The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-09-05

that old gulch, but" and he shook his
head and smiled one of those defiant
smiles which fate delights to behold,
you know how money goes when
fellow comes to lively town.
Il used to buy my grub in Highland
when there were stores there. After a
few years the stores closed up and the
proprietors moved off to other camps.
Some of them have become rich, not q
few of them right here in Butte. When
the stores closed up then we who re-
manned in camp had to go to Virginia
City, Deer Lodge or Helena to buy
our groceries and clothes. After a
while the saloons went out of camp,
and then we had to go elsewhere for
an occasional drink When Butte be-
gan to loom up as town we used to
do our trading here, and the other
camps lost our trade. Then it was the
remaining inhabitants deserted old
Highland. After a few years l was the
only man left in Highland. The town
was mine. Instead of looking out of
my cabin door watching men, women
and children hurrying here and there,
l saw not a soul. Only occasionally "a
stray prospector would pass with his
pack animal and he would say in re-
ply to my question that he was going
to Butte, or to Glendale or Helena.
thought it all over in my quiet, lonely
moments l would make up my mind
to leave the camp and then l would
have another bunch and I'd say to my
SELF Stay right here, Johnnie and [
would stay.
"One night a terrible lightning storm
swept up the gulch. The noise was
frightful; was like a man on lone
island thousands of miles from any
where, cast off on a wreck. l said to
myself again L will leave this place
tT tiki Il.
ing around one of the four graves in
the center of the town on the little
knoll where hundreds of miners had,
in days past, gathered together to pay
the last respects to their dead COM
rades of the mines. The next day, for
getting all about my resolution of the
night before, / went to work to repair
the fence around the graves. 1t was
lonely hour for me. Four good men
lay under ground and 1 was the only
living man within miles of them. l
thought again. and this time 1 said:
Johnnie, you stay here. These men
came across the plains, full of hope of
success in this gulch. They died in the
struggle to realize on their hopes and
they are here yet. Johnnie, you are
we'll and hearty. Go ahead and make
your fortune. Stay right here
Il went back to my cabin and ate a
big dinner, and while I ate / looked out
end saw that deep cut had been made
by water from the clouds not far from
the cabin. i took my pan and shovel
and went out there and prospected the
gravel There was nugget in the bot
tom of my pan that weighed $1010,
and that not on bedrock. i set up my
windlass and sank to bedrock and
drifted. Before fall I had cleaned up
nearly $4,000. / sold the gold to one OF
the banks in Helena, and bought $500
worth of provisions and paid a man $3.50
to haul them from Helena to my cabin.
"Ali that winter / drifted and piled
the gravel ready to wash in the spring.
1t turned out only s120 and abandoned
that hole. Yes, the ground is spotted,
but you get spot and you've got big
money. / stayed the next summer on
hopes of finding another spot. l had
now given up all idea of leaving the
gulch. l would not leave If l knew
/ couldn't make a cent there. / was
full of prospector's hope, and when
you get in that fix you might as well
swallow it and trust to luck.
80 for about 30 years / have lived
on hope. and you can see how it acts
upon me. They tell me i am younger
than / used to be. l believe IL. Hope
with a little sowbelly and good coffee