Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-11-04
DAILY SHORT STORY
A Miners Difference.
GoriginaL.l

coach, and when night came on one or
the passengers, a rough miner, insisted
on every man getting outside that each
woman might have a seat to herself on
which to sleep. When we were seated
on the coach top, 1 offered the polite
miner a cigar and remarked:
''You treat women with great respect
out here"
That's cause there's so few on 'em.
They'd oughter pass a law ag'in their
COMM
II suppose it was your admiration
for the sex that leads you to treat them
so unselishly."
''Not bit. It's my advice, stranger,
for any man to let 'em alone. 1 never
had but one experience with any on
'em, and that was enough for me. 1t
was when we was workin' in ZigZag
gulch. There was a lot of us there
washin' out considerable ore and all do
in well. One day grizzly headed ole
Teller come along totin' q gal. She was
the fust specimen we'd any on us laid
eyes on for months. Stranger, d'y' re-
member when v was a boy and went
into a store to buy a pocketknife?
Among hundreds on 'em the knife v
bought didn't look especial fine, but
when v got it home away from the
rest on 'em, great Scott, how it did
shineI Well, that's the way it was
with the gal. There wasn't no more on
500, IL Nv.6
only used to each others hairy faces.
1.-THE ole man said he'd come out to
dig for gold, and his daughter was go
in to do his cookin' for him. 1t wasn't
long before seen that the gal was Civ
in me a preference to all the other
men in camp, and l felt just as if
was bein' filled with laughin' gas. /
was as proud and happy as if I'd struck
a vein of pure gold. Pauline-that was
her name, Pauline Maryweather-she
was as dead stuck on me as l was on
her. Only one thing troubled me. She
wouldn't take no notice on me except
when we was alone and no one to see
u.s. She said her father never would
consent to her m6rryin' no miner and
was hopin' to make strike and marry
her to some big gun in the east. How
ever, at last she consented to let me
try what 1 could do with him, and
did.
"'NIr. Maryweather,' L said, Il am in
love with yer daughter and want her
for my wife got $1,000 worth of dust
in my shanty, and when l git double
the amount I'll go east, set up q store
NnI1 10
"'You jist let my daughter alone, he
said, or I'll put more lead into yer
vitals than Y got gold in yer cabin
"When 1 tole Pauline about it, she
looked sad, but didn't say nothin', and
1 begun tryln' to persuade her to run
away with me. She was dead set agin
it at fuSt, but at last. she come round
and laid out the hull business herself.
1 was to go down to the fork of the
creek and walt there for her. One
thing she insisted on. She said If she
once made the move her father d new
er forgive her. She trusted me, but
there might be some slip, so she would
not stir unless I'd let her carry my
dust This looked reasonable, and the
night before we was to dig out 1 met
her in lonely place up the creek and
turned the dust over. She seemed
mighty disconsarted and chung to me
as if somepin awful was goin' to hap
pen. At last she kissed me goodby,
maxim me promise once more that l
wouldn't fail her, and then we sepa-
rated.
"Waal we was to meet at A o'clock
the next afternoon. 1 was at the fork
by 3, and bout a quarter to my
heart begun to beat like a drumstick,
beatin' faster and faster till my watch
stood p. m. Then 1t beat at the
same gait till a quarter past 4, and,
seein' Pauline didn't show up, it begun
to slow down. 1 waited till 8, and then.
eoncludin' that the ole man had got
on to the deal, went back to the gulch.
Things was a-workin' as usual ex-
cept l missed seven of the most sue
cessful miners there was among us. l
set down on a stump to rest, and while
1 was a-settin' there Dick Tut, one
of the missin' men, walked in lookin'
bout himself kind of suspicious. Then
from another direction come Phil
Thriggs. He 'peared mad at sOmepin
and makes straight for his cabin.
w nlle ne was IueTe uIODS COIueS 1OLu
Barnard. Triggs comes out of his cab
in and yells, What's become of that ole
galute, MaryweatherY
HE was tole by the miners that
Maryweather and his daughter had
left the place leetle before 4 o'clock
with big sack that 1t TUX the two on
'em to carr
'Waal, tine game was out. The gal
had made love to the seven of ZigZag
gulch's wealthiest citizens and got ev-
cry one on 'em to turn over his dust
except Triggs, who suspected somepin
and insisted on takin' hisn to the meet
in place hisself, instead of which he
buried it and left bag of sand in its
place. so that in his case the thieves
didn't get nothin'.
ga couple of year after that 1 went
to Kansas City. l did nothin' for the
fust day but stare at the women; they