Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-02-20
CHAPTER XIII.
The First Gold,

w YE arose before daylight, pick
N/ eted our horses, left our
" dishes unwashed and hur-
ried down to the diggings
just at sunup, carrying our gold pans,
or "washbowls," and our extra tools.
The bar was as yet deserted. We set
to work with will, taking turns with
the pickax and the two shovels.
must confess that our speed slowed
down considerably after the first wild
burst, but we kept at 1t steadily. 1t
was hard work, and there is no deny
ing it, just the sort Of plain hard work
the day laborer does when he digs
sewer trenches in the city streets, only
worse, perhaps, owing to the nature Of
the soil. 1t had struck me since that
those few years of hard labor In the
diggings, from 40 to '53 or "a, saw
more actual manual toll accomplished
than was ever before performed in
the same time by the same number of
men. The encouragement of those re-
turning we now understood. They had
expected to take the gold without toll
ana were dismayed at the labor 1t had
required. At any rate, we thought we
were doing our share that morning,
especially after the sun came up. We
welded our implements manfully, piled
our debris to one side and gradually
achieved a sort of crumbling uncertain
excavation reluctant to stay emptied.
About an hour after our arrival the
other miners began to appear, smoking
their pipes. They stretched themselves
lazily, spat upon their hands and set
to. Our friend of the day before nod
ded at us cheerfully and hoped down
into his hole.
We removed what seemed to us tons
Of rock. About noon, just as we were
thinking rather dispiritedly of knock
ing Off work for lunch, which in our
early morning eagerness We had for
gotten to bring, Johnny turned up a
shovelful whose lower third consisted
of the pulverized blush clay. We
promptly forgot both lunch and our
own WEAKNESS.
"Heyw shouted our friend, scram-
bling from his own claim. EASY with
the rocks! What are you conducting
here, a volcano?" He peered down at
us. PAY dirt, hey? Well, take it
easy. 1t won't run away"
Take it easy! AS we'll ask us to quit
entirely! We tore at the rubble, which
aggravatingly and obstinately cascad-
ed down upon us from the sides. We
scraped eagerly for more of that blue
clay. At last we had filed our three
pans with a rather mixed lot of the
dirt and raced to the river. Johnny
fell over a bowlder and scattered his
painful far and wide. His manner Of
scuttling back to the hole after more
reminded me irresistibfy of the way a
contestant In a candle kace hurries
back to the starting point to get his
candle relighted.
We panned that dirt clumsily and
hastily enough and undoubtedly lost
much valuable sand oversize, but we
ended each with string of color We
crowded together, comparing our pans.
Then we went crazy. suppose we
had about quarter Of dollars worth
of gold between US, but that was not
the point. The long journey with all
its hardships and adventures, the toll,
the uncertainty, the hopes, the disap-
pointments and reactions had at last
their visible tangible conclusion. The
tiny fecks of gold were symbol We
yapped aloud, we kicked up oNr heels,
we shook hands. we finally Joined
hands and dane "-Nund and around.
- iSI - 4
(To Pa CnnfiouadN