The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-12-23

| Imagine a point in midair about two
| miles above New York city, and you have
the elevation at which over 900 miners in
| Colorado will spend the holiday season.
| They are shut in by snow and ice and for
months to come they will know as little
about what is going on in the busy world as
| though they were sailors on some vessel
| frozen up for the winter amid the icebergs
| of the Arctic regions. Early in the fall, be-
| fore the snow flies, they are housed in on
| some of the lofty peaks of the Rocky noun
| tans and not until May or June will they
| again mingle with their fellow-men. With
bountlful supply Of food, clothing, ms di-
cines and newspapers they will while away
the long winter evenings. For amusements
| they play at cards, poker eing favorite
game, and more than one who tolls in the
tunnels and shafts Of the mines far above
the clouds in the Sangre de Christie or
rugged San Juan, will have saved nothing
when the times comes thai will enable
him TO descend the old familiar trails to the
nearest mining camp.
A STAG DANCE.
They think but little about the deadly
snow slides that come bringing death nd
destruction. 1t is part of their life There
is no chance for burial, for it is hundreds of
feet down through those snow banks to
mother earth. A dead ''pard" is wrapped
in blanket, laid away in a snow bank till
the spring months, when an opportunity Is
at last afforded for christian and civilized
burial
1t is often the case that some one of the
boys is a good fiddler, and Christmas night he
will rosin the bow, tune up the old fiddle,
and with alternate 'pardsn for girls, the
boys will dance and make merry. The
"pard" girls they will call Mary, Susan,
Alice, Jane, or whatever may chance to be
the name of wife, sweetheart or sister. The
fiddler in his rough mou ltain suit and
SLOUGH hat with up-turned rim, and seated
on an ex- racker or ex-SOap box will throw
bis whole soul into that old fiddle while the
boys dance. An electric sto m NAV sweep
over the cold and barren peaks, but that
matters not. Never does storm on the
ocean seem more savage and pitiless than
the winds that howl and moan over the
dreary wastes Of the highest peaks of the
Rocky mountains. The electric storm will
make your hair stand out like the quilts Of
porcupine, and if you touch the stove
while cooking the Christmas dinner the
shock will be like that of an electric ba terry.
Ex-State Engineer NeUtleton, of Colorado,
once told me how, on top of Pixies Peak,
in one of these electric storms. his hair
stood out like that of Bushman, and when
touching the lid of the stove, he was almost
knocked off his feet But these miners in
cloudland are big hearted fellows, and are
as brave and heroic as they are liberal
Father Dyer the pioneer Methodist preacher
of the far west, and the Peter Cartwright
OF the Rocky IN )untainS once told me ow he
had held services at the Caribou mine, far
above the clouds, and that when the coilec-
ton was taken after he sermon the bows all
threw dollar each into the contribution
box.
THE LONELY CABIN.
But there are those who are not as fortu-
nate as the miners who are shut I'D in { @
big mine for the winter. There are the
lonely cabins, far up on the mountain side,
many miles distant from human habitation.
Here three or four men are snowbound to-
gether for the winter. Often there are jus
Two "pards," and ''pardn i'll the mining
camps means almost the same in the far
west as 'Scomrade" does in the army Their
Oh istmas meal Is frugal one, and with
eager lOngings their hearts will reach out
from thai deep gorge or lofty peak to east
ern homes and wonder what the loved
ones there are doing. 1t is at these holiday
times that the western prospector and wan
derer longs for the old associations of home
and the dear faces he has not seen for years.
For months they have undergone many
hardshipS and privations, been through hair
breadth escapes and thrilling adventures.
and yet IN the Christmas time all the ten
derness and love that comes VITA thoughts
of home, is in their hearts. How the aud
fence that filed the great theater is hushed
almost to a painful stiffness, and the tears
will come when Patti sings Hone, Sweet
Home.n The first time heard Patti sing
tnat song | had just come to Denver, several
years ago, from the mining camps, and
shall never forget it. And yet
i'll The mining camps of the Rocky
mountains | have hoard little groups sing
it on Christmas eve How each felt it.
Va Nho-
every state and territory in the union, the
Old World, ana the islands of the seas 1t
was not sung so much, rs it was the melody
each lelt in heart as he thoughB of home IL
was sung in that dreamy kind of way,
showing that the thoughts of all were far
away. and each one was thinking as we'll as
singing, and that il q tear did steal down
some grim visaged face, there was nothing
unmanly in 1t, was therog When l have wit
messed tender scenes in tho far west at
Christmas time, and seen the homesick feel
lug thai sometimes seems to hover over ALL |
learned the less IN that there was something
beneath that rugged exterior of the pros
pector and he cowboy, that is the highest
type Of true and manly tenderness.
BY THE SICK BED.
II was writing about the lonely cabin. The
scene there Is not always one of merry max
ing at Christmas. OF those two who dwell
there alone, far away from all contact with
the world-gold hunter ascetics-one may
DO sick. II you could force your way
through that wilderness of snow, lift the
latch gently, for it is never bolted. you
will find one nursing and keeping faithful
watch by his sick ''pard." IL may be son
watching by the cot Of a father. Why is
that old man Drawing all these hardshipsi
Aye, there is the mortgage on the eastern
home IL they find the precious vein by
spring, next Christmas will find that Old
home free from the deut. Mr.. Banker, could
you witness such scenes as these, as | have
done you would tell the old man that you
would be little easy about the interest on
that air mortgage, nthat has troubled him 50
long. That is one OF the secrets why many
gray haired man will spend this Christmas
away from home. There is mortgage ana
mine will lift H.