Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1916-09-21

| ner, in every restaurant and hotel it
was sung. played and whistled At
| the sound Of its first notes the audi
! ence always Sprang to it's feet and
| cheered like mad.
The desire to go to Eldorado was
| universal and almost irresistible. The
! ability to go was much more circum-
| scribed For one thing, 1t cost a good
deal of money, and that was where |
| begged down at the first pull. Then,
l suppose a majority did have ties of
! family, business or other responsible
| ties impossible to shake off. But we all
joined one or more of the various
clubs formed for the purpose of get
! ting at least some Of their members to
California, and discussed heatedly the
merits of the different routes, and
went into minute and fascinating de-
tails as to processes Of which we knew
less than nothing, and sang "Oh, Su-
Sannahr' and talked ourselves into a
glorified fever of excitement, and went
home with our heads in the clouds.
Once in a great while some of these
clubs came to SOmething-as a body,
| mean-for individual members were
constantly working themselves up the
summit of resolution to rush headlong
and regardless down the other side and
out of our sight. When a man had
reached a certain pitch of excitement
he ran amuck. He sold anything, de-
serted anything, broke through any
thing in the way of family, response
biity or financial lacks in order to go.
But. as | say, occasionally one OF these
clubs pooled it's individual resources
and bought some old tub Of a whaler
or Outfitted a wagon train and started
off. But generally we got only as far
as "Oh, Susannah"' | remember once
in coming out from one Of our meet
ings finding myself next a solemn and
earnest youth originally from my own
village He walked by my side for
several squares lost in a brown study.
Then suddenly he looked up.
Frank" said he, with conviction, Il
believe I'll go. | know most of this
talk is wildly exaggerated, but I'm
sensible enough to discount all that
sort of thing and to disbelieve absurd
stories. | shan't go with the slightest
notion of finding the thing true, but
will be satisfied if | do reasonably
we'll In fact, if l don't pick up more
than a hatful Of gold day | shall be
perfectly satisfied
Which remark sufficiently indicates
about where we all were.
We had many sorts of men i'll our
club, but nearly all young. One in es-
pecial early attracted my attention and
held it through all the changing vicis-
STUDIES of our many meetings. l say
attracted me- though fascinated would
be perhaps the better word, for after
the first evening of his attendance |
used deliberately so to place myself
that l could watch him.
He came always in a rather worn
military cape, which on entering the
| door he promptly threw back in such
manner as to display the red lining.
/ This seemed an appropriate envelop-
ment of his flaming, buOyant personal
ity. He walked with his chin up and
his back straight and trod directly on
and over the ends of his toes SO that
he seemed fairly to spring with vigOr.
His body was very erect and tall and
plant, bending easily to every change
of balance If were mover to have
seen his face at all ! should have
placed him as one Of the laughing spir
it's of the world. His head was rather
small, round well poised, with soft
close set ringlctS all over it like q cap,
in the fashion of some marble gods l
have seen. He had very regular, hand
! some features. with a clear, biscuit
brown complexion, and close clipped,
Stubby, light muStache. All these
things We're interesting and attractive,
though no more so than are the viSOr
and beauty of any perfect animal. But
the quality of his eyes placed him, at
least to me, in a class apart. They
were sober, clear eyes that looked out
gray and contemplative on the world
about them, SO that one got the In
slant impression of a soul behind them
that weighed and judged. Indeed,
they were not laughing eyes at all and
rainier neSdtlNeu the IMPRESSION uduc
by the mans general bearing. But
somewhere down in them something
fickered like a strong burning candle
in a brisk wind. Occasionally it was
almost out; then again it blaZed up
clear, so that one thought to see it
plainly through the steady brooding
look. 1t always fascinated the behold
er, for it was mysterious. Whether it
came and went, grew and shrank, fol
lowing delicately the moods or ref1ec-
tons Of the spirit within, or whether
it was a purely fortuitous effect Of
light and refraction no man was ever
able to say. And some men later
made some very bad guesses. l my
self think it was the devil of genius
devil behind the steady control Of
clear brain. His name, l soon discov-
cred. was Talbot Ward.
At this period | was starting in as
an assistant bookkeeper to a large ex-
porting firm. They were enterprisipg