Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1888-09-04
Gold Diggcr's Luck.
rnE TRAGIC PHASE oF MINING N CALI.
TORNtA.

"I wen, to C.lif5rnh In 1856. aud
served there As a gold digger for eight OF
nine years.
In SO the cream Of the dissing. h.t
been skinned of. The 'i0.er. had foun'
the riches, "cr,viees." "pot.holes AnC
"nif!-.," cleaned them ou, and sPen, ,h'
money. A few went back ea't with
small fortunes. bu, the majority 70; NJ
farther than the nearest camp contain
ing a saloon and f.ndango house, Il
which they deposited their dust 0.ksrl
reached San Francisco with the in,en, oI
taking q steamer home. bu, concluded Il
remain . while longer In the eountry a.
ter san Frsnei.eo h.d seoopsd Ia ,hsii
"pile,." These sadly returned to The
mines, and year. siisr~Ard boas,ed Of
VIA, they had done to "build UP the
state"
My frs, mining experience was ia
"erevieing." This mean, 'er.Pins gold
bearing dir, from the crack. In the rocky
bank. Of the Tuolumne. But before Il
could be ,ersped oa, |, had to be reach
ed. and TO reach !, grea, deal Of pound.
ing with ,lsdge hammer. aud pryins
with cro~bar vas necessary, besides ly-
ing in er.mPed.up positions for hours,
drawing up small quantities Of dirt With
= spoon or bit Of hoop iron ben, =, Que
end. The sun ws hot. the rocks ~er,
hotter. our bread was Of our own baking
and consequently very poor bread. Our
meat vas bacon. Our stomaehs, after .
few day, Of this diet, were extremely
bilious. Our house va, mere shelter
Of such brush a. We could collect. Oar
land OF rather bare rock. sloped toward
the river so s,eeply that We could with
difficulty keep our footing. aud were
obliged 10 "eboek" ourselves in while ws
slept. OF tried TO sleep. ., nigh, with
reg. a, our feet. II ausht Of our few
worldly possession. dropped accidentally,
and were in any degree reliable. ten %
one they rolled into the river over a
,weniy.foo, preeiPiee.
In this plish, . heavy rain eaush, u,
one nish,. We could no, se, away in
the d.tk, for the bank. were difficult Of
passage in the daytime. We kindlsd .
IRE and heavier outpour than ever i'm
medil,sly pa, !, out. Diring the re.
m.indsr Of ,h., long night We "a, or stood
and took /, as IL came | was no, only
soaked ia the morning, bu, dyed. for the
blessed rain took most Of the eolorins
ou, Of blue cap wore. and rolled Il 10
.ueaks over my face, fact Of which |
was no, aware until reaching Thompson''
store neK, morning. where the crowd a,
the door made remarks humorous and
sarcastic At the change the elements had
wrought In my cou,enAnce. My share Of
th., weeks work on the rocks amounted
to =? 50.
lh.ys been through the whole school
Of surface mining worked the
riyer bed and W. drowned out by the
usual fall freshs,. two moaih. earlier
than |, VAS expected, And, with the res,
Of our company. helped b.nkrup, the
s,orekseper who charged us with our
summers provisions. have worked
"po,.holes" worn in the solid granite by
stones relolving for age. In q water
whirl-"pO,.holes" As smooth and round
a. q s,o,eppe and as long a. my arm,
which yielded nothing because the gravel
in them wa, recent deposit. and the
gold and gravel once ia them had been
taken out years before by some early bird
Of "'ig.er" lhsye worked over ",sil.
ing." with . rocker. and made my 81
and si.j0 per day. have worked riv.
sr bank claims, ,Pen, days in shO,eling OF
the barren top dirt. 10, down to the ledg,
where !, ough, to have paid. and fOurd
Il not. have "siruek' gold bearing
quartz lodges aud found all the gold a,
the top. an' the lead "Pinehing out" al
the depth Of three feet. have seen for.
tunes in ancient "deAd.ryer" channel,
under Table mountain. bu, never realized
them. have often been rich In imsgi.
nation, without = whole sui, Of elo,he.
Of my own or any ones else. hsy,
lived in small camps with = crowd OF my
osn ilk. such as At Hawkins Bar. in
1860. which boas,sd twelve residents aud
one decent suit OF store clothes, owned
In section. and held =. sOr, Of eommu.
nal wardrobe. When one OF US wished
to 20 forth into the world Of more re-
fined and aesthetic eiyiliz alton, wnere .
po.,ofiice could be found. where peopl,
slept in sheets and lived Ia houses with
. "hsrd finish" on the walls. he collect.
ed thi. camp sui, from the various own.
ers, ge,,iug the store boots from A. the
pantaloons from B. the Goa, from G.. and
80 dressed up as he made the tour Of the
hamlet
II was an oyer.rs,ed country. Per.
hsps one In twenty went back with |,
fortune, and as fortunes are estimated
nowadays, II was small one be tool
back. Perhaps one miner in ten made
decent wages, that Is. from 81 to IS 4
day. Nine on, Of ten grubbed alons
from year TO year making q bare subsis,.
enee and risking their time. their strength
and what little money they had in haE'
srdous and extensive mining enterprises,
which generally lef, them poorer at ,h'
end than At the beginning.
Where | mined . "s3 claim" wa
though, good piece Of property. Ths
mean, a claim paying the worker s. pc
day after expenses had been deducted
We worked ten and sometimes twelve
houis per day. summer aud winter. W.
paid 81 per day for . working stream o
water. We lost an average Of two snC
half months ou, Of the year through ,h'
water supply giving out. We had u
spend days on days in cutting "tAi
races" through rock. repairing our reser
,ous or other work incidental to mining
which yielded no direct returns.
We went tagged out TO our cabins II
the evening and split wood, kindled fre'
carried water. baked bread and cooked
our evening meal. Cooking. perspirini
and attending to red hot stove on re'
ho, day, after ten hours Of dirt shovelin,
aud rock pitching. Is the last straw OF
the human camers back. Supper over