The record-union., 1894-02-19
THOSE STAGGERING GE0RGIhNS.
How They Were All Called Down by
"AIeck" Henry.
a Bit of the UnwrItten History of
Whisky Diggings. Back in the
Early Fifties.

Professor I. z. Buggs of Placer County
was in the city the other day, and to sew
eral friends, including a RECoRD-UNIoN
reporter, told the following story:
1.-The top of Judge Henry's head was
not always a barren, inhospitable waste.
In the early fifties it supported luxuri-
ant growth of bonnie, sable curls, and
"Aleck" Henry was the envy of every
beau from Whisky Diggings and old Fort
Toejam on the east to Gougeye and the
Wild Goose Forks OF Coon Creek on the
west
with well-turned, symmetrical
physique, handsome face, winning ad-
dress, graceful bearing, popular manners,
social habits and an inexhaustible flow OF
lively conversation, he combined the
courage, the gallantry and the magma
nimity of Richard the Lion-hearted.
This Aleck Henry, then in the flower
OF his age, had friend named Cox. who,
having acquired an agricultural title TO a
parcel of land contiguous to the mineral
claims of Whisky Diggings, had enjolned
colony of Georgia miners from running
their tailings onto his land.
''These Georgians were rough, reckless,
staggering fellows, and subsequently
notified Mr.. Cox that they would be
down the following Sunday for The pur-
pose of running HIM from the nelghbOr-
hood by force.
And come they did, about twenty in
number, armed with rifles, and at the
appointed time. Mr.. Cox was still there,
though there is no telling where he might
have been had Aleck Henry not come TO
his assistance. There were four Of Us
there altogether in MIR. CoX'S house when
we saw that arsenal coming, and We were
all well armed; but Aleck Henry was the
only man among us whose knees would
T,5e airrhf ffnr
we caught sight Of those terrible GeOrg-
ians, and when they halted in front OF
the house, Aleck Henry was the man who
went to one of the front windows TO re-
ceive them.
Gentlemen, said he, with delicate
fiattery and seductive eloquence, i under
stand that you have come here for the
purpose of removing usp
THAT swatP beloved the Georgian
rabble.
1.-The best thing for you to do, then,1i
to quietly withdraw responded Henry
With unruffled sweetness. Il have twenty
men inside here, armed to the teeth. We
do not wish TO have any trouble with you,
but if you mean fight, we are ready for
you! As l said before, there are twenty
men here, well armed, who will not be
driven away without a struggle, aud If
you are determined TO precipitate con-
1lict, some of us will have to die y
This speech set the Georgian buc-
cancers to thinking very seriously, and
the result was that they soon retired.
''If the diggings they had been work
ing had really been whisky diggings, [
am of the opinion there would have been
a sanguinary encounter. AS it was
Aleck Henry called the bluff and they
had TO show their hand, which turned
out to be very weak.
"Aleck Henry was somewhat of a
politician also in those stirring times.
His maiden speech electrified large
audience one night at the old Manzanita
Grove schoolhouse. 1t ran intermit-
tingly and automatically through a
brilliant exordium, then came to a dead
center, and wound up with peroration
which resembled the peal of trumpet
sounding to battle, as follows:
"F-e-l-I-ow citiZens! Fellow citiZensi
F-f-f-f-ellow CITIZENSHIP be id if 1
haven't forgot my speech"