Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1897-12-11
The Old SILVER TRAIL.
" MARY {. sucNEY.
CHAPTER I.-CoNTINuEp.


give!" It's discoverer had been permit.
ted to do with II rs he would. He
might cast into the mines insatiate
nav his money, his hopes, his very
life, and there was no man to claim the
right to share the venture, none to med
die with the method Of his immolntion.
So long as Windy Gulch had been
accounted one Of the deadest camps
in all Colorado, its peace had been un-
disturbed; but now that IN era OF pros
perity had dawned, walking delegate
appeared to organize q branch Of the
Miners union, and Harvey Neil was
first OF all waited upon by the COM
mittee deputed to request that thence
forth the mine-owners would employ
none but union men, while certain de-
tails as to wages and hours Of work
were pcremptorily insisted upon. The
majority Of the mine-owners, believing
discretion the better part Of valor, con.
coded the demands after brief parley;
but Neil, with n spirit Ill equipped to
brook undue interference in what he
considered his private business, sent
the deputation to the right-about with
such singing speech that the union
was reused to immediate retaliation,
and for the first time in all its history
Windy Gulch was treated to the spec
tacle of strike that BODIED no good TO
any man.
II was time Of general business de-
preston, and hundreds Of needy work
ingmcn were eager to take the places
vacated by the strikers; but the I'M
happy "scabs" came but to suffer
martyrdom. Threats and execrations
pursued them through the streets Of the
camp; and some who were caught out
after dark were so mishandled that
they were glad to cry enough and es-
cape to the minor evils OF wagelessness
md want. Neil, SO far from being
brought to terms by such methods,
grew but the more obstinately in
trenched in his position with contem-
plation OF each new outrage. Such nom
union men rs had stood by him he
would protect by every means in his
power, upholding their rights rs we'll
rs his own, come what would. lie would
listen to no talk Of compromise; not
one iota would he yield, although
o sympathetic strike had now been or
dered, and every mine in the camp that
depended upon hired labor stood still
for his determination. Deep shafts
filled with water, and costly machinery
rusted in idleness; and Windy Gulch,
but the other day rs law-abiding and
sleepily plodding as any New England
village, was now alive with throng Of
boozing oilers, nursing bitterness
against the mine-owncrs, and especially
casting curses upon the name OF Harvey
Neil, whose plutocratic indifference to
the rights Of labor was held to he the
cause OF all the trouble. Appeals for
protection were made to the authorities
jim vain, until Mt length, the strikers
souls inflamcd 10 frenzy by non-success
and want, that towards ally dynamite
was invoked to bring to terms the Mas
cot mine, while had not Harvey Neil
been summarily hustled out Of sight
by frightened friends, the chances
seemed that even murder might have
been added 10 the horrors Of that night.
The county authorities were now
aroused TO take summary action, and
peace was after time restored. But
capital which might have been tempted
had been frightened back from field
which lawlessness could so dominate;
Windy Gulch, poorer by far than 1t had
ever been before, had ceased to dream OF
any boom; while Neil, oil the costly i'm
provcments upon his property de-
stroyed, with no possibility of redress,
found himself practically ut the foot OF
the ladder once more. More disheart-
ened than he had ever been, the young
man, who now felt old, borrowed money
to get his mine in working shape once
more; and when that was done he be-
took himself to the east for the rest and
change he SO sorely needed after the
long strain that had been upon him.
And now up by the old trail the
Grubstake mine was presently wing
with the Mascot in outward showing of
prosperity. buildings went up and de-
velopmcnt work proceeded ut such q
rate as only unlimited command OF
capital could bring to pass, while all the
camp wondered. The Grubstake had
been located years before by u couple OF
credulous youths who were directed in
their operations altogether by the pre-
tended revelations of so-called pro-
fcssor OF spiritualism in Denver. Al
though they had carried their tunnel
some sixty feet into the mountainside
before they lost faith in their oracle and
sold out to the colonel for q song, no
had been discovered, while the |
camp wns generally Of the opinion that |
none ever would be, until the new
owners operations stirred doubts as to |
the soundness Of that judgment. Some
there were to opine that the colonel
might be preparing new bait for one OF
the English syndicates Of the type that
20 often had been his gudgeon; others,
who thought themselves equally well
informed as to the great promoters Pc
culiar methods, argued that he was
more probably plotting mischief which
would presently be apparent in the
ground where the two claims crossed,
that Nell would be forced
for his own peace eventually TO pur-
chase the Grubstake at It's owners own
figure; while others still, more full OF
charity toward gentleman who, SO far
Ne reputation went, seemed generally in
The position Of the under dog, contended
thta the work upon the property meant
only that there was mineral to be uncov-
cred there, since, whatever his fnults,
there was no man who could see farther
n stone than Col. Randolph