Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1899-11-09
OLD TIME CAMP.
Sumpter, Oregon, The Yuba
Dam of Today. A Camp
That Never Sleeps.
: Gold Ore Beng Mined at a Re-
markable Rate In
Oregon.
Big Free Milling Ore Stores.
Railway Transporter
tiOn.

ClO0.
Sumpter, Ore., Oct. l4.-A corres-
pondent OF the Spokane Review writes:
AS mining camp Sumpter is surely It.
The popular idea is here exemplltied.
The poetry and romance Of Red Dog
and Yuba Dam and other Bret Hartean
places in fiction and fact, still remain
For Sumpter Is wide open. 1t is all
night. 1t is nocturnally noisy. 1t IS
the real thing,
The festive faro dealer removes the
limit on request. TIE willy stud poker
professor bats his eye only when the
ante-touohes the ceiling. The genial
chuck -a-luck man smiles commiserat-
ingly upon two~bit stake. Meals are
50 cents, and beer goes at Is cents per
taste.
Fifteen hundred people compose the
population. OF this number perhaps
halt are IN business. The other half is
the other half-the trsnslents, the new
comers, the late goers. They are pros
pectors, miners, common laborers at
tracted by Sumpter's boom, mining
men in the same class, capitalists look
ing for soft snaps (and finding them),
curious visitors aud the rag-tag and
bob-tail of humanity who follow what
ever leads anywhere. The miners
promptly find mines, the prospectors
prospects, the common laborers common
labor. Others coming in-a constant
stream-fill their places. Through oil
the change, saloons, hotels, restaurants,
lodging houses and dance halls reap q
rich harvest. The night is came as day.
Day is intense.
Cosmopolltanism reiRns. In the hotel
2obbies, pompous capitalists touch el'
bows with rough and unehaven pros
pectors. ,Corduroyed mining experts
from over seas consort with high-opin-
ioned promoters Of our own land. Rep
resentatives of British syndicates jostle
Chinese placer miners. It's odd, but it's
oil IN the days work.
Out in the streets 1t ls chaos. Road
laws are unknown or unrecOgnlzed.
Sidewalks are six feet wide. Each
pedestrian has bis pace and direction.
It is dodge and duck. EnRlishmen, ye
know, pass to the left Americans to the
right. Oregonians either. Chinese,
Swedes. Dutchmen and the others, both.
1t is tumble and jolt and dodge. Some
times it is langusge-fervent and pro.
fame. Always it is chaos. Saloons are
a throng. Gambling-sure index OF
money easy come, quick 60 is in fullest
blast. Big games go nightly. A miner
from up Granite way, pig tailed
Oriental from Cracker creek, raw
boned Swede foreman OF Greenhorn
mine. dead game sport from Pendle-
ton-these are some faces one sees
around q crowded faro lay out, where q
six.inoh stack OF yellow chips are ppssed
up to the dealer in trying to call the
turn. One prospector lost his grub
stake playing German lottery. Later
he threw q spitton at the dealer. 1t ls
Red Dog over again, with just enough
of subsequent century to make it
Ringery and bizarre.
Dance halls are scenes of revelry by
night. Grouped cottages, with slgni-
fiosnt red window curtains, guide the
wayfarer's feet. And through the wide
open doors OF the omnip1esent gin-mill
float the dulcet strains Of piano and
fiddle mingling in rsg-time refrain.
And the sun at setting time burns
golden way down behind the piney
peaks which encircle Sumpter on every
eide. "The low-hung clouds blush rosy
red" From the canyons below come
up the scent OF wood smoke curling
lszily among the taper tamaraeks and
moss. trimmed pines. The cold etars
come out, cleaning like beacon lights OF
another world than ours. The night
winds stir the pine trees, and with Q
s,Rh like sleepy babe. the forest eleeps.
On farawsy mountain slope q prospec.
tor ourls up in his blankets, and is
atsred into dreamless slumber by the
stars hung infinitely high. A lone
oovote howls on the hlllslde. Softly
and sweetly, with spicy odors of spruce
and pine waited on wings of mountain
wind, the night comes on.
But down in Sumpter there is no night
Arc and lncsndesoents glare. The
olipk Of glasses, the clatter OF roulette
wheel, tho click Of chips. the hosrse
voices of men and the hardened laugh OF