Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1901-01-11
MOTHER TUBBs and I were the

MOTHER TUBBS and 1 were the
lvl only passengers in the heavy, old
stage coach as it slowly crept up the
steep and rocky ascent of Golden pass.
1t was a raw cod November day or
we would have ridden outside with
Shorty, the driver, but as there was
fine, chilling mist in the air, we were
glad to wrap ourselves up we'll on
the back seat of the inside of the
coach. Mother Tubbs was already in
the coach when entered it at Silver
Gap camp. She greeted me quite as
If l were al. old friend, although I had
never seen her until that moment.
She was large, motherly, comfor-
table looking woman of about 65
years, and she was loquacious to the
last degree.
my man he says that my TONGUE is
Loose at both ends" she said, merrily,
soon after had seated myself Sby her
side in the coach. had though& that
she might prefer to have the back
seat to herself, and l was about fp
take the front seat when she said:
you'd better set here by me, for
it's more comfortable riding forwards
than backwards, and then there amt
but just this one robe in the stage,
and we can both use 1t if you set here.
Much as I've trailed round in stage
coaches in the last 25 years, it makes
me dead sick to ride backwards"
Have you lived here in the Rockies
rs years?"
"Indeed, have, my son. And amt
ever been out o. sight Of 'em in all
that time, either. Oh, I'm an old-tim-
er, am. My land! the booms I've
lived through, and the camps I've seen
go up and down in that time! / went
all through the Leadville boom, and
the Gunnison county bcoms, and
here am on my way to another one
over here in Poverty gulcn, where I
reckon you are bound for. Some O.
the boys they say boom wouldn't
be wuth anything II Mother Tubbs
want in it. That's what they call me
Mother Tubbs. And land knows I
have mothered enough Of 'em to have
earned the title"
We had ridden about ten miles, and
Mother Tubbs' tongue had run incd
sanity in very entertaining wa
Presently we rode down into narroS \,
gulch, where five or six log cabins
with sunken roofs and fallen doors in
dicated the existence of little mi
ing camp in days long past Moth
Tubbs glanced out of the window J.
the door of the coach, and said, wi
little sigh;
Dear me! Here's all there is len
of old Camp Fancy, and when the1l
cabins was built it was thought
would be the biggest minin' camp in
the country. That's what the miners
think about ev'ry new minin' camp |
There was as many as thousand |
miners in this gulch one summer, and
there were tents and cabins all up and
down the gulch. Then the min'ral :
veins all petered out. You see that }
cabin mp by that big bowlder?"
Eyes; see it."
swell, l KEEP lodgin' house there
20 years ago, and sometimes KEEP 80
people over night in the three little \
rooms that cabin bad. / never think \
of them days without calm to mind}
something that happened one nigl
along the first o. the boom, whe
there want great many folks in Il
gulch yet. I'll tell you about it If y
say So"
30 please do
"Well, it wasone real cold and stormy
day in November when the stage come,
along and dropped single passenga
at my house, and I'd never had sue
passenger dropped there befor'
She was yaller-haired, blue-eyed, in
nocent lookin' young thing of abop
10, whose pa and ma had no bizness t
let her be trav'lin' round alone, eve
II she was on her way to marry t.
fellow she was engaged to. But
was like this: The girl was inclin
to be weak-lunged, and the docto
in her home back east had said thi
the thing for her to do was to git on
to the mountains as soon as she ca
Well, it so happened that she was
gagged to be married to young
who had come from her home out
to seek his fortune. He HAD got
minin' fever, and had come to
gulch, tbinkin' here was to be q
boom here. He had little money,
when the girl writ him what the do
tors had said about her, he sent WI
for her to come right out here,
they would be married. He was
O. hope about the future, and ha
they'd git along all right. We
got here day or two ahead
30 he want here to meet