Arizona republican., 1898-09-09
CHATTER I.

CHATTER I.
 A few miles back from the mining camp of Windy Gulch an old trail turns away from the more travelled county
 road, leading through rough, noun tain region to the scene of an abortive mining excitement now we1l-nigh for gotten.
 It was in the spring of 1879, when the
 newly discovered riches of Leadville
 had prepared fortune hunting world
 for any marvel, that somebody started . cry of ''carbonates" in this quarter,
 and from near and far came hurryiny horde to view this latest land of promise.
 while, as if by magic, a city of tents and frame shanties came into being in the
 depths of the wilderness. In the after years there came to be not 1. little dis putting as to the real origin of this Sil
 ger City boom, some believing that 1t lad been started by couple of mis-
 guided "tenderfeet," of wholly honest intent, whatever the mischief they i1aG- uertently wrought. while others, claim
 ing to be better informed, held that t was the work of a set of unprincipi e,t
 
 Col. Randolph Meredith was always
 mentioned with especial execration.
 However that might have been, the
 loom was very real while it lasted; and
 Ii lasted the longer that the spring was
 late that year, heavy falls oi snow SD covering the earth that few might guess
 what lay beneath. The gambling spirit " as rife in the air. and every one who could call 1,5O0 feet of that vaunted ground his own was for the moment rich, though nothing more tangible had touched his claim than the shifting
 shadows of the location stakes. Devel opment work proceeded but feebly, and few had anything of real promise to show; but, as though each had quaifed of some magic potion that gave him .yes to see but the fair illusion of that ter which he longed. each clung with mad insistence to his dream of wealth.
 Scrambling, fighting, and in some ili- 5tances even dying, to hold to claims
 rom which the assayers' fires would ever reveal so much as trace of the srecious metals.
 At length, however, there came day when the SHOWS had sunk down through the seepy soil and all the land
 lay bare to the probing of pick and
 powder. and after that the time was not long ere cursing company of ad- venturers went drifting back over the
 hills whence they came. The sound of the builders hammers stopped short with the stilling of the dance-hall mu- sic; and before the sweet, resinous
 smells had been fairly lost from it's new ly-hcwn pine boards. the embryo city
 was left to desoIation ard decay. But, while the rush and hurry went
 on as though it would never stop, %
 better grade was discovered for its
 heavily laden teams at q point which left the main highway II mile or more beyond the original point of turning, so that bit of the way, which had come to i'll repute for upsetting of stages
 and kindred disasters, came to be
 sloughed off, as it were, and practically disowned by the road, which now ap-
 peared to have developed to line of
 travel of vast importance. The gain in
 safety, to be sure, was somewhat off set by an added mile or more of dis tance, SO that the majority of those
 who came on horseback, and all of that vagabond company who toiled over the
 hills afoot, still chose the older anI shorter cut, which was never altogether
 abandoned until the Silver City road was left to degenerate to the Old Silver
 trail, by which name it came to be
 known through all the after years.
 t-I x.-I,;1a ,r1,of.opff fCot hu,..
 ried over the hills, lured by the ignis- fatuus of wealth never to be attained,
 and while in the heaviness of disap-
 pointment they toiled away again,
 here at one side of this unprom sig bit of old road a vein of gold lay Wal
 rg, where every passing eye must ia U
 upon it's covering of sun-baked eartl.
 aiting and making no sign. For cons before Windy Gulch was or Silver City had been conceived in the min, of man, nature had hugged the precious ss-cret to her heart, biding her time.
 t.en grcaning under burdens of ilo1 erty and woe, and women whose hearis.
 :, ere like to break for the heaviness cf living, passed by the spot; but the gold mad raught to do with pity; its tine
 Tas not yet come. Sometimes pros
 .ectors discovered such signs in the steep hillside that they paused to oprobe the earth here and there in futile ef- fort; but a rubus bush had spread it's 1.-the arms over the little outcroppiEg of gray rock which might have told
 the story, and none thought to look be- meath. Years passed away. Autumn winds swept bare the rubus bush; win
 ter storms beat upon the dull brocade
 of lichen that had spread itself over
 the sign-writing on the rock; over and
 over again the wooing Colorado sur-
 shine called back new bloom to ring rich joy-bells in the bright spring weather; but now the Silver City eN- citement had been wcll-nigh forgotten
 i'll other dreams and wakings, and scl-
 dom the feet of man trod the old trail.
 Earth held to her own with greedy
 gladness; and the gold waited on, full filling the eternal plan of silence.