Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-02-15

MAGNOLIA, the Bella Union, the Court
Exchange, the post and express Office.
There are the ''boys." He learns the
news Of the county or district Tho
Mount Vernon is paying "a per day
Long Shortman has gone on another
spree and hasn't done any work FOR tho
last ten days. Jimmy Mcneil has sent
for his wife's sister. She IL unmarried.
Sullivan has had another row with his
wife and she has complained 10 the
authorities. Sam Gedney ls going TO
run for county clerk on the Democratic
ticket. Bob Delmamo lost 5000 at the
game the other night. A San Francisco
company have bought the Crazy gulch
quartz lead and will put ten-stamp
mill on it. The schoolmaster was drunk
last Friday night. Ford shot at McGillis
the other night, but did not hit him.
There is scandal and talk concerning the
Frenchwoman who keeps the peanut
stand, and the justice Of the peace. The
Wiley girls, two sisters, who have re-
Gently moved into camp, are making n
sensation. and their small parlor at times
won't hold the crowd Of semi-bald and
unconsciously middle aged miners and
others who are calling on them with pos
sible matrimony in prospective.
They may pass along the street about
the middle OF the afternoon, and such
"ragging out was never seen before In
this camp. The curious have investigat-
ed the tracks made by their little CATERS
In the red dust Of the upper road. and
report them the smallest feet ever seen
In this section. Billy Devins, OF the
Blue-jay claim, is thought to have the
best show with the eldest, and Goldber-
ry, of the livery stable, with the young.
est. No. He won't let his best horse
and buggy to anybody now, and takes
hef-out riding three times a week. But
they're snappy and uncertain, and mo-
body can count on them for n certainty.
So runs the weeks news, which he picks
up with sundry drinks.
He enjoys the luxury Of a hotel din
ner--a dinner he is not obliged to pre-
pare with his own hands-a decidedly
plain dinner in metropolitan estimation,
but TO him, commencing with soup and
ending with pie, sumptuous repast.
II is moonlight, and he takes his way
back by the old trail home. Old not in
years, but in association. II is but the
track Of twenty years or so, yet for him
how old is it In thought. How many,
many times he has Travelled over it.
That poker game Is going on in one
corner Of the Magnolia. The "hard
case" from over the hill is trying to beat
it. He has been 30 trying every Sunday
night in that same saloon and in that
same corner for the last twenty years.
He has grown old in trying. IL has kept
him poor, yet he thinks he can play
poker. He is encouraged in this i'm
preston by considerable few. He
works for them. They 'scoop him in"
regularly. He will 80 home tomorrow
morning, and during the week wash out
q couple Of ounces more for the benefit
of "Scotty" and Texas"
1t is II o'clock and time to go home.
That three mile walk is before him; he
has taken us many drinks as il prudent,
possibly one or two more. The camp
saloon revelries are beginning to quiet
down. Most of the prominent drunks
have fallen in the cause. The chronic
drunk OF the camp is talking at the bar.
But he will thus talk all night; he never
stops talking-or drinking. He has been
here more or less drunk ever since 1859.
He is phenomenal and not standard for
ordinary incorporates. Almost every
camp has known such drunkard. Some
are alive yet. They are of the immortal
| few not born to die. II would be mad.
ness to compete with such.
| So he sets out on his lonely walk. OF
how much has he thought while plod
ding over it. Here the same big buck
eye brushes against his face as it did in
the "spring Of '50,' when he was twenty
years younger and had n sweetheart in
the Estates" whose memory was fresh
and warm. 1t has all died out since
! The letters became less and less, tn,
years more and more, and then all cam,
TO q dead standstill, and he received th'
village paper, and there, appropriated,
below the column of deaths, he read o
her marriage, whereat he went TO camI
and plunged wildly into all the concer
saloon could give, and made things hoo
and boldly challenged the chronic poke
game and won.
The trail turns suddenly. IT has rul
over the rocks by the river, its trail u
times for many feet almost illegible,
vague, smoothly worn streak over ledS
and loose bowlders, polished and strewi
with new white sand and pebbles b,
some unusually high freshet. But her
the shelving bank suddenly ceases. !
becomes precipice. Up the hard worl
path in the red earth he climbs forty
fifty, sixty feet. II is closely hedge'
with chemisal. Now he emerges nea
the brow of the high, rocky bluff. Il
all its moonlit glory surges, bubbles am
roars the river below. Its yellow muddi
ness of the day is now changed TO dar
shade Of brown, with tremulous silve
bars. Night and the moon are the art
lists. PRENTICE MuLFoRp.