The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-11-09
CALIFORNIA LEGENDS.
Weird and Thrilling Tales of the
0Iden Days.
A NINE THAT WAS HAUNTED.
The Ghost of Tom Bowers, an Elusive,
Luminous Warning and Race Be-
tween Life and Death-The Building
Of Lofty Mount Shasta.


delicious snivers 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 a 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 br-nk of the slope where
he had been prospecting and at the
foot of a landslide his speechless body
alone in death.
After his retains 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 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
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, we'll armed with a rifle.
The shadows deepened into dark
ness. into an absolute blackness. Sud-
denly while accommodating a phospho-
resent light attracted his attention.
and as he boldly advanced toward 1t
he discovered a placard hung from a
tree-a sort of spectral transparency, il
seems-bearing the following words:
Notice, l, Thomas Bowers, claim this
ground loT placer miHl1E.
When the readers mind had recov-
cred from it's earthquake of astonish
ment the miner made a snatch at the
piacard. 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 highland before him
stood Tom Bowers.
The California miner is no coward.
The rife was lifted, fired. With yell
of rage the ghost, bTandishing pick
and shovel in excited arms. pursued
the trespasser.
A race between life and death in a
new sense was the one that followed
all the way to Pike City. There the
other miners. celebrating a new find
by a dance in a saloon, were suddenly
alarmed by terrified screams. Running
out. they found neither man nor ghost
but tossed upon the ground a rife and
a pick and n 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
a 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 I
never will be narGhty 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 a pure, life
| giving spring.
| The water Of this New river, as il
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
it's terrific heat. its lack of water, the
soda dust Of its plains strewn with
mummified animals and the bleached
bones of lost prospectors. But fair
and fertile once lay the valley, -four
I fishing pueblo ruled over by a beauti-
/ full queen.
Alas. the beauty was only skin deep,
and ambition alone ruled n cold, cruel
heart. A palace to surpass the houses
OF the neigbboring Aztecs was lcr
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 regard
ed that her people dared not protest
but in her zeal to have the palace
erected before accident or possible
death sic had >Orced her daughter
even to toit ;1s throng Of workers