Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1888-01-06
BIG BEN AND CHARLEY.
Were we afraid of Big Penn


Well, yes, to a certain limit. There
were five of us in a bit of cabin out i'll
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 overbearino
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
'all.
Break up9 Hunt for luck2" sneered
Big Ben whenever anything was said
about abandoning our claim. "Well,
you are a lot of coyotes-a cussed bad
lot. You haven't got the pluck OF
sick wolf. I'd like to see some of you
walk off and leave me in the lurch, yes,
would. I'll turn to and lick the hull
crowd out of your boots if l hear another
growl.'
Big Ben insulted us a dozen times a
day, and on three or four occasions he
laid hands on us in VIOLENT way, but
somehow we stuck there. AS told you,
he was 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 him 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 | was minding
the cabin and the other men were at
work in the tunnel or shaft, stranger
entered. He had come up from the
Forks, three miles away. He was boy
of sixteen or thereabouts, 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 a shadow welcomed
and fed and warmed him, and then he
told me that his name was Charley
Bland, and that he had wandered 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 Hi
nois. Both had been ill.used, and
Charley had finally followed James's ex-
ample in running away. This boy had
been knocking around the silver camps
Tor six months, sometimes meeting
friends and sometimes 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 come up there and see.
On that day, as l shall never forget,
there was foot of snow on the ground,
blizzard raging, and the thermometer
marked ten degrees below zero.
The boy was asleep when the mon re.
turned 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 poor-house, and we let no
baby faced swindler cat our hard learned
provisions.
'Ill work. I'll work as hard as ever
| can," protested the boy with sob in
his throat.
"Theresno work for you. You've got
to move on to the camp above"
The four of US protested in chorus,
and we 'ook such firm stand that
deadly weapons were drawn, and would
have been used but for the action of the
boy. He was terribly frightened over
the row e had been the innocent 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 night with the silence and
swiftness of shadow.
"You are his murderer" we said to
Big Ben, as we lowered cur weapons,
and he growled:
''If we took in every straggler we
should be crowded out of house and
home before New Years. What is it to
usgwhether he lives or dies"
I think he felt conscience stricken
wi8hin the hour, however, as he went to
tt door and acted as if he hoped to see
L. lad standing outside. The boy had
IN gone half an hour before we fully
lized what his going meant, and then
of Us went out with the lantern and
rched and called for him. The snow
was being whirled about in a furious
manner, and the wind was rising to q
gale, and the bitter cold drove us back
after quarter of an hour. 1t was true
y at we had little enough to eat, and
f, tnat we were cramped in our cabin, but
tie idea OF driving that ralefaced
o7phan boy ut to freeze was something