The Press., 1890-03-13
about s1 50 per day. -soon, after I found

about $1. 50 per day. Soon after found my first mining partner. He wandered to the Bar, melancholy looking man, with three dogs accompanying, and was always in chronic state of red, ban danna and nose wiping. He and joined forces and went up the river to ''crevice" among the rocks near the Split Rock claim. He had all the skill, all the ex- perience and all the dogs, and all the general ignorance and incapacity. deemed it great advantage to have thus secured real "old miner" for partner and felt that such man must turn up gold.
 We built ourselves rude brush house on shelf of the rocky ledge in a can yon whose sides sloped at an angle of forty. five degrees. Even this shelf was not level. It pitched toward the river, and there was so little of it that during the nights repose our legs stuck out of the house entrance. We were obliged to "chock" all our supply of provisions in their respective packages to prevent them from rolling out of our wigwams over the brink and into the Tuolumne. If a potato got loose it ran like 'tthing possessed" over the rocks and down into the muddy, raging current. We were obliged to peg ourselves at night while sleeping to prevent like catastrophe. It was a permanent and laborious exist ence at an angle of forty-fve. To stand erect for any length of time was very tiresome. More frequently. like Neb-. uchadnezzar, we lived on all fours. "Crevicing" did not prove very profit able. By day the bare rocks become heated by the sun to a blistering ca pacity. .s-
 With pick and sledge and crowbar and bent bits of hoop iron we pried and pounded and scraped, and scraped and pounded and pried all the hot day long, or else were doubled up in all sorts of back aching, back breaking, body tiring positions, drawing up at arms length from some deeper ''pothole" or crevice spoonful after spoonful of yellow mold. It did hold considerable gold, and heavy gold too. But it took so long to get the mold. This was in the latter part of September. The termination of the dry season was reached. The first rain came. It came at night. It drizzled through our brush house. It sent tiny streams down the rocky mountains, and some of these streams found their way under us. We had lain and endured the rain from above dripping on our faces and wetting our clothes. In those times one's day suit served for a nightgown. But when the aqueous enemy undermined our position we had to turn out.
 It blew gale. How the wind howled and tore up the canyon! We tried to kindle fire. Match after match was blown out. Finally blaze was attained. Then the rains descended heavier than ever and put it out. The chief misery was, we could not at night find our way out of the canyon to any place of shelter. Nor could we walk at all to keep warm There was standing room only" All about us were the steeply inclined rocks, molded into every irregularity of shape We were obliged all through the night to 'sstand and take it" as it came, shiver- ing in our thin summer clothing. With daylight we made our way to the camp of the Split Rockers. They gave us some gin. It was common gin-very common gin-but the comfortable and soothing remembrance of that gin after such night exists for me even unto this day. I wore black cloth. cap. The rain had washed out the dye, and this dye had coursed over my brow and cheeks in tiny rivulets of jet. noticed that seemed to be more than a usual object of interest to those about me, and wondered, until friend ad- vised me to consult mirror. I did SO, and found my face marked like rail- road route map. Such was my inau- guration in mining at Hawkins Bar
 What glorious old times they were! What independence! What freedom from the trammels and conventionali- ties of fashionl Who cared or con- mented if we did turn up the bottoms of our pantaloons, or wear, for coolness' sake, our flannel shirts outside the trou- sers? Who then was so much better than anybody else, when any man might strike it rich tomorrow? Who would beg for work or truckle, and fawn and curry favor of an employer for the mere sake of retaining situation and help that same man to make money, when he could shoulder pick, shovel and rocker, go down to the rivers edge and make his 8 or $3 per day? Though even at that time this reputed 8 was ofteAer 91.5O.
 Even then reports of the paying capa- cities of claims were as apt to be watered as are stocks nowadays.
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