The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-05-07
IN GORDON CITY,,
BY MARIE S. THILL.

day of September, 1SS-, he would have
seen only a dreary stretch of yellow
sand ON one hand and on the other the
barren rocks Of the mountain-Side,
with here and there a scrub oak or
stunted pine struggling up between
them. The broad waste was unrelleVed
by any sign of life, except perhaps the
scurrying form of a coyote or '1ackai-
If that same traveller had returned on
the 18th of the same month, it must
have seemed to him that Aladdin with
his wonderful lamp had visited The
spot True, in Gordon City there were
no lofty or beautiful palaces, but there
was life-the reckless, feverish, almost
mad life of the gold country.
Three weeks before, by the merest
accident, old Bill Gordon, in working
his way up the gulch, had discovered
and reported signs of gold. On the third
day of its existence the camp at the
foot of the mountain was dignified by
the name of Gordon City. Strange
buildings rose in irregular blocks, while
on three sides of the central camp
clustered groups of white tents and
canvas-topped wagons. Every third
building was labeled saloon and Dance
Hair; roulette wheels and faro banks
made their appearance with astonish-
ing rapidity. Those were great days IN
Gordon City. Every mining camp in
Colorado furnished its quota of rough
SnOQ DIOSpeClOFS ana IIlnl-Cldu
DlerS TO the makeup of this new boom
town" Money and men were plenty;
food and all the luXuries of life were
scarce and dear The Lost Chord and
the "Mollie Kirk" were pouring d gold
en- stream into the town, but it took a
good-siZed fortune to secure the use of
a bed over night. There were not blan-
kets enough to go around anyway, so a
good part of the population turned
night into day. There was no lack OF
diversion for these. All night long the
dance halls and gambling houses stood
with open doors. All night long could
be heard the squeakng music OF
cracked violins, the clickety-clicl1 of
the wheel, turning the sweat-bouSht
treasure of the miners into the pockets
of the sleek individuals behind the
green cloth. One would never suspect
nowadays that 'the metropolis of Mar
shall county as the Gordon City Ga
zette proudly styles it, was ever a
center of this rough-and-tumble life,
but towns, like individuals, sometimes
have to SOW their wild oats before they
steady down, and Gordon City was
lively enough in its youth.
Along with this flowing tide of hu-
manity that set so steadily toward the
new town and spread its confines fur
Their and further along the mountain
side, there drifted into Gordon City
one day, or night, a man who could
not have been far past 40, though his
hair and beard We're those of 60. His
form was erect and his face was plea
SAINT, if a trifie weak; it would have
been handsome except for its puffy
Wilderness, the mark of long-continued
dissipation. Among all the motley
crowd that thronged the camp, it was
not difficult to place him. He was not
a miner, for his hands were soft and
white, plainly unused to rough toll, nor
was he a professional gambler, though
he often sat in the faro game at Bill
Prices studio" where the highest
stakes in the camp We're played. He
almost invariably got up from the ia
bleS a winner, in spite of the fact that
he played with no system, and with APP
parent recklessness. In "a more settled
community he would have been the OBJ
ject of deal of curious interest-thera
was something so incongruous in his
presence IN the town; he seemed TO be-
long among other associations-but rs
it was, nobody knew or cared People
We're not too inquisitive about one an
others antecedents in Gordon City.
And so the stranger pursued his way,
idly and unmolested, until one day
when Faro Bill casually asked:
What mout yer trade be, pardner?"
The white-b bearded man gave his
questioner a half startled look and then
replied, absently:
"Oh, yes, l used to be a lawyer; 1t
was so long ago had almost forgot
ten it"
At this Gordon City suddenly awoke
to the fact that she had gone thus far
upon her civic career without repre-
sentative Of the legal profession As
the fact that it had not occurred to her
before proved, the lack had not been
seriously felt, for law had been made
and interpreted according to common
sense and the frontier code. But it was
generally admitted that the omission
would be seized upon by the Almira
Sunbeam and pointed out as indicating
a lack Of urbanity. Almira was located
on lie other side of the mountain. 1t
was older than Gordon City. and the
Sunbeam had i way of casting enVious
and unpleasant aspersions on the
youthful limitations OF the rival town.
So il was decided at an informal meet
ing of the boys" held in Buckskin
Joe's saloon, TO establish the Judge, y
as he was at once styled, in business.
BuckSkin Joe gave up "A room over his
saloon for an office, and that when room
was the scarcest article in Gordon City.
a prospector who had once been "a
sign-painter provided shingle which
soon swung before the door, bearing
the legend: Samuel Woodrow, Attor-
ney and Counselor-at-Law" The fur
nishing of the office consisted of a
of upplaned plank and a rusty stove.
The only books were small and tat
tered Bible. the property of the judge
himself and a thumb-worn Homer con-
tributed by Greasy Jim, who had been
q classical student in an eastern univer-
sity before he turned to the vocation of
cow-puncher and prospector. But at
that it was the most pretentious office
in Gordon City.
Thus it came about that the judge,
by no effort of his own, was set up in
business. He accepted it all without
protest or encouragement, merely
thanking the boys for their kindness
in his soft-mannered, womanish way.
II was not difficult to play the role of
lawyer in Gordon City. There was not
likely to be much hair-splitting over
fine-drawn legal distinctions, and no
very high regard was entertained for
weighty precedent. The Seedy stranger
found his task an easy one. and he car
ried it out with the passive indiffer-
ence with which he had received his
Mobilization as light of the legal pro-
fession. He had strange clients and
strange fees. Sometimes a bronzed and
booted miner threw down a handful of
gold dust as payment for drawing a
decd or contract Again he was paid
with half a dozen chances at keno OF
faro which he always took and usually
won. Once or twice he received shares
in mines, which were expected to yield
unlimited quantities of pay dirt but
which thus far had not PANIED out.
At first the judge endeavored to re-
fuse money offered in payment for his
services, but after time he gave this