The Anaconda standard., 1895-12-16

Then at last the lamps are put out,
and the dancers see the daylight
streaming through the closed shutters.
You can go down the street a little
further and stop at the Topic theater.
There is a group Of girls and negro
minstrels on the stage singing topical
songs. You can hear Sweet Marie"
there any night. for the author was
once the literary light of the town.
He did not live here. but he was here
often and he was q visitor at these
theaters. There is a big crowd Of men
In the chairs on the floor. Overhead
are rows of boxes concealed by green
curtains. Here the women of the the
ater go after their performance is over.
and drink with the men who have won
at the faro tables, or who have made
a lucky investment in the mines.
Money is likely to flow very freely in
these boxes.
You can find q faro room a block
away. There are dozens of them In
the town. Everything is silent here.
The men are bending over the green
cloth. some of them eagerly. some with
faces aglow with excitement. and 9TH
ers with expressions so stolid that no
or losers. 1t is here that fortunes are
made and lost every week. almost
every day. You could sit there all
night. and all you would hear would
be the clatter of the chips: sometimes
the low voice of a player. Once in a
while. however. there is a man with
blood in his eye. He usually has a re-
volver. and IL he has he always uses
IL. And yet there have not been many
men killed in these places. considering
the wholesale killings in other mining
towns OF the sort.
You can drop into one of the bar
rooms or other lettering places, and
hear the old citizens tell strange stor-
les of men who have jumped from
poverty to millions. You can hear ro-
mances by the score. There is a story
that is told about town that Is de-
cidedly pathetic. Three years ago
Billy Rogers came here. He came
from some little town in Ohio. He had
left a young wife there and he had
told her that. he was coming to Grip
pie Creek to make his fortune. They
had been struggling with poverty for
years. until he had caught the gold
| fever and had been filled with sudden
hope. He toiled on here for two or
three months and he became discour-
aged. Then he had a chance to get
an interest in a mine over beyond Bull
HILL He had hopes that this would
| give him the wealth he was seeking
He brought his wife on. and they took
little house.
| I'm three months I will be a rich
man." Billy said to his wife.
Work on the mine began. They
found no gold-worth sending to ths
smelters. Billy's spirits began to sub
side. and again discouragement over.
| took him. He hated to tell his wife
he had come there in vain. He worried
until he fell sick. He became deliriou:
and. as he lay in his bed, he kept con.
stantly talking about the mine. Hii
interest in 1t finally had to be sold fol
a trihing sum. for his wife had hardly
a cent in the house. But still Billy be-
lieved the mine was partly his, and
every day he asked: Have they
found the gold YETI" He kept gettinl
worse until he died. He was buried
over in the mountains. a mile or 81
from the town. And hardly a weel
passed by before a miner in Billy
mine found vein of gold that mean
fortune to the owners.