The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1894-12-26
n THE G0LDFIELDS.


We were all sal that New Years exc
in the Australian goldfields IN the year
1888. The day before we numbered %
Americans and Englishmen who had
come in search of wealth, and now
three Of our number had just been laid
away forever on the hillside, buried i'm
one deep grave, their lives crashed out
by a fall OF earth.
That night, while the Il Of us who
were left sat around the campfire, young
Ross said:
"Boys" 1--WE We're ali friends and new
er yet used among ourselves the ordi-
nary digger appellaiion OF mate, "this
is sad ending Of our first Australian
New Years day. Maybe it will cheer
Us up some if tell you OF one which in
Canada two years ago 5arned out more
happily"
There was a general cry of "Do, Fred
do, and the boy began:
"Some Of you know that my home is
in hacllwoods township, about SO
miles northwest OF Toronto and not far
from Georgian bay Ny father, who
was formerly a captain in a regiment
Of British cavalry, sold his commission
in 1852 and cInigrated to Canada, where
he bought a 600 acre, partially cleared,
farm, wishing 10 give his five boys and
four girls better chance in life than a
family in moderate circumstances can
Ihave in the old country / was only
years Of age then, and my baby sister
not half as many months.
My mother" I wish / could convey
all idea OF how tcnderiy Fred spoke that
word whenever occurring in his story,
Though tiny li;tlc thing, who wears
a No. , boot and a y glove, i as brave
as an Indian princes, and She and my
father are just like lovers Yet. so we
were 4 happy family and got on splen
didly.
Every year big patch Of bush was
cleared up, and when | left home there
were more than 40 acres OF the farm
under some sort ofcaltivation. Father
and nay three elder brothers sometimes
worked as hard as the hired men, and
they all liked il, but Hugh and |, the
two youngest boys, were, we thought,
awfully abused by being sent 60 school,
and afterward to Upper Canada college
at Toronto. We made up for il all,
though, in the sumner and Christmas
holidays, as there was any quantity Of
fishing and hunting everywhere around
our home.
"Ab0ut six miles from our place lives
Colonel Warwick, half pay officer,
whose family is exactly the same size
as ours, and ever since coming to Can
ada we had dined and spent the evening
with them on Christmas day, ana they
with Us on New Years day, and We al
ways had great fun.
"Two years ago to-day, Jan. !, lSjl,
the Warwicks-father, mother and nine
children, big and little-came to Us a.
usual, bat when we s;,t down 10 dinner
our total number was only u, instead
of22. Tie place at my mothers right
nani was vacant, ana she herself,
though doing the h0nors gracefully,
wore troubled anxiety, which she
could not wholly conceal, and which
was more or less reflected by each face
in our own family"
"Had one of your brothers or sisters
died, then, Fred ~ ask one Of the men.
"No-that Is, We hoped not. The
trouble was that IS months before, in
July, 1919, my eldest brother, Donald,
longing for adventure and excited by
wonderful reports from newly discov-
ed goldfields, had left home, bound for
California, and not word from or of
him had yet reached u beyond the
mere information that he was To leave
New York for Colon on the 10Th day Of
the month "a passenger on sailing
ship, the name of which he did not
give. From Colon-now Aspinwall-
he intended to cross the deadly isthmus
10 Panama, thence take ship on the
Pacific for San Francisco.
'On the New Years day of 1850 his
absence had thrown but a slight cloud
on our joliity, as in those days there
was no Panama railway, and six or
even nine months might well pass away
without letters from him. But now an
other whole year had gone 10y and even
my braveIy hopeful father had begun
10 feel alarmed, for il was not like true
hearted Donald to neglect his own peo-
pie, and yet, if still alive, how was his
long silence 20 be accounted for? We
feared that, like 50 many hundreds of
other gold seekers, he might have per-
ished in fever stricken Panama, rs he
would, we thought, have certainly
written if he had safely reach san
Francisco.
"The grizzled old Soldier, Colonel
haFMich, tilcu il1tu ~ C.iSNt u, ~ MS
own "reminiscences of mysterious lost
and happily refognd comrades in India
and elsewhere and by truthfully re-
minding Us of the many vicissitudes to
which letters from California were then
exposed. Why he said, the boy has
probably written half dozer times,
but either in crossing the isthmus,
passing round Cape Horn or coming by
way of that wonderful overland pony
express the letters may every one have
been lest. I've known far stranger
things than that, in the way of missing
mail matter, To occur among our fell
lows, even in easily reach and densely
populated India.