The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1907-11-12
CALIFORNIA LEGENDS,
Weird and Thrilling Tales of the
0Iden Days.
A MINE THAT WAS HAUNTED.
The Ghost of Tom Bowers, an Elusive,
Luminous Warming and Race Be-
tween Life and Death-The Building
of Lofty Mount Shasta.

ne Ghost OF Tom Bowers, an Elusive
Luminous Warning and Race Be-
tween Life and Death-The Building
of Lofty Mount Shasta.
A haunted house In the family sends
delicious shivers down the spinal cord
of the ancestral tree, but even more
delightfully."- spooky is the possession
of haunted mine, and such a boast
California can make on the authority
Of early legend.
Once upon time in the days of old
and the days of gold miner of the
name of Thomas Bowers lived and
delved In the vicinity of Pike City.
A shy, silent man was Thomas, doing
his prospecting without partner anc
even holding aloof from the jolly com
pany of the other miners after the
days work was done. And In the
same shy, silent way that he had lived
be noiseless footsteps across the
snow to the brink Of the slope where
he had been prospecting and at the
foot of landslide his speechless body
alone in death.
After his remains were buried de-
Gently and in order there were excited
whispers about strange noises at the
mouth of the old shaft, and soon, quite
incidentally, of course, the mine was
abandoned.
The greed of gold, however, taps i'm.
patiently at closed doors, and after
some little time a thriftless miner hop
ing for short cut to wealth undertook
to work the old mine again and sud.
denly surprised his creditors by pay
ing his bills. But things flowed not Sc
smoothly as they seemed. There was
many a slip of nerve between nugget
and pick. Every morning the miner
found that his sluice had been tamper.
ed with, that during the night the wa.
ter had been turned on by unknown
hands. Yet the most diligent search
led to no discovery, and as last hope
of untangling the clammy mystery the
miner one evening inaugurated a
watch, well armed with rife.
The shadows deepened into dark
ness, into an absolute blackness. Sud
denly while accommodating phospho-
resent light attracted his attention,
and as he boldly advanced toward it
he discovered placard hung from a.
tree Ia sort of spectral transparency, it
seems bearing the following words:
"Notice! 1, Thomas Bowers, claim this
ground for placer mining"
When the readers mind had recov-
cred from its earthquake of astonish-
ment the miner made snatch at the
placard. A pricking thrill went through
his fingers, as though they had taken
liberties with an electric battery. The
luminous writing was gone but In his
ears roared the flowing water of the
sluice and through the roar the sharp.
clear cut tap, tap, of pick. Again the
fash of warning light-apd before him
stood Tom Bowers.
The California miner is no coward
The rife was lifted, fired. With yell
of rage the ghost, brandishing pick
and shovel in excited arms, pursued
the trespasser.
new sense was the one that followed
all the way to Pike City. There the
other miners, celebrating new find
by dance in saloon, were suddenly
alarmed by terrified screams. Running
out, they found neither man nor ghost.
but tossed upon the ground q rife and
pick and shovel with the initials
t. B. cut In the handle.
A legend of an entirely different type
is connected with the same period of
California history.
During the rush for gold in the fifties
q party came west by the ella river
route. The heat was intense. The sup
ply of water gave out. On the hot.
barren sands just below Yuma the
dying cavalcade pitched their desper-
ate camp.
In the silence of the early night from
one of the wagons came the prattling
voice Of little child lifted in prayer:
do, dear God, give us water, and
never viii be naughty again"
And scarcely had the petition gone
up to the stars when the sound of
running water was heard, and up from
the dry, hot sands dubbed pure, life
giving spring.
The water Of this New river, as II
WAS called, swept north for twenty
miles, at one place spreading into a
deep lake two miles wide, but when
migration went by the northern route,
the pretty tradition naively ends, no
longer. needed, the New rivers spring
dried up.
Perhaps no more desolate spot can
be pictured than Death valley, with
its terrific heat, Its lack OF water, the
soda dust Of Its plains strewn with
mummiied animals and the bleached
bones of lost prospectors. But fair
and fertile once lay the valley, a -four
ishing pueblo ruled over by beauti-
full queen.
Alas, the beauty was only skin deep,
and ambition alone ruled a cold cruel
heart A palace to surpass the houses
Of the neighboring Aztecs was her
dream, and she cared not how many
lives might be sacrificed in speeding
the labor.
For miles the tribe carried stone and
timber, and when they faltered by
the wayside she dashed their naked
backs. So sacred was royalty regards
ed that her people dared not protest.
but In her zeal to have the palace
erected before accident or possible
death she had forced her daughter
sven to join the throng Of workers,
and when the lash was lifted against
her own flesh and blood the princess
turned before sinking down In death
from exhaustion and cursed both her
mother and the kingdom.
The gods answered quickly. The sun
sent down a heat so fierce that the
streams dried up, vegetation became
scorched, the animals sought new
abodes, while queen and people died
Is though by plague.
But In the midst of the desolation
he palace half completed may be seen
70 this day-if fortune favors the trav-
sler with mirage.