The Savannah morning news., 1903-06-14

Continued from Page Twenty-six)
and Bill Martin, and the stable boys.
eend the proprietor of the New York
Emporium. all Of whom lived in min
istering to the wants Of a prosperity
that was still in the air.
Each morning the camp emptied it.
self into the hills. The claims were
usually held in partnership; when they
were not, two of the men traded
work" so that they could labor in
pairs. At rude FORCES near the shafts
they sharpened their heavy steel drills,
resembling crowbars; beating the red
hot point out with the sledges. Then
one held, while the other struck-crash!
Turn, crash! Turn, crash! And so on,
in unwearying succession, until the
hole became so clogged with the pow
dered rock and the water poured in to
cool the drill that it had to be spooned
out with a special T-shaped instru-
ment.
After time the hole would be deep
enough. The operators would load it.
touch the fuse, scamper for shelter
The earth would become numbered with
broken vein matter, and this had to be
removed laboriously with pick and
shovel. When the shaft grew deeper
the fuse was cut a little longer and
the miners would climb out as fast as
they could on notched pole. Cases
have been known when that was not
fast enough; as the time old Brady,
the paralytic, was blown out along
with the vein filing, and died almost
before the horse was saddled to go for
the doctor at Custer, fifteen miles
away.
The rock was hard and the immedi-
ate results invisible. Well earned was
the title of Optimist, for that these
coarse, unframed men should so devote
themselves to futurity certainly in
dicated optimism, and of fine sort. If
the capitalist should not come! The
net result would be a few acres of billy
stony land, we'll hole where there
was no water, and an exhausted pock-
etbook.
At noon some of the miners ate a
lunch which they had brought with
them. heating coffee over the little fire
used to warm the powder; while others
picked up something in their own cab
ms. Bill Martins table entertained
only the gambler, Graham, Cheyenne
Harry, and two other men, whom the
camp laughingly designated as proud"
About or o'clock the workers re-
turned from the claims. At sharp
camp. Then came the Little Nugget,
quiet smoke, glass or so of whisky.
and a sound nights sleep.
Sometimes there was a celebration.
One or two members of the little COM
munity were inclined to become trife
overjoyous too often for their health.
The standard of humor and manners
was not one of the most quiet and
delicate. But, on the whole, Copper
Creek was no worse nor better than a
hundred other similar prospecting
camps in the West
Naturally. to such a community, in
the hobbledehoy stage of it's develop
ment, as 1t were, the advent of so
strange a phenomenon as woman
was in the nature of an event. Later,
when it had become used to the sex
and its possibilities and limitations, the
personal relation might become the
motive of much very complicated ac-
ton; but now it accepted Molly as q
bright spot of color on a gray canvas,
as holiday, as a fortunate bit of
music, as an unexpected burst of sun
shine in the winter. For all her strong
feminine charm, she was to most of
them as sexless as a boy. They were
too many; and she was alone. The
spectacle of one gigantic rivalry for
her favor would have been grotesque,
and no one has a keener instructive
sense of the ridiculous than the West
erner. They accepted her fascination
as a real but impersonal influence. In
her they honored the great abstrac-
ton. woman: and in himself each indi-
vidual saw. not his own single PERSONAL
ity, but the blended apotheosis of the
man of Copper Creek. Molly was held
In partnership, each miner making not
only his own impression for her good
graees. but the camps as well.
And this without mawkish sentiment
tality or comic opera delicacy Of con-
duct. II must not be understood that
the newcomer became any romantic
idol OF the camp, or that the men dis
played the old-fashioned courtesy az
fected BY the miners IN Western ro-
mances. These were pioneers. Thor
lives were rough, and their conduct
matched their lives. When angry. they
said very emphatic things ~ lnelegant
language. When facefious, their Jokes
were apt 10 be a. broad as the prairies
themselves, When a. their ease, hey
chewed tobacco, Or ate with their