Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1916-12-21

rail-" he cried bitterly.
beneath his weight, and he had fallen
into the river
"They had no business to have SO
weak a rail- he cried bitterly
well, you're here, all right" l said
soothingly. "There's no great harm
DONE"
ooh, isn't there?" he snarled.
Then we learned how the weight Of
the gold around his waist had carried
him down like a plummet, and we
sensed a little of the desperate horror
with which he had torn and struggled
to free himself from that dreadful
burden
II thought I'd burstr' said he.
And then he had torn off the belt
and had shot to the surface.
'It's down there" he said more calm
ly, every COMPOUNDED yellow grain Of
it." He laughed little. Broke" said
he. "No New York in miner
The crowd murmured sympathetic
cally.
"Gol darn it, boys, it's rotten hard
luck!' cried big miner, with some
heat. who'll chip in?"
At the words Johnny recovered him
self, and his customary ease of man
ner returned.
much obliged, boys" said he, but
I've still got my health. l don't need
charity. Guess I've been doing the
baby act. But l was clean mad at
that rotten old rail. Anyway" he
laughed, ''there need nobody say in
the future that there's no gold in the
lower Sacramento. There is. l put it
there myself"
We drew up to San Francisco early
in the afternoon, and we were, to put
it mildly, thoroughly astonished at the
change in the place. To begin with,
we now landed at long wharf pro-
jecting from the foot of Sacramento
street instead of by lighter. This
wharf was crowded by miscellaneous
mob, collected apparently with no 9th
er purpose than to view our arrival.
Among them we saw many specialized
types that had been lacking to the old
city of few months ago-sharp, keen.
businesslike clerks whom one could
not imagine at the rough work Of the
mines; lOafers whom one could not i'm
agine ut any work at all: diSSOlute,
hard faced characters without the bold
freedom of the road agents; young
green looking chaps who evidently had
much to learn and who were exceed
ingly likely to pay their little fortunes,
if not their lives. in the learning. On
a hOgshead at one side a street preach
er was declaiming.
Johnny had by now quite recovered
his spirits. l think he was helped
greatly by the discovery that he still
possessed his celebrated diamond.
Not broke yetr' said he triumphant
~. you see l was a wise boy after
all! Wish had two of them"
We disembarked, fought our way to
one side and discussed our plans.
'Hock the diamond first" said John
ny, who resolutely refused to borrow
from me: then hair cut. shave BATH
buy some more clothes. grub, drink
and hunt up Talbot and see what he's
done with the dust we sent down from
HangmanS''
That program seemed good. We
Strolled toward shore, with full inten-
ton of putting it into immediate eX-
ecutiOn. Immediate" proved to be a
relative term. There was too much to
see.
At the land end Of the wharf we ran
into the most extraordinary collection
of vehicles apparently in an ineXtrica-
BILE tangle. that was further compli-
Gated by the fact that most of the
horses were only half broken. They
kicked and reared; their drivers dashed
and swore: the wagons FLASHED togeth-
err. There seemed no possible way out
of the mess. and yet somehow the
wagons seemed to get loaded and to
draw out into the clear. Occasionally
the drivers were inclined to abandon
their craft and do battle with the load
ed ends of their whips. but always a
peacemaker descended upon them in
the person Of a large voluble individ-
ual in whom | recognized my former