Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1890-08-16

sides was the shining. precious metal
That last blast, for which Wash had
struggled so bravely, had revealed
fortune. The excited miners rushed
out again with wild shout. A woman
met them with flushed and frightened
face.
''How can you make such q noise?"
she said. "The poor things gone, cry
ing like baby for her dead man."
The miners drew close together.
ashamed and profoundly affected. After
little few Of them went back to the
tunnel and secured Wash's pickaxe,
which had been left leaning against
the wall.
1--WE can't bury them here, now"
said one; 1.-THE mine Will be worked
again. They must lie on the hillside,
where all his old friends OF twenty years
ago are laid"
Meanwhile they were talking in low
tones, when suddenly, a miner, who
had been looking ut Wash's curving
pickaxe, which hardly another man in
camp could have handled, gave cry Of
surprise. In little flaw in the weld
| ing Of steel to iron o few inches from
the point, was o feck of wire gold.
broken of and caught there by the last
stroke Of the weapon, as 1t was flung
forward and the man with II, both sink.
ing at the foot OF the wall Of rock.
"Ef only Wash could have seen that
before he died, 'twould have made him
happy" said one Of the miners. He
knew pocket-mining traces better than
any other man in the mountains. That's
pocket gold; he could have had thou
sand dollars on that bit of yellow wire.
Wash made his strike himself, without
anybody's powder; but he died before he
knowed it."
"What makes you say so, Jim?" que
ried second miner.
because helped pick him up. He
jest had both hands gripping his pick
axe handle. and the point Of it was
wedged in the rock. He lay Jest as he
fell. going down with the stroke, as II
he had felt his heart giving way, and
threw himself and his pick into that last
blow. twas an awful stroke he made.
never saw rock split so by mortal man
before"
Wash had no relatives. His wife's
brother came up and took possession of
the claim which the miners had pro-
tected against all intruders. In a few
weeks it became generally understood
in the region that the wealth Of the
''Blue Juniata's last and greatest
pocket" was estimated by conservative
miners at q quarter Of a million. II
was managed with consummate skill,
and one Of the finest blocks Of build
ings in San Francisco was erected by
the shrewd, selfish man Of affairs who
had once refused to help that crazy
Missourian brother-in-law" of his The
hidden gold OF the blue Juniata
pocket" went abroad in the world,
blessing or cursing according to the
natures OF the men who held 1t; the
miner and his wife lay in the red hill
side soil, under the pines, within sound
of the river, their struggle past.
But from the day that Wash fell dead
in his tunnel q blight seemed to fall on
the little camp of Ophir. Mine after
mine gave out; miner after miner moved
away. A landslide swept of the cabin
where Wash had lived, and though, as
l have said, the "Blue Juniata" yielded
all that was expected, and even more,
and founded one of the great Pacific
coast fortunes, none OF its treasures
brought happiness to those who worked
it. To-day the camp is deserted. and
its very name memory. The broken
fumes rot on the hillsides and the
grizzly sleeps in the ancient tunnel
where the Missourian sank dead in his
last wrestle with fate. This is the
story of the last strike at ophir.-
Charles Howard Shinn, in N. Y. INDIE
pendent.