San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-07-09

blessed if | don't bCLicUe it's broke"
For miles out from thriving city of
the west a wagon track leads into the
mountains; not into the heart of the ad-
jacent mining district, for there the
plethora of ore is great enough to require
speedier methods of disagreement than
can be furnished by mule teams, but
back into the wilderness of the ranges
which rise crest on crest, summit above
summit, and melt and blend in the vio-
lets and puppies Of illimitable distance.
The road, little used in later years for
heavy traffic, has become scarcely more
than an old trail, but affords a pleasant,
if CircuitOuS, route to some Of the iSO-
lated mining camps hidden away in the
canyons.
The city lies in a gulch, which it has
outgrown, and from which it has thrust
itself upward on the hills and outward
into the valley into which the gulch
opens, growing naturally, as a Crustacean
grows, and splitting and casting its shell.
1t is a fair city to look upon, with long,
straight streets and wide bOulevards
planted with cottonwoods and other
shade trees and bOrdered by beautiful
homes in which are garnered love, hope
enterprise. and frequently unusual cult
ure. Ba.k of the city rise the mountains
of the main range, holding treasures of
gold under GEJeriOrS made rugged by
rock and clasm and somber with the
gloom of primeval forests Of pine and fir.
whittier he had been summoned to miti-
gate the results OF misunderstanding
which had ended tumultuously, rode
quietly along the old trail, letting his
horse rp-ulIte the plca He was tired
and trihe depressed, for there had been
no letter from the east for many days
and he felt anEoUs-quite without Tea-
son, he continually assured himself for
the last report had been favorable, but
the emotions are mutinOus subjects, 50
he kept on feeling anxious in defiance
both Of reason and of reiteration.
As they came out on a plateau above
the city Royal pulled up his horse and
sat gazing down upon it and letting his
thought absorb the beauty of the scene
and reyel in its promise. He was, com
pavativeIy, Il newcomer to the place, his
residence only covering a period of
seven or eight years, but he took pride
in it. gloried in its enterprise, its wealth.
Its energy and progress. The story of
its birth and growth was Of interest to
him, and he used frequently to entrap
that embodiment of legends, the oldest
inhabitant,' into spinning long yarns Of
the days when the town was but hand
full of rough mining shanties and men
drew their supplies from natures store
house round about or went lacking; and
of those earlier days when all had been
unbrpken solitude, the haunt of elk and
bear and lesser wild creatures, until two
miners, working nOrthward, lured by
tales of diggings of fabulous richness in
the Kootanie country, had camped in
the gulch one night and there decided
that their supply of food was too short
to admit of their going farther.
The circumstance which at the time
appeared to defeat all their calculations
eventually developed into the very key
stone of their fortunes, for the men, in
despair of getting away, fell to digging
where they were, and stuck at it pluck
lily, working with more hope and luck
than knowledge. The goddess of chance
justified their faith in her and guided
them to a find the fame whereof went
abroad through the land and swelled
with its going, so that before the lucky
miners had learned to wear their good
fortune with ease the world, or that por
ton of it which deals in mines, was