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

and paid n or - per day. A little far
ther back we struck the edge Of the red
gravel streak. This for a time paid bet
ter. Farther still came the deposit Of
light sandy gravel, aud lastly came in
the accurscd "hard pan.'
Our claim, on being first prospected,
was reported to pay three cents to the
pan from the top down. We believed II
at first, not having learned that three
cents to the pan from the top down"
means the biggest kind of luck. II you
get an average Of half cent pan from
the top down, and the dirt would wush
easily, we should make money. II was
hard even for an "honest miner" TO give
as result of prospect anything less
than three cents to the pam" But
"hard pan" Is our foe. "Hard pan" Is
the essence Of brickbats. It's consistency
is about that Of chalk. 1t scems the
finest kind Of sand cementcd and pressed
together. II can be carved into any
form with knife. Il takes as much
time to work of square foot of hard
pan as ten square feet Of soft gravel.
When, after half a days labor, we sue
cced in getting down cave, II goes into
the ground sluice i'm few great humps,
which must he battered to pieces with
our picks before the water will slowly
dissolve them into mad. And II doesn't
hold "color" of gold. The work in
the ground sluice goes on hour after
hour. Pick and shovel and scrape,
scrape and shovel and pick, the water
meantime tumbling and roaring over
the bank and making 1t difficult for us
to hear one anothers' voices. The sun
climbs higher and gets hotter. The
water pail is frequently visited. The
backs of the gray shirts are wet with
pcrspiration. In an easy, companion
able claim, where the partners are all
good fellows and on good terms and not
too insane in the matter Of getting an
enormous quantity OF dirt through the
sluices each day, there may be more or
less brief suspensions from the work,
when all hands lean on their shovels
and talk politics. or horses, or last nights
poker game, or have short service of
tobacco smoke, with the usual solemn
preliminaries of cutting the plug and
filling pipes. But IL the majority Of the
company are mean, grabbed, close
listed lot, the misery goes OH without
cessation.
queerly assorted group are we thus
iaboring together Jack Gwin's impelling
hope aud life's idea Is 10 earn enough TO
pay his passage home to Philadelphia
and buy him suit Of clothes. A decent
suit he has not earned these five years.
He would be the terror and distress of
his relatives II ever he got back, for with
him 80 In his pocket over expenses and
sobricty nrc an impossibility. McFadden
dreams of a cabin, COW, some geese
and goats, "a horse and wife, and is in
fair way of realizing them all. He
saves most of his earnings, gets drunk
wisely only on holidays. pays his debts
regularly, hates the English, lives in that
little black, brownish cabin up yonder,
does all his cooking in two tin pots, sleeps
in one pair of ancient blankets and "A
most disreputable bed quilt, and 50 will
cover the cost of all his domestic fittings
and utensils. Bill Furnea, French Ca.
madam, has drifted hero into this hole In
the foothills very much as he driftcd into
the world--without aim or object In life
save present enjoyment. He is a good
worker and works because he was brought
up to II and can't help II. He is a good
boatman, u good logger, skilled wood
cutter, devctae of poker and generally
successful one, an entertaining scamp,
full of wit and originality, quick TO take
In the peculiarities and eccentricities of
others, something Of a dandy, as far as
dandyism can be indulgcd in this out of
tho way place, and born scamp, glib OF
tongue, unreliable, and socially the best
man Of the crowd.
IL Is near II o'clock. There stands In
a cool corner of the claim and carefully
shielded from any stray flying pebble, q
black bottle. II Is nearly fall of whisky
very common corn whisky. 1t Is most
welcome at this hour. Poison it may
be, but draught from the tin cup
brightens up and makes all things new.
The sunshine is more cheerful. All nat
ure smiles. The picks descend with in
creased force and host of new day
dreams start into being. II revives hope.
1t quenches despair. 1t gilds the monot-
ony of our lives. II was ever thus, and
possibly ever shall be, world without
end. 1t is high noon. The sun is over
our heads and the shadows arc ut their
shortest length. One of our number
trudges wearily up to the reservoir To
shut of the water. So soon as its flow
lessons we trudge off In wet overalls or
heavy rnbbers to our respective cabins.
We are now ground sluicing at or about
the year 1860, when miners generally
had abandoned "cabining" in squads and
each man kept house by himself. Cause
general lincompatibility Of temper, tenn
perament, disposition, and habit. The
sober miner found 1t disagrecable to live
permanently with the spreeing miner,
and tho miner nice in his domestic econ
omy and particular about his food soon
became tired Of companion who never
aired his blankets and didn't care wheth-
er his bread was light or heavy, sweet or
sour Trudging to our cabins, we pick
up the dried twigs in our path. These
are to kindle the dinner fire. Dinner is
very much like breakfast, beef or bacon,
bread, tea, dried apple sauce. The boots
are kicked off and thumped into cor
ner. The temperature is up to that
notch that induces perspiration without
any exertion at all, and the ugly little
stove makes it hotter still.
We sit down to the noon meal in a
melting condition, and rise from it in
the same state. Dinner is eaten, the
incoming" is over, back again TO the
claim, turn on the water, pick, shovel,
scrape, pry, toss back bowlders and prop
up sluices slipped from their supports.
Between 2 and 8 O'Clock snowy white
cloud rises over distant peak to the
eastward. 1t seems like a great bank of
snow against the blue sky, and the
longer we look at it the farther we seem
to peer into its translucent, clear-white