Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1898-10-04
NUGGETS LUCK.

4N - VI VI ~ OAA0
How the spruce looking stranger got
into the little, old dilapidated town up
in the Sierras none of its inhabitants
appeared to know, but most 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. Tho
surrounding scenery was grand, it is
true, but the town could make no claim
to being an essential part of the gran
deur. Its one street struggled up the
mountainside for a short distance and
lost its way in the forest. A long, ram
shaclzle "hotel, several despondent
looking stores and number of saloons
made up what it was pleased to call tho
business portion of the town. On all
sides and as far as the eye could see,
however, were the imperishable evi-
denoes of what this little town once had
been-the center of 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
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
cannibalistic reply that they tlived on
one another. -
The stranger sat on box outside one
of the stores beside one of the citizens
and soon found himself listening to 9
monologue offered for his entertain
ment. 1t would have been a dialogue be-
tween them, but tho entertainer would
not have it that 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, huge diamond pin in a
setting of tobacco stained shirt front
and the entire absence of u collar made
up a somewhat incongruous appearance.
eyes, you IRE right - began the enter
tainer, starting the monologue with
considerable energy, "this town ain It
worth whoop in hell today, but you
oughter seen it onct. Amt a forty miner
myself, and you got to make 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 oughtor 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 was
here-or som 'ers about heretofore
they ever did any hydrauleekin-whe
everything was placer and sluice minin.
He'll tell you his story. He'll tell it
without bein asst. I've heard it so often
that know it myself He likes to hear
himself talk
''He was one o. the first to come
acrost the plains-leastways that what
he says-and when he got here he just
nacherally staid. He kem around by tho
old emigrant trail back o. Lake Tahoe
and into Hangtown.
'Hangtown-you know, that's what
they called PlacervilIe in them days
NtAo u esAGeAb lJAttSC GLG11- AlGtll5 WAS
and so was beds; whisky was four bits
and two bits drink, accordin as how
you wanted it, and flour 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 one 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
as he liked. Course that sort o. thing
spoilt the Argonauts, as they call 'em,
or q good many of 'em anyhow-wouId
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 fellow had worked
purity hard for awhile and cleaned up
little pile he'd get to thinkin he needed
relaxation, and down he'd go 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 corker. Was as big as your
hatred cinnabar, with chunks of pure
gold sticlzin out of it all around.
1.-The jeweler offered 'em 81, 500 for
it, but they wouldn't sell it. Mug
gets said there was more o. it where it
kem from, but no one believed him.
Everybody thought that Nuggets
and Wilkins had found 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
snake canyon over there plum crazy.
They brought him into town, and all
they could get out o. him was a string
O. the d---dest, foolishest words you
ever heard of. He didn't say much else