Arizona republican., 1891-05-24

the sesslon, unlnK, or looy-was known as the Legislature of 10000 drinks. !" Our lawmaker said it had been the "star winter" of his existence, and he never expected to see such another. Three days after his arrival at the Bar he bor- rowed pair of blankets, "cabined" with a chum and contentedly resumed his pick and shovel. Did Cincinnatus do more when he buckled once more to the plow2 But our Swett's Bar Cincinnatus was never hunted for to save his coun- try. There were too many other coun- try savers on hand, even in our imme- diate locality.
 Generally speaking, Swett's was di- vided in two portions. There was the old bar on the right bank of the river, settled in 49, and there was the flat on the other side, whose golden store was not discovered until 1859. At tempts were made to give this flat dis tinct name. Various settlers and miners craved the immortality which they sup posed might thus be conferred. For a time it was called "Frazer's Flat" from diabolical Scotchman of that name who lived there. Only one of these names would stick, and finally everybody set. tied down on the old appellation, "Swetts." do not believe that John Swett, if he did confer his name on the bar, ever realized the local fame and reputation of his name. When first we struck the diggings at Swett's left bank we had great expectations. It was a later discovery, a "back river channel. y Consequent on the discovery of pay ground 1000 feet back of the river, and the definite fixing of the boundary lines between the various claimants, there ensued the usual series of disputes, rows, bad blood, assaults and threatened shoot ings. Nobody was shot. Not even a mining lawsuit came of it.
 A local capitalist threw Hume across the river, and brought to bear on the flat the upland muddy water, which came down from Columbia diggings, twenty five miles away, through Woods creek. That Hume was being talked of, being planned, being hoped for and very grad ually being erected during the years of '59 and 60, while the rest of the na- tion was agitated by Bleeding Kan sas," John Brown" "Squatter Sover- eighty" ""The Douglas Party" "The Lit tie Giant" and all that foreboding series of watchword and motto which preceded "The War" But the Swett's Bar mind, The Swett's Bar hope, the Swett's Bar expedition, was concentrated principally on wire cable, two uprights on either side of the river, and some 400 feet of rough wooden Hume thereby supported, all of which was to bring us water to wash out the expected gold At last the suspension Hume was finished. We had water. We commenced washing. The dirt did not pay as we expected. We averaged week in and week out about three dollars per day, and one dollar of this went for water money.
 After the suspension Hume was fin ished and water was on our Flat our claim cleaned up for the first weeks work about fifty dollars apiece. We used quicksilver plentifully in the sluices, and the amalgam was taken to my cabin in gold pan and put on the hot coals to drive off the mercury, which it did, and salivated the four of us besides. The sublimated mineral covered walls, tables and chairs with a fine frostlike coating, and on rubbing ones finger over any surface little globule of quicksil- yer would roll up before it. Then we went to Chinese camp and gave the doc tor about half our individual weeks dividends to get the mercury out of us, Three weeks of sore mouths and loosened teeth followed this intelligent exposure. It was through such experiences as these that we have become in California prac- tical mineralogists However, it's an easy way of taking "blue mass"
 The claim from which great gains had been expected eventually settled down to an average of $2.50 to s per day. Break downs of the Hume, failure of water from up country, very stormy weather, building and repairing reser. voirs, cutting tail races through rock all caused numerous delays, and every such delay lessened the average per diem. It was necessary to build reser. voirs, to store the water for washing, and thase reservoirs broke with the ease and facility of Bowery savings bank
 PRENTICE MULFoRD