Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-11-01
GIL NQ||RA|A LEGENDS.

Weird and Thrilling Tales Of the
0Iden Days.
IA MINE THAT WAS HAUNTED.
The Ghost of Tom Bowers, an Elusive,
a Luminous Warning and Face Be
tween Life and Death--The Building
of Lofty Mount Shasta.
IA 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 a haunted mine, and such a boast
California can make on the authority
of early legend.
M Once upon time iii the days of old
and the days Of gold a miner of the
name Of Thomas Bowers lived and
delved in the vicinity Of Pike City.
h. "A shy, silent man was Thomas, doing
his prospecting without a partner and
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
he died noiseless footsteps across the
snow to the brink of the slope where
he had been prospecting and at the
foot of a landslide, his speeches. 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. s5
lH 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 SO
! 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
i miner one evening inaugurated a
1 watch, well armed with rifle.
The shadows deepened into dark
j ness, into an absolute blackness. Sud-
4 denly while accommodating phospho-
i resent light attracted his attention,
and as he boldly advanced toward it
q he discovered a placard hung from a
/. treea sort OF spectral transparency, it
4 seems bearing the following words:
Notice! L, Thomas Bowers, claim this
ground for placer mining
When the readers mind had recov'
cred from its earthquake of astonish
1 ment the miner made a snatch at the
placard A pricking thrill went through
4 his fingers, as though they had takeI
n liberties with an electric battery. The
q 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 a pick. Again the
I: flash Of warning light-and before him
h stood Tom Bowers. & S: l.5
The California miner is no coward
The rifle was lifted, fired. With vel
Of. rage the ghost, brandishing picl
and shovel in excited arms. pursued
the trespasser.
A race between life and death in 8
new sense was the one that followed
all the way to Pike City. There the
by dance in a saloon, were suddenly
. alarmed by terrified screams. Running
i out, they found neither man nor ghost
but tossed upon the ground rifle ant
a pick and shovel with the initials
T. B. cut In the handle
A legend of an entirely different typ,
is connected with the same period O
California history. ss,.
During the rush for gold in the fiftie.
a party came west by the ella rive
route. The heat was intense. The sup
4 ply of water gave out. On the hot
! barren sands just below Yuma tn,
dying cavalcade pitched their desper
ate camp.
In the silence of the early night from
J one Of the wagons came the prattlini
voice of a little child lifted in prayer:
DO, dear God, give us water, and
I never win be naughty again"
? And scarcely had the petition gon
i up to the stars when the sound o
running water was heard, and up froI
J the dry, hot sands dubbed a pure, nf
: giving spring.
B The water OF this New river, as
D was called. swept north for invent
miles, at one place spreading into
deep lake two miles wide, but whe
4 migration went by the. northern route
4 the pretty tradition naively ends, n
\ longer needed, the New rivers sprin
! dried up.
8 Perhaps no more desolate spot ca
81 he niefured than Death valley wit