Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1916-12-14

awed. The community had found II.
self and was no longer afraid.
No sooner had this radical cleanup
Of the body polite been consummated
than the rains began. That means
little to any but Californian. To
him it means everything. We were
quite new to the climate and the con-
ditions, so that the whole thing was a
great surprise.
For four days it rained steadily.
The morning Of the fifth day broke
dazzlingly clear. The sky looked bur-
nished as a blue jewel; the sunlight
glittered like shimmering metal; dis
tant objects stood out plain cut, with
out atmosphere. For the first time we
felt encouraged to dare that awful
mud and so stopped over to town.
We found the place fairly drowned
out. No one In his first year thought
of building for the weather. Barnes
hotel, the Empire and the Bella Union
had come through without shipping
drop, for they had been erected by
men with experience in the California
climate, but almost everybody else had
been leaked upon a-plenty. And the
deep dust of the travel worn overland
road had turned into a morass beyond
belief or description.
Our first intimation of definite sea-
sOnal change came from our old friend
Danny Randall, who hailed us at once
when he saw us picking our way gin
gerly along the edge of the street. In
answer to his summons we entered
the Bella Union.
"I hope you boys weren't quite
drowned out" he greeted us. "You
don't look particularly careworn."
We exchanged the appropriate COM
ments; then Danny came at once to
business.
"Now I'm going to pay off you three
boys" he told the express messengers,
land want to know what you want.
I can give you the dust, or 1 can give
you an order on a San Francisco firm,
just as you choose"
Express business busted? asked
Johnny.
"It's quit for the season." Danny
Randall told him, ''like everything
| else. In two weeks at most there
won't be score Of men left in Italian
Bar" He observed our astonished in
credulity, smiled and continued: you
boys came from the east, where it
rains and gets over it. But out here
| it doesn't get over it. Have you been
down to look at the river? No? Well,
you'd better take a look. There'll be
no more bar mining done there for
| awhile. And what's q mining camp
without mining? Go talk to the men
Of '4S. They'll tell you. The season
Is over, boys, until next spring, and
you may just as well make up your
minds to hike out now as later What
are you laughing at?" he asked Johnny.
II was just thinking of our big Wig
| ilante organization" he chuckled
81 suppose it's true that mighty few
of the same lot will ever get back to
Italian Bar" agreed Danny, "but it's
a good thing for whatever community
they may hit next year."
Johnny and Old elected to take their
wages in dust. Cal decided on the or
der against the San Francisco firm.
Then we wandered down to where we
could overlook the bar itself.
The entire bed Of the river was filed
from rim to rim with rolling brown
| flood. The bars, sand splits, gravel
banks had all disappeared. Whole
eton arms or tangled roots as they
were swept along by the current or
| caught back by the eddies, and under
| meath the roar Of the waters we heard
| the dull rumbling and crunching of
powders rolled beneath the flood. A
crowd of men was watching in idle
curiosity. We learned that all the era
dies and most of the tools had been
lost and heard rumors of cabins or
camps located too low having been
swept away.
That evening we held a very serious
discussion of our prospects and plans.
Yank announced himself as fit to trav-
ell and ready to do so, provided he could
have horse The express messengers
were out Of a job. / had lost all my
tools and was heartily tired Of gold
washing, even had conditions permit
ted me to continue. Beside which we
were all feeling quite rich and prosper
Gus. We had not made enormous for
tunes, as we had confidently antici-
pated when we left New York, but we
were all possessed of good sums Of
money Yank had the least, owing to
the fact that he had been robbed of
his Porcupine river product and had
been compelled for nearly three months
to lie idle, but even he could count on
a thousand dollars or so sent out from
Hangman's Gulch. had the most, for
my digging had paid me better than
had Johnny's express riding. But much
of my share belonged of right to Tai
| bot Ward.
Having once made up our minds to
leave, we could not go too soon. A re-
vulsion seized us. In two days the