Alpena argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1893-1909, 1894-08-15
XLpENA ARGU6
MISCELLANEOUS.
THE GHOST OF SAN FRANCISCO.

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A few years ago, San Francisco
was merely town of tents, as every
body knows, and as many have sad
cause to remember. The hardships
of four or six months voyage in
search of this gold-growing region,
were but the beginning of sufferings.
1t required hardy constitution to
endure the test of climate and
camping out" yet in store for the
voyager. The most robust, after a
few months exposure to the hot,
midday sun, the chilly, searching
night-winds, and the drenching rain
which often foated away his tent,
was constrained to wrap himself in
blanket, lie down in a corner and
SILVER himself into a shadow. He
had little aid, for his companions
were too much occupied with their
own doleful battles with the
shakes" to do else than laugh at
their fellow-sufferers. The lily
handed gentleman's son, who had
thought to gather gold without la
Dor, grew Disguised and dispirited,
and was an easy victim to disease;
and the hearty worker, unused at
home to more than paper lingering,
soon exhausted his strength in his
new callings of cartman, carpenter,
painter or well-digger, as the wants
of the hour demanded. Fevers were
ready for such. The new corners
who arrived almost daily in scores,
were as impetuous as the old, and
passed through the same routine of
labor, sickness and death, till at last
the undertaker's profession was the
most thrifty of all. So great was
the mortality that, as during a pes
thence, the dead were often rolled
up in their blankets, boxed in rude
pine collins, and hurried away in
carts for burial, without friend to
know or care whittier they were
taken. Sometimes few followed
on foot, tramping slowly along the
sandy road that led to the cemetery.
Its site was long valley reaching
from the bay to the ocean, and
walled in on either side by barren
sand hills. 1t could boast no shade
but few scrub oaks, and its count
less mounds had no other monument
than wooden tablets, upon which
the names of the sleepers were rude
ly carved with jack knife or paint
ed in black. Grave diggers were al
ways in the gloomy valley, making
homes for the dead faster than houses
for the living could be fashioned in
the young city of tents.
The black wagons in which the
dead were brought were drawn by
mules, and the driver, astride of a
coffin, whistled as he went, or was
not loath to Chamber down from his
ghostly load and beat his stubborn
mules with sticks, and howl curses
in their unheeding ears. Arrived
at the open graves he tumbled out
his fearful freight as roughly as if
life had never rendered it sacred,
and the receivers, with feelings
equally calloused, pushed the collins
one by one into the narrow cells,
and let them drop with a heavy
thump that seemed enough to wake
the dead.
At this period of mortality among
the gold seekers, there came down
from the mines a New Highlander
who had so well lined his pockets
with the yellow scales that he WISE
ly determined to return home and
invest it in a Berkshire FARM
While making preparations for his
return voyage he found a temporary
home in wooden domicile, respect
ably kept by two 'shrivelled sisters.
One was tall, gaunt woman who
looked as if she might have prowled
along a storm-lashed beach by the
side of wrecker husband. The
other, of less stature, was sullen in
her nature, moving about like a
mummy with revived power of To-
comotion, and forever brooding up
on some great wrong. But Zed
Wheeler was great talker, and
his hostesses were the best of listen
ers. 1t was not long, therefore, be-
fore they knew Zed's history from
the time he was little tow-headed
urchin, turning somersaults in the
mud, till he had arrived at his
present six-foot stature; and de-
lighted with his own account Of
himself he did not cease till duly
established in his own opinion and
that of his auditors, as the princely
hero of his placer.
Doeoxo Al .L..o -, ,rL:ol L. A.