Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-03-19

there had been II "boom - but Mr.. Levi,
who kept the clothing store on the main
street and found much profit in that fleet
ing period of prosperity, had oracularly
declared it at an end.
81 dell You vot it ish, poys," he said one
day. standing on the threshold of his
roughly boarded store, thanked on one
side by pendent suit of hideous plaid,
and on the other by a pair of overalls,. "dot
poom wash gone home"
Old Cheyenne Joe, too, who had pro.
spected with unfaiing hopefulness and
habitual bad fortune since the earliest
days of the Pixies Peak excitement,
found the situation unprecedently dol
orous.
81 allow never see wuss times in Colo
raydo sence we struck them sulphurets
up to Clear Creek in '64," said he, as he
sat on broken chair in the "Delmonico
of the West" $50 a dilapidated saloon
was grandly called. eyes, JIM" he
added with an unwonted sigh, II will
take sugar this time"
The camp was situated in a charmed
region. 1t lay on the slope of Il noun
tain, facing the West A little beyond
the group of houses this slope became
abrupt so abrupt that the valley below
was out OF sight of the town. Far beyond
this valley, lifting its Jagged SUBMITS,
bold and sharply defined, against the
western sky, was the grand, majestic,
solemn Sangre de Cristo
The camp wore Il detected air. "The
boys had made a good fight, but nature
was against them, and nature always
wins in the long run. Down. deep down,
through the tlinty quartz the patient
miners had chased the fleeting veins.
Quartz, from the shareholders point of
view, represents outgo; veins, income.
When, therefore, veins tip up the beam,
the company financial horizon IS touch
ed with the rosy tnts of dividends; when
quartz, then gather the lowering clouds
of assessments, often succeeded by the
thunderstorm of bankruptcy. The Lou
islanao had 'shut down, the Bismarck"
changed superintendent three times and
then followed suit, and the two directors
of the "Ariel," who came out from New
York to inspect the property, were oblig-
ed to pay the mems arrears out of their
own pockets before they were allowed to
depart. All this time Nature, 50 harsh to
those who would wiring her hidden trea-
sures from her grasp, was tantalizing them
with the most gorgeous of weather, when
the air was electric, the peaks of the
Sangre de CristO seemed but half II mile
away, and the moon, throughout the still,
silent nights, softened all the outlines,
so sharp and clear in the daylight and,
casting its silver sheen over the shabby
and unlovely buildings transformed them
into fairy dwellings
Cheyenne Joe was an authority in the
camp, the counterpart of the fall of 40
and spring of '5O' men in California
hence his respondent utterances deep
ened the gloom which had overhung the
frequenters of the singularly misnamed
saloon. some were young and strong,
with the flush of health on their cheeks
others old and gray, their faces furrowed
with the deep lines of toll and care. Elan
mel shirts alternated with overalls; caps
of dubious hue and texture rivaled seedy
sombreros, curiously suggestive OF Il JOY
Gus and aggressive past and tobacco, of
a quality propOrtlOned to the hardness
of the times, lent an aroma more pungent
than agreeable to the dingy room. There
had been a sound of wheels. 1t was not
the day when the stage brought the scan
ty mail and, not very long before, the
arrival of Il special conveyance would have
excited attention, for it might have been
contemporaneous with the arrival of what
we have gotten into the bad habit of call
ing "capita!ists.' This is ut best an UNI
satisfactory word, and in its conventional
use it has but vague and Elusive signi-
ticance. Nevertheless, the capitalist is
always the coming man to the honest
that the more valuable is their promise
the more anxious are their owners to let
other people have the opportunity of
drawing profit from their development.
Thus ii is that, when the blossom rock
is most blooming, and the prospect
"holes' are the most seductive, and the
veins pan out" their best, and, i'll short,
"things are booming" in the camps, 1.-The
boys" are the most eager for the coming
from afar of him of the blind faith and
the heavy bank account. He is to them
as MonteZuma to the poor PueblOS of New
Mexico; and as the squalid priest at old
Pecos rises early and looks to the sunrise
for sign of the Great Deliverer, so do
the prospectors gaze long and earnestly up
the mountain roads for the dust of the
coming stages.
When, however times are bad and the
dump-heaps show no accessions, none are
sanguine enough to look for the coming
which may not be-" Lucky for the boys
II the sound of wheels announce not the
tax collector, or the sheriff with batch
or fOrecloSed mortgages. None, therefore,
on this occasion had left the hard seats of
the saloon to view the new conner; SO he
reported himself. He entered the smoky
room; il stalwart active, CHEEKY young
fellow he saluted the company and he
took a seat No one present seemed, at
face showed an effort to recall his per
sonality. At last he rose and approached
him. 1--WE seed yer before, pardner,"
said he, but | disremember whar on
airth it wuz" The new conner met his
searching look with half smile.
II am not likely to forget the time or
place of our meeting, Mr.. Cannon" said
he I'm not quite so much of tender
foot as | was on the Hillerton trail one
summer afternoon"
by thunder" calculated Joe, push
ing his cap on the back of his head, sc
you're the Teller tibet I've been thinkin
about many IA time sence | sed goodbye
to yer up to leadville. Gimme a shake O
yer hand, pard. Why, you amt a tender
foot with IA cent jest now. Boys" he
went on, as he turned TO the attentive
group in the saloon, "thar's more'n one
kind of tenderfoot, but blame me eff this
yere one didn't lay over any | ever see in
all my life. Yer see, boss, | wuz comm
from the Gunnison with some yonng fell
lers, an we warn't fur from Leadvlle
when we heard some one a-callin', an we
stopped, an we see this yere man, an Il
boy with him, Il becknin' to us. When
they come up we larned tibet some small