Los Angeles herald., 1907-04-14

gases which after a time burst the cans
and demolished the place.
Whether this story is true or not
other things have happened in the
Goldfeld dwellings which are Just as
odd. They do not use water except
when it is absolutely necessary. They
have a very satisfactory way of keep
ing fires from spreading, however.
If a blaze got started In one of the
emporiums, saloons or houses the male
part of the population make a rush for
the buildings nearest the burning
structure. They seldom try to keep it
from burning down, but move away
the building nearest to It.
This is not as difficult as it might
seem, for many of the stores are mere
ly one-story shacks resting upon two
or three posts, and If enough men will
put their shoulders under the frame
work it can be lifted and carried
across the street or somewhere else
out of danger.
The usual way is to hitch a string of
burros or ponies to the place, put some
rollers under It and haul 1t away. Con-
sequently the Goldhed fire department
puts more faith in the muscles of its
members and animals than 1t does III
fire engines or hose.
Within the last year three different
fires. have occurred each of which
would probably wiped out the place If
it had not been for the fact that the
buildings within 200 or 300 feet Of the
spot where the fire originated were
thus got out of the way.
But the bottle house and the can
house are not the only ones at which
the newcomer stares. A great many
of the eatables brought to Goldfield
are packed in big barrels, such as
hams, potatoes grain and other things.
The empty barrels find a ready sale
for house buildings. At first they were
knocked into slaves and then put to-
gether in the form of walls so thin
that the local jokers called them trans
parent houses. Finally some one who
felt the cold of winter more than his
neighbors hit upon the plan of putting
a whole barrel into a wall.
1t was an easy matter to dig out the
sand from a hillside and use the latter
for a back wall. Several barrel houses
were then fashioned by piling one tier
Of barrels upon another, dumping sand
along the outside of the lower tier
and patching the space between them
with dried mud. An opening about the
size of one barrel is left for door,
and this can be filled in with two or
three planks covered on the outside
with what were once tin cans.
Another variation of the barrel house
is the plain dugout-a mere hole in the
ground.
There is a reason why it is fashion
able to reside in houses made out of
beer bottles, tin cans and barrels, es-
pecially during the winter, for then the
occasional carload of coal which may
be brought into town frequently brings
as high as $50 a ton, while a cord of
any old wood brings $50 on the spot.
This sort of fuel is available only for
the millionaires and is chiefly used in
the fireplaces of the Montezuma club,
which is one of the few stone buildings
in the place.
Relative to the preciousness of water
they tell another story about pros
pector who struck it rich as soon as he
came to the district. Thinking about
what to do with his new wealth he de-
cided to have a two-story residence
made out of real wood and with real
glass windows. He purchased site on
what is politely known as Sundog ave-
nue..
AS most of the Goldfeld homes at
that time did not reach above single
story he was looked upon Immediately
as one of the big men of the place, but
when he decided to have a lawn the
people regarded him with awe. Such
a thing as a blade of green grass could
not be seen except in a few picture
books which had been brought to the
town to amuse the children. There
were several green trees which -four
ished in the saloons-trees whose
foliage was of papier mache.
Nothing daunted the rich miner sent
to the nearest city, bought enough
grass seed and clover seed to cover an
acre or so to the depth of an inch and
hired man at S. a day to plant the
seed and keep it watered. The cost
of the water was about as much per
day as the wages of the man.
This experiment in gardening at
tracted SO much attention that people
drove in from the outside camps to
watch the operation. Spring came and
went, summer came and went and fin
ally the first snow of winter fell be-
fore the gardening was discontinued.
At that time, according to the story,
about a dozen shoots of grass had
managed to spring up from the alkali.