The Press., 1907-11-20
CALIFORNIA LEGENDS.
Weird and Thrilling Tales Of the
 0Iden Days.
A MINE THAT WAS HAUNTED.
The Ghost of Tom Bowers, an Elusive, Luminous Warning and Race Be- tween Life and Dsath-Ths Building of Lofty Mount Shasta.

II delicious shivers down the spinal cord
 of the ancestral tree, but even more delightfully."- spoOky Is the possession of haunted mine, and such boast California can make on the authority
 of early legend.
 Once upon time in 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.
 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 he died-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, .... s......
 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 thriftless miner hop ing for a 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 | S,lNx yrP hat
 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 deepeued into dark ness, into an absolute bIackness. Sud denly while reconnoitering phospho-
 rescent light attracted his attention, and as he boldly advanced toward it
 he discovered a placard hung from | tree-a sort of spectral transparency, it seems-bearing the following words: Notice! I, Thomas Bowers, claim this ground for placer mining"
 When the readers mind had recov- cred from its earthquake of astonish- ment the miner made a snatch at the placard. A pricking thrill went through his fingers, as though they had taken liberties with aR electric battery. The luminous writing was gone, but in his ears roarsd tbe flowing water of the sluice and through the roar the sharp. clear cut tap, tap, of pick, Again the
 flash of warning light-and 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 1nS excited arms. pursued the trespasseE. ,@~
 A race between life and death in new sense was the one that followed all the way to Pike City. There the other miners, celebrating a new find by dance in s saloon, were suddenly alarmed by terrified screams Running out, they found neither man nor ghest but tossed upon the ground a 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. .s. F. ss'
 During the rush for gold in the fifties a party came west by the Gtla river | route. The heat was intense. The sNps ply of water gave out. On the bot. barren sands just below Yuma the | dying cavalcade pitched their desper-3 ate camp. an
 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 will be naughty again"
 And scarcely had the petition gone | up to the stars when the sound of 1 running water was heard, and up from the dry. hot sands bubbled a pure, life f giving spring.
 The water of this New river, as it was called, swept north for twenty miles, at one place spreading into deep lake two miles wide. but when migration went by the northern route, 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 it's plains strewn with F animals and the b1eached 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 laShed their naked backs. So sacred was royalty reg trtl- sd that her people dared not protest. but in her zeal to have the palace erected before accident or possible 1eath she had forced her da"g'it"r even 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 heat so fierce that the streams dried up vegetation became l,i 'corched, the animals sought new { lbodes, while queen and people died IS though by plague
 But in the midst of the desolation he palace half completed may be seen { o this day-if fortune favors the trava ( ter with mirage. l. An amusing ghost story haunts the 'arly history of Santa Barbara island, Such were the awful noises heard : 'y ships in passing that every sailor on l0QFd doVnHTffvv l .