The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-11-04
HOW WE STRUCK 1T.

f1UW w II OlRUOh Ill.
eff had only come here away back
in the early ffties" sighed a dreamy
man to me as we waited for the train at
Fruitvale last week. And another man
Clipped in and sighed also as he said.
PLUSH times then, you bet, and big
strikes; but only got here in the seven
'ies-got here without cent and have
held my own right alongV
First let me once for all disabuse the
popular mind about the flush times and
Zig strikes of the early fifties. Yes,
there were big strikes, but they were,
like the big generals of our great war,
not the rule. You hear of the big strikes
and you hear of the big generals. The
thousands and hundreds of thousands
that persisted in the ranks you never
hear about.
For the benefit of the dreamy man
who sits waiting and lamenting, let me
say that the openings and opportunities
are better today than they were in the
seventies, and they were better in the
seventies than they were in the ffties.
The wear and tear of life was SO terri
bic then too. Every dollar cost about
two dollars and half to get in those
days.
1t has been estimated, and 1 think
about correctly, that if each miner had
received twenty-five cents a day and
board for his hbor-and such labor,
sixteen hours a day generally-we
would have had more gOlddust than we
got in those famous "early fifties.'
fl,io IaT,1pv-inyr fh1f
80 late to California, my dreamful
friend. OF course we would all like to
live over the impetuous old days again;
but doubt if you who don't get on to-
day would have got on then. Better,
far better for you, for all, to settle
down content by some sweet village in
this fair land, where you can have clean
clothes, good food, books, papers, the
presence of women and all the healthful
refinements that attend her, than sit
signing for the days of old. You can at
least get your board and twenty-five
cents a day, and that, be assured, is
more than we got on an average to the
man, notwithstanding all our priva-
tons.
An old forty-niner from New Bed |
ford, Mass, Mr.. Haskins, who has writ |
ten very readable book about his fell |
low argonauts-and very important |
book it is, as it contains the names of |
more than 80 600 of them-told me that |
of the 1000 who came from his town,
first and last, il was hard to find more
than a very few who were much ahead |
in the world. He told me that on re-
turning home after forty years he and
mis- old friends took 800 of their select !
young men who came and compared |
their fortunes with 300 similar young
men who remained at home, and they
found that the proportion of those who
had prospered at home was as ten to
four against those who hsid come in
fOrty-nine. On the other hand, they
found that notwithstanding the perils
and hardships the proportion of argo-
nauts still living was ten to three against
those who remained in New Bedford.
Some day, my dreamful friends. who
lament your late coming and are con-
tinually taking the free local trains of
Oakland in order to fly from toll as from
Il contagion, will sit down and tell you
how to make fortunes right here by the !
Bay of San Francisco far easier than
they were made in the early fifties."
But for the present the contract is to tell |
YOU how we struck it in the middle fork |
Of Humbug creek.
had n ''pardner' for about a week, |
winter of 1850. He was not yet twenty, |
small for his age, and l was not yet /
thirteen. "A fool for luck" and so Pat |
Flanagan, the banker at Coos Bay,
staked him-so he said-and Frank
Campbell, of the Howlin' Wilderness
saloon, started me. Neither of us, let
it be frankly told, had enough practical
sense to come in when it rained. Surely
we would strike it, if there was bit of
truth in the old adage.
His name was Hi Williams Miller, so
lie said, and he claimed to be kin of
mine, but l afterward learned that his
name was Miller Williams. He was a
fearful liar, and had about as much con-
science as a rubber band.
Boots and pick and pan and shovel,
bacon, -four, frying pan, beans and
blankets, and so, half hidden under our
huge loads, we crept out of camp at
midnight up the narrow trail of the
middle fork between high walls of snow.
For he had pointer" he lisped, from
old Alva Boles, killed two years later in
The Pitt river massacre.
How in the world Hi Miller Williams
managed to keep all this name don't
see Names were rare luxuries in those
days, especially long ones like this, and
many good old man may be found in
those mountains to this day with name
and date and nationality all worn away
and gone as from an old quarter But
the true silver, trust God, is still there.
Three miles up the creek, a mile above
the very last cabin; the last mile or two
SOLID snow, soft and impossible by day
because of the sun, but hard as steel by
night, and here we laid down our loads
at daylight and took shelter in a brush
shed built by Alva Boles. We fried our
bacon and fiapjacks and ate like wolves.
On the third day, discouraged and
disgusted, for not a color as yet had we
found, we took the tools and climbed up
out of the canyon to n warm mountain
side that lay to the sun. 1t was pleasant
here. Some tall, wild flowers had shot
through the brown carpet of pine quilts
by the edge of foaning, tumbling
stream, made muddy from a slide on the
steep hill above. My ~'pard" did not
like work, but he was always making it
appear that he was moving mountains.
After baslking in the sun a bit he took
the pick and pushed on up, and soon had
the powders tumbling and rumbling
down the angry stream, while / sat
there and pulled some Of the prettiest
nowtts eyR seen, 4 was like picking