The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1908-02-14

indicating man in the cut
below, busted in setting a line OF
| sluices.
THAT'S old Slapjack Simms, friend
of mine from up Dawson way"
Glenister laughed immoderately, for
the object was unusually tall and loose
iointed and wore soiled suit of yellow
mackinaw. He had laid off his coat.
and now the baggy, bilious trouseri
hung precariously from his angular
shoulders by suspenders OF alarming
| frailty. His legs were lost in gui-'
| boots. also loose and cavernous, ana
his entire costume looked relaxed an0
Tapping, so that he gave the impre5-
| sion of being able to shake himself out
of his raiment and to rise like bur
lesque Aphrodite. His face was over
grown with a grizzled tangle that
looked as though it had been trimmed
! with buttonhole scissors, while above
the brush heap grandly scared shiny
| domelike head.
HAS he always been baldW
Nav! He amt bald at all. He
wore long flowin name which wa
inhabited by crickets, tree toads aat
such fauna. 1t got to be hobby wiz
him finally, so that he growed superst!
tious about goin' uncurried and woul,
back into corner with both gum
drawed if a barber came near him.
But once Hank-that's his real name
undertook to fry some slapjacks and III
givin' the skillet heave, the dough lii
among his forest primeval, jest back
of his ears, soft side down. Hank pol
luteG the gulch with langwidge which
no man had ought to keep In himself
without it was fumigated. Disreppita
bleness oozed out through him like
sweat through an ice pitcher, all since
then he's been known as Slapjacll
Simms an has kept his head shingled
smooth as a gun bar'l. He's a good
miner, though. Amt none better-an'
square as a die"
Sluicing had begun on the Midas.
Long sinuous lengths Of canvas hose
wound down the creek bottom from
the dam, like gigantic serpents, while
the roll of gravel through the fumes
mingled musically with the rush of
waters, the tinkle Of tools and the song
Of steel ON rock. There were four
'strings" of boxes abreast, and the
heaving line Of shovelers ate rapidly
INTO the creek bed, while teams with
scrapers splashed through the tail races
n an atmosphere Of softened profanity.
In the big white tents which sat back
from the bluffs, fifty men Of the night
shift were asleep, for there is no re-
spite aere-no night no Sunday, no
halt during the hundred days In which
the notthland lends herself to pillagr.
The mine lay Graded between won
derful, messy, willow notified noun
tains, while above and below the gulch
was dotted with tents and huts, and
everywhere, from basin to hill crest
men dug and blasted, punily, patiently,
while their tracks grew daily palmer
over the face of this inscrutable will
derness.
A great contentment filed the two
partners as they looked on this scene.
To wrest from reluctant earth her
richest treasures, to add to the wealth
Of the world. to create-here was sat
lsractlon.
1--WE amt Robin no widders an
orphans dom II, neither" Dextry sud
denly remarked, expressing his part
ner's feelings closely. They looked at
each other and smiled with that rare
understanding that exceeds words.
Descending into the cut, the old man
filed a gold pan with dirt taken from
under the feet Of the workers and
washed 1t in puddle, while the other
watched his dexterous whirling mo.
lions. When he had finished they
poked the stream OF yellow grains into
a pile; then, with heads together,
guessed its weight, laughing again de
lightedly, in perfect harmony and con.
tentmcnt.
'T'va baan waitin' a turrihle time q