The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-07-03
A Nuggets Fotune-A Pioneer

extremely anxious TO ascertain
The stranger sat on a box outside one
Of the stores. beside one OF the citizens.
and soon found himself listening TO a
monologue offered for his entertainment.
1t would have been a dialogue between
| them. but the entertainer would not have
IL 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 frock
coat and the trousers stuck into his boots
| were Of good broadcloth. A very conspicu-
! Gus watch chain. a huge diamond pin In
| a setting OF tobacco-st aimed shirt front,
and the entire absence OF a collar. made
up a somewhat incOngruous appearance
| US, you're right" began the enter
| tainer, starting the monologue, with con-
siderable energy, this town amt worth
| a whoop in hell today. but you oughter
seen it onct Amt 49er myself. and you
| got 10 make good deal Of allowance for
| what some o. these old has-beens tell
| you, but they all do say IL was a hummer
| before they stopped hydrauleeking. You
oughter get old Nuggets TO tell you some
thin about It. Amt ye met old Nuggets
yet? Well, you should, for he's about
| the only sight we goNn town-oniy thing
| the town brags about and p'ints out to
| strangers. Nuggets was here-or somers
| about heretofore they ever did any by
| drauleeking-when everything was placer
| and sluice mining. He'll tell you his sto-
| ry-'I tell it without bein' asst. I've heard
| it so often that 1 know It myself. He
| likes to hear himself talk. He was one
o. the first to come acrost the plains
| leastways that's what he says-and when
| he got here he just nacherally stayed. He
| KEN around by the old emigrant trail
| back o Lake Tahoe and into Hangtown.
| Hangtown, We know, that's what they
! called Placervile in them days-was
| great place then.
Most everyone had money, and
| it 'twarn't no trick to get it.
| The cricks and river bottoms was
| full of gold, and anyone 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
| EN-, or a good many of EN-. anyhow
! would a spoilt most anyone. Kinder
| seemed to them that the supply would
| last forever, and they didn't worry much
| and wasn't particular about savin' IT.
| They was all about alike, and after fell
| low had worked purity hard for awhile
and cleaned up a 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 gold
fields for another stack of blue chips.
| Course. everyone had 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 stick
in out Of it all around The jeweler Of
fered EN- $3.50 for it, but they wouldn't
sell ii. Nuggets said there was more of il
where it KEN from, but no one believed
| him. Everybody thought that Nuggets
olrat
| and that was all there was to it; but
some O these pockets are good enough
for pore man, anyhow.
That night there was an awful wind
storm, and two days afterward Nuggets
! was found comm out o. RattleSnake Cam
on over there plum crazy. They brought
him into town and all they could get out
O. him was a string O the damedest
foolishest words We ever heard Of He
didn't say much else for a good many
years afterward-youster sit around the
town here and get it off to himself. Went
somethin like this;
=" Changed all the trees in the Rattle
snake-moved EN- and mixed EN- all up.
Might "a been dream, but I don't think
so. Ask Bill-he knows. Put a shot in
her. Seen rock in my time but no rock
that's like that. Bill-damned old fool
gifts scared, and we kivered her up to
come DdCh 10. DlUl DidZe no tree, out
my old knife's stickin' on the moss side
O. that tree. Might "a been a dream.
Ask BILL
course you can bet your life that old
canon was prospected pretty well after
that but nothin' was found The speci-
men was sold and the money divided be-
tween Bill Wilkins andNuggets', daugh-
ter, who had to take care of him. Will
kins went over into Calaveras soon after
that and fell down a shaft about 500 feet
deep.
We'll, time went by and the law stop
ped hydrauleeking, and purity much every
one left the town that could git out of
it, and It amt ben worth a damn sence.
Nuggets daughter she married Bob Hit
tel, who was teamster, and didn't have
much of it to do neither. They was pore,
but they managed TO make a living and
keep old Nuggets besides. Course ye
know the old man couldn't do nothing
but sit around and talk those words to
We. Every one was kind to him. except
perhaps, Jake Openheimer, who kept the
principal store then He youster rile him
a good deal, and josh him, and ask when
he was goin' to open her up, but I reck-
on he didn't mean a great deal OF harm.
Every now and then Nuggets 'ud wan
der over into Rattlesnake Canon and
spend nigh onto a day there. When he'd
come back he'd be worse TUX than ever.
and go moonin' around and sayin' those
words: Changed all the trees in the
Rattlesnake-moved 'em and mixed 'em
all up. Might a been dream, but l
don't think So.
Bout this time his little grandson was
grown up, and Nuggets began for to
take him along with him IN his trips to
the canon Mrs. Hittel she objected at
first, but when she seen the boy liked TO
go and her father was dead set on hav-
ing him with him. she didn't make no
more objections The boy yoused to say
that while they was in the canon Nuggets
spent most of his time huntin' for some
thing he couldn't find.
zone evening, in the summer time, bout
ten years ago-I was here then myself |
Nuggets and the boy ken into town and
gave 1t a surprise that It amt got over
sence. You car believe Il or not, as you
want to. but he'd got back his mind all
right and talked as sensibiy as / m talk /
in now Don't believe he ever was crazy
rnyself-1ust think he'd go. his mind set
on one thing and couldn't get L OF. But I
he was purity near crazy with happiness /
He'd an old rusty knife in his hand, and /
he kept sayin' 10 US all the time:
''Twaru't no dream after aII-'twarn't 10 !
dream Seems when they was in the |
canon the boy got to playin' around and /
crawied under a big tree that 'ad been I
blown down and found the knife stickin' /
III Il underneath. Course ye know what I
that meant
We'll. Nuggets IS all right now. So |
was his claim. He sold il for a purity nice /
sum TO a couple Of big mining men down I
below. See those sm0kesfacks in the trees 4
over in the canon Well. there four 4
teen stamp mill on the spot where that /
fosf~T