San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-03-19
OLD MRS. DILL.

When all the other women in Camp fara-
disc went away old Mrs. Dill stayed on
II come to the mountings in $50" she often
said, IAN I've lived in the mountings ever
sence, an it amt the fust time I've been left
the only woman they was in a mimi camp.
I've lived long es year thout seein the face
of no woman 'ceptin' my own when looked
in a bit Of lookin' glass. / was the fust
woman in Camp Paradise, an reckon III be
the last to leave 'er."
Her many years Of life in the "mountings
had told on Mrs. Dill She was bent and
gaunt, with 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. Dill 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!
amt roughed it don't know who has They
amt gulch in this part o the mountings !
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 he never once struck it rich In al
that time and he died poorer n he was when
we come out here from old Missouri
Wed a good farm back there, but Dill he
got the gold mlnin' 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 az in.
Talk bout hard times and roughin' it, gooc
Lord you might say so if you'd went through
all 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 togo, but she
had declined the offer.
I've lived in the mountings too long to
live any place else now" she said; land, 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 tc
Camp Paradise in the days Of that camp.
short lived prosperity. 1t was supposed then
that the camp would become a second Lead
vile Two or three promising strikes had
been made and willy spectators got up i
carefully planned boom solely in their OWL
interests In one summer nearly three thou
sand people came to Camp Paradise. MoSt
of them went away again before the yea
was out.
Old Mrs. Dill came YEARLY up the steel
and narrow track one day, walking slowly
behind an aged and dminutive burro which
carried her worldly all on its back. She be
gan her Camp Paradise career as laundress
Some of the miners had known her in othel
camps, and a number Of them got togethei
| one day and built her a little cabin, ant
| afterward gave her their rough garments tC
wash and mend. They paid her well and hes
wants were few.
When nearly all the other cabins in thu
| gulch were deserted, and when al the littlt
| white tents had been folded up and is,n'
away with their owners, Mrs. Dill stayed on
The men rather liked her for doing 50. L
showed certain loyalty to the ''old camp
I
who stayed were firm in the conviction tha
there were great treasures hidden away il
the secret depths of the granite mountain
towering above the little town
And they were determined TO find thos
treasures; 50 about twenty-five of them mad
common property of their few worldly pos
sessions and moved into a long, low, rambling
house Of logs, that had once been a hotel, TO
the winter. They did more, they gave oil
Mrs. Dill a homo with them
There was at one end of tho building
little room for which the men had no spooa
use, and this they made very comfortable TO
"old Mother Dill, as many of them Gale,
her. In return Mrs. Dill kept their roug
garments in order, assisted about the G0okn
and made herself useful in other ways Ther
was not another woman within twenty-fv
miles of Camp Paradise, but Mrs. Dill di
not care for that.
| '.I'm used to it. . she said
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