Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1896-04-08
Mining Camp Civilization.

The glamour and the romance and
che deviltry Of the Western mining
camp are fast fading into history. The
rip-roaring scenes that inspired Bret
Harte's ballads will soon, like the Ar
gonauts, be but memories of a golden
dream, when all men were rich, when
fortunes were made and lost and re-
gained in day, when life was cheap
and mining communities were ruled
by savage chivalry, vigllantes aud "red
eye" The tenderfoot who, from histo-
ries OF the early days in the West. has
gained the impression that mining
camp is made up chiefly of dance
halls. sombreros and six-shooters, and
that life is one lurid round of killings,
hangings, dissipation and disorder, is
now astounded, upon coming to the
mines, to find himself in quiet, well
behaved and peaceable community, as
well supplied with churches aud
schools and all the outward signs of
Christian civilization as any New Eng
land village. While Satan has not
BEEN entirely banished from the min
ing camp, he is kept quite as closely in
restraint as in the average agricultural
community. Saloons still flourish and
the tiger is sometimes exposed to public
view, and gilded palaces of sin are toll
Grated, as elsewhere. But the bad
man from Bitter Greek no longer kills
a man each morning for breakfast; no
longer is the strangers silk hat made
the target OF every six shooter in camp,
nor the tenderloot compelled to dance
the double-shuffle while the bar room
floor about his feet is being plugged
full of bullet holes. The "bad man"
of the early days long ago, passed in
his checks, and the drunken tough
who now goes forth to terrorize min
ing camp is promptly thrown into the
"bug house" like any other unruly
tramp.
An old forty-niner returned from
Mercur the other day, downcast and
detected. at may be good camp"
he explained, as he squirted tobacco
juice at a far-away cuspidor, "but its
too goldurned quiet and peaceable.
None of, the mining camps amt so
lively as they was when | was mining +"
And this old man actually sighed re-
gretfully over the changes that have
been wrought by these God fearing
days.
The old boys will never again wit
ness the high-pressure excitement OF
the days that are gone. Although
there is occasionally some new camp
in which the old spirit Of reckless
abandon holds sway for brief period,
it is quickly suppressed by the en-
croachments OF civilization. Mining
camps are no longer made up of bands
of reckless, rowing adventures, in
quest of sudden riches and ready for
deeds of darkness and daring. IN the
older camps the bulk of the population
is composed of wage-earning miners.
many of them men of families, who
are as frugal and industrious as any
other class OF workingmen. Pros.
pectors lay the foundations of the
newer camps, and the prospector of to-
day is a man of intelligence and good
sense, with little money to spend or
dissipation and riotous living. When
his labors are finally rewarded by a
rich discovery and he desires to spend
bis money on ga good time" he usu
ally seeks one of the larger cities.
And thus the romance and barba.
rism of Western mining camps have
given way to spirit of cold blood ec
business and notwithstanding re-
spectability.-Salt Lake Mining Re
view.