The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1895-09-17
RUNNING OUTAN ANGEL
A STORY OF MINIE& CAMPS AND
MOoNSHINE WHISKEY.

uerpuSly, I've saw nunQredS, meDDe
THOUSANDS, of 'em, and l. say TIL feller's
Dugus, mil bear right smart chance o.
Nwatchin'-that's what L think"
Hes dead wrong" assented little
Ike Bullet, who always agreed with
the major Ia everything. 90 course,
his actin mysterious hain't really
nothin' p'tic'lar ag'in i'm. Folks out
~yere-that is they ha'n't nobody,
hardly, th't hain't got somethin' t. be
be mys-that is, some o'them ducks is
mysterious an some's noisy, like"
finished Ike, lamely realizing that he
had almost slipped into personalities.
Hain't nobody but my barkeep gifts
no talk out of i'm" put in Col. Hanks,
the landlord, an bout all e says t.
Billy is Nice day, an 'Coctail,
please Butte pays lis bills, an' carries
2 roll, too; s'pose that's all 1 ought
Ike con ss,SsEs ssS oh s YES a., s sS' s;ae, little sts
layin' most Nicely, FIR t. jerk Ia props
firm under yer startfn, I am"
II wouldn't be too hasty, gentle
men," counselled the mild voice of
Prof. Hendrix, editor of the Gold Hill
Avalanche. 1--WE may, after all, be
entertaining an angel-that is, a
'sucker'-unawares. Let no guilty
capitalist escape ere he has been in
ouCSo W lhNcot.
he hain't no capitalist" inter-
jected the major, s%cornfully. "He's
too-too quiet. | think he'd better
have tn run"
Easy, Major, easy" said Hendrix,
softly. Now | would suggest that
we select b committee of. say two, to
sound the gentleman and %endeavol, by
peaceful means, is possible, to cause
him to give an account of himself. If
hn lnnIn.xrA - 1N ~ - I'M
concluded with a tolerably graceful
wave of his hand, for the subject of
the foregoing remarks-a pale, some
what ordinary-looking young man, in
clothes of Eastern cut-bad just an
tered and was passing through the
bar-room.
Time was when Gold Hill had beer
a thriving, busy camp, with m%etropoli-
tan aspirations. But it's boom died,
and the glories of Gold Hill were only
q memory to the 300 citizens (who re-
manned behind because they could not
afford to leave what little was left
them OF their former possessions), and
to the ~"slckers" who had dropped
their money at the time of the rush.
1t was still the centre of o fairly good
but steadily ''petering" mining dis
trlct, and there yet remained the hope
on the part of many citizens that some
n might make another big "strike,n
n the old times come back In which
case they would be in on the ground
floor" But several years 'lad seer
only a steady decline in Gold Hill, and
an increase OF prosperity on the part
of its hated rival. New Kimberly, the
inhabitants OF which were wont to
profess ignorance of the existence of the
former metropolis, albeit only twenty
miles separated the two camps.
If was in the second year after the
death OF the Gold Hill boom that the
business men of that camp began to
realize-that retrenchnlent was neces-
sary. There was always the hope of
a "str1ke," or a chance of unloading
: something ut a good price on some un.
sophisticated "tenderfOot - but, il
the meantime, it was necessary to
"look after the leaks The gentle.
men who kept the liquor dispensaries
had as lively q sense of the necessity
for r~etrenchment as the rest, and they
went about economizing in a practical
manner
There was in the camp a prominent
but somewhat ~impecunious citizen,
known as Joe Godfrey, and Mr.. God.
frey had formerly resided in the
"moonshine" districts of North Caro-.
lima. Ihis latter fact gave Major
Fnlton and Col. Hanks an idea. The
bottom-lands nearby grew large quaint.
ties OF cereals, including corn. Put.
ting two and two together-Joe Godfrey
and the corn crop-andvwhy, it was
as easy as anything could be
In u short time Mr.. Godfrey's work
made itself felt by the wholesale liquor
men, who shook their heads over the
decadence of business, not only in
Gold Hill, but in several OUTLYING
can s as well. Revenue officers shook
their heads, too, and sought to ascer-
tain the cause of this ~unaccountablo
state OF things. But only one of them
had found what he sought, and he
mysteriously disappeared, failing even
tocall for his baggage or to pay his bill
at the hotel. And Messrs. Fulton,
Hanks, ct al, waxed fat and prosperous
In the midst of seeming adversely, vet
were very ~circumspect, as behooves
gentlemen who defy the laws of gov
eminent. There were no informers in
Gold Hill. The man who gave the
revenue officer who mysteriously dis
appeared theinformation that led to the
finding OF the still, was shot in 'self-
defence" by a henchman of the whis-
key ring within a day or two after the
officer turned up missing.
Several circumstances had caused
suspicion of the man who had been the
subject of the afternoons session in the
present instance. He had been In
Gold Hill about two weeks, and had.
hardly spoken to anyone in the camp
he had said nothing about his business:
he took not even a hammer with him
when he walked or rode about the
country presumably prospecting u; and
he had been seenyon several occasions.
afternightfall his l~ight-colored clothes
were conspicuous), outside the camp,
talking to someone, probably O stran-
ger, who was as yet unidentified, in !
asmuch as the two had never yet been
seen together by daylight or within the
limits of the camp.
On the evening after the consulta-
ton of the powers in the bar-room of |
the Merchants Hotel, Prof. Hendrix !
met the stranger, who claimed the
name of Tennison,, and tried, In his
most suave and diplomatic manner, to
draw him out and to learn something I
of his business but the young man,
while willing enough TO discuss mat
tiers In general, became as dumb as an
oyster when it got TO personal ques-
tons, and displayed an aptness In turn