The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-04-04

she had been buncoed, and 50 l never
had the chance to let her know / was
mistaken, the barrels not being salt bar
rels, but all bottled-beer barrels, just
dumped in the canyon to get them out
of the way, The Hills was great place
for beer, reminding me Of Cambridge,
and, the railroad not bein' built yet, ev-
erything had to come in two hundred
miles on wagons, making freights sky
high and the price of beer likewise.
| THE old lady'S mine was called the
| 'SparhaWk,' and all there was to it was
a tunnel about sixty feet into the
mountain right close to town, so as the
miner could have all the advantages of
town and country life. Not being very
flush Of money, on account of her dy-
ing so suddenly after getting the re-
port on the mine without having time
to sign my check, I boarded up the
| front Of the tunnel and moved in. L
made some elegant furniture out Of the
old barrels, and / found a lot of beer
about dozen bottles-that had been
overlooked in the packing in the
barrels. 1t was getting cold weather,
but the straw had kept 1t from freezing,
so it twas all right.
pocket at the moment was the founda-
ton of my fortune, for if I'd been
abolged to break the bottles to get the
beer, the idea would never have come
| to me to save 'em. But seeing them
standing all up in a row, good as new,
| and only wanting more beer In them
| (ike mel think, says l. why not save
| 'em and get 'em filled?"
Il wrote letter to my cousin in Bos-
| ton, and / asked him, What becomes of
| all the beer bottles?' knowing him to be
an authority on such points. And he
answered me back: We were used to
throw 'em into the bay but they stop
ped us on account of film up the har-
Dor, and now we sends EN- back to the
bottling works to be refilled We get
two cents for them
when I got my cousins letter, I
spent the night laying out my plans,
and the very next morning, bein' a man
of action, begun to carry them out. /
got me a barrow and went over the
town collectin' bottles, and I fetched
em to me residence in the tunnel and
stacked 'em up inside, about twenty feet
back Well, b'ys, the pile got so big
lHdL II like W CIONuSu Illc UuL GllllIclyy
for I went to every place in town that
sold beer, and asked them to save me
the bottles, and | swept out their places
and washed windows, and did all sorts
of jobs for them, SO they would do it.
And I was called Crazy Mike Ere
quently a man would tell me: Don't
you know, you loonatic, that bottles is
worth only two cents In Omaha, and it
would cost four cents to get 'em there?'
But to all such l says, Leave me be.
I'm here for my health
But very well I knew I couldn't get
them hauled out by the freight teams
I'd been to every one of them fellows,
and they all would go out empty sooner
than load up with cheap freight. So /
keeps on pling up the bottles, and l had
to pull down the stack and begin way
back at the end of the tunnel to get
more room. And | became quite the
celebrated character in that town I've
been mentioned In sermons, the preach
err saying: Let us be faithful to our
ideals, as the beer-bottle man is to his
And the tourists, they had to have a
look at me and my stack Of bottles in
the tunnel, for the people said You
bottle man. He is unique
THE town continued to prosper and ,
to drink beer Only one mine, the ,
Homestake was paying big, but there |
We're a lot of good prospects, and now |
and again some fellow would strike a
rich pocket and take out gold enough in |
a day to quit on. And it kept everybody
hopeful Without neglecting my bust
ness I took lessons in mining, and I
learned what they mean by sailing a
mine. And l felt sorry that the old
lady, my former employer, was dead, so
that l couldn't let her know, too, And |
] learned that the Sparhawk mine never
had struck any ore at all, but was just
run into the hill on a venture, like you
might fire your gun into a leafy tree
on the chance that a squirrel might be
hid in the branches, and mebbe you'll
hit him.
II kept my eyes open and took point
ers wherever / could get them, and by
the time I'd been a year in the Hills |
knew about all that was to be learned
in that department. SO partly to prac-
tise my knowledge, and partly to make
more room to store bottles, I began to
dig. Not down in the far end, which
was blocked with bottles, but about
half way from the entrance, in place
where the rock looked soft, started a
drift in the side of the tunnel.
"Twas slow work on account Of me
putting in such small blasts so as not
to shake up the bottles.
But it's all luck in mining, and I
only got in a few feet before 1 struck
pocket of the real stuff. 1t was rich.
Just hunk of soft rock, and all full of
the shiny flakes of pure metal. OF
course, | considered the mine my own,
me being in possession for so long a
time; but, not having the papers for it,
worked rather private, pounding the
Nashin' out in the stream at the bot
-om of the canyon. / did my milling
and washing at night pursuing my
regular business by day, and ere long
had a beer bottle full Of gold-and an
other, and another. And I was only
the richest of it, and no sign
If the pocket peterin' out
1T was great day for the Hills when
he railroad came in. There was a cele-
)ration and speeches, and beer run like |
water. l had to hire some boys to help |
ne gather the bottles. That was the
asst lot I got. BY next day people had
battles was the same as cash, and bot