The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1897-05-25
Dun FAmlLy S7oRy.
The Twilight Nine.

thousands that came West to grow up
with the country, and, not lnauy
months after, had good reason to be-
lieve that | was gone up win the
country instead. After u wbile DRIFT.
ed into Gold Gross camp. 1t was In
the days before Gold Cross had come
TO the front as a good thing, and the
big mills that are nov eating the sides
out of the hills up there hadn't been
thought of. The boys were running
rockers down in the gulch then, and
most Of them didn't make more be-
tween meals than they could eat-and
drink-up at grub time. There really
wasn't much life to the camp, and most
uf the inhabitants were the kind OF
people that try to make you believe
the Almighty has picked them out for
au especially favored brand Of martyrs.
And it was pretty quiet when PlZen
Bill Johnson came to town.
But Pizen Bill woke up the camp.
Bill wasn't at moro than II place at
one time, but his reputation was every
where at once in the diggings, and 1t
didn't improve with age, either. VIII
liam was dressed to kill. Whenever
he moved you were apt TO see the
handle Of another weapon: that bad
escaped your observation before, stick
ing out from some new angle. His
record was worse looking than he was
which is saying Il good deal. You
might lay his ugly looks to some dis
peusation Of Providence that you didn't
quite see the drift Of, but few people
would care to charge a disposition like
his to anything but the Devil. Sorrow
was his shadow, and the wailing Of
widows and the crying of orghans had
followed him out Of more than one
camp. But, somehow, when he struck
Gold Cross, the general air OF condens-
ed shiftlessness seemed to take the
place Of his usual original cussedness,
and, being above working, lie Just
settled down and drank between meals
and ate between drinks.
Finally, one day, he developed
enough energy to climb up Bumper
Hill, which is t~irstcousin to a precipice
and is on the west side of the gorge.
After that he made several trips up
there, generally after tho sun a
closed up his days business, and by and
by he let it leak out that he had located
q tirst-class quartz claim on q ledge
where the pitch was not too steep to
pile rock, and also volunteered the
statement that the name Of his new
bonanza was the Twilight, SO christen-
ed because he found it better to work
Up there after nightfall !; his eXplana.
tion being that 1T was too hot to do any
locating or anything else up there in
the day ~time-which explanation was
probably as near the truth as he usually
got. In those days we mostly thought
that quartz mining was the calling Of
arch idiots, it being so much easier
to run O placer, end so a good many OF
the boys laughed at him on the SLY !;
but those who had beard of him most,
and therefore worst, Just shook their
heads and surmised he was up To some
thing. Not being interested in the
cemetery business, they didn't thy to
investigate. AS for Pizen Bill john-
son., when he got his claim located to
suit, he just sat down and waited and
waited.
| came to Gold Cross on tho hog
train, and, being discouraged with
mining that didn't pan out BOARD bills,
took the first job that offered itself,
which happened to be that OF bar
keeper in the Golden Oriole; for,
when a man is a hundred miles from
nowhere, without money and without
friends, his conscience gets sleepy
when there Is a promise of bread and
butter in sight, unaccompanied by the
prospect of a term in jail.
The Golden Oriole vas in q niche in
the side OF the gulch, where some en-
terprising idiots had washed out u few
hundred tons of dirt in hope Of finding
something rich, but had finally con
cluded that there was more money and
considerable less work in holding up
stage coaches. Then a jag-promotcr
from Sacramento appeared on the
scene and, judging from the looks of
tho thirsty inhabitants h q there were
several good openings that needed
filling built a board palace on the ruins,
"heedless Of the ned," and shortly
afterward there was r~evelry in car
load lots in that neighborhood. 1T
was a pretty solid castle for those days,
and Rugged up close on one end to the
side of the gulch. An auction piano
furnished inspiration at n end OF the
big room that constituted the interior
OF the joint, and |, with the valuable
assistance OF the bar, furnished the in
SEPARATION at the other end. There was
a window at one end Of the bar, the
ell OF which was on a level with a
hurro trail that the miners had spoiled
when at the innocent work Of laying a
foundation for our house, and | used to
retire through it 10 gaze upon the awe
inspiring scenery outside and mediate
upon the beauties Of nature and the
comfort OF solitude, whenever the
guests got to hurting solid arguments
at each other ana commenced shoot
ing off something besides their mouths.
1t really vas q big institution for Gold
Cross, and the proprietor consumed
considerable time and whiskey in try.
ing to make up his mind what to call
it., not being able to decide whether
"palace" or pavilion " was the pro.
per handle, and eventually comprO-
missing ON Golden Oriole." There
was a big table down the centre, which
was sometimes used for IN exhibition
dance and sometimes for laying out a
corpse, and surrounding it were q lot
of small tables, where the boys p. led
poker and pedro for the drinks. The
winning party in these games was
given away by the express agent, who
used to have q standing joke about
two-thirds Of the bullion output OF
Gold Gross coming through the Golden
Oriole on its road to civilization.
One day Pizen Bill Johnson's wait
came to an end The young fellow
that got off the stage was SO awfully
green that / couldn't help looking him
over to see IL he didn't have an express
tag on, which, in some measure, would
account for his being able to get so far
away from home, hut the boys we're
feeling pretty blue about then, and he
made u kind of pleasant contrast Of
colors. He hadn't more than passed
M meal time and sampled a little Of
our ST. Patrick's aversion-snake pro-
ducer-till Pizen b. Johnson, who was
n n.NNt - I .IN. - As-I a. -