Year: 1871

| III 'llC Slbl anu IN JiONcu SuCIl Cllhu-
ces as ordinary business should offer.
BY su n an arrangement two prom
ising fields would be worked at once,
and its wisdom was equally obvious
to both young mon; but when it
came to the question Of which of
them should assume the hardships
and perilS of a miners life, neither
exhibited an alacrity to name him
self for the adventure.


70 decide this delicate point they
drew lots, by which formula of fate
the elder Thompson was doomed to
become the miner, and accordingly
procured an outfit, and prepared to
leave the city. Before taking the
latter step, however, the miner elect
chose to bring little romance of his
California life to a climax by we'd
ding young Eastern woman, who,
like himself, had left home to Woo
fortune on the Pacific coast and al
though he could not take her with
him into the wild, COmfOrtless life of
the mines, the satisfaction Of feeling
that he had at least secured her for
himself, and had a beloved brother
in whose care to leave her. gave him
more courage and inspiration for his
departure than might have been pos
sible to him as c bachelor Welded
he was, then, and after a honeymoon
Of heroic brcvity he consigned his
bride to the protection of his brother,
and bravely marched away with
| pick and shovel to the gold fields Of
the north. Eager as he naturally
was to dig his prize from the earth
and hasten back to the greater prize
left behind, he was yet firmly resOly-
ed to deny himself wife, brother and
home, until he indeed be the bearer
lofsome share of wealth. So when
his first essay in the mines did not
prove wholly satisfactory, he went
sturdily onward into the Indian
country, and, am ongst the red men,
adding hunting and trapping to his
mining pursuits. Thence still NOV
ing further northward, he reached
Fraser River when the excitement
about the auriferous yield OF that To-
cality was in its height, and there sue
cecdcd in digging no less than 200
ounces of the precious duS', which
he at once sent by express to his wife
and brother in san Francisco.


From them he had thus iar heard
nothing on his travels, for il had
been agreed that they should not
write until he should be in some
place reached by regular mails; but
now he was impatient 10 know how
they regarded his present, and felt
sure that they would devise some
means of forwarding their written
cOngratulation. The feeling was
vain, however; no letter came and,
after months of waiting, the finally
indignant Thompson wrote to Il
friend in San Francisco with enqui-
ries respecting the silent ones. The
answer came that they had recently
disappeared from the city, together,
having apparently, i'll their posses
sion considerable sum of money,
obtained no one knew exactly how.
The miner, of course, knew whence
the money came; but such inteIli-
gencc of its seeming effect upon
those he held dearest i'll the world ap-
pealed to his apprehension in a most
sinister sense. He believed that he
was doubly betrayed; that his wife
and his brother had basely and heart.
lessly practiced the blacklist treach-
cry against him, finally to use the
gold he had sent to help beyond Lis
reach. Heart broken and desper-
ate the the poor fellow thought no
more of any goodly fortune for him
self, but cared only for such wander
ing, wild adventure and savagery, as
should divert him from all retrospec-
tive and tender thoughts.


lie Joined all expedition to the
Great Salt Lake, as it is called, and
remained in the wilderness beyond
reach of mail or messenger for sew
eral years. Returning finally to
Victoria, or Fraser River, he went
with another expedition TO Idaho,
and there, and in Montana he was
lost till as late as 1866. From the
latter year until 1865 he was a resi-
dent of Salt Lake City, going from
thence to the once famous White
| pine mines, of Nevada, about eigh-
teen months ago. Fortune smiled
not upon his generally listless efforts
he had life of comfOrllcss Vagabon-
dagc and the twenty years Of his alb
sence from San Francisco wrought
such lines in his facO and Whiteness


in his hair as forty happier ones


could not have produced,


Some two weeks ago the broken,


hopeless, and embittered man, visi-
ted a mining camp not far from the
town of Eureks, Nevada, for the pur-
pose of Joining o company fitting
out for trip to Arazonia, and there


saws the Eureka Sentinel telling hi:
story, he was fated to be delivered
, at last from the delusion of twenty
, miserable years. In the expedition
} preparing for Arazonia, was another
man named Thompson, who, though
neither recognized nor recognizing
at first, proved TO be no other thar
our poeS miners recreant brother.
When the poor yagapqnd wander
or discovered this, despite his wrongs
| he fell upon his brothers neck an(
, cried like q child and not only die
that brother receive and return thl
caress without shame, but he tool
4 the earliest opportunity to reprov'
: the other for leaving his wife ant
brother to suppose, for nearly
! score of years, that he was dead.


! The gold had been received, bu
: without address, or Q line 10 til
: whittier 1t came as living man
Gift, or q dead mans legacy NJ


letter from the miner had ever bee
: received by wife or brother, although
@ they lad sent many one to hin
= The vile lad at Isst f2ls Obliged 7
!, conclude that her husband was dead
d the gold sent had been his dyin
c Gift, and with the money she bough
IS : valuable farm near San Jose, wher
o wearing the weeds OF Widowh9oC
q .4,lI liuee Aa for the hrOthel