Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1886-12-23
THE MEAT AK LODE.

the slope of the foothills. 1t was six
o'clock, and the mill whistles began tc
blow. first high up on the heights where
the Emerson and Montreal mines fed
the ceaseless grind and roar of their
stamps, 5000 feet above the sea-level
then to the right as the Music and Last
Chance dismissed the last shift" of day
miners and put on another set who
would do their dole of eight hours and
yield place In turn to the old-skinned
crew who would see the night out;
lastly, and less shrilly, all along the
snow clad plain below the camp among
the smelters, whose output lay piled
among the drifts ready for shipping
eastward among the reGneries at Den
yer and Omaha. Long lines of snow
clad men with pick and shovel a-shoul-
der and lunch bucket of tin rafting
against their big boots, began to stream
from the mines and mills to the big
camp, which looked SO bright and busy.
For months he had stood in the door as
the whistles blew and watched the men
90 by. Now notion took him to go
down to camp himself and mix with
the crowds. So he lost no time in get
ting through with his supper of bread
and bacon.
As he reached the foot of the long in
cline, across which blew q wind such as
only the Rockies can breed among
their iciest peaks, sudden furry of
loose snow almost blinded him, and he
had to cover his face with his huge
furry gloves to keep the skin from
being frozea and torn away, it seemed,
by the rollicking, merciless breath of
the mountains. In tGw minutes more
he had gotten between the rows of hous-
Is, some few brick, mostly frame and
all one-story, which lined Main street.
This was the chief artery in and along
which flowed the Wild, high-pressure
life of the greatest mining camp of the
day Every cabin was brilliantly light
sd, lamps cleaned from the windows
md in the chief stores through their
Honderful glass doors, crowds of
miners could be seen buying lavishiy.
Every other house, at the least, was
saloon and rs he came farther down to
.'tlie bGsiacss CENTER" every door led
into a saloon and gambling house COM
bined. @*
Their heavy wooden doors opened
and shut necessarily with a harsh noise
as the crowd ebbed and flowed from
one shrine of Pharaoh-gOd of the
Egyptians, Greeks and miners-to
another. Three or four thousand men
filed shops, saloons and the board side
walks, even the middle of the street,
laughing. shouting, drinking and max
ing merry as men do who are liable to
be blown up with Il blast, to fall down
shaft, ''go broke" at faro, or die
with their boots on in the next dozen
iours.
Walton went into the postoffice. 1t
vas room fifteen feet wide and forty
ieet long, on one side of which was Il
counter supporting a glass case in
which the mail was distributed.
On the other side was similar coun-
Ter which ranked as one of the best bars
N camp.
Everything was brilliant with the
light of oil lamps fastened in wooden
blocks nailed to the pine walls. Ten
leet back of where the counters ended,
on either side, were two faro tables
with dealers in their shirt sleeves, a
score of men leaning over each others
shoulders to get room to put money on
1.-THE layout and the "look- THE
callers freud and backer-sitting high
>bove them on raised chair to see
that the bets were properly made and
everybody got fair play all around.
Back still of the faro tables was lunch
counter quite as attractive apparently
o the crowd as sure as any of the other
features of this extraordinary apart
nent.
And the owner, the boss" of it all,
aas Jim Borroughs, the sheritf's
orother-in law and dictator, the owner
of dozeu of the best claims in the dis
trict, the hacker of a half dozen other
bars and the banker" who 'put-up"
for the two games.
Walton passed unnoticed through the
crowd, and sat dorI near the big, red
stoves. He had often sat there in the
eighteen months he'd been in camp,
rarely going to the drink counter,
never playing faro, seldom patronizing
he Unbeatable, but always with an eye
Jim Burroughs.
And there was never any trouble in
finding him. With his keen little eyes
of notified gray, dainty calf-skin boots
and silk hat. Burroughs was too I'M
ike most of his partners, allies and
'pyal subjects to be easily overlooked.
lie had put Sharp question once or
vice to Walton, this queer weak.
:mooth-faced old man, but seeing his
apparent inof'ensiyeness had never
3ushed him hard with questions and so
fad gotten to tolerate his presence.
And the old man never said anything
to anybody, but, as far as he could, he
followed Jim Burroughs with his eyes
and by and by, us he walked home by
the hillside, compared notes, mentally
between what he had seen and what he
thought. Tonight there was an unus,
nal stir and excitement, which no one
attempted to suppress, abroad in the
big camp. When the stage that ran to
lac narrow-guage railroad station anC
L.ought the mail every twenty-fou
hours, came in that evening at s, i
was expected to bring the decision O
he Supreme Court of the United States
n the famous Meat AK lode case.
And on that decision rested the sur
sace title of two-thirds of the real es
ate in the camp.
The Meat Ak lode ran right alonl
inc main street. and, if the location wa
i.eld good one, carried with it tn