Year: 1871

|
of the south fork of a river in the middle mines,
and was known abroad as the town of willie.
while among its own denizens and at other
places close adjacent it was better known by an
! appellation which not even the desire to be
| graphic shall induce me to transcrbe in these
pages. Like most of the mining camps OF that
day, nearly all of the buildings were of unhewn
logs and were built more with an eye to comfort
than anything else. Scattered along on either
bank of the stream, or on its tributary gulches,
were the cabins of the miners, to whom the little
place was sort of fountain head from which
they weekly received their supplies of meat
groceries, tools and other necessities of mining
life. The mines of the vicinity were not among
the richest of the many placer deposits of this
State, yet they contained some frst-rate claims,
while, in almost any favorable place, more than
wages could be realized by the common method
OF mining in those days-wth rocker.


The main building of the town, and the one
which would first attract the attention of a new
conner, was the hotel, Like the other buildings,
it was formed of logs, but, at distance, it bore
the appearance of three log houses built on to
each other. A closer glance showed that this
was not the case, but that the builders, probably
not having force enough to handle logs of the
requisite length, had sawed them in lengths va
ryI1g from sixteen to twenty feet, which were
held IN position by square blocks of wood let
into notches cut into either end. The whole was
covered by a long, fat roof of " shakes" In
side the rough walls were covered with lining of
cloth, and along each wall a treble row of hunks,
| placed above each other, furnished sleeping
| quarters for the numerous boarderS and way
| tarers whom the pursuit OF fortune attracted to
the town. long, stationary table took up the
center of the room, while at either end of the
house, huge rock fre-places extended across the
width of the building, in which the fires like
those OF heather mythology were never allowed
to die out. This roagh-looking structure was,
II we were to judge by the sign above the door,
the " Miners Home" and the sign further indi-
! Gated that the proprietress of the place a
Mrs. Grayson. In the three or four months resi-
dence which had under this roof | discovered
that our worthy hostess was fair and forty, but
not fat, and that she had already buried one hus-
band drove off another, and was at this time on
the lookout for third one.


The boarders at the Miners Home were about
forty in number, made up of those miners whose
- diggings " were close to town, and two or
three sports " whose diggings lay in the pock-
cts of the aforesaid miners. motley crowd
we must have been | can look back through
the twenty years which have intervened, and
imagine that see them again. There was one
chap (who shall be nameless) who was perpet-
ually torturing an old wheezy fiddle, and another
who was equally industrious in blowing melan-
choly walls from cracked flute. Nearly every
State of the Union was represented among us
though Western men predominated-nor was the
brogue of Ireland and the accent of Germany
lo4tn 4l g
with ourselves, our landlady, and with each
other, and, in this happy state of feeling, the
first month of Winter had nearly passed and
| Christmas Eve bad come.


| Let not any of my fair readers conjure up
visions of Christmas trees, social gathering ana
a merry dance on this Christmas Eve. No; the
mines of twenty years ago and the mines o: to-
day were as different as night is from day. There
would have been willing hands to raise the
Christmas Tree and load it with presents, but the
| wives, and sisters, and sweethearts to whom we
might have given them, dwelt by the waters of
another ocean What would Christmas be to-us ?
| And, sooth to say, if am to judge the thoughts
of Others by my own, we were in mood for
merry making. With many Of us it would be
the first anniversary of that joyous night passed
away from the home circle, and memory was too
busy with the past. The old home influences
| yet had their hold upon our hearts were yet
too young in the country to be attracted by the
revelry of drunken men or that still greater bane
of California life-the gaming table. How well
we could remember the look of grateful pride
with which mother had glanced around at us on
| the eve of last Christ mas-how fresh in our
mind the last words of that little sister, " to be
a good boy and stay only year" And then
there was-pshaw They tell me she weighs
TWO HUNDRED pounds, and is the mother of nine
children-children that ought to have been mine.
| But the hostess of the Miners Home had no
idea of letting the occasion pass by unobserved,
and so the moment the last straggler had finished
supper, Nc, the cook, appeared, bearing huge
bowl of egg-nog There was no declining a
bumper to many "happy returns " of the occa-
sion, when the glass was presented by the far
| hands of Mrs. GraysOn, herself so we only
waited for the " ladling out " process to be COM
pleted, to join in the toast Suddenly, when
Nc. was filling the landlady's own glass, hur-
ried step came up to the door, which was opened,
and miner entered He was one of two part
ners who worked and lived on " Sucker Gulch," !"
three miles distant, and whom had seen in
town occasionally, when they were in on trading
trips with the other | had formed slight ac.
quaiutance. The perspration stood in great
drops on his face, although the night was cold,
and his breathing was short and hurried as
though he had been running.


JGst in time, Mr.. Styles, said Mrs. Grayson,
who seemed to know him g. we were just about
to drink to Christmas Eve. Here, take this glass
and I'll get another"


He shook his head and motioned her back with
his hand 81 have NO time to drink stop" "
he said, when he had partly recovered breath ;
Z" Ike is pretty badly hurt, and want some of
the ooys to 60 for doctor"


\ "Hurt?" "HowG' When?" " Where p
These questions came in quick succession, as we
crowded around the new conner


"By blast just at dark there was big
bowlder which lay straight across the gulch,
square in our way. We thought that we could
shatter it by one blast so that it could be moved.
Ike was tamping the charge when it went of
some how and knocked him over thought
him dead at first, but he only seems powder
burned. | fear he'll be blind"


A murmur Of pity ran around the room then