The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1890-01-04
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-, IA y tiOns and those !
~ " fed as a sea cook,
es-iylIs.,. s,.sss-lgr<%/ ! resolved to go
"a Il TO the mines. |
~ " went. BY boat
- and stage ! got
jsi-Z ~ n over the goo miles
/ ,>G>y inUerVcu I'm x
~;;-r--...sils..ss>fr- 4 'twiXt San Fran
cisco and the
"diggings." | had friends on Hawkins
Bar on the Tuolumne river, in Tuolum-
ne county. Thther | went. When |
"struck" Hawkins in 1858 it was on its
last legs. Still it boosted a store and
a dozen houses Golden hopes were
still anchored in the bed of the river.
Expensive river claims were then be-
ing worked from Red Mountain down
to French Bar. But a premature rain
and consequent freshet swept the river
that season from end to end with
the bosom of destruction, and sent
/ for the winter the miners back to their
two dollar per day bank diggings.
1t was at Hawkins that | had first
"buckIed to the mines" My first "buck-
I ling, however, was in the capacity of a
meat pcddler. became the agent of
firm Of butchers up on the mountain for
distributing their tough steaks to the
Hawkins Bar miners. Through the in
strumentality of horse, over whose
back was slung couple of huge pan
niers, continued the agency for "a week.
Then one morning the horse kicked up
his heels and ran away. As he ran, at
every kick raw and bloody steak would
fly out of the boxes, flash in the brilliant
morning sunshine, and then fall in the
fine red dust of the mountain trail. l. fol-
lowed hard after, gathering up these
steaks as they fell, and when the burden
became too heavy piled them up by the
roadside in little heaps of dusty, very
dusty meat At last, dusty, perspiring
and distressed beyond measure, man
aged to catch that villainous horse. For
he, after having elected nearly the whole
load of meat, concluded to stop and be
caught. | loaded the panniers again with
the dusty, carnivorous deposits, led the
horse down the steep trail to the river,
then muddy and of rich coffee color from
up country mining sediment. Herein |
washed my steaks, rinsed them as well
as | could of dust, and, as was then the
custom, hung up piece after piece III the
gauze curtained meat safes at the miners
cabins think Hawkins got its share
of grit that day in its beef. Shortly after
ward went out os the beefsteak distribu-
ting bureau.
Then | went into the service of the
man who kept the Bar store, saloon and
boarding house. | was errand boy, bar
keeper, bookkeeper, woodchopper, as
sstant cook and general maid of all
work, and possibly worthlessness. One
day the storekeeper's horse, packed with
miners supplies, was given into my
charge to lead three miles up the river
to the camp of the Split Rock river
claim. The load was strapped to
"cross- Jack saddle. 1t consisted mostly
of flour, potatoes, bacon and demijohn
of whisky. | was advised by the mer-
chant on setting out, not to let that
horse get ahead of me. If he did it was
prophesied that he would run away,
"sure pop But l had not gone forty
rods from the store when the beast made
rush, got ahead of me, tore the leading
halter out of my grasp and set off along
the narrow mountain trail at the rate of
twenty knots per hour. | followed on
run of about ten knots per hour. Hence
the distance between us soon increased.
AS he ran, the motion burst the bag of
flour, ditto the potatoes, and then the
whisky demiiohn broke. 1t was fine
sight. The flour rose in the air like a
white cloud above the horse, out of and
above which flew potatoes, and the whole
was interspersed with Jets of whisky. 1t
/ looked like a snow squat travelling on
horseback. When the animal had split
all the flour, all the potatoes and all the
whisky, he slowed up and allowed him
self to be caught. His mission was ac-
complished found remaining the sad
die and the empty potato sack. The
| trail was white with flour for mile,
and so it remained for months after
ward. | led the animal back to the
store. Ny heart was heavy and his load
was light. The storekeeper gave me
his blessing. did not thereafter remain
( long in the service of that transportation
/ bureau.
After this | borrowed a rocker and
started to washing some river bank
gravel. 1t took me several days to be-
come in any degree skilled in the use of
the rocker. had no teacher. and was
obliged to become acquainted with all its
peculiarities 10y myself. First | set it on
a dead level. AS it had no fall the
sand would not run out. But the hard
est work of all was to dip and pour water
from the dipper on the gravel in the
sieve with one hand and rock the cradle
with the other There was constant
tendency on the part of the hand ane
arm employed in pouring to go through
the motion of rocking, and vice versa
The hand and arm that rocked were