Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-11-26
LUCK.

How the spruce looking stranger got
into the little, old, dilapidated town up
i'll the Sierras none of its inhabitants
appeared to know, but mo- of them
were extremely anxious to ascertain.
Seldom it was that any one went to the
town. Apparently there was no particu-
lar reason why any one should. The
surrounding scenery was grand, it is
true, but the town could make no claim
to being an essential part of the gran
deur. Its n street struggled up the
mountainside for a short distance and
lost it's way in the forest. A long, ram
shackle "hotel," several Respondent
looking stores and a number Of saloons
made up what it was pleased to call the
business portion Of the town. On all
sides and as far as the eye could see,
however, were the imperishable evil
dences of what this little town once had
been-the center of a natural wealth al,
most inconceivable. Vast areas Of white
and yellow and reddish clay, mountains
scanned and gashed and cut in twain,
miles of rusty and disjointed gigantic
iron pipes, told of the days when the
miners with hydraulic guns "held up
nature and forced it to deliver it's treas
ure.
But all that was long ago and is only
a pleasant memory with the little town
now, and to the strangers not unnatu-
raj inquiry as to how the people support
ed themselves came the cheerful and
ca%nnibalistic reply that they "lived on
one another.
The stranger sat IN a box outside II
of the stores beside one of the citizens
and soon found himself listening to a
monologue offered for his entertain
ment. 1t would have been a dialogue be-
tween them, but the entertainer would
not have it hat way. An old man, with
grizzled beard and weather beaten face,
was he. The stranger noticed, with
some surprise, that, although stained
and rusty, his long frock coat and the
trousers stuck into his boots were Of
good broadcloth. A very conspicuous
watch chain, a huge diamond pin in a
setting Of tobacco stained shirt front
and the entire absence Of a collar made
up a somewhat homogeneous appearance.
"Yes, you're right" began the enter
tainer, starting the monologue with
considerable energy "this town amt
worth a whoop in hell today, but you
oughter seen it onct. Amt forty-niner
myself, and you got to make a good deal
Of allowance for what some O. these old
has beens tell you, but they all do say
it was a hummer before they stopped
hydrauleekin.
"You oughter get old Nuggets to tell
you somethin about it. Amt you met
Nuggets yet? Well, you should, for he's
about the only sight we got in town
only thing the town brags about and
p'ints out to strangers. Nuggets waa
here-or som'ers about heretofore
they ever did any Observation-Disclosures
everything was placer and sluice mimi.
He'll tell you his story. He'll tell it
without bein asst. I've heard it so often
that I know it myself. He likes to hear
himself talk.
"He was ONT O. the first to come
acrost the plains-leastways that's what
he says-and when he got here he just
nacherally staid. He KEN around by the
old emigrant trail back O. Lake Tahoe
and into Hangtown.
"Hangtown-you know, that's what
they called Pl~acerville in them days
was a great place then. Meals was So,
and so was beds; whisky was four bits
and two bits a drink, accordin as how
you wanted it, and -four was $40 for a
small sack. Course, you know, most all
supplies KEN around the Horn to Frisco,
was boated up to Sacramento and team
ed out to the mines from there.
Business was good in California in
them days. Most every n had money,
and it wasn't no trick to get it. The
cricks and river bottoms was full O.
gold, and any one could take a shovel,
pick and rocker and wash out as much
Is he liked. Course that sort O. thing
spoilt the Argonauts, as they call 'em,
or a good many of 'em anyhow-would
a-spoilt most any one.
"Kinder seemed to them that the
supply would last forever, and they
didn't worry much and wasn't particu-
Ter about savin it. They was all about
alike, and after a fellow had worked
purity hard for awhile and cleaned up a
little pile he'd get to thinkin he needed
relaxation, and down he'd 60 to Frisco
and blow in his pile.
"Then he'd strike the trail for the
goldfelds for another stack o blue
chips.
"Course every one had a partner in
them days, and this here Nuggets had
one by the name O. Wilkins. One day
they ken into this town with a nugget
that was a corker. Was as big as your
hatred cinnabar, with chunks of pure
gold stickin out Of it all around.
"The jeweler offered 'em 81, 500 for
it, but they wouldn't sell it. Mug
gets said there was more O. it where it
KEN from, but no one believed him.
Everybody thought that Nuggets
and Wilkins had found a small pocket,
and that was all there was to it, but
some O. these pockets are good enough
for a pore man anyhow.
"That night there was an awful
windstorm, and two days afterward
Nuggets was found comm out o. Rattle.