Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-05-03
THE CAMP REDEEMED ITS HONOR.
Last Survivors, Story Of the Man Who was
Buried Twice in One Grave.

the line of the Great Northern RalI-
road there is. or was, few years ago
rock that marks the place where
nameless man is buried. An y 1nartl7-
tically chiselled was the only marx Oh
the stone for a long time Fewer 'i'ah
a dozen men knew what it meant anu
that number has been reduced
Ten years ago a stage driver pointed
it out to the writer and SAID:
He was planted twict.
| The driver shut up after this he
| liveranoe, and it was only three years
ago that one of the planters toid tie
story to a lawyer who had been re-
| tanned to make out the planters last
will, and the lawyer told it at prlVat"
dinner on Christmas eve. unaware tha'
one of the company had seen the place
where The nameless dead was heid
| down by mountain boulder
| A mining camp, not unlike others, IS
| the starting point one of the miners.
as as usually the case was mysterl-
ols fellow who was filter. He would
be in camp two months and then dis
appear. After he had knocked out the
| teeth of a curious miner no one Ven
tured to ask him after that where he
| had been He was never seen under
| the influence of liquor. He refused TO
sit at the game. but was often appealed
to as referee.
One morning he did not come up to
breakfast He was found back of IA
| cabin his face turned down on one
arm. When he did not respond the
caller reversed the body with his boot.
and saw that the mysterious man was
Sl,a, NH oh 10
comment in the camp was that one Of
their number should have naturally
and quietly died Contrary to the
custom. the body lay where it was
found three days. One of the camp
remained on watch. But there was
not a man in the camp who could have
told why the body was kept. one of
the number had suggested it, and It
| was agreed To.
At the close of the third day the body
| was carried to a grave that had been
made on the side of a mountain. About
it glistened the everlasting snow. Be
| low it We're valleys and streams ami
blooms The body was strapped to a
| board and carried on the mems Shout
ders II was put in the grave and the
| earth was rounded above it by The
| hands of some of the camp. The men
| returned to the gulch, and that night
there was no game. There was no
| talk. at least none about the missing
| man.
The usual routine was renewed the
following day, and it continued until
| some of the trees on the mountains
We're brown and the SHOWS on the tops
We're deeper In one of the afternoons
of this season blackboard rumbled in
to camp. The occupants We're
woman and a boy. If the memory of
the man who told the lawyer the story
was unobstructed, if the lawyer is to
be believed, as lawyers may often be
the woman was AS purity as the coun-
try all around" and was just a queen
in her way of talllin.'" She was the
first vision of the kind that had ever
come to the camp. There was that
Difference to her about which people in
the East often read. The men stood
bareheaded and bowed
The woman asked to speak to the
man who had had the most trouble
No one moved for minute. The man
who did speak finally asked:
What kind of trouble?"
The woman asked. Has any one Of
you lost wife,"
The spokesman replied. Il lost one
can't say nothin' about these men"
The result of this breaking of the
ice" was that the woman and the man
retired to one of the cabins and con-
ferred. When it was over the woman
and the man walked away together up
the mountain to the grave of the mys-
| ,.-to IN,
camp looked into the cabin where the
conference had taken place and shifted
the atmosphere that still retained
bit of perfume to which they We're I'M
accustomed, but which was grateful to
their senses. The boy who had driven
the blackboard was not quzzed. as he
would have been in some places of pre-
tension. He was not even stared at.
The woman and the man returned,
and although the day was done and
the night was abroad in the mountains
and in the valleys, the woman climbed
upon the blackboard, and the boy drove
away. Not until the noise of the wheels
was ndistinct did the miners stir. The
man who had lost one wife called the
men about him and said:
That's his widder'', pointing in the
direction Of the grave.
THAT accounts for his bein' away so
much said one.
That's what Orter accounted for his
bein' away so much. but ! reckon
, you're playing it wrong" said the man
who had the secret
well. what was it?" asked the man
who had played it wrong.
''Ther' couldn't be but one thing.
could Their? If she's his wilder, and |
know she is. and he didn't go to see
her when he was away on them long
trips of him, why-you don't spose he
was preachin do you?''
This statement went to the bottom
There was a silence until some one
asked:
Did he leave her any pay-dirt?'
which one do you mean?
THE wilder, course"
Not a 500. Didn't give her enough
to make a breastpn."
And we buried him as if he was
white and squar'"
That's what we did We was tuck
in. We was buncoed by the diseased :
said a man who had remained silent.