The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1910-08-04
CHAPTER |.

canyon in the Nevada Sierras.
Five hundred feet below the dry
floor of the gulch, which here widened
to a narrow valley, was filled from
wall to wall with a motley hudde of
rough cabins. jig saw cottages, a
glazing red-brick opera house, hotel,
and bank all in one, and pair OF
clapboarded, whitewashed churches.
Upon the sultry and drowsy air of
a summer afternoon there arose the
confused hum and the hoarse murmur
Of strenuous industry, above which,
like the footsteps of the animated
stone statue in Don Juan" the in
sistent note of the busy stamps at
work night and day, three shifts in
each "a hours, dominated all other
sounds.
This was the little mining town of
Meleen, named in honor of It's found
err who was likewise the disCoverer,
manipulation, and chief owner of the
rich Peacock lode, which gave employ
ment to 800 men and Melted over a
million year for its stockholders.
Rough and ready, ignorant and
shrewd, was old Andrew Meleen.
Originally a Welsh miner in Cardiff
and later in the Pennsylvania coal
fields, he by turns had been volunteer
soldier, pioneer prospector, and hnal
ly many times a millionaire, after
weary years of fortune-chasing up and
down the gold and silver country OF
the great west.
For the crude affairs of this typical
raw western camp, with its bizarre ad
mixture of civilization and savagery
we have only a passing interest in
that it is the starting point of the
story in hand Our present and most
wildly human concern is with the
creator of all this industry and pc
tential wealth-and he lay a-dying.
Far up the eastern hillside com
handing the town, whence one could
almost fancy he was looking over the
next divide to where the flaming sun
was setting amid cloudy pillows in
L
sort of bench or plateau an acre in
extent, stood a curious and rambling
wooden structure, in triple part log
cabin, hunting ranch, and modern
country house.
This unique huddle of divers styles
of pioneer architecture really repre-
scented as many different periods in
the fortunes of it's eccentric owner
The rough, Embarked logs of the orig
inal single-roomed cabin which
formed a prominent wing or angle
marked the poor-prospector stage;
then, with more prosperous times
came an addition framed by wander
ing Yankee carpenter and sheathed
with boards of red wood now beauti
fully weathered to rich mahogany
hue; finally, as if to mark the ultimate
rise to affiuence of the occupant, a
two-story structure had been added
shingled as to walls and roof. while
upon three sides a covered veranda
wide enough for fashionable cotillon
approached by generous steps and a
peaked porch gave comfortable as
surance of cool shade and a constant
breeze shifting with the sun.
Around and above porch and cabin
there clambered festoons of grape
vines and wild creepers, the dark
green leaves lending a deeper tinge tC
the background of cedar and redwood
posts and walls.
From this eyrie the old man who
was its chief occupant could easily
toss a lump of his own shining ore
on the roofs of the little town be.
meath; viewed by day, the smoke OF
its furnaces went winding away in
long spirals and ribbons of vapor; at
night, the spurts of colored flame
from the chimneys of retort house
and smelter lit up the opposite sides
of the canyon in ftful flashes OF
murky red, or paled to an orange glow
under the wan light of the moon.
The solitary dweller on the hillside
ture. 1t was his; he had called into
being the town and its throbbing in.
dustries; he loved it with the pas
sionate, yearning love of a wifeless
and childless old man. For him the
cities of the coast-Los Angeles or
San Francisco, Portland or Seattle
possessed few charms. They only
served to bank his constantly increas-
ing millions The rough little town
with its amazing monthly output of
gold and silver and "copper" stood to
him in place of wife and child t.n
queer old ranch overlooking it all
was his real home-his pride, his pas
sion, his delight
And now the time was come when
he must leave it all and go hence, for
Andy Meleen was dying, and chiefly
Of that most incurable of diseases, old
age, while his vast wealth must de.
scend to an heir whom he had never
seen
Upon curious contrivance of do.
nestle devising, half bedstead, half re
Ginning chair, set upon casters so that
it could readily be wheeled indoors
and out, lay the old millionaire. Each
livelong day, from sunrise to sunset
he insisted on being placed in his
wide porch, whence he could still
oversee his beloved town, and gaze
at the noble prospect, with its con
stantly shifting panorama of lights
and shadows. Only nightfall drove
him within doors
Rugged and gnarled as his own ma
tive hills, originally of great girth and
mighty in stature, he was now shrunk
en- to mere skin and bone All the
life and YirilitY of the man snemnd IL