Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-02-08

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- tie stiff in the
morning. Or il not still, they lacked
action. Working all the day previously.
possibly in the water, or with il splash
ing all about, tugging at heavy boulders,
shouldering wet sluiccs, to say nothing
of the regular pick and shovel exercise,
would make itself felt even when the
limbs and blood were younger than now.
Dressing was short job. A pair of damp
overalls, a pair of socks, a pair of shoes, or
possibly the heavy rubber mining boots.
Flannel shirts we SLEPT in. A face swab-
bing with cold water in the tin basin
outside and lick and promise" for
the hair with the comb. That was about
all for week days. Vanity of apparel
there was little for the working miner.
Who was there to dress for? Woman?
The nearest was half mile, 80 years of
age, and married Then breakfast. The
iirc kindled in the contrary little stove.
Possibly it was necessary TO attack with
an axe that dried old stump near by and
Z hack OIL few chips to cook with. The
miners wood pile was generally small.
lie got in fuel on rainy days, or at the
( odd intervals to be spared from work.
You put on the worn tin teapot, lowered
4 the gauze covered meat safe from the
tree, cut a steak from the chunk of bull
mahogany within called beef, slunr a
dab of lard in the frying pan. put therein
the meat and let it sizzle. Two or three
boiled potatoes might be sliced, fried
more or less brown In the gravy, and
I this, with bread and tea, formed tho
breakfast The bread was the bread of
your own laborious baking, the loaf Of
an irregular shape, the crust very hard
and thick, the color often 'pied," being
black where it had burned brown where
It had baked, and of a pallid whiteness
4 where 1t had not baked at all Within
the loaf might be close, heavy, and in
color either a creamy or a canary yellow.
IN proportion TO tia improper amount of
yeast powder used
The table is broad shelf against tho
: wall There Is no tablecloth You did
not always wash up after breakfast. for
the dishes, as they stood, were all I'm
: place for dinner. Some fastidious min
ers washed their dishes after each meal;
most of us did not. 1t was too much TO
expect of hard worked humanity. The
cabin door Is open while you eat and
from 1t you look forth on the claim.
There lies the bank of red earth ns YOU
left it yesterday after the "cave.,
There is the reservoir full of coffee col
ored ditch water which had run in dur
A mi, AZ III, \ r
ing IN dozen claims "up country. !"
Then yon draw ON those damp. clammy
rubber boots, either TO the knee or hin
nigh, the outside splashed with the dried
reddish mud. and smelling disagreeably
OF rubber as you pulled them on and
smelling worse as you became heated
and perspiring. In these you waddle to
the claim. forgot. Breakfast over
one OF the most important acts of the
lay WAS next on the programme. That
was the filling, lighting and smoking of
your pipe. Nothing could hurry you
through this performance. The filling
was cut in slivers with u careful and
solemn consideration; the weed was care.
fully bestowed in the bowl; the match
was applied with a deliberation sayoring
Of q religious act; the first puff rose in
the air as incense TO the early morn, and
smoking thus you waddled in your big
boots to the claim. There you met your
three partners, all likewise smoking,
There they stand ON the bank, looking
Into the ground sluice, There is no good
morning or other greeting; il anything,
grunts. There lay the tools-shovels.
picks, crowbar and sluice fork-help-
lessly about, as left last evening, A
little muddy water trickles through the
line of sIuices. One of US goes To the
reservoir, few hundred yards of, and
turns on the water. Another goes TO
the tail of the sluices with the sluice
fork. Then is heard the clicking of the
pick and the grating of the shovel against
the red dirt; down comes the muddy
water over the bank and the days work
has fairly commenced.
We stand in row, allowing sufficient
room between each for swinging the
pick. We are undermining the bank,
fhe water running at our feet and be-
tween us and the bottom of the bank.
Each chunk of red dirt dislodged by the
pick falls into the running water, and
II 1t be hard and will not readily dissolve
It must be broken up by pick or shovel
TO Keep the stream clear and unimpeded.
Tn" large bowlders are picked out by
q band and thrown behind us-not in dis
ordered fashion, either. Room in the
cut Is scarce and must be economical, 30
i the ever accumulating bowlder pile is
"faced up" with neat wall, laid with
out mortar, but with some care and
skill. The bed rock is under our feet.
We are undermining the bank and keep
ing the stream turned in as much as
possible To the part undermined The
gravel for foot or six inches is pretty
hard, and the stones here are harder and
closer packed than those nearer the sur
lace. There the gravel is lighter. Many
I OF the stones are light and rotten; blow
with the pick dashes them TO pieces. This
streak just above the ledge and for few
Inches In the crevices of the ledge is our
pay streak" where ages on ages ago
sofne stream ran, depositing, as all
i Streams do, the heavier gravel on the
/, Bottom and the lighter above. Occasion
ally the pick strikes firmly imbedded
\ lowider hard and square ON it's point. in
K such way as 70 send the vibration like
shock along the iron, up the handle
npi into GEES arm ard "crazy bone"
= Nv. s.sAsA VI Sst Is aioout eight feet in
\ htisht a few inches of the ton is a
2 dark mold, below that are three or four
Soes of ''hard PAN" below the s.hard
pan light sandy gravel and rotten bowl
3 0Ef>. and near the ledge Ia the nav