Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1889-02-20
OLD MRS. DILL.

OLD MRS. DILL.
When all the other women in Camp Pam
disc went away old Mrs Dill stayed on
II come to the mountings in 80, she often
aid. ..an' I've lived in the mountings ever
sence, an ii amt the fust time I've been left
the only woman they Tas in . minin' camp
I've lived long es year thous seem the face
of no woman 'ceptin' my own when looked
in bit of lookin' glass l was the fusf
woman in Camp Paradise, an reckon III b
the last TO leave err
Her many years of life In the ''mountings"
had told on Mrs. Dill She was bent and
gaunt, with a leathery, wrinkled face and
bony, calloused hands Her face and voice
her whole manner-was masculine. The Few
graces that old age vouchsafes its chosen ones
had not been given to Mrs. Dbl She was
uncouth and repelling in appearance, the re-
suit of years and years of struggling against
adverse fates amid the demoralizing influences
Of mining camp life.
They amt no kind O. roughing it that
amt used to-" she often said Lord! If
amt roughed il don't know who has. They
amt gulch in this part O. the mounttngs
amt been in or a trail amt been over. I've
lived in tents and log cabins and sometimes
under nothin' but the trees, for most thirty
year. Dill be never once struck 1t rich in al
that time, and be died poorer n he was when
we come out here from old Missouri
"we'd good farm back there, but Dill be
got the gold minin' craze, an we sold out an
come out here with an OK team an put our
farm into hole in the ground, ez body
might say, an we've never got it out agin.
Talk bout hard times and roughin' it, good
Lord! you might say so if you'd went through
ali have!"
Mr.. Dill had been dead SIX years, leaving
his widow homeless and penniless. Some Of
the miners in the camp in which old man
Dill died offered to raise fund to send her
back to her friends if she cared to go, but she
had declined the offer.
"I've lived IN the mountings too long to
live any place else now" she said "and, any
how, hain't got no friends to go to. I'll
stay here and rough it out to the end"
She had been among the first corners to
Camp Paradise in the days Of that camps
short lived prosperity. 1t was supposed then
that the camp would become q second Lead
vile Two or three promising strikes had
been made, and willy spectators got up
carefully planned boom" solely in their own
interests. In one summer nearly three thou
sand people came to Camp Paradise. Most
Of them went away again before the year
was out.
Old Mrs. Dill came weariiy up the steep
and narrow track one day, walking slowly
behind an aged and diminutive burrO, which
carried her worldly all on its back. She be-
gan her Camp Paradise career as II laundress.
Some Of the miners had known her in other
camps, and number Of them got together
one day and built her e little cabin, and
afterward gave her their rough garments ~
wash and mend. They paid her well and her
wants were few
When nearly all the other cabins In the
gulch were deserted, and when all the little
white tents had been folded up and ;sDne
away with their owners, Mrs. Dill stayed on.
This men rather liked her for doing SO. 1t
showed certain loyalty to the "old camp"
and a faith in 1t that pleased them, for those
who stayed were firm in the conviction that
there were great treasures hidden away in
the secret depths of the granite mountain
towering above the little town.
And they were determined to find thoss
treasures; SO about twenty-five Of them made
common property of their few worldly pos
sessions and moved into a long, low, rambling
house Of logs, that had once been hotel, for
the winter. They did more, they gave old
Mrs. Dill home with them.
There was at one end Of the building u
little room for which the men had no specia
use, and this they made very comfortable for
"old Mother Dill, as many of them called
her. In return Mrs. Dill kept their rough
garments in order, assisted about the cooking
and made herself useful in other ways There
was not another woman within twenty five
miles of Camp Paradise, but Mrs, Dill did
not care for TINT
I'm used to it." she said.
The winter set in early in Camp Paradise
There was snow on the ground in October,
and early in November the mountain slopes
and gulches were covered under foot or
more Of snow that only the suns OF the COM
ing June would melt,
The men could do little prospecting, and
nothing toward developing the claims they
had staked out during the summer. They
spent most OF their time in hunting and visit
ing the adjoining camps, none of which were
more prosperous than Camp Paradise. The
men were idle in all Of them, and the natural
consequence was that they spent much Of
their time in gambling and drinking and in
the carousals common to mining camps
1t was a stormy night in December that all
tho men in Camp Paradise sat around the
great fire of pine knots in the broad fireplace
at one end of the cabin.
Old Mrs Dill had gone to her little room at
the end Of the cabin, and the men were CO.
joying the rolhcking songs most miners know
Some of them were playing poker, an up
turned barrel serving for table The wind
blew cold and fierce, and fine hard dashes Of
snow beat against the little windows on either
side the door
As early Us O'Clock some of the men began
t, talk about turning in for the night.
Several Of them were shaking up the blankets
and skins on their rude hunks when, without
knock or other sound, the door opened sud-
denly and a man came in The men around
the fireplace turned their fnces quickly to-
wards the visitor, and one of them said:
well, Jack Downey, what in thunder
brings you clean from down in Camp Fair
view away up to old Prosperity on such q
night as thist Come tn the fire an thaw out
man, an give an account o. yerself"
The man, tall and sallow and grizzled,
laughed grirnly as he came forward.
Come to invite you to little party down
to Fairview-Jed Judsons deadl'
"Naww
"Jed Judsonr'
aye don't mean itr'
"Whatf'
"Jed-JudSon-deadr
The speakers all spoke at once, ths poker
players dropped their cards, some of the men
ross hastily TO their feet
Whatever aided Jedr'
What aided him r. repeated the man from