat and sleep in
during hot weather, nothing that has less
tendency to bag ut the knees or bind under
the arms than Mother Hubbard nom de
plume. So we all wore them.
John the Baptist preached in camp on
the following Sabbath, and we all listened
to him. He talked mOdcstlyabout himself
Now and then he referred 10 the Creator,
but only incidentally. He could make n
good grammatical prayer, and with better
clothes on would have made quite an i'm
preston as the chaplain Of the Legislature.
Some of his petitious to the throne of grace
would have read all right in the Congress
sional Record, but still he wasn't a man
who seemed TO accomplish anything with
his prayers While he was a good, all
around, cXtemperaneOus speaker at such n
time, his petitions never seemed to get any
further than the clerk Of the committee on
credentials.
had faith in him, though, and gave him
NY OTHER BLUE FLANNEL SHIRT,
which he needed sadly, especially when the
days got pretty hot, and he wanted TO take
of his coat and run around loose in his
shirt sleeves.
No man can successfully loaf around a
mining camp in his shirt sleeves unless he
has a shirt, so John the Baptist wore my
blue shirt, and put his long, weary legs
under my groaning board, and slept on my
floor in low, cultural tones, and borrowed
my gun, and scratched the stock against
the rocks, and iammed the barrel in trying
TO fish tarantula out of crevice with il,
borrowed some money Of me, and went over
to town.
He never came back to the old Boom
erang claim, but returned to his large and
airy; asylum at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, as
the the guest of the State.
presume he is there InOw, wearing my
blue flannel shirt and doing the forerunner
act.
1t WAS two weeks after he went away be-
fore learned the truth. Then Buck Bran
mel came up to my cabin and said:
"Bill, you remember that party that
claimed to be John the Baptist, and used
your smokin' tobaccer here fer two or
three weeks and went away a fortni't ago.
Well, he was no more John the Baptist