Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1892-08-06
ouR inns.
story of Two Miners Who Parted In Ange
and Peace Came at Last.

I'VE always spoke OF them as 'our
Jims. They were two OF the best
men in camp and best meant
good deal in those days When the
Grange Gulch men came over to jump
our claims it was our Jims who rallied
US to drive them of, leaving six dead
men to be buried in the evening.
When the toughs and roughs OF Old
Mans Hill laid claim to our digglngs
and appeared two to one to drive US
OH. it was our Jims again who led the
van and enabled US to win the vic
tory.
jim what? Jim whate l do not
know. No one bus themselves knew.
NOW and then some miner gave his
full name but we had no use for il.
We were Jim and Bill and Pete TO
each other and that alone.
Our Jims were not quarrelsome
men. Big men and brave men never
are. They tented together and We're
'pards and how it came about that
they fell out none OF us ever learned.
One morning. when they had been
tent mates for many months one Jim
packed up and left camp He had
nothing to say-nothing beyond the
statement that Me and Jim is out
The Jim who remained made no state
mont whatever Among ourselves
we said there had been n hot word
dropped and picked up just when both
men were out OF sorts. 1t was hard
work that hunting for gold. We
worked like slaves and lived far
worse, and terminates quarrelled very
often.
In day or two we saw that the Jim
who remained was troubled in his
mind. He had been too proud to hold
out his hand and ask the other Jim to
stay. but now il was hurting him.
He grew sullen and morose and now
and then he paused in his work and
looked up the trail with a longing
look in his eyes-longing to see the
other Jim returning to camp. Five
or six days had passed when a China
man came into camp with note for
Jim. 1t was written with blackened
stick on piece OF brown paper and
! read:
JIa: rs a case of smallpox, and won {
ash you 70 come. It's Just 10 say I'm sorry
W. fell out, ard 10 bid SOU guol-by. JIM
II took three or four OF US half an
hour TO make out the badly written
and misspelled message, and when we
had finished our Jim walked away to
his tent and began to pack up. The
snow clouds were banking up in the
,, west and it was plain that a bad
storm was at hand. The other Jim
,, was twenty-eight miles away sick
! and alone in a rude cabin at the
abandoned diggings OF Crazy Woman 8
creek The trail led over the noun
! tain and through valleys thick with
scrub and rough with boulders, and
the ChInaman was completely broken
down when he reached us
! You won't start with that storm
: coming on?" we said to Jim as hc
! came out of his tent with pack on
+. his back
Jim wants me-good- byeu' he re.
! piled. and in five minutes he was our
!, OF sight
An hour later we were all driven tc
. shelter. and for three days and right.
!. there was never a break ia the storm
! There wasn't tent on the digging.
{ in sight when the fourth morning
came-every one showed out OF sight
:, II we hadn't been showed under We
= should have been frozen to death By
the cutting winds Jim couldn't havt
: made those twenty-eight miles in les
, than day with no snow under hi
I feet We knew that he must havl
! persisted in that storm before mid
: night
? It was a long three weeks befor
y the snow went Off says tho Detroi
y Free Press and then two OF US wen
? up the trail All day long we locke
= for the dead body OF Jim, who ha
, started out before the storm. but W
did not discover it. An hour befor
dark we came to the abandoned dig
gings and caught sight Of the singh
shanty left standing. We should lin
IA the other Jim in there dead Step b
step we advanced. dreading to look in
- yet feeling that we must The doc
n was fast but the fierce gusts ha
~ torn loose some of the light boards q
y corner, and we had view OF the In
terror. Lying on blanket-on til
d. earth. with another partly GOVERN
them, and lying face to face with a
arm OFtf ttitH DblGIs were Two ued
~ men-our Jims. The one who hn
AZ sent the Ch1naman might have bea
or raying in deIirium when the othe
IL reached him through that awft
IN storm. but he heard his voice an
W knew it. The one who fought his wa
= over the snow bound trail, stumblin,
v falling. praying -buoyed up by tt
- hope he would not be too late. coui
re do nothing after hisjourney was ende
~ nothing but to lie down and die b,
M side his partner.
ne FONT in Euchre.
p i,T mot two nice pentfeunpn m -