Western appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1885-18??, 1888-02-04
BIG BEN.
His Cruelty to a Helpless Boy and
What Game of It.
We're we afraid of Bic Benp

Were we afraid of Big Banp
Well, yes, to a certain limit. There
were five of us in q bit of cabin out in
the silver country, and Big Ben was
boss of the ranch for several reasons.
First and foremost, he was too much
for any one of us single handed. and,
secondly he had many good points
about him. While he was overbearne
and brutal at times, he was the best
miner in the party, and no bad luck
could discourage him. With any one
else as boss we should have scattered
at once. for the winter was coming on
and we had been down on our luck all
the fall.
"Break up! Hunt for luck" sneered
Big Ben whenever any thing was said
about abandoning our claim. ''Well,
you are lot of coyotes-a cussed bad
lot. You haven't got tho pluck of q
sick wolk. I'd like to see some of you
Try to walk off and leave me in the
lurch-yes, / would. Curse your eyes!
but I'll turn to and lick the hull crowd
out of your boots if I hear another
growl." .......
Big Ben insulted us dozen times q
day, and on three or four occasions he
laid hands on us in y violent way, but
somehow we stuck there. AS I told
you, he was 4 practical miner, the
hardest worker in the lot, and we
leaned on him in spite of the fact that
we hated him. We could have shot
him down in some of the quarrels, and
the verdict would have been: Served
MN right but we knew that he had
good heart down in his bosom, and
the hand which clutched knife or pistol
was always restrained.
One afternoon, while I was mindinc
the cabin and the other men were at
work IN the tunnel or shaft, a stranger
entered. He had come up from the
Forks, three miles away. He was a
boy of sixteen OR Whereabouts, with a
girls voice and shyness. and he was
hungry and in rags. 1t was bitter cold,
and yet his clothing was of the thinnest
kind, and he had hungered so long that
he was hardly more than shadow. 1
welcomed and fed and warmed him,
and then he told me that his name was
Charley Bland, and that he had wan
dered out there to look for his brother
james, from whom he had received no
word for two or three years. They
were orphans, and both had been bound
to farmers in Illinois. Both had been
i'll used, and Charley had finally fol-
lowed James example in running
away. This boy had been knocking
around the silver camps for six months,
sometimes meeting friends and some
times treated like dog, and he had
found no trace of his brother. Some
one down at the gulch-it was cruel
thing to do-had told him that James
was at our camp, and he had periled
his life to como up there and see On
that day, as shall never forget, there
was foot of snow on the ground, a
blizzard raging, and the thermometer
marked ten degrees below zero.
The boy was asleep when the men
returned from the shaft. Big Ben was
out of sorts at the way things had been
going, and no sooner did he see and
hear the lad than he called out:
'He can't stay here another hour.
We don't run d poorhouse, and we let
no baby-faced swindler eat our hard
earned provisions.
'Tll work. I'll work as hard as ever
cam protested the boy with a sob in
his throat. -..r
There's no work for you. You've
got to move on to the camp above.
The four of us protested in chorus,
and we took such a firm stand that
deadly weapons were drawn, and
would have been used but for the ac-
ton of the boy. He was terribly fright
ened over the row he had been the in
nocent cause of, and as the four of us
had our pistols leveled at Big Ben and
meant to shoot if he moved foot. the
boy opened the cabin door and glided
out into the dark and bitter nj ght with
the silence and swiftness of shadow.
you are his murderer" we said to
Big Ben as we lowered our weapons,
and he growled:
Curse him! If we took in every
straggler we should be crowded out of
house and home before New Years.
What is it to us whether he lives or
diesP''
think he felt conscience-stricken
within the hour, however. as he went
to the door and acted as if he hoped to
see the lad standing outside. The boy
had been gone half an hour before we
fully realized what his going meant,
and then two of us went out with the
lantern and searched and called for
him. The snow was being whirled
about in a furious manner. and TIE
wind was rising to a gale, and the Bit
ter cold drove us back after quarter
OF an hour. twas true that we had