Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-03-08
THE MINE JUMPER.n
The Little Christabei mine in Colorado ,one

ago went through a process vulgarly called apetering out" It is now mere hole in the p1ound The half dozen shanties and cabins near it have long ago fallen into disuse Their roofs have fallen ill, and 1t Is years since the gulch in which their ruins are was the liabita- lion of men, The entire gulch is deserted now. and the Little Christabel is only memory to those who once shared ill the prosperity it once brought to Fairplay gulch.
 long, narrow pile of decaying logs and parts of clapboard roof mark the spot where the boarding house was. There are still living many of the men who once gath cred around the long, rough pine table that ran the full length of the cabin. One of them told me the story of Miss Millicent.
 Miss Millicent Hay was the only woman ever seen at the Little Christable mine
 When Harley Vance, the owner of the mine, advertised in Denver paper for g. cook for his boarding house. Miss Milicent Hay answered the advertisement in person.
 She came walking up the trail leading to the camp carrying a little hand sachel and stout walking stick.
 q have been staying down in Camp Crys- tal," she said to the surprised Mr. Vance, who had advertised for alan cook, land 1 thought the place would just suit me. The stage brought me to che mouth of the gulch and walked the rest of the way. It isn't more than six miles, is its"
 She was a small but resolute looking woman, with keen gray eyes and a mouth indicating great tirmness of character. Her thin brown hair was combed plainly back from brow beginning to show signs of wrinkles, although she was but 40 years old.
 "Do you think couldn't do the work!" she asked. "I am quite strong and have known nothing but hard work all my life"
 She held out her ungoved hands as she spoke. They were rough and wrinkled, with bent fingers and calloused palms.
 "You might do the work, said Mir. Vance. There are only about fifteen boarders and we live ill plain, rough way, and there is @ boy to help. But it wouldn't be pleasant place for a lady to live. There are no women in this gulch."
 ''I care nothing for that" said Miss Milli- cent. "Men are sometimes kinder than wo- men," she added, with tinge of bitterness in her voice.
 The end of it all was that Miss Millicent was installed as cook in the boarding house. She had evidently come determined to stay, for the sage coach that went rumbling through the gulch next day brought up little hair covered trunk with "M. H." on the end of it with brass headed nails.
 Before a week the boarders began blessing the good angel that sent them Miss Millicent. Such meals as she served had never been seen before at the Little Christabel; and it was wonderful to see the change she brought about in the dirty little boarding house and its con- tents. Her energy and strength seemed un- falling. She went stepping briskly about, the neatest and sprightl est of housekeeI ,ers, sing ing at her work and smiling on everybody.
 At the end of a fortnight every man in camp knew Miss Iiliicent and had felt the influence a good woman exerts in every com munity.
 Old mats and caps were doffed to her wher- ever she went. No oaths or rough words were spoken ill her presence, and the man who would have dared to offer her an indig- nty would have 'rid on rail-" as my in- formant said.
 For year Miss Millicent lived at the Little Cnristabel, and in that time she had won the sincere regard-of every rIan ill camp. There had been great deal of sickness among the men that winter, and some of them owed their lives to Miss Millicent's careful nursing good food and general good sense in every thing pertaining to the ct.re of the sick.
 Her own cheerfulness and good health never failed her.
 'I don't believe you ever had sorrow in your life, did youW asked one of the men one day.
 Miss Mllicent was standing in the cabin door at tue time. The smile on her face van- ished as she made reply; she leaned her head wearily against the door frame; her face paled for g moment and her lips quivered as she said slowly;
 "Every heart knoweth it's t,r Il bitterness; :" then she turned ard went to her own little room at the end ot the cabin. and the man who had asked the question said:
 Some villain of a man at the bottom of it a!l I'll bet; I'd like to help stretch his neck p
 It was no secret that orc or two of the men ill camp had been suitors for Miss Millcent's hand, and it was known that she had received their proposals with burst of tears, and had begged them never, as they valued their hap piness and hers, never to refer to the subject again.
 The camp had been singularly free from the brawls and lawlessness that both distin- guish and disgrace most mountain mining camps. Mir. Vance would not allow a saloon within the limits of the mine, and had made it oblig atory on the men that they refrain from many things common to the ordinary miner
 Tho presence of Miss Mllicent had had much to do with the unusual good behavior of the men and the good name the Little Christabel wore as a mining camp.
 But one day there came a bit of news tc the camp that changed the men from good naturetl, easy going, jovial fellows to angry determined men. | There lived a claim near the Little Christabel a man known as Capt. Tom, al honest, hard working and thoroughly good | man, very popular with all who knew him and unusually so with the men employed al the Little Christabol.
 For two years he had worked hard in pov erty and deprivation, developing a claim tha
 was generally believed to be worthless.
 But fortune plays strange freaks in mining camps, and Capt. Toms unpromising mine i one day revealed a splendid vein of rich silver ore He came down to the Little Christabel juLilant over his good fortune. He returned home to find his claim jumped" by two ol three men, led by fellow of unsavory repu tation known as Doc Grigson.
 Grigson and his confederates were in pos session of Capt. Toms two years of labor, ant 1 coolly ordered him to "clear out" when h.
 appeared at the door of his own little cabin
 the order being emphasized by threats of inn
 mediate annihilation if he tarried long on tn
 order of his gong
 This ''nine jumping" process is one I can
 not give in detail here Suffice it to say tha
 possession is even more than "nine-tenths o
 the law" when applied to unpatented and un
 recorded mining claims.