Year: 1872

| DEAR JOURNAL 81 have not been
very faithful in the promise | made to
send you an occasional letter, and my
excuse must be that there is nothing of
sufficient interest occurring to be worth
jotting down. The storm to-day has been
bully one along the river and as l write
the patter of the heavy rain-drops on the
roof sound far sweeter to me than would
the music discoursed by the band accom-
panying that Embassy" of which "Ja-
cinto" spoke so feelingly in his last
| What few miners there are in this vicin-
ity are dependent upon short gulches for
their water supply, so you can readily
believe that a good rain-storm coming
upon the now thoroughly ground
is " God-send to them. Next above
me, Greenleaf & Marsh made an average
of "a to the hand in their last run, with
better prospects ahead Marcus Bennett
cleaned up ten ounces from the two head
boxes, putting in ten days work of him
self and long-tailed opium-smoking
link of that sausage" to which the
Honorable w. j. alluded to in such pa
thetic terms when discoursing upon the
Japanese entertainment. Your Uncle
Snort is making grub at present, with
that's a derned sight more than he made
when last denizen of "Dog Fennel."
Now, alluding to the japanese sets me
to specializing as to how many years it
will be before there will be an anti-Jap-
anese plank in the Democratic platform.
The way some of the would-be leaders
talk seems to indicate the day to be not
very distant. What blessing it is to
that grand old party" that there are
inferior races enough to keep it alive, and
as fast as one class drops out of politics
another can be lugged in. l can just
imagine the Chinese and japanese all
citizens, and addressed by some Demo-
crat of the stamp we have had of late
years canvassing this county. Here would
be the grand argument Of his speech
my Mongolian fellow citizens, you must
vote the Democratic ticket. You are
naturalized citizens, and the adopted citi-
zen is better than the native-born, for the
one is a citizen by choice and the other
from the accident of birth. If the Re-
publicans are successful they will encour-
age the immigration of monkeys to this
country, and then place them upon an
equality with you. Do you want your
daughter to marry monkeys ?" Now
that is just exactly the style of speeches
made by the author of those celebrated
resolutions which pledged the militia of
Minersville to the anti Chinese war;
Well, there, I've had my regular growl
at Democracy. What would there be
worth living for if there was not Demo-
cratic party to {" cuss."


L have just seen couple of pictorals
two or three months old, devoted to
Alexis. Even the bedroom occupied by
that illustrious scion of monarchy is
deemed worthy of being illustrated
What a confounded set Of toadies the
Americans are. Anything savoring of
aristocracy which comes from the Old
World is fetcd, and wined and dined,
and more fuss made over them than is
consistent with Democratic institutions.
In the case of the japanese Embassy,
which was the representative Of great
nation, making itself familiar with our
In a,,1 ,,,;tl
view to mutual international advantages
it was different but this thing of PAM
pering every sprig of royalty which finds
its way across the ocean is sickening. |
think we need another Charles Dickens,
to show our follies up in their true coors,
even if it is little distasteful and then
if Frank Leslie wants good subject for
full page engraving, he could take
view of your Uncle Snort, sitting on a
stool and smoking stub clay pipe, while
the regular pot of beans which constitutes
his dainty diet is warming up, which, by
the way would form as good picture as
Alexis and his meerschaum. If you don't
believe it, come down to the Head of
Navigation " some day and take look
at one of that almost extinct species, "ye
honest MINER"


( Well, I've had my say about matters
and things and will draw to a close. The
fact is, that where so little of interest
transpires, fellow has to rake from
every quarter to get up half column.
If the old set that was around here twelve
or fifteen years ago were here yet, they
could furnish items enough to run dozen
JOURNALS at time. Just little above
me is the site of the old cabin once owned
by Harry Stricken, better known at that
time as mine Harry" Harry was
miner who had weakness for gin, which
weakness was shared by " Colonel
Denico, carpenter at the mill.


Harry at last got tired of buying his
gin by the bottle, so he laid in a ten gallon
keg. His claim and cabin were close
together so, as was the custom in those
times, he never locked the door, One
morning Denico came along the bank and
calling Harry up from the diggings, pro-
duced black bottle from his shirt pocket.
Harry tested its contents, and pronounced
it goot chin, yust so goot as some | got
mineself." Next morning Denico came
along with another bottle, and so for
several days, till Harry having occasion
to handle the keg noticed that it was
powerful light. Instead of going to work