St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1902-05-10
THE ALCHEMY
OF JANE ELLEN.
800
49,
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
A Modern Miracle Of a Mining Camp.

nE UREKA! Eureka!' shouted the
L. conductor on the narrow
gauge train, as it wheezed and
groaned up the final stretch of rails
that terminates in Eureka, once a
populous and thriving mining camp,
whose reputation ranks second only
to the famed Comstock in the produc-
ton of gold and silver dollars, but
is now only a blotch of buildings
crowded among low hills of sage
brush. Half dozen people began
the preparatory rustlings of weary
passengers nearing their destination.
When the train came to a halt at
the depot, Ira Brooks and his wife
climbed down from the coach in
The MISSION which brought them
from New Hampshire state to this
Nevada camp was not an extraordi-
nary one; Jacob o. Marley, brother
of Jane Ellen Brooks, had struck out
for the west in the early Sixties, and
after a desultory correspondence for
ten years with the home folks, had
ceased writing. In his last letter to
Sister Jane he mentioned the fact
that he had discovered big silver
mine in Nevada-not stating the ex-
act location; and from the stirring
epistle Jane Brooks formed a glow
ing picture of Jacob as q bonanza
king of the wonderful west. His fail
ure to write since then worried good
Jane; she imagined her brother ruled
by jealous wife; perhaps living in
extravagant luxury, or mayhap the
slave of his millions with not a mo-
ment in which to pen letter to his
fond sister-"Jacob never did fancy
writing materials" Mrs. Brooks
would not allow herself to think of
this absent brother as a poor pros
pector, or the possibility of his de-
parture to the realms above. When
an old aunt died, bequeathing to
Jane a few hundred dollars, she inn
mediately planned western trip with
no other thought than to unearth the
Grant millionaire, Jacob. OF course,
Ira Brooks, her husband, should ac-
company her, and since James wishes
were akin to law in her own house,
hold, Ira and she soon began their
quest for Jacob o. Marley.
The twain had been whisked, and
jolted and dragged to nearly every
settlement in Nevada. Stout old Ira
had seen such a surfeit of alkali plains,
sagebrush hills, and uncouth mining
camps that even his dreams were of
distorted New England scenes, alive
with Nevada eccentricities. After
many weeks filled with wild adven-
lures, the couple picked up an old
scent of Jacob, and followed it to
Eureka, at which place the narrow
gauge has already set them down.
Mrs. Brooks piloted Ira to the
Brown hotel, and scarce waiting until
the stains and fatigue of travel were
removed, the anxious sister made
known her errand by plying the citi-
zens of Eureka with questions.
"Jacob o. Marley, ma'am? Why,
sure, I knowed jake" responded one
Zip" Wortle; "but last 1 seen of him
he-say, amt you heard about it?"
e.Heard about what? Sir, am Ja-
cob O. Marley's sister, and I am look
ing for my dear brother. I say am
looking for my dear brother
''Then you'd better prospect in that
thar bone-yard, ma'am, for Jake he
got killed in a gun-fight nigh onter
ID years back" Tip Wortle blurted
out this information with the I'M
feeling candor of a mining-camp
habitue, calloused by a familiarity
with such minor details as impromptu
duels and the like.
"Jacob killed! Jacob dead!"
shrieked Jane Ellen Brooks. "And
who killed him? say, who killed my
lear brother?"
"A chap called Steve Atwood,
na'am. But you needn't feel so cut
np; why, before Jake keeled over he
aid out Steve purttier'n anything I
ever SEEN"
Jane shrieked louder than before.
4 don't believe one word of it! ia
lob wasn't the fighting kind. Dear
Jacob kill a man? Never, I say"
"Wal, supposin' you just mosey
through that graveyard, ma'am, and
earn whether Tip Wortle's tellin' you
what amt So" Saying which, Tip
Indicated By a jerk of his thumb
;he cemetery referred to. and turned
IN his Aeel,s leaving Jane and Ira