The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-06-04
THE BURNING NINE.
4 Story Of the Famous Com
stock Lode.


from one another. During the week
the steep streets of the little town, be-
ing on the mountain side, were thronged
with crowds of eager spectators, mine
owners, brokers and business men. who
watched the bulletin board for the
latest quotations of the San Francisco
stock exchange. and in offices, saloons
and hotel lobb;es discussed the mar.
ket, and exchanged reports and ru-
mors concerning the condition of this
or that mine. On Saturday evening
the scene changed. Thousands of
brawny miners then came up from the
deep workings for their one breath of
fresh air and day of leisure; and as the
greater number of these were Cornish
men, they gave quite q new and for
cign aspect to the place.
Miners, whatever their nationality,
are superstitious. They live close to
nature in her mysterious moods, and
they acquire peculiar tendency to
belief in the supernatural Mines are,
at best, uncanny places, full of deep
shadows and corners sof impenetrable
obscurity; full also of queer echoes,
and the creaking and cracking of heavy
imb ers, and the rush or trip of water;
while in the deep workings, from one
to three thousand feet beneath the
surface Of the earth, there is an ever
present sense of danger-danger from
the immense pressure of the superin-
cumbent mass of rock, and from fire,
which, once started in those labyrinths
of wood-lined passages, spreads with
such appalling rapidity as to battle
and defeat even the utmost precau-
ton and preparation. So it is that the
Comstock miners were given to super
stition. They had many legends and
traditions of fearful things seen In the
deep workings; of spectral appear
ances, of mysterious voices, and, more
than all else, of supernatural warnings
and premonitions prefacing disasters
in the mines. An interesting volume
could have been compiled by anyone
frequenting the favorite saloons of
these honest, old-fashioned miners, for
on Saturday nights they were in the
habit of swapping yarns" and the
story to be told here is one which was
many a time told over pipes and
glasses, on these festal occasions.
John Treloar and James Pennart
were employed in the Yellow Jacket
mine, and. being close friends, they
had arranged SO as to be in the same
shift-a term nearly equivalent to the
sailors watch" at sea- Treloar was
the elder of the two, sturdy, power
full, handsome man OF thirty, known
and liked for his constant readiness to
bcfriend his comrades. He was brave
and gentle, modest yet resolute; man
of action, yet at the same time q man
of sentiment His chum, Jim Pennart
was FIVE years his junior, and con-
trasted with Treloar in many ways.
lie was physically robust, but OF lighter
frame, good looking, honest, frank, but
possessing less decision and timidity
that was almost morbid. Pennart had
an intellect above the merely bodily
toll by which he gained a living. He
had managed to educate himself par
TALLY, and knew enough to be dissatis-
fled with his position in life. He was
not considered selfish, but his was one
of the natures which are formed to
absorb rather than to dispense trust
and affection. John Treloar's loving
poured out upon him,
and he accepted it as a perfect matter
of-coursc manifestation. Had the op-
occurred he might have
proved capable of self-sacrifice; as it
was, he seemed merely to let himself
be loved.
Now these two friends did what has
severed many friendships; they fell in
love with the same woman. Alice Min
ton. was not a Cornish girl, but of
American parentage and born in Cali
fornia Left an orphan without means
in her sixteenth year, she had quite
naturally taken to teaching, and had
obtained position in one of
the public schools of Virginia City,
the interest of an old mining
friend of her father She had met the
comrades, Treloar and Pennart, at a
ball, where both had danced with her.
and whence both had walked to their
lodgings in an unaccustomed silence.
The truth was that Jack and Jim were
equally hard hit though neither
thought for moment that the other
had been impressed by the pretty and
engaging young teacher. Before the
mutual discovery occurred, moreover.
both had become still more deeply en-
tangled, and when at last the truth
came to light, dismay fell upon each.
rs they looked at each other. Treloar
was the first to recover from the shock.
His face was white and his mouth |
drawn and set, as he slowly said:
Jim, lad, do'st zee care for her great |
ly?"
Jim, with panied eyes and trembling
lips, made answer:
Jack! She's just all there is to me.' |
Then silence fell again, and the two |
brooded. shielding their faces with |
their hands, nc longer looking at each |
other.
Treloar's voice, low and yet strained,
at last almost whispered:
'Lad-Jim-count me out of the run
niny! Then a pause, and evidently |