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diff --git a/8584-h/8584-h.htm b/8584-h/8584-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..34e5ae7 --- /dev/null +++ b/8584-h/8584-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2847 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<title>Roughing It, Part 3</title> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + body {background:#faebd7; margin:10%; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; } + HR { width: 33%; text-align: center; } + blockquote {font-size: 97% } + .figleft {float: left;} + .figright {float: right;} + .toc { margin-left: 15%; margin-bottom: 0em;} + CENTER { padding: 10px;} + // --> +</style> + +</head> +<body> + +<h2>ROUGHING IT, By Mark Twain, Part 3 </h2> +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Roughing It, Part 3., by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Roughing It, Part 3. + +Author: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +Release Date: July 2, 2004 [EBook #8584] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROUGHING IT, PART 3. *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + + +<br> +<hr> +<br><br><br><br><br><br> + + +<center><img alt="cover.jpg (90K)" src="images/cover.jpg" height="1071" width="733"></center> +<br><br><br><br> +<center><img alt="spine.jpg (54K)" src="images/spine.jpg" height="1071" width="307"></center> +<br><br><br><br> +<center> +<h1>ROUGHING IT, Part 3</h1> +<br><br> +<h2>By Mark Twain</h2> +</center> +<br><br><br><br> +<center><img alt="frontispiece1.jpg (168K)" src="images/frontispiece1.jpg" height="643" width="903"></center> +<br><br><br><br> +<a name="frontispiece2"></a> +<center><img alt="frontispiece2.jpg (184K)" src="images/frontispiece2.jpg" height="1020" width="600"></center> +<br><br><br><br> +<center><img alt="titlepage.jpg (95K)" src="images/titlepage.jpg" height="1064" width="705"></center> +<br><br><br><br> +<center><img alt="dedication.jpg (18K)" src="images/dedication.jpg" height="273" width="425"></center> + +<br><br><br><br> +<center><h2>PREFATORY.</h2> </center> +<br> +<p>This book is merely a personal narrative, and not a +pretentious history or a philosophical dissertation. It is a +record of several years of variegated vagabondizing, and its +object is rather to help the resting reader while away an idle +hour than afflict him with metaphysics, or goad him with science. +Still, there is information in the volume; information concerning +an interesting episode in the history of the Far West, about +which no books have been written by persons who were on the +ground in person, and saw the happenings of the time with their +own eyes. I allude to the rise, growth and culmination of the +silver-mining fever in Nevada—a curious episode, in some +respects; the only one, of its peculiar kind, that has occurred +in the land; and the only one, indeed, that is likely to occur in +it.</p> + +<p>Yes, take it all around, there is quite a good deal of +information in the book. I regret this very much; but really it +could not be helped: information appears to stew out of me +naturally, like the precious ottar of roses out of the otter. +Sometimes it has seemed to me that I would give worlds if I could +retain my facts; but it cannot be. The more I calk up the +sources, and the tighter I get, the more I leak wisdom. +Therefore, I can only claim indulgence at the hands of the +reader, not justification.</p> + +<p>THE AUTHOR.</p> +<br><br><br><br> +<center><h2>CONTENTS.</h2></center> + + +<blockquote><blockquote> + + +<p><a href="#ch21">CHAPTER XXI.</a> Alkali Dust—Desolation and Contemplation—Carson +City—Our Journey Ended—We are Introduced to Several Citizens—A +Strange Rebuke—A Washoe Zephyr at Play—Its Office +Hours—Governor's Palace—Government Offices—Our French +Landlady Bridget O'Flannigan—Shadow Secrets—Cause for a +Disturbance at Once—The Irish Brigade—Mrs. O'Flannigan's +Boarders—The Surveying Expedition—Escape of the Tarantulas</p> + +<p><a href="#ch22">CHAPTER XXII.</a> The Son of a Nabob—Start for Lake +Tahoe—Splendor of the Views—Trip on the Lake—Camping +Out—Reinvigorating Climate—Clearing a Tract of Land—Securing +a Title—Outhouse and Fences</p> + +<p><a href="#ch23">CHAPTER XXIII.</a> A Happy Life—Lake Tahoe and its +Moods—Transparency of the Waters—A Catastrophe—Fire! Fire!—A +Magnificent Spectacle—Homeless Again—We take to the Lake—A +Storm—Return to Carson</p> + +<p><a href="#ch24">CHAPTER XXIV.</a> Resolve to Buy a Horse—Horsemanship in +Carson—A Temptation—Advice Given Me Freely—I Buy the Mexican +Plug—My First Ride—A Good Bucker—I Loan the Plug—Experience +of Borrowers—Attempts to Sell—Expense of the Experiment—A +Stranger Taken In</p> + +<p><a href="#ch25">CHAPTER XXV.</a> The Mormons in Nevada—How to Persuade a Loan +from Them—Early History of the Territory—Silver Mines +Discovered—The New Territorial Government—A Foreign One and a +Poor One—Its Funny Struggles for Existence—No Credit, no +Cash—Old Abe Currey Sustains it and its Officers—Instructions +and Vouchers—An Indian's Endorsement—Toll-Gates</p> + +<p><a href="#ch26">CHAPTER XXVI.</a> The Silver Fever—State of the Market—Silver +Bricks—Tales Told—Off for the Humboldt Mines</p> + +<p><a href="#ch27">CHAPTER XXVII.</a> Our manner of going—Incidents of the Trip—A +Warm but Too Familiar a Bedfellow—Mr. Ballou Objects—Sunshine +amid Clouds—Safely Arrived</p> + +<p><a href="#ch28">CHAPTER XXVIII.</a> Arrive at the Mountains—Building Our +Cabin—My First Prospecting Tour—My First Gold Mine—Pockets +Filled With Treasures—Filtering the News to My Companions—The +Bubble Pricked—All Not Gold That Glitters</p> + +<p><a href="#ch29">CHAPTER XXIX.</a> Out Prospecting—A Silver Mine At Last—Making a +Fortune With Sledge and Drill—A Hard Road to Travel—We Own in +Claims—A Rocky Country</p> + +<p><a href="#ch30">CHAPTER XXX.</a> Disinterested Friends—How "Feet" Were Sold—We +Quit Tunnelling—A Trip to Esmeralda—My Companions—An Indian +Prophesy—A Flood—Our Quarters During It</p> + + +</blockquote></blockquote> + + +<br><br><br><br> + +<center><h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2></center> +<center> +<table summary=""> +<tr><td> + + + +79. <a href="#158">CONTEMPLATION</a><br> +80. <a href="#159">THE WASHOE ZEPHYR</a><br> +81. <a href="#161">THE GOVERNOR'S HOUSE</a><br> +82. <a href="#162">DARK DISCLOSURES</a><br> +83. <a href="#163">THE IRISH BRIGADE</a><br> +84. <a href="#164">RECREATION</a><br> +85. <a href="#165">THE TARANTULA</a><br> +86. <a href="#166">LIGHT THROWN ON THE SUBJECT</a><br> +87. <a href="#169">I STEERED</a><br> +88. <a href="#170">THE INVALID</a><br> +89. <a href="#171">THE RESTORED</a><br> +90. <a href="#172">OUR HOUSE</a><br> +91. <a href="#174">AT BUSINESS</a><br> +92. <a href="#176">FIGHT AT LAKE TAHOE</a><br> +93. <a href="#179">"THINK HIM AN AMERICAN HORSE"</a><br> +94. <a href="#180">UNEXPECTED ELEVATION</a><br> +95. <a href="#181">UNIVERSALLY UNSETTLED</a><br> +96. <a href="#182">RIDING THE PLUG</a><br> +97. <a href="#183">WANTED EXERCISE</a><br> +98. <a href="#186">BORROWING MADE EASY</a><br> +99. <a href="#188">FREE RIDES</a><br> +100. <a href="#190">SATISFACTORY VOUCHERS</a><br> +101. <a href="#191">NEEDS PRAYING FOR</a><br> +102. <a href="#192">MAP OF TOLL ROADS</a><br> +103. <a href="#194">UNLOADING SILVER BRICKS</a><br> +104. <a href="#196">VIEW IN HUMBOLDT MOUNTAINS</a><br> +105. <a href="#199">GOING TO HUMBOLDT</a><br> +106. <a href="#201">BALLOU'S BEDFELLOW</a><br> +107. <a href="#202">PLEASURES OF CAMPING OUT</a><br> +108. <a href="#205">THE SECRET SEARCH</a><br> +109. <a href="#207">"CAST YOUR EYE ON THAT ...</a><br> +110. <a href="#210">"WE'VE GOT IT"</a><br> +111. <a href="#212">INCIPIENT MILLIONAIRES</a><br> +112. <a href="#214">ROCKS-TAIL-PIECE</a><br> +113. <a href="#216">"DO YOU SEE IT?"</a><br> +114. <a href="#218">FAREWELL SWEET RIVER</a><br> +115. <a href="#219">THE RESCUE</a><br> + + +</td></tr> +</table> +</center> + + +<br><br><br><br> + + + + + + +<br><br> +<a name="ch21"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> +</center> +<br> + +<p>We were approaching the end of our long journey. It was the +morning of the twentieth day. At noon we would reach Carson City, +the capital of Nevada Territory. We were not glad, but sorry. It +had been a fine pleasure trip; we had fed fat on wonders every +day; we were now well accustomed to stage life, and very fond of +it; so the idea of coming to a stand-still and settling down to a +humdrum existence in a village was not agreeable, but on the +contrary depressing.</p> + +<p>Visibly our new home was a desert, walled in by barren, +snow-clad mountains. There was not a tree in sight. There was no +vegetation but the endless sage-brush and greasewood. All nature +was gray with it. We were plowing through great deeps of powdery +alkali dust that rose in thick clouds and floated across the +plain like smoke from a burning house.</p> + +<p>We were coated with it like millers; so were the coach, the +mules, the mail-bags, the driver—we and the sage-brush and the +other scenery were all one monotonous color. Long trains of +freight wagons in the distance envelope in ascending masses of +dust suggested pictures of prairies on fire. These teams and +their masters were the only life we saw. Otherwise we moved in +the midst of solitude, silence and desolation. Every twenty steps +we passed the skeleton of some dead beast of burthen, with its +dust-coated skin stretched tightly over its empty ribs. +Frequently a solemn raven sat upon the skull or the hips and +contemplated the passing coach with meditative serenity.</p> + +<a name="158"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="158.jpg (17K)" src="images/158.jpg" height="255" width="226"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>By and by Carson City was pointed out to us. It nestled in the +edge of a great plain and was a sufficient number of miles away +to look like an assemblage of mere white spots in the shadow of a +grim range of mountains overlooking it, whose summits seemed +lifted clear out of companionship and consciousness of earthly +things.</p> + +<p>We arrived, disembarked, and the stage went on. It was a +"wooden" town; its population two thousand souls. The main street +consisted of four or five blocks of little white frame stores +which were too high to sit down on, but not too high for various +other purposes; in fact, hardly high enough. They were packed +close together, side by side, as if room were scarce in that +mighty plain.</p> + +<p>The sidewalk was of boards that were more or less loose and +inclined to rattle when walked upon. In the middle of the town, +opposite the stores, was the "plaza" which is native to all towns +beyond the Rocky Mountains—a large, unfenced, level vacancy, +with a liberty pole in it, and very useful as a place for public +auctions, horse trades, and mass meetings, and likewise for +teamsters to camp in. Two other sides of the plaza were faced by +stores, offices and stables.</p> + +<p>The rest of Carson City was pretty scattering.</p> + +<p>We were introduced to several citizens, at the stage-office +and on the way up to the Governor's from the hotel—among others, +to a Mr. Harris, who was on horseback; he began to say something, +but interrupted himself with the remark:</p> + +<p>"I'll have to get you to excuse me a minute; yonder is the +witness that swore I helped to rob the California coach—a piece +of impertinent intermeddling, sir, for I am not even acquainted +with the man."</p> + +<p>Then he rode over and began to rebuke the stranger with a +six-shooter, and the stranger began to explain with another. When +the pistols were emptied, the stranger resumed his work (mending +a whip-lash), and Mr. Harris rode by with a polite nod, homeward +bound, with a bullet through one of his lungs, and several in his +hips; and from them issued little rivulets of blood that coursed +down the horse's sides and made the animal look quite +picturesque. I never saw Harris shoot a man after that but it +recalled to mind that first day in Carson.</p> + +<p>This was all we saw that day, for it was two o'clock, now, and +according to custom the daily "Washoe Zephyr" set in; a soaring +dust-drift about the size of the United States set up edgewise +came with it, and the capital of Nevada Territory disappeared +from view.</p> + +<p>Still, there were sights to be seen which were not wholly +uninteresting to new comers; for the vast dust cloud was thickly +freckled with things strange to the upper air—things living and +dead, that flitted hither and thither, going and coming, +appearing and disappearing among the rolling billows of +dust—hats, chickens and parasols sailing in the remote heavens; +blankets, tin signs, sage-brush and shingles a shade lower; +door-mats and buffalo robes lower still; shovels and coal +scuttles on the next grade; glass doors, cats and little children +on the next; disrupted lumber yards, light buggies and +wheelbarrows on the next; and down only thirty or forty feet +above ground was a scurrying storm of emigrating roofs and vacant +lots.</p> + +<a name="159"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="159.jpg (92K)" src="images/159.jpg" height="524" width="592"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>It was something to see that much. I could have seen more, if +I could have kept the dust out of my eyes.</p> + +<p>But seriously a Washoe wind is by no means a trifling matter. +It blows flimsy houses down, lifts shingle roofs occasionally, +rolls up tin ones like sheet music, now and then blows a stage +coach over and spills the passengers; and tradition says the +reason there are so many bald people there, is, that the wind +blows the hair off their heads while they are looking skyward +after their hats. Carson streets seldom look inactive on Summer +afternoons, because there are so many citizens skipping around +their escaping hats, like chambermaids trying to head off a +spider.</p> + +<p>The "Washoe Zephyr" (Washoe is a pet nickname for Nevada) is a +peculiar Scriptural wind, in that no man knoweth "whence it +cometh." That is to say, where it originates. It comes right over +the mountains from the West, but when one crosses the ridge he +does not find any of it on the other side! It probably is +manufactured on the mountain-top for the occasion, and starts +from there. It is a pretty regular wind, in the summer time. Its +office hours are from two in the afternoon till two the next +morning; and anybody venturing abroad during those twelve hours +needs to allow for the wind or he will bring up a mile or two to +leeward of the point he is aiming at. And yet the first complaint +a Washoe visitor to San Francisco makes, is that the sea winds +blow so, there! There is a good deal of human nature in that.</p> + +<p>We found the state palace of the Governor of Nevada Territory +to consist of a white frame one-story house with two small rooms +in it and a stanchion supported shed in front—for grandeur—it +compelled the respect of the citizen and inspired the Indians +with awe. The newly arrived Chief and Associate Justices of the +Territory, and other machinery of the government, were domiciled +with less splendor. They were boarding around privately, and had +their offices in their bedrooms.</p> + +<a name="161"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="161.jpg (63K)" src="images/161.jpg" height="423" width="581"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>The Secretary and I took quarters in the "ranch" of a worthy +French lady by the name of Bridget O'Flannigan, a camp follower +of his Excellency the Governor. She had known him in his +prosperity as commander-in-chief of the Metropolitan Police of +New York, and she would not desert him in his adversity as +Governor of Nevada.</p> + +<p>Our room was on the lower floor, facing the plaza, and when we +had got our bed, a small table, two chairs, the government +fire-proof safe, and the Unabridged Dictionary into it, there was +still room enough left for a visitor—may be two, but not without +straining the walls. But the walls could stand it—at least the +partitions could, for they consisted simply of one thickness of +white "cotton domestic" stretched from corner to corner of the +room. This was the rule in Carson—any other kind of partition +was the rare exception. And if you stood in a dark room and your +neighbors in the next had lights, the shadows on your canvas told +queer secrets sometimes! Very often these partitions were made of +old flour sacks basted together; and then the difference between +the common herd and the aristocracy was, that the common herd had +unornamented sacks, while the walls of the aristocrat were +overpowering with rudimental fresco—i.e., red and blue mill +brands on the flour sacks.</p> + +<a name="162"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="162.jpg (42K)" src="images/162.jpg" height="419" width="402"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>Occasionally, also, the better classes embellished their +canvas by pasting pictures from Harper's Weekly on them. In many +cases, too, the wealthy and the cultured rose to spittoons and +other evidences of a sumptuous and luxurious taste. [Washoe +people take a joke so hard that I must explain that the above +description was only the rule; there were many honorable +exceptions in Carson—plastered ceilings and houses that had +considerable furniture in them.—M. T.]</p> + +<p>We had a carpet and a genuine queen's-ware washbowl. +Consequently we were hated without reserve by the other tenants +of the O'Flannigan "ranch." When we added a painted oilcloth +window curtain, we simply took our lives into our own hands. To +prevent bloodshed I removed up stairs and took up quarters with +the untitled plebeians in one of the fourteen white pine +cot-bedsteads that stood in two long ranks in the one sole room +of which the second story consisted.</p> + +<p>It was a jolly company, the fourteen. They were principally +voluntary camp-followers of the Governor, who had joined his +retinue by their own election at New York and San Francisco and +came along, feeling that in the scuffle for little territorial +crumbs and offices they could not make their condition more +precarious than it was, and might reasonably expect to make it +better. They were popularly known as the "Irish Brigade," though +there were only four or five Irishmen among all the Governor's +retainers.</p> + +<a name="163"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="163.jpg (95K)" src="images/163.jpg" height="482" width="588"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>His good-natured Excellency was much annoyed at the gossip his +henchmen created—especially when there arose a rumor that they +were paid assassins of his, brought along to quietly reduce the +democratic vote when desirable!</p> + +<p>Mrs. O'Flannigan was boarding and lodging them at ten dollars +a week apiece, and they were cheerfully giving their notes for +it. They were perfectly satisfied, but Bridget presently found +that notes that could not be discounted were but a feeble +constitution for a Carson boarding- house. So she began to harry +the Governor to find employment for the "Brigade." Her +importunities and theirs together drove him to a gentle +desperation at last, and he finally summoned the Brigade to the +presence. Then, said he:</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen, I have planned a lucrative and useful service for +you—a service which will provide you with recreation amid noble +landscapes, and afford you never ceasing opportunities for +enriching your minds by observation and study. I want you to +survey a railroad from Carson City westward to a certain point! +When the legislature meets I will have the necessary bill passed +and the remuneration arranged."</p> + +<p>"What, a railroad over the Sierra Nevada Mountains?"</p> + +<p>"Well, then, survey it eastward to a certain point!"</p> + +<p>He converted them into surveyors, chain-bearers and so on, and +turned them loose in the desert. It was "recreation" with a +vengeance! Recreation on foot, lugging chains through sand and +sage-brush, under a sultry sun and among cattle bones, cayotes +and tarantulas.</p> + +<a name="164"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="164.jpg (15K)" src="images/164.jpg" height="247" width="225"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>"Romantic adventure" could go no further. They surveyed very +slowly, very deliberately, very carefully. They returned every +night during the first week, dusty, footsore, tired, and hungry, +but very jolly. They brought in great store of prodigious hairy +spiders—tarantulas—and imprisoned them in covered tumblers up +stairs in the "ranch." After the first week, they had to camp on +the field, for they were getting well eastward. They made a good +many inquiries as to the location of that indefinite "certain +point," but got no information. At last, to a peculiarly urgent +inquiry of "How far eastward?" Governor Nye telegraphed back:</p> + +<p>"To the Atlantic Ocean, blast you!—and then bridge it and go +on!"</p> + +<p>This brought back the dusty toilers, who sent in a report and +ceased from their labors. The Governor was always comfortable +about it; he said Mrs. O'Flannigan would hold him for the +Brigade's board anyhow, and he intended to get what entertainment +he could out of the boys; he said, with his old-time pleasant +twinkle, that he meant to survey them into Utah and then +telegraph Brigham to hang them for trespass!</p> + +<p>The surveyors brought back more tarantulas with them, and so +we had quite a menagerie arranged along the shelves of the room. +Some of these spiders could straddle over a common saucer with +their hairy, muscular legs, and when their feelings were hurt, or +their dignity offended, they were the wickedest-looking +desperadoes the animal world can furnish. If their glass +prison-houses were touched ever so lightly they were up and +spoiling for a fight in a minute. Starchy?—proud? Indeed, they +would take up a straw and pick their teeth like a member of +Congress. There was as usual a furious "zephyr" blowing the first +night of the brigade's return, and about midnight the roof of an +adjoining stable blew off, and a corner of it came crashing +through the side of our ranch. There was a simultaneous +awakening, and a tumultuous muster of the brigade in the dark, +and a general tumbling and sprawling over each other in the +narrow aisle between the bedrows. In the midst of the turmoil, +Bob H——sprung up out of a sound sleep, and knocked down a +shelf with his head. Instantly he shouted:</p> + +<p>"Turn out, boys—the tarantulas is loose!"</p> + +<a name="165"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="165.jpg (15K)" src="images/165.jpg" height="174" width="357"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>No warning ever sounded so dreadful. Nobody tried, any longer, +to leave the room, lest he might step on a tarantula. Every man +groped for a trunk or a bed, and jumped on it. Then followed the +strangest silence—a silence of grisly suspense it was, +too—waiting, expectancy, fear. It was as dark as pitch, and one +had to imagine the spectacle of those fourteen scant-clad men +roosting gingerly on trunks and beds, for not a thing could be +seen. Then came occasional little interruptions of the silence, +and one could recognize a man and tell his locality by his voice, +or locate any other sound a sufferer made by his gropings or +changes of position. The occasional voices were not given to much +speaking—you simply heard a gentle ejaculation of "Ow!" followed +by a solid thump, and you knew the gentleman had felt a hairy +blanket or something touch his bare skin and had skipped from a +bed to the floor. Another silence. Presently you would hear a +gasping voice say:</p> + +<p>"Su—su—something's crawling up the back of my neck!"</p> + +<p>Every now and then you could hear a little subdued scramble +and a sorrowful "O Lord!" and then you knew that somebody was +getting away from something he took for a tarantula, and not +losing any time about it, either. Directly a voice in the corner +rang out wild and clear:</p> + +<p>"I've got him! I've got him!" [Pause, and probable change of +circumstances.] "No, he's got me! Oh, ain't they never going to +fetch a lantern!"</p> + +<a name="166"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="166.jpg (89K)" src="images/166.jpg" height="481" width="610"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>The lantern came at that moment, in the hands of Mrs. +O'Flannigan, whose anxiety to know the amount of damage done by +the assaulting roof had not prevented her waiting a judicious +interval, after getting out of bed and lighting up, to see if the +wind was done, now, up stairs, or had a larger contract.</p> + +<p>The landscape presented when the lantern flashed into the room +was picturesque, and might have been funny to some people, but +was not to us. Although we were perched so strangely upon boxes, +trunks and beds, and so strangely attired, too, we were too +earnestly distressed and too genuinely miserable to see any fun +about it, and there was not the semblance of a smile anywhere +visible. I know I am not capable of suffering more than I did +during those few minutes of suspense in the dark, surrounded by +those creeping, bloody-minded tarantulas. I had skipped from bed +to bed and from box to box in a cold agony, and every time I +touched anything that was furzy I fancied I felt the fangs. I had +rather go to war than live that episode over again. Nobody was +hurt. The man who thought a tarantula had "got him" was +mistaken—only a crack in a box had caught his finger. Not one of +those escaped tarantulas was ever seen again. There were ten or +twelve of them. We took candles and hunted the place high and low +for them, but with no success. Did we go back to bed then? We did +nothing of the kind. Money could not have persuaded us to do it. +We sat up the rest of the night playing cribbage and keeping a +sharp lookout for the enemy.</p> + + + +<br><br> +<a name="ch22"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> +</center> +<br> + + +<p>It was the end of August, and the skies were cloudless and the +weather superb. In two or three weeks I had grown wonderfully +fascinated with the curious new country and concluded to put off +my return to "the States" awhile. I had grown well accustomed to +wearing a damaged slouch hat, blue woolen shirt, and pants +crammed into boot-tops, and gloried in the absence of coat, vest +and braces. I felt rowdyish and "bully," (as the historian +Josephus phrases it, in his fine chapter upon the destruction of +the Temple). It seemed to me that nothing could be so fine and so +romantic. I had become an officer of the government, but that was +for mere sublimity. The office was an unique sinecure. I had +nothing to do and no salary. I was private Secretary to his +majesty the Secretary and there was not yet writing enough for +two of us. So Johnny K——and I devoted our time to amusement. +He was the young son of an Ohio nabob and was out there for +recreation. He got it. We had heard a world of talk about the +marvellous beauty of Lake Tahoe, and finally curiosity drove us +thither to see it. Three or four members of the Brigade had been +there and located some timber lands on its shores and stored up a +quantity of provisions in their camp. We strapped a couple of +blankets on our shoulders and took an axe apiece and started—for +we intended to take up a wood ranch or so ourselves and become +wealthy. We were on foot. The reader will find it advantageous to +go horseback. We were told that the distance was eleven miles. We +tramped a long time on level ground, and then toiled laboriously +up a mountain about a thousand miles high and looked over. No +lake there. We descended on the other side, crossed the valley +and toiled up another mountain three or four thousand miles high, +apparently, and looked over again. No lake yet. We sat down tired +and perspiring, and hired a couple of Chinamen to curse those +people who had beguiled us. Thus refreshed, we presently resumed +the march with renewed vigor and determination. We plodded on, +two or three hours longer, and at last the Lake burst upon us—a +noble sheet of blue water lifted six thousand three hundred feet +above the level of the sea, and walled in by a rim of snow-clad +mountain peaks that towered aloft full three thousand feet higher +still! It was a vast oval, and one would have to use up eighty or +a hundred good miles in traveling around it. As it lay there with +the shadows of the mountains brilliantly photographed upon its +still surface I thought it must surely be the fairest picture the +whole earth affords.</p> + +<a name="169"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="169.jpg (80K)" src="images/169.jpg" height="502" width="586"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>We found the small skiff belonging to the Brigade boys, and +without loss of time set out across a deep bend of the lake +toward the landmarks that signified the locality of the camp. I +got Johnny to row—not because I mind exertion myself, but +because it makes me sick to ride backwards when I am at work. But +I steered. A three-mile pull brought us to the camp just as the +night fell, and we stepped ashore very tired and wolfishly +hungry. In a "cache" among the rocks we found the provisions and +the cooking utensils, and then, all fatigued as I was, I sat down +on a boulder and superintended while Johnny gathered wood and +cooked supper. Many a man who had gone through what I had, would +have wanted to rest.</p> + +<p>It was a delicious supper—hot bread, fried bacon, and black +coffee. It was a delicious solitude we were in, too. Three miles +away was a saw- mill and some workmen, but there were not fifteen +other human beings throughout the wide circumference of the lake. +As the darkness closed down and the stars came out and spangled +the great mirror with jewels, we smoked meditatively in the +solemn hush and forgot our troubles and our pains. In due time we +spread our blankets in the warm sand between two large boulders +and soon feel asleep, careless of the procession of ants that +passed in through rents in our clothing and explored our persons. +Nothing could disturb the sleep that fettered us, for it had been +fairly earned, and if our consciences had any sins on them they +had to adjourn court for that night, any way. The wind rose just +as we were losing consciousness, and we were lulled to sleep by +the beating of the surf upon the shore.</p> + +<p>It is always very cold on that lake shore in the night, but we +had plenty of blankets and were warm enough. We never moved a +muscle all night, but waked at early dawn in the original +positions, and got up at once, thoroughly refreshed, free from +soreness, and brim full of friskiness. There is no end of +wholesome medicine in such an experience. That morning we could +have whipped ten such people as we were the day before—sick +ones at any rate. But the world is slow, and people will go to +"water cures" and "movement cures" and to foreign lands for +health. Three months of camp life on Lake Tahoe would restore an +Egyptian mummy to his pristine vigor, and give him an appetite +like an alligator. I do not mean the oldest and driest mummies, +of course, but the fresher ones. The air up there in the clouds +is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn't +it be?—it is the same the angels breathe. I think that hardly +any amount of fatigue can be gathered together that a man cannot +sleep off in one night on the sand by its side. Not under a roof, +but under the sky; it seldom or never rains there in the summer +time. I know a man who went there to die. But he made a failure +of it. He was a skeleton when he came, and could barely stand. He +had no appetite, and did nothing but read tracts and reflect on +the future. Three months later he was sleeping out of doors +regularly, eating all he could hold, three times a day, and +chasing game over mountains three thousand feet high for +recreation. And he was a skeleton no longer, but weighed part of +a ton. This is no fancy sketch, but the truth. His disease was +consumption. I confidently commend his experience to other +skeletons.</p> + + +<center> +<table summary="restored"> +<tr><td> +<a name="170"></a> +<img alt="170.jpg (19K)" src="images/170.jpg" height="360" width="211"> + +</td> + +<td> +<a name="171"></a> +<br><br> +<img alt="171.jpg (34K)" src="images/171.jpg" height="450" width="274"> + +</td></tr> +</table> +<br><br> +</center> + +<p>I superintended again, and as soon as we had eaten breakfast +we got in the boat and skirted along the lake shore about three +miles and disembarked. We liked the appearance of the place, and +so we claimed some three hundred acres of it and stuck our +"notices" on a tree. It was yellow pine timber land—a dense +forest of trees a hundred feet high and from one to five feet +through at the butt. It was necessary to fence our property or we +could not hold it. That is to say, it was necessary to cut down +trees here and there and make them fall in such a way as to form +a sort of enclosure (with pretty wide gaps in it). We cut down +three trees apiece, and found it such heart-breaking work that we +decided to "rest our case" on those; if they held the property, +well and good; if they didn't, let the property spill out through +the gaps and go; it was no use to work ourselves to death merely +to save a few acres of land. Next day we came back to build a +house—for a house was also necessary, in order to hold the +property. </p> + + +<a name="172"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="172.jpg (142K)" src="images/172.jpg" height="836" width="588"> +</center> +<br><br> + + +<p>We decided to build a substantial log- house and excite +the envy of the Brigade boys; but by the time we had cut and +trimmed the first log it seemed unnecessary to be so elaborate, +and so we concluded to build it of saplings. However, two +saplings, duly cut and trimmed, compelled recognition of the fact +that a still modester architecture would satisfy the law, and so +we concluded to build a "brush" house. We devoted the next day to +this work, but we did so much "sitting around" and discussing, +that by the middle of the afternoon we had achieved only a +half-way sort of affair which one of us had to watch while the +other cut brush, lest if both turned our backs we might not be +able to find it again, it had such a strong family resemblance to +the surrounding vegetation. But we were satisfied with it.</p> + +<p>We were land owners now, duly seized and possessed, and within +the protection of the law. Therefore we decided to take up our +residence on our own domain and enjoy that large sense of +independence which only such an experience can bring. Late the +next afternoon, after a good long rest, we sailed away from the +Brigade camp with all the provisions and cooking utensils we +could carry off—borrow is the more accurate word—and just as +the night was falling we beached the boat at our own landing.</p> + + + +<br><br> +<a name="ch23"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> +</center> +<br> + + +<p>If there is any life that is happier than the life we led on +our timber ranch for the next two or three weeks, it must be a +sort of life which I have not read of in books or experienced in +person. We did not see a human being but ourselves during the +time, or hear any sounds but those that were made by the wind and +the waves, the sighing of the pines, and now and then the far-off +thunder of an avalanche. The forest about us was dense and cool, +the sky above us was cloudless and brilliant with sunshine, the +broad lake before us was glassy and clear, or rippled and breezy, +or black and storm-tossed, according to Nature's mood; and its +circling border of mountain domes, clothed with forests, scarred +with land-slides, cloven by canons and valleys, and helmeted with +glittering snow, fitly framed and finished the noble picture. The +view was always fascinating, bewitching, entrancing. The eye was +never tired of gazing, night or day, in calm or storm; it +suffered but one grief, and that was that it could not look +always, but must close sometimes in sleep.</p> + +<p>We slept in the sand close to the water's edge, between two +protecting boulders, which took care of the stormy night-winds +for us. We never took any paregoric to make us sleep. At the +first break of dawn we were always up and running foot-races to +tone down excess of physical vigor and exuberance of spirits. +That is, Johnny was—but I held his hat. While smoking the pipe +of peace after breakfast we watched the sentinel peaks put on the +glory of the sun, and followed the conquering light as it swept +down among the shadows, and set the captive crags and forests +free. We watched the tinted pictures grow and brighten upon the +water till every little detail of forest, precipice and pinnacle +was wrought in and finished, and the miracle of the enchanter +complete. Then to "business."</p> + +<a name="174"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="174.jpg (84K)" src="images/174.jpg" height="540" width="601"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>That is, drifting around in the boat. We were on the north +shore. There, the rocks on the bottom are sometimes gray, +sometimes white. This gives the marvelous transparency of the +water a fuller advantage than it has elsewhere on the lake. We +usually pushed out a hundred yards or so from shore, and then lay +down on the thwarts, in the sun, and let the boat drift by the +hour whither it would. We seldom talked. It interrupted the +Sabbath stillness, and marred the dreams the luxurious rest and +indolence brought. The shore all along was indented with deep, +curved bays and coves, bordered by narrow sand-beaches; and where +the sand ended, the steep mountain-sides rose right up aloft into +space—rose up like a vast wall a little out of the +perpendicular, and thickly wooded with tall pines.</p> + +<p>So singularly clear was the water, that where it was only +twenty or thirty feet deep the bottom was so perfectly distinct +that the boat seemed floating in the air! Yes, where it was even +eighty feet deep. Every little pebble was distinct, every +speckled trout, every hand's- breadth of sand. Often, as we lay +on our faces, a granite boulder, as large as a village church, +would start out of the bottom apparently, and seem climbing up +rapidly to the surface, till presently it threatened to touch our +faces, and we could not resist the impulse to seize an oar and +avert the danger. But the boat would float on, and the boulder +descend again, and then we could see that when we had been +exactly above it, it must still have been twenty or thirty feet +below the surface. Down through the transparency of these great +depths, the water was not merely transparent, but dazzlingly, +brilliantly so. All objects seen through it had a bright, strong +vividness, not only of outline, but of every minute detail, which +they would not have had when seen simply through the same depth +of atmosphere. So empty and airy did all spaces seem below us, +and so strong was the sense of floating high aloft in +mid-nothingness, that we called these boat-excursions +"balloon-voyages."</p> + +<p>We fished a good deal, but we did not average one fish a week. +We could see trout by the thousand winging about in the emptiness +under us, or sleeping in shoals on the bottom, but they would not +bite—they could see the line too plainly, perhaps. We frequently +selected the trout we wanted, and rested the bait patiently and +persistently on the end of his nose at a depth of eighty feet, +but he would only shake it off with an annoyed manner, and shift +his position.</p> + +<p>We bathed occasionally, but the water was rather chilly, for +all it looked so sunny. Sometimes we rowed out to the "blue +water," a mile or two from shore. It was as dead blue as indigo +there, because of the immense depth. By official measurement the +lake in its centre is one thousand five hundred and twenty-five +feet deep!</p> + +<p>Sometimes, on lazy afternoons, we lolled on the sand in camp, +and smoked pipes and read some old well-worn novels. At night, by +the camp-fire, we played euchre and seven-up to strengthen the +mind—and played them with cards so greasy and defaced that only +a whole summer's acquaintance with them could enable the student +to tell the ace of clubs from the jack of diamonds.</p> + +<p>We never slept in our "house." It never recurred to us, for +one thing; and besides, it was built to hold the ground, and that +was enough. We did not wish to strain it.</p> + +<p>By and by our provisions began to run short, and we went back +to the old camp and laid in a new supply. We were gone all day, +and reached home again about night-fall, pretty tired and hungry. +While Johnny was carrying the main bulk of the provisions up to +our "house" for future use, I took the loaf of bread, some slices +of bacon, and the coffee-pot, ashore, set them down by a tree, +lit a fire, and went back to the boat to get the frying-pan. +While I was at this, I heard a shout from Johnny, and looking up +I saw that my fire was galloping all over the premises! Johnny +was on the other side of it. He had to run through the flames to +get to the lake shore, and then we stood helpless and watched the +devastation.</p> + +<p>The ground was deeply carpeted with dry pine-needles, and the +fire touched them off as if they were gunpowder. It was wonderful +to see with what fierce speed the tall sheet of flame traveled! +My coffee-pot was gone, and everything with it. In a minute and a +half the fire seized upon a dense growth of dry manzanita +chapparal six or eight feet high, and then the roaring and +popping and crackling was something terrific. We were driven to +the boat by the intense heat, and there we remained, +spell-bound.</p> + +<a name="176"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="176.jpg (161K)" src="images/176.jpg" height="911" width="564"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>Within half an hour all before us was a tossing, blinding +tempest of flame! It went surging up adjacent ridges—surmounted +them and disappeared in the canons beyond—burst into view upon +higher and farther ridges, presently—shed a grander illumination +abroad, and dove again—flamed out again, directly, higher and +still higher up the mountain-side- -threw out skirmishing parties +of fire here and there, and sent them trailing their crimson +spirals away among remote ramparts and ribs and gorges, till as +far as the eye could reach the lofty mountain-fronts were webbed +as it were with a tangled network of red lava streams. Away +across the water the crags and domes were lit with a ruddy glare, +and the firmament above was a reflected hell!</p> + +<p>Every feature of the spectacle was repeated in the glowing +mirror of the lake! Both pictures were sublime, both were +beautiful; but that in the lake had a bewildering richness about +it that enchanted the eye and held it with the stronger +fascination.</p> + +<p>We sat absorbed and motionless through four long hours. We +never thought of supper, and never felt fatigue. But at eleven +o'clock the conflagration had traveled beyond our range of +vision, and then darkness stole down upon the landscape +again.</p> + +<p>Hunger asserted itself now, but there was nothing to eat. The +provisions were all cooked, no doubt, but we did not go to see. +We were homeless wanderers again, without any property. Our fence +was gone, our house burned down; no insurance. Our pine forest +was well scorched, the dead trees all burned up, and our broad +acres of manzanita swept away. Our blankets were on our usual +sand-bed, however, and so we lay down and went to sleep. The next +morning we started back to the old camp, but while out a long way +from shore, so great a storm came up that we dared not try to +land. So I baled out the seas we shipped, and Johnny pulled +heavily through the billows till we had reached a point three or +four miles beyond the camp. The storm was increasing, and it +became evident that it was better to take the hazard of beaching +the boat than go down in a hundred fathoms of water; so we ran +in, with tall white-caps following, and I sat down in the +stern-sheets and pointed her head-on to the shore. The instant +the bow struck, a wave came over the stern that washed crew and +cargo ashore, and saved a deal of trouble. We shivered in the lee +of a boulder all the rest of the day, and froze all the night +through. In the morning the tempest had gone down, and we paddled +down to the camp without any unnecessary delay. We were so +starved that we ate up the rest of the Brigade's provisions, and +then set out to Carson to tell them about it and ask their +forgiveness. It was accorded, upon payment of damages.</p> + +<p>We made many trips to the lake after that, and had many a +hair-breadth escape and blood-curdling adventure which will never +be recorded in any history.</p> + + + +<br><br> +<a name="ch24"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> +</center> +<br> + + +<p>I resolved to have a horse to ride. I had never seen such +wild, free, magnificent horsemanship outside of a circus as these +picturesquely-clad Mexicans, Californians and Mexicanized +Americans displayed in Carson streets every day. How they rode! +Leaning just gently forward out of the perpendicular, easy and +nonchalant, with broad slouch-hat brim blown square up in front, +and long riata swinging above the head, they swept through the +town like the wind! The next minute they were only a sailing puff +of dust on the far desert. If they trotted, they sat up gallantly +and gracefully, and seemed part of the horse; did not go +jiggering up and down after the silly Miss-Nancy fashion of the +riding-schools. I had quickly learned to tell a horse from a cow, +and was full of anxiety to learn more. I was resolved to buy a +horse.</p> + +<p>While the thought was rankling in my mind, the auctioneer came +skurrying through the plaza on a black beast that had as many +humps and corners on him as a dromedary, and was necessarily +uncomely; but he was "going, going, at twenty-two!—horse, saddle +and bridle at twenty-two dollars, gentlemen!" and I could hardly +resist.</p> + +<p>A man whom I did not know (he turned out to be the +auctioneer's brother) noticed the wistful look in my eye, and +observed that that was a very remarkable horse to be going at +such a price; and added that the saddle alone was worth the +money. It was a Spanish saddle, with ponderous 'tapidaros', and +furnished with the ungainly sole-leather covering with the +unspellable name. I said I had half a notion to bid. Then this +keen-eyed person appeared to me to be "taking my measure"; but I +dismissed the suspicion when he spoke, for his manner was full of +guileless candor and truthfulness. Said he:</p> + +<p>"I know that horse—know him well. You are a stranger, I take +it, and so you might think he was an American horse, maybe, but I +assure you he is not. He is nothing of the kind; but—excuse my +speaking in a low voice, other people being near—he is, without +the shadow of a doubt, a Genuine Mexican Plug!"</p> + +<a name="179"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="179.jpg (96K)" src="images/179.jpg" height="534" width="569"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>I did not know what a Genuine Mexican Plug was, but there was +something about this man's way of saying it, that made me swear +inwardly that I would own a Genuine Mexican Plug, or die.</p> + +<p>"Has he any other—er—advantages?" I inquired, suppressing +what eagerness I could.</p> + +<p>He hooked his forefinger in the pocket of my army-shirt, led +me to one side, and breathed in my ear impressively these +words:</p> + +<p>"He can out-buck anything in America!"</p> + +<p>"Going, going, going—at twent—ty—four dollars and a half, +gen—"</p> + +<p>"Twenty-seven!" I shouted, in a frenzy.</p> + +<p>"And sold!" said the auctioneer, and passed over the Genuine +Mexican Plug to me.</p> + +<p>I could scarcely contain my exultation. I paid the money, and +put the animal in a neighboring livery-stable to dine and rest +himself.</p> + +<p>In the afternoon I brought the creature into the plaza, and +certain citizens held him by the head, and others by the tail, +while I mounted him. As soon as they let go, he placed all his +feet in a bunch together, lowered his back, and then suddenly +arched it upward, and shot me straight into the air a matter of +three or four feet! I came as straight down again, lit in the +saddle, went instantly up again, came down almost on the high +pommel, shot up again, and came down on the horse's neck—all in +the space of three or four seconds. Then he rose and stood almost +straight up on his hind feet, and I, clasping his lean neck +desperately, slid back into the saddle and held on. He came down, +and immediately hoisted his heels into the air, delivering a +vicious kick at the sky, and stood on his forefeet. And then down +he came once more, and began the original exercise of shooting me +straight up again. The third time I went up I heard a stranger +say:</p> + +<a name="180"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="180.jpg (50K)" src="images/180.jpg" height="499" width="332"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>"Oh, don't he buck, though!"</p> + +<p>While I was up, somebody struck the horse a sounding thwack +with a leathern strap, and when I arrived again the Genuine +Mexican Plug was not there. A California youth chased him up and +caught him, and asked if he might have a ride. I granted him that +luxury. He mounted the Genuine, got lifted into the air once, but +sent his spurs home as he descended, and the horse darted away +like a telegram. He soared over three fences like a bird, and +disappeared down the road toward the Washoe Valley.</p> + +<p>I sat down on a stone, with a sigh, and by a natural impulse +one of my hands sought my forehead, and the other the base of my +stomach. I believe I never appreciated, till then, the poverty of +the human machinery—for I still needed a hand or two to place +elsewhere. Pen cannot describe how I was jolted up. Imagination +cannot conceive how disjointed I was—how internally, externally +and universally I was unsettled, mixed up and ruptured. There was +a sympathetic crowd around me, though.</p> + +<a name="181"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="181.jpg (38K)" src="images/181.jpg" height="348" width="336"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>One elderly-looking comforter said:</p> + +<p>"Stranger, you've been taken in. Everybody in this camp knows +that horse. Any child, any Injun, could have told you that he'd +buck; he is the very worst devil to buck on the continent of +America. You hear me. I'm Curry. Old Curry. Old Abe Curry. And +moreover, he is a simon-pure, out-and-out, genuine d—d Mexican +plug, and an uncommon mean one at that, too. Why, you turnip, if +you had laid low and kept dark, there's chances to buy an +American horse for mighty little more than you paid for that +bloody old foreign relic."</p> + +<p>I gave no sign; but I made up my mind that if the auctioneer's +brother's funeral took place while I was in the Territory I would +postpone all other recreations and attend it.</p> + +<p>After a gallop of sixteen miles the Californian youth and the +Genuine Mexican Plug came tearing into town again, shedding +foam-flakes like the spume-spray that drives before a typhoon, +and, with one final skip over a wheelbarrow and a Chinaman, cast +anchor in front of the "ranch."</p> + +<a name="182"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="182.jpg (45K)" src="images/182.jpg" height="334" width="471"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>Such panting and blowing! Such spreading and contracting of +the red equine nostrils, and glaring of the wild equine eye! But +was the imperial beast subjugated? Indeed he was not.</p> + +<p>His lordship the Speaker of the House thought he was, and +mounted him to go down to the Capitol; but the first dash the +creature made was over a pile of telegraph poles half as high as +a church; and his time to the Capitol—one mile and three +quarters—remains unbeaten to this day. But then he took an +advantage—he left out the mile, and only did the three quarters. +That is to say, he made a straight cut across lots, preferring +fences and ditches to a crooked road; and when the Speaker got to +the Capitol he said he had been in the air so much he felt as if +he had made the trip on a comet.</p> + +<a name="183"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="183.jpg (50K)" src="images/183.jpg" height="493" width="353"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>In the evening the Speaker came home afoot for exercise, and +got the Genuine towed back behind a quartz wagon. The next day I +loaned the animal to the Clerk of the House to go down to the +Dana silver mine, six miles, and he walked back for exercise, and +got the horse towed. Everybody I loaned him to always walked +back; they never could get enough exercise any other way.</p> + +<p>Still, I continued to loan him to anybody who was willing to +borrow him, my idea being to get him crippled, and throw him on +the borrower's hands, or killed, and make the borrower pay for +him. But somehow nothing ever happened to him. He took chances +that no other horse ever took and survived, but he always came +out safe. It was his daily habit to try experiments that had +always before been considered impossible, but he always got +through. Sometimes he miscalculated a little, and did not get his +rider through intact, but he always got through himself. Of +course I had tried to sell him; but that was a stretch of +simplicity which met with little sympathy. The auctioneer stormed +up and down the streets on him for four days, dispersing the +populace, interrupting business, and destroying children, and +never got a bid—at least never any but the eighteen-dollar one +he hired a notoriously substanceless bummer to make. The people +only smiled pleasantly, and restrained their desire to buy, if +they had any. Then the auctioneer brought in his bill, and I +withdrew the horse from the market. We tried to trade him off at +private vendue next, offering him at a sacrifice for second-hand +tombstones, old iron, temperance tracts—any kind of property. +But holders were stiff, and we retired from the market again. I +never tried to ride the horse any more. Walking was good enough +exercise for a man like me, that had nothing the matter with him +except ruptures, internal injuries, and such things. Finally I +tried to give him away. But it was a failure. Parties said +earthquakes were handy enough on the Pacific coast—they did not +wish to own one. As a last resort I offered him to the Governor +for the use of the "Brigade." His face lit up eagerly at first, +but toned down again, and he said the thing would be too +palpable.</p> + +<p>Just then the livery stable man brought in his bill for six +weeks' keeping—stall-room for the horse, fifteen dollars; hay +for the horse, two hundred and fifty! The Genuine Mexican Plug +had eaten a ton of the article, and the man said he would have +eaten a hundred if he had let him.</p> + +<p>I will remark here, in all seriousness, that the regular price +of hay during that year and a part of the next was really two +hundred and fifty dollars a ton. During a part of the previous +year it had sold at five hundred a ton, in gold, and during the +winter before that there was such scarcity of the article that in +several instances small quantities had brought eight hundred +dollars a ton in coin! The consequence might be guessed without +my telling it: peopled turned their stock loose to starve, and +before the spring arrived Carson and Eagle valleys were almost +literally carpeted with their carcases! Any old settler there +will verify these statements.</p> + +<p>I managed to pay the livery bill, and that same day I gave the +Genuine Mexican Plug to a passing Arkansas emigrant whom fortune +delivered into my hand. If this ever meets his eye, he will +doubtless remember the donation.</p> + +<p>Now whoever has had the luck to ride a real Mexican plug will +recognize the animal depicted in this chapter, and hardly +consider him exaggerated—but the uninitiated will feel +justified in regarding his portrait as a fancy sketch, +perhaps.</p> + + + +<br><br> +<a name="ch25"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> +</center> +<br> + + +<p>Originally, Nevada was a part of Utah and was called Carson +county; and a pretty large county it was, too. Certain of its +valleys produced no end of hay, and this attracted small colonies +of Mormon stock-raisers and farmers to them. A few orthodox +Americans straggled in from California, but no love was lost +between the two classes of colonists. There was little or no +friendly intercourse; each party staid to itself. The Mormons +were largely in the majority, and had the additional advantage of +being peculiarly under the protection of the Mormon government of +the Territory. Therefore they could afford to be distant, and +even peremptory toward their neighbors. One of the traditions of +Carson Valley illustrates the condition of things that prevailed +at the time I speak of. The hired girl of one of the American +families was Irish, and a Catholic; yet it was noted with +surprise that she was the only person outside of the Mormon ring +who could get favors from the Mormons. She asked kindnesses of +them often, and always got them. It was a mystery to everybody. +But one day as she was passing out at the door, a large bowie +knife dropped from under her apron, and when her mistress asked +for an explanation she observed that she was going out to "borry +a wash-tub from the Mormons!"</p> + +<a name="186"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="186.jpg (88K)" src="images/186.jpg" height="613" width="424"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>In 1858 silver lodes were discovered in "Carson County," and +then the aspect of things changed. Californians began to flock +in, and the American element was soon in the majority. Allegiance +to Brigham Young and Utah was renounced, and a temporary +territorial government for "Washoe" was instituted by the +citizens. Governor Roop was the first and only chief magistrate +of it. In due course of time Congress passed a bill to organize +"Nevada Territory," and President Lincoln sent out Governor Nye +to supplant Roop.</p> + +<p>At this time the population of the Territory was about twelve +or fifteen thousand, and rapidly increasing. Silver mines were +being vigorously developed and silver mills erected. Business of +all kinds was active and prosperous and growing more so day by +day.</p> + +<p>The people were glad to have a legitimately constituted +government, but did not particularly enjoy having strangers from +distant States put in authority over them—a sentiment that was +natural enough. They thought the officials should have been +chosen from among themselves from among prominent citizens who +had earned a right to such promotion, and who would be in +sympathy with the populace and likewise thoroughly acquainted +with the needs of the Territory. They were right in viewing the +matter thus, without doubt. The new officers were "emigrants," +and that was no title to anybody's affection or admiration +either.</p> + +<p>The new government was received with considerable coolness. It +was not only a foreign intruder, but a poor one. It was not even +worth plucking—except by the smallest of small fry +office-seekers and such. Everybody knew that Congress had +appropriated only twenty thousand dollars a year in greenbacks +for its support—about money enough to run a quartz mill a month. +And everybody knew, also, that the first year's money was still +in Washington, and that the getting hold of it would be a tedious +and difficult process. Carson City was too wary and too wise to +open up a credit account with the imported bantling with anything +like indecent haste.</p> + +<p>There is something solemnly funny about the struggles of a +new-born Territorial government to get a start in this world. +Ours had a trying time of it. The Organic Act and the +"instructions" from the State Department commanded that a +legislature should be elected at such-and- such a time, and its +sittings inaugurated at such-and-such a date. It was easy to get +legislators, even at three dollars a day, although board was four +dollars and fifty cents, for distinction has its charm in Nevada +as well as elsewhere, and there were plenty of patriotic souls +out of employment; but to get a legislative hall for them to meet +in was another matter altogether. Carson blandly declined to give +a room rent-free, or let one to the government on credit.</p> + +<p>But when Curry heard of the difficulty, he came forward, +solitary and alone, and shouldered the Ship of State over the bar +and got her afloat again. I refer to "Curry—Old Curry—Old Abe +Curry." But for him the legislature would have been obliged to +sit in the desert. He offered his large stone building just +outside the capital limits, rent-free, and it was gladly +accepted. Then he built a horse-railroad from town to the +capitol, and carried the legislators gratis.</p> + +<p>He also furnished pine benches and chairs for the legislature, +and covered the floors with clean saw-dust by way of carpet and +spittoon combined. But for Curry the government would have died +in its tender infancy. A canvas partition to separate the Senate +from the House of Representatives was put up by the Secretary, at +a cost of three dollars and forty cents, but the United States +declined to pay for it. Upon being reminded that the +"instructions" permitted the payment of a liberal rent for a +legislative hall, and that that money was saved to the country by +Mr. Curry's generosity, the United States said that did not alter +the matter, and the three dollars and forty cents would be +subtracted from the Secretary's eighteen hundred dollar +salary—and it was!</p> + +<a name="188"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="188.jpg (30K)" src="images/188.jpg" height="209" width="586"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>The matter of printing was from the beginning an interesting +feature of the new government's difficulties. The Secretary was +sworn to obey his volume of written "instructions," and these +commanded him to do two certain things without fail, viz.:</p> + +<p>1. Get the House and Senate journals printed; and, 2. For this +work, pay one dollar and fifty cents per "thousand" for +composition, and one dollar and fifty cents per "token" for +press-work, in greenbacks.</p> + +<p>It was easy to swear to do these two things, but it was +entirely impossible to do more than one of them. When greenbacks +had gone down to forty cents on the dollar, the prices regularly +charged everybody by printing establishments were one dollar and +fifty cents per "thousand" and one dollar and fifty cents per +"token," in gold. The "instructions" commanded that the Secretary +regard a paper dollar issued by the government as equal to any +other dollar issued by the government. Hence the printing of the +journals was discontinued. Then the United States sternly rebuked +the Secretary for disregarding the "instructions," and warned him +to correct his ways. Wherefore he got some printing done, +forwarded the bill to Washington with full exhibits of the high +prices of things in the Territory, and called attention to a +printed market report wherein it would be observed that even hay +was two hundred and fifty dollars a ton. The United States +responded by subtracting the printing- bill from the Secretary's +suffering salary—and moreover remarked with dense gravity that +he would find nothing in his "instructions" requiring him to +purchase hay!</p> + +<p>Nothing in this world is palled in such impenetrable obscurity +as a U.S. Treasury Comptroller's understanding. The very fires of +the hereafter could get up nothing more than a fitful glimmer in +it. In the days I speak of he never could be made to comprehend +why it was that twenty thousand dollars would not go as far in +Nevada, where all commodities ranged at an enormous figure, as it +would in the other Territories, where exceeding cheapness was the +rule. He was an officer who looked out for the little expenses +all the time. The Secretary of the Territory kept his office in +his bedroom, as I before remarked; and he charged the United +States no rent, although his "instructions" provided for that +item and he could have justly taken advantage of it (a thing +which I would have done with more than lightning promptness if I +had been Secretary myself). But the United States never applauded +this devotion. Indeed, I think my country was ashamed to have so +improvident a person in its employ.</p> + +<p>Those "instructions" (we used to read a chapter from them +every morning, as intellectual gymnastics, and a couple of +chapters in Sunday school every Sabbath, for they treated of all +subjects under the sun and had much valuable religious matter in +them along with the other statistics) those "instructions" +commanded that pen-knives, envelopes, pens and writing-paper be +furnished the members of the legislature. So the Secretary made +the purchase and the distribution. The knives cost three dollars +apiece. There was one too many, and the Secretary gave it to the +Clerk of the House of Representatives. The United States said the +Clerk of the House was not a "member" of the legislature, and +took that three dollars out of the Secretary's salary, as +usual.</p> + +<p>White men charged three or four dollars a "load" for sawing up +stove- wood. The Secretary was sagacious enough to know that the +United States would never pay any such price as that; so he got +an Indian to saw up a load of office wood at one dollar and a +half. He made out the usual voucher, but signed no name to +it—simply appended a note explaining that an Indian had done the +work, and had done it in a very capable and satisfactory way, but +could not sign the voucher owing to lack of ability in the +necessary direction. The Secretary had to pay that dollar and a +half. He thought the United States would admire both his economy +and his honesty in getting the work done at half price and not +putting a pretended Indian's signature to the voucher, but the +United States did not see it in that light.</p> + +<p>The United States was too much accustomed to employing +dollar-and-a-half thieves in all manner of official capacities to +regard his explanation of the voucher as having any foundation in +fact.</p> + +<a name="190"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="190.jpg (22K)" src="images/190.jpg" height="221" width="588"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>But the next time the Indian sawed wood for us I taught him to +make a cross at the bottom of the voucher—it looked like a cross +that had been drunk a year—and then I "witnessed" it and it went +through all right. The United States never said a word. I was +sorry I had not made the voucher for a thousand loads of wood +instead of one.</p> + +<p>The government of my country snubs honest simplicity but +fondles artistic villainy, and I think I might have developed +into a very capable pickpocket if I had remained in the public +service a year or two.</p> + +<p>That was a fine collection of sovereigns, that first Nevada +legislature. They levied taxes to the amount of thirty or forty +thousand dollars and ordered expenditures to the extent of about +a million. Yet they had their little periodical explosions of +economy like all other bodies of the kind. A member proposed to +save three dollars a day to the nation by dispensing with the +Chaplain. And yet that short-sighted man needed the Chaplain more +than any other member, perhaps, for he generally sat with his +feet on his desk, eating raw turnips, during the morning +prayer.</p> + +<a name="191"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="191.jpg (99K)" src="images/191.jpg" height="615" width="475"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>The legislature sat sixty days, and passed private tollroad +franchises all the time. When they adjourned it was estimated +that every citizen owned about three franchises, and it was +believed that unless Congress gave the Territory another degree +of longitude there would not be room enough to accommodate the +toll-roads. The ends of them were hanging over the boundary line +everywhere like a fringe.</p> + +<a name="192"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="192.jpg (29K)" src="images/192.jpg" height="371" width="312"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>The fact is, the freighting business had grown to such +important proportions that there was nearly as much excitement +over suddenly acquired toll-road fortunes as over the wonderful +silver mines.</p> + + + +<br><br> +<a name="ch26"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> +</center> +<br> + + +<p>By and by I was smitten with the silver fever. "Prospecting +parties" were leaving for the mountains every day, and +discovering and taking possession of rich silver-bearing lodes +and ledges of quartz. Plainly this was the road to fortune. The +great "Gould and Curry" mine was held at three or four hundred +dollars a foot when we arrived; but in two months it had sprung +up to eight hundred. The "Ophir" had been worth only a mere +trifle, a year gone by, and now it was selling at nearly four +thousand dollars a foot! Not a mine could be named that had not +experienced an astonishing advance in value within a short time. +Everybody was talking about these marvels. Go where you would, +you heard nothing else, from morning till far into the night. Tom +So-and-So had sold out of the "Amanda Smith" for $40,000—hadn't +a cent when he "took up" the ledge six months ago. John Jones had +sold half his interest in the "Bald Eagle and Mary Ann" for +$65,000, gold coin, and gone to the States for his family. The +widow Brewster had "struck it rich" in the "Golden Fleece" and +sold ten feet for $18,000—hadn't money enough to buy a crape +bonnet when Sing-Sing Tommy killed her husband at Baldy Johnson's +wake last spring. The "Last Chance" had found a "clay casing" and +knew they were "right on the ledge"—consequence, "feet" that +went begging yesterday were worth a brick house apiece to-day, +and seedy owners who could not get trusted for a drink at any bar +in the country yesterday were roaring drunk on champagne to-day +and had hosts of warm personal friends in a town where they had +forgotten how to bow or shake hands from long-continued want of +practice. Johnny Morgan, a common loafer, had gone to sleep in +the gutter and waked up worth a hundred thousand dollars, in +consequence of the decision in the "Lady Franklin and Rough and +Ready" lawsuit. And so on—day in and day out the talk pelted our +ears and the excitement waxed hotter and hotter around us.</p> + +<p>I would have been more or less than human if I had not gone +mad like the rest. Cart-loads of solid silver bricks, as large as +pigs of lead, were arriving from the mills every day, and such +sights as that gave substance to the wild talk about me. I +succumbed and grew as frenzied as the craziest.</p> + +<a name="194"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="194.jpg (65K)" src="images/194.jpg" height="454" width="473"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>Every few days news would come of the discovery of a bran-new +mining region; immediately the papers would teem with accounts of +its richness, and away the surplus population would scamper to +take possession. By the time I was fairly inoculated with the +disease, "Esmeralda" had just had a run and "Humboldt" was +beginning to shriek for attention. "Humboldt! Humboldt!" was the +new cry, and straightway Humboldt, the newest of the new, the +richest of the rich, the most marvellous of the marvellous +discoveries in silver-land was occupying two columns of the +public prints to "Esmeralda's" one. I was just on the point of +starting to Esmeralda, but turned with the tide and got ready for +Humboldt. That the reader may see what moved me, and what would +as surely have moved him had he been there, I insert here one of +the newspaper letters of the day. It and several other letters +from the same calm hand were the main means of converting me. I +shall not garble the extract, but put it in just as it appeared +in the Daily Territorial Enterprise:</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p>But what about our mines? I shall be candid with you. I shall +express an honest opinion, based upon a thorough examination. +Humboldt county is the richest mineral region upon God's +footstool. Each mountain range is gorged with the precious ores. +Humboldt is the true Golconda.</p> + +<p>The other day an assay of mere croppings yielded exceeding +four thousand dollars to the ton. A week or two ago an assay of +just such surface developments made returns of seven thousand +dollars to the ton. Our mountains are full of rambling +prospectors. Each day and almost every hour reveals new and more +startling evidences of the profuse and intensified wealth of our +favored county. The metal is not silver alone. There are distinct +ledges of auriferous ore. A late discovery plainly evinces +cinnabar. The coarser metals are in gross abundance. Lately +evidences of bituminous coal have been detected. My theory has +ever been that coal is a ligneous formation. I told Col. Whitman, +in times past, that the neighborhood of Dayton (Nevada) betrayed +no present or previous manifestations of a ligneous foundation, +and that hence I had no confidence in his lauded coal mines. I +repeated the same doctrine to the exultant coal discoverers of +Humboldt. I talked with my friend Captain Burch on the subject. +My pyrhanism vanished upon his statement that in the very region +referred to he had seen petrified trees of the length of two +hundred feet. Then is the fact established that huge forests once +cast their grim shadows over this remote section. I am firm in +the coal faith. Have no fears of the mineral resources of Humboldt county. +They are immense—incalculable.</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>Let me state one or two things which will help the reader to +better comprehend certain items in the above. At this time, our +near neighbor, Gold Hill, was the most successful silver mining +locality in Nevada. It was from there that more than half the +daily shipments of silver bricks came. "Very rich" (and scarce) +Gold Hill ore yielded from $100 to $400 to the ton; but the usual +yield was only $20 to $40 per ton—that is to say, each hundred +pounds of ore yielded from one dollar to two dollars. But the +reader will perceive by the above extract, that in Humboldt from +one fourth to nearly half the mass was silver! That is to say, +every one hundred pounds of the ore had from two hundred dollars +up to about three hundred and fifty in it. Some days later this +same correspondent wrote:</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p>I have spoken of the vast and almost fabulous wealth of this +region—it is incredible. The intestines of our mountains are +gorged with precious ore to plethora. I have said that nature has +so shaped our mountains as to furnish most excellent facilities +for the working of our mines. I have also told you that the +country about here is pregnant with the finest mill sites in the +world. But what is the mining history of Humboldt? The Sheba mine +is in the hands of energetic San Francisco capitalists. It would +seem that the ore is combined with metals that render it +difficult of reduction with our imperfect mountain machinery. The +proprietors have combined the capital and labor hinted at in my +exordium. They are toiling and probing. Their tunnel has reached +the length of one hundred feet. From primal assays alone, coupled +with the development of the mine and public confidence in the +continuance of effort, the stock had reared itself to eight +hundred dollars market value. I do not know that one ton of the +ore has been converted into current metal. I do know that there +are many lodes in this section that surpass the Sheba in primal +assay value. Listen a moment to the calculations of the Sheba +operators. They purpose transporting the ore concentrated to +Europe. The conveyance from Star City (its locality) to Virginia +City will cost seventy dollars per ton; from Virginia to San +Francisco, forty dollars per ton; from thence to Liverpool, its +destination, ten dollars per ton. Their idea is that its +conglomerate metals will reimburse them their cost of original +extraction, the price of transportation, and the expense of +reduction, and that then a ton of the raw ore will net them +twelve hundred dollars. The estimate may be extravagant. Cut it +in twain, and the product is enormous, far transcending any +previous developments of our racy Territory.</p> + +<p>A very common calculation is that many of our mines will yield +five hundred dollars to the ton. Such fecundity throws the Gould +& Curry, the Ophir and the Mexican, of your neighborhood, in the +darkest shadow. I have given you the estimate of the value of a +single developed mine. Its richness is indexed by its market +valuation. The people of Humboldt county are feet crazy. As I +write, our towns are near deserted. They look as languid as a +consumptive girl. What has become of our sinewy and athletic +fellow-citizens? They are coursing through ravines and over +mountain tops. Their tracks are visible in every direction. +Occasionally a horseman will dash among us. His steed betrays +hard usage. He alights before his adobe dwelling, hastily +exchanges courtesies with his townsmen, hurries to an assay +office and from thence to the District Recorder's. In the +morning, having renewed his provisional supplies, he is off again +on his wild and unbeaten route. Why, the fellow numbers already +his feet by the thousands. He is the horse-leech. He has the +craving stomach of the shark or anaconda. He would conquer +metallic worlds.</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + + +<a name="196"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="196.jpg (187K)" src="images/196.jpg" height="1035" width="607"> +</center> +<br><br> + + +<p>This was enough. The instant we had finished reading the above +article, four of us decided to go to Humboldt. We commenced +getting ready at once. And we also commenced upbraiding ourselves +for not deciding sooner—for we were in terror lest all the rich +mines would be found and secured before we got there, and we +might have to put up with ledges that would not yield more than +two or three hundred dollars a ton, maybe. An hour before, I +would have felt opulent if I had owned ten feet in a Gold Hill +mine whose ore produced twenty-five dollars to the ton; now I was +already annoyed at the prospect of having to put up with mines +the poorest of which would be a marvel in Gold Hill.</p> + + + +<br><br> +<a name="ch27"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> +</center> +<br> + + +<p>Hurry, was the word! We wasted no time. Our party consisted of +four persons—a blacksmith sixty years of age, two young lawyers, +and myself. We bought a wagon and two miserable old horses. We +put eighteen hundred pounds of provisions and mining tools in the +wagon and drove out of Carson on a chilly December afternoon. The +horses were so weak and old that we soon found that it would be +better if one or two of us got out and walked. It was an +improvement. Next, we found that it would be better if a third +man got out. That was an improvement also. It was at this time +that I volunteered to drive, although I had never driven a +harnessed horse before and many a man in such a position would +have felt fairly excused from such a responsibility. But in a +little while it was found that it would be a fine thing if the +drive got out and walked also. It was at this time that I +resigned the position of driver, and never resumed it again. +Within the hour, we found that it would not only be better, but +was absolutely necessary, that we four, taking turns, two at a +time, should put our hands against the end of the wagon and push +it through the sand, leaving the feeble horses little to do but +keep out of the way and hold up the tongue. Perhaps it is well +for one to know his fate at first, and get reconciled to it. We +had learned ours in one afternoon. It was plain that we had to +walk through the sand and shove that wagon and those horses two +hundred miles. So we accepted the situation, and from that time +forth we never rode. More than that, we stood regular and nearly +constant watches pushing up behind.</p> + +<p>We made seven miles, and camped in the desert. Young Clagett +(now member of Congress from Montana) unharnessed and fed and +watered the horses; Oliphant and I cut sagebrush, built the fire +and brought water to cook with; and old Mr. Ballou the blacksmith +did the cooking. This division of labor, and this appointment, +was adhered to throughout the journey. We had no tent, and so we +slept under our blankets in the open plain. We were so tired that +we slept soundly.</p> + +<a name="199"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="199.jpg (54K)" src="images/199.jpg" height="326" width="602"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>We were fifteen days making the trip—two hundred miles; +thirteen, rather, for we lay by a couple of days, in one place, +to let the horses rest.</p> + +<p>We could really have accomplished the journey in ten days if +we had towed the horses behind the wagon, but we did not think of +that until it was too late, and so went on shoving the horses and +the wagon too when we might have saved half the labor. Parties +who met us, occasionally, advised us to put the horses in the +wagon, but Mr. Ballou, through whose iron-clad earnestness no +sarcasm could pierce, said that that would not do, because the +provisions were exposed and would suffer, the horses being +"bituminous from long deprivation." The reader will excuse me +from translating. What Mr. Ballou customarily meant, when he used +a long word, was a secret between himself and his Maker. He was +one of the best and kindest hearted men that ever graced a humble +sphere of life. He was gentleness and simplicity itself—and +unselfishness, too. Although he was more than twice as old as the +eldest of us, he never gave himself any airs, privileges, or +exemptions on that account. He did a young man's share of the +work; and did his share of conversing and entertaining from the +general stand-point of any age—not from the arrogant, overawing +summit-height of sixty years. His one striking peculiarity was +his Partingtonian fashion of loving and using big words for their +own sakes, and independent of any bearing they might have upon +the thought he was purposing to convey. He always let his +ponderous syllables fall with an easy unconsciousness that left +them wholly without offensiveness. In truth his air was so +natural and so simple that one was always catching himself +accepting his stately sentences as meaning something, when they +really meant nothing in the world. If a word was long and grand +and resonant, that was sufficient to win the old man's love, and +he would drop that word into the most out-of-the-way place in a +sentence or a subject, and be as pleased with it as if it were +perfectly luminous with meaning.</p> + +<a name="201"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="201.jpg (62K)" src="images/201.jpg" height="346" width="596"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>We four always spread our common stock of blankets together on +the frozen ground, and slept side by side; and finding that our +foolish, long-legged hound pup had a deal of animal heat in him, +Oliphant got to admitting him to the bed, between himself and Mr. +Ballou, hugging the dog's warm back to his breast and finding +great comfort in it. But in the night the pup would get stretchy +and brace his feet against the old man's back and shove, grunting +complacently the while; and now and then, being warm and snug, +grateful and happy, he would paw the old man's back simply in +excess of comfort; and at yet other times he would dream of the +chase and in his sleep tug at the old man's back hair and bark in +his ear. The old gentleman complained mildly about these +familiarities, at last, and when he got through with his +statement he said that such a dog as that was not a proper animal +to admit to bed with tired men, because he was "so meretricious +in his movements and so organic in his emotions." We turned the +dog out.</p> + +<p>It was a hard, wearing, toilsome journey, but it had its +bright side; for after each day was done and our wolfish hunger +appeased with a hot supper of fried bacon, bread, molasses and +black coffee, the pipe-smoking, song- singing and yarn-spinning +around the evening camp-fire in the still solitudes of the desert +was a happy, care-free sort of recreation that seemed the very +summit and culmination of earthly luxury.</p> + +<p>It is a kind of life that has a potent charm for all men, +whether city or country-bred. We are descended from +desert-lounging Arabs, and countless ages of growth toward +perfect civilization have failed to root out of us the nomadic +instinct. We all confess to a gratified thrill at the thought of +"camping out."</p> + +<p>Once we made twenty-five miles in a day, and once we made +forty miles (through the Great American Desert), and ten miles +beyond—fifty in all—in twenty-three hours, without halting to +eat, drink or rest. To stretch out and go to sleep, even on stony +and frozen ground, after pushing a wagon and two horses fifty +miles, is a delight so supreme that for the moment it almost +seems cheap at the price.</p> + +<p>We camped two days in the neighborhood of the "Sink of the +Humboldt." We tried to use the strong alkaline water of the Sink, +but it would not answer. It was like drinking lye, and not weak +lye, either. It left a taste in the mouth, bitter and every way +execrable, and a burning in the stomach that was very +uncomfortable. We put molasses in it, but that helped it very +little; we added a pickle, yet the alkali was the prominent taste +and so it was unfit for drinking.</p> + +<a name="202"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="205.jpg (58K)" src="images/205.jpg" height="479" width="425"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>The coffee we made of this water was the meanest compound man +has yet invented. It was really viler to the taste than the +unameliorated water itself. Mr. Ballou, being the architect and +builder of the beverage felt constrained to endorse and uphold +it, and so drank half a cup, by little sips, making shift to +praise it faintly the while, but finally threw out the remainder, +and said frankly it was "too technical for him."</p> + +<p>But presently we found a spring of fresh water, convenient, +and then, with nothing to mar our enjoyment, and no stragglers to +interrupt it, we entered into our rest.</p> + + + +<br><br> +<a name="ch28"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2> +</center> +<br> + + +<p>After leaving the Sink, we traveled along the Humboldt river a +little way. People accustomed to the monster mile-wide +Mississippi, grow accustomed to associating the term "river" with +a high degree of watery grandeur. Consequently, such people feel +rather disappointed when they stand on the shores of the Humboldt +or the Carson and find that a "river" in Nevada is a sickly +rivulet which is just the counterpart of the Erie canal in all +respects save that the canal is twice as long and four times as +deep. One of the pleasantest and most invigorating exercises one +can contrive is to run and jump across the Humboldt river till he +is overheated, and then drink it dry.</p> + +<p>On the fifteenth day we completed our march of two hundred +miles and entered Unionville, Humboldt county, in the midst of a +driving snow- storm. Unionville consisted of eleven cabins and a +liberty-pole. Six of the cabins were strung along one side of a +deep canyon, and the other five faced them. The rest of the +landscape was made up of bleak mountain walls that rose so high +into the sky from both sides of the canyon that the village was +left, as it were, far down in the bottom of a crevice. It was +always daylight on the mountain tops a long time before the +darkness lifted and revealed Unionville.</p> + +<p>We built a small, rude cabin in the side of the crevice and +roofed it with canvas, leaving a corner open to serve as a +chimney, through which the cattle used to tumble occasionally, at +night, and mash our furniture and interrupt our sleep. It was +very cold weather and fuel was scarce. Indians brought brush and +bushes several miles on their backs; and when we could catch a +laden Indian it was well—and when we could not (which was the +rule, not the exception), we shivered and bore it.</p> + +<a name="205"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="205.jpg (58K)" src="images/205.jpg" height="479" width="425"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>I confess, without shame, that I expected to find masses of +silver lying all about the ground. I expected to see it +glittering in the sun on the mountain summits. I said nothing +about this, for some instinct told me that I might possibly have +an exaggerated idea about it, and so if I betrayed my thought I +might bring derision upon myself. Yet I was as perfectly +satisfied in my own mind as I could be of anything, that I was +going to gather up, in a day or two, or at furthest a week or +two, silver enough to make me satisfactorily wealthy—and so my +fancy was already busy with plans for spending this money. The +first opportunity that offered, I sauntered carelessly away from +the cabin, keeping an eye on the other boys, and stopping and +contemplating the sky when they seemed to be observing me; but as +soon as the coast was manifestly clear, I fled away as guiltily +as a thief might have done and never halted till I was far beyond +sight and call. Then I began my search with a feverish excitement +that was brimful of expectation—almost of certainty. I crawled +about the ground, seizing and examining bits of stone, blowing +the dust from them or rubbing them on my clothes, and then +peering at them with anxious hope. Presently I found a bright +fragment and my heart bounded! I hid behind a boulder and +polished it and scrutinized it with a nervous eagerness and a +delight that was more pronounced than absolute certainty itself +could have afforded. The more I examined the fragment the more I +was convinced that I had found the door to fortune. I marked the +spot and carried away my specimen. Up and down the rugged +mountain side I searched, with always increasing interest and +always augmenting gratitude that I had come to Humboldt and come +in time. Of all the experiences of my life, this secret search +among the hidden treasures of silver-land was the nearest to +unmarred ecstasy. It was a delirious revel.</p> + +<p>By and by, in the bed of a shallow rivulet, I found a deposit +of shining yellow scales, and my breath almost forsook me! A gold +mine, and in my simplicity I had been content with vulgar silver! +I was so excited that I half believed my overwrought imagination +was deceiving me. Then a fear came upon me that people might be +observing me and would guess my secret. Moved by this thought, I +made a circuit of the place, and ascended a knoll to reconnoiter. +Solitude. No creature was near. Then I returned to my mine, +fortifying myself against possible disappointment, but my fears +were groundless—the shining scales were still there. I set about +scooping them out, and for an hour I toiled down the windings of +the stream and robbed its bed. But at last the descending sun +warned me to give up the quest, and I turned homeward laden with +wealth. As I walked along I could not help smiling at the thought +of my being so excited over my fragment of silver when a nobler +metal was almost under my nose. In this little time the former +had so fallen in my estimation that once or twice I was on the +point of throwing it away.</p> + +<p>The boys were as hungry as usual, but I could eat nothing. +Neither could I talk. I was full of dreams and far away. Their +conversation interrupted the flow of my fancy somewhat, and +annoyed me a little, too. I despised the sordid and commonplace +things they talked about. But as they proceeded, it began to +amuse me. It grew to be rare fun to hear them planning their poor +little economies and sighing over possible privations and +distresses when a gold mine, all our own, lay within sight of the +cabin and I could point it out at any moment. Smothered hilarity +began to oppress me, presently. It was hard to resist the impulse +to burst out with exultation and reveal everything; but I did +resist. I said within myself that I would filter the great news +through my lips calmly and be serene as a summer morning while I +watched its effect in their faces. I said:</p> + +<p>"Where have you all been?"</p> + +<p>"Prospecting."</p> + +<p>"What did you find?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing."</p> + +<p>"Nothing? What do you think of the country?"</p> + +<p>"Can't tell, yet," said Mr. Ballou, who was an old gold miner, +and had likewise had considerable experience among the silver +mines.</p> + +<p>"Well, haven't you formed any sort of opinion?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, a sort of a one. It's fair enough here, may be, but +overrated. Seven thousand dollar ledges are scarce, though.</p> + +<p>"That Sheba may be rich enough, but we don't own it; and +besides, the rock is so full of base metals that all the science +in the world can't work it. We'll not starve, here, but we'll not +get rich, I'm afraid."</p> + +<p>"So you think the prospect is pretty poor?"</p> + +<p>"No name for it!"</p> + +<p>"Well, we'd better go back, hadn't we?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, not yet—of course not. We'll try it a riffle, +first."</p> + +<p>"Suppose, now—this is merely a supposition, you know—suppose +you could find a ledge that would yield, say, a hundred and fifty +dollars a ton—would that satisfy you?"</p> + +<p>"Try us once!" from the whole party.</p> + +<p>"Or suppose—merely a supposition, of course—suppose you were +to find a ledge that would yield two thousand dollars a +ton—would that satisfy you?"</p> + +<p>"Here—what do you mean? What are you coming at? Is there some +mystery behind all this?"</p> + +<p>"Never mind. I am not saying anything. You know perfectly well +there are no rich mines here—of course you do. Because you have +been around and examined for yourselves. Anybody would know that, +that had been around. But just for the sake of argument, +suppose—in a kind of general way—suppose some person were to +tell you that two-thousand-dollar ledges were simply +contemptible—contemptible, understand—and that right yonder in +sight of this very cabin there were piles of pure gold and pure +silver—oceans of it—enough to make you all rich in twenty-four +hours! Come!"</p> + +<p>"I should say he was as crazy as a loon!" said old Ballou, but +wild with excitement, nevertheless.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," said I, "I don't say anything—I haven't been +around, you know, and of course don't know anything—but all I +ask of you is to cast your eye on that, for instance, and tell me +what you think of it!" and I tossed my treasure before them.</p> + +<a name="207"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="207.jpg (92K)" src="images/207.jpg" height="503" width="584"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>There was an eager scramble for it, and a closing of heads +together over it under the candle-light. Then old Ballou +said:</p> + +<p>"Think of it? I think it is nothing but a lot of granite +rubbish and nasty glittering mica that isn't worth ten cents an +acre!"</p> + +<p>So vanished my dream. So melted my wealth away. So toppled my +airy castle to the earth and left me stricken and forlorn.</p> + +<p>Moralizing, I observed, then, that "all that glitters is not +gold."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ballou said I could go further than that, and lay it up +among my treasures of knowledge, that nothing that glitters is +gold. So I learned then, once for all, that gold in its native +state is but dull, unornamental stuff, and that only low-born +metals excite the admiration of the ignorant with an ostentatious +glitter. However, like the rest of the world, I still go on +underrating men of gold and glorifying men of mica. Commonplace +human nature cannot rise above that.</p> + + + + +<br><br> +<a name="ch29"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2> +</center> +<br> + + +<p>True knowledge of the nature of silver mining came fast +enough. We went out "prospecting" with Mr. Ballou. We climbed the +mountain sides, and clambered among sage-brush, rocks and snow +till we were ready to drop with exhaustion, but found no +silver—nor yet any gold. Day after day we did this. Now and then +we came upon holes burrowed a few feet into the declivities and +apparently abandoned; and now and then we found one or two +listless men still burrowing. But there was no appearance of +silver. These holes were the beginnings of tunnels, and the +purpose was to drive them hundreds of feet into the mountain, and +some day tap the hidden ledge where the silver was. Some day! It +seemed far enough away, and very hopeless and dreary. Day after +day we toiled, and climbed and searched, and we younger partners +grew sicker and still sicker of the promiseless toil. At last we +halted under a beetling rampart of rock which projected from the +earth high upon the mountain. Mr. Ballou broke off some fragments +with a hammer, and examined them long and attentively with a +small eye-glass; threw them away and broke off more; said this +rock was quartz, and quartz was the sort of rock that contained +silver. Contained it! I had thought that at least it would be +caked on the outside of it like a kind of veneering. He still +broke off pieces and critically examined them, now and then +wetting the piece with his tongue and applying the glass. At last +he exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"We've got it!"</p> + +<a name="210"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="210.jpg (74K)" src="images/210.jpg" height="618" width="433"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>We were full of anxiety in a moment. The rock was clean and +white, where it was broken, and across it ran a ragged thread of +blue. He said that that little thread had silver in it, mixed +with base metal, such as lead and antimony, and other rubbish, +and that there was a speck or two of gold visible. After a great +deal of effort we managed to discern some little fine yellow +specks, and judged that a couple of tons of them massed together +might make a gold dollar, possibly. We were not jubilant, but Mr. +Ballou said there were worse ledges in the world than that. He +saved what he called the "richest" piece of the rock, in order to +determine its value by the process called the "fire-assay." Then +we named the mine "Monarch of the Mountains" (modesty of +nomenclature is not a prominent feature in the mines), and Mr. +Ballou wrote out and stuck up the following "notice," preserving +a copy to be entered upon the books in the mining recorder's +office in the town.</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<center>"NOTICE."</center> + +<p>"We the undersigned claim three claims, of three hundred feet +each (and one for discovery), on this silver-bearing quartz lead +or lode, extending north and south from this notice, with all its +dips, spurs, and angles, variations and sinuosities, together +with fifty feet of ground on either side for working the +same."</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>We put our names to it and tried to feel that our fortunes +were made. But when we talked the matter all over with Mr. +Ballou, we felt depressed and dubious. He said that this surface +quartz was not all there was of our mine; but that the wall or +ledge of rock called the "Monarch of the Mountains," extended +down hundreds and hundreds of feet into the earth—he +illustrated by saying it was like a curb-stone, and maintained a +nearly uniform thickness-say twenty feet—away down into the +bowels of the earth, and was perfectly distinct from the casing +rock on each side of it; and that it kept to itself, and +maintained its distinctive character always, no matter how deep +it extended into the earth or how far it stretched itself through +and across the hills and valleys. He said it might be a mile deep +and ten miles long, for all we knew; and that wherever we bored +into it above ground or below, we would find gold and silver in +it, but no gold or silver in the meaner rock it was cased +between. And he said that down in the great depths of the ledge +was its richness, and the deeper it went the richer it grew. +Therefore, instead of working here on the surface, we must either +bore down into the rock with a shaft till we came to where it was +rich—say a hundred feet or so—or else we must go down into the +valley and bore a long tunnel into the mountain side and tap the +ledge far under the earth. To do either was plainly the labor of +months; for we could blast and bore only a few feet a day—some +five or six. But this was not all. He said that after we got the +ore out it must be hauled in wagons to a distant silver-mill, +ground up, and the silver extracted by a tedious and costly +process. Our fortune seemed a century away!</p> + +<p>But we went to work. We decided to sink a shaft. So, for a +week we climbed the mountain, laden with picks, drills, gads, +crowbars, shovels, cans of blasting powder and coils of fuse and +strove with might and main. At first the rock was broken and +loose and we dug it up with picks and threw it out with shovels, +and the hole progressed very well. But the rock became more +compact, presently, and gads and crowbars came into play. But +shortly nothing could make an impression but blasting powder.</p> + +<p>That was the weariest work! One of us held the iron drill in +its place and another would strike with an eight-pound sledge—it +was like driving nails on a large scale. In the course of an hour +or two the drill would reach a depth of two or three feet, making +a hole a couple of inches in diameter. We would put in a charge +of powder, insert half a yard of fuse, pour in sand and gravel +and ram it down, then light the fuse and run. When the explosion +came and the rocks and smoke shot into the air, we would go back +and find about a bushel of that hard, rebellious quartz jolted +out. Nothing more. One week of this satisfied me. I resigned. +Clagget and Oliphant followed. Our shaft was only twelve feet +deep. We decided that a tunnel was the thing we wanted.</p> + +<a name="212"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="212.jpg (89K)" src="images/212.jpg" height="612" width="451"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>So we went down the mountain side and worked a week; at the +end of which time we had blasted a tunnel about deep enough to +hide a hogshead in, and judged that about nine hundred feet more +of it would reach the ledge. I resigned again, and the other boys +only held out one day longer. We decided that a tunnel was not +what we wanted. We wanted a ledge that was already "developed." +There were none in the camp.</p> + +<p>We dropped the "Monarch" for the time being.</p> + +<p>Meantime the camp was filling up with people, and there was a +constantly growing excitement about our Humboldt mines. We fell +victims to the epidemic and strained every nerve to acquire more +"feet." We prospected and took up new claims, put "notices" on +them and gave them grandiloquent names. We traded some of our +"feet" for "feet" in other people's claims. In a little while we +owned largely in the "Gray Eagle," the "Columbiana," the "Branch +Mint," the "Maria Jane," the "Universe," the "Root-Hog-or- Die," +the "Samson and Delilah," the "Treasure Trove," the "Golconda," +the "Sultana," the "Boomerang," the "Great Republic," the "Grand +Mogul," and fifty other "mines" that had never been molested by a +shovel or scratched with a pick. We had not less than thirty +thousand "feet" apiece in the "richest mines on earth" as the +frenzied cant phrased it—and were in debt to the butcher. We +were stark mad with excitement—drunk with happiness—smothered +under mountains of prospective wealth—arrogantly compassionate +toward the plodding millions who knew not our marvellous +canyon—but our credit was not good at the grocer's.</p> + +<p>It was the strangest phase of life one can imagine. It was a +beggars' revel. There was nothing doing in the district—no +mining—no milling—no productive effort—no income—and not +enough money in the entire camp to buy a corner lot in an eastern +village, hardly; and yet a stranger would have supposed he was +walking among bloated millionaires. Prospecting parties swarmed +out of town with the first flush of dawn, and swarmed in again at +nightfall laden with spoil—rocks. Nothing but rocks. Every man's +pockets were full of them; the floor of his cabin was littered +with them; they were disposed in labeled rows on his shelves.</p> + +<a name="214"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="214.jpg (51K)" src="images/214.jpg" height="392" width="568"> +</center> +<br><br> + + + + +<br><br> +<a name="ch30"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2>CHAPTER XXX.</h2> +</center> +<br> + + + +<p>I met men at every turn who owned from one thousand to thirty +thousand "feet" in undeveloped silver mines, every single foot of +which they believed would shortly be worth from fifty to a +thousand dollars—and as often as any other way they were men who +had not twenty-five dollars in the world. Every man you met had +his new mine to boast of, and his "specimens" ready; and if the +opportunity offered, he would infallibly back you into a corner +and offer as a favor to you, not to him, to part with just a few +feet in the "Golden Age," or the "Sarah Jane," or some other +unknown stack of croppings, for money enough to get a "square +meal" with, as the phrase went. And you were never to reveal that +he had made you the offer at such a ruinous price, for it was +only out of friendship for you that he was willing to make the +sacrifice. Then he would fish a piece of rock out of his pocket, +and after looking mysteriously around as if he feared he might be +waylaid and robbed if caught with such wealth in his possession, +he would dab the rock against his tongue, clap an eyeglass to it, +and exclaim:</p> + +<p>"Look at that! Right there in that red dirt! See it? See the +specks of gold? And the streak of silver? That's from the Uncle +Abe. There's a hundred thousand tons like that in sight! Right in +sight, mind you! And when we get down on it and the ledge comes +in solid, it will be the richest thing in the world! Look at the +assay! I don't want you to believe me—look at the assay!"</p> + +<a name="216"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="216.jpg (63K)" src="images/216.jpg" height="544" width="426"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>Then he would get out a greasy sheet of paper which showed +that the portion of rock assayed had given evidence of containing +silver and gold in the proportion of so many hundreds or +thousands of dollars to the ton.</p> + +<p>I little knew, then, that the custom was to hunt out the +richest piece of rock and get it assayed! Very often, that piece, +the size of a filbert, was the only fragment in a ton that had a +particle of metal in it—and yet the assay made it pretend to +represent the average value of the ton of rubbish it came +from!</p> + +<p>On such a system of assaying as that, the Humboldt world had +gone crazy. On the authority of such assays its newspaper +correspondents were frothing about rock worth four and seven +thousand dollars a ton!</p> + +<p>And does the reader remember, a few pages back, the +calculations, of a quoted correspondent, whereby the ore is to be +mined and shipped all the way to England, the metals extracted, +and the gold and silver contents received back by the miners as +clear profit, the copper, antimony and other things in the ore +being sufficient to pay all the expenses incurred? Everybody's +head was full of such "calculations" as those—such raving +insanity, rather. Few people took work into their +calculations—or outlay of money either; except the work and +expenditures of other people.</p> + +<p>We never touched our tunnel or our shaft again. Why? Because +we judged that we had learned the real secret of success in +silver mining—which was, not to mine the silver ourselves by the +sweat of our brows and the labor of our hands, but to sell the +ledges to the dull slaves of toil and let them do the mining!</p> + +<p>Before leaving Carson, the Secretary and I had purchased +"feet" from various Esmeralda stragglers. We had expected +immediate returns of bullion, but were only afflicted with +regular and constant "assessments" instead—demands for money +wherewith to develop the said mines. These assessments had grown +so oppressive that it seemed necessary to look into the matter +personally. Therefore I projected a pilgrimage to Carson and +thence to Esmeralda. I bought a horse and started, in company +with Mr. Ballou and a gentleman named Ollendorff, a Prussian—not +the party who has inflicted so much suffering on the world with +his wretched foreign grammars, with their interminable +repetitions of questions which never have occurred and are never +likely to occur in any conversation among human beings. We rode +through a snow-storm for two or three days, and arrived at "Honey +Lake Smith's," a sort of isolated inn on the Carson river. It was +a two-story log house situated on a small knoll in the midst of +the vast basin or desert through which the sickly Carson winds +its melancholy way. Close to the house were the Overland stage +stables, built of sun-dried bricks. There was not another +building within several leagues of the place. Towards sunset +about twenty hay-wagons arrived and camped around the house and +all the teamsters came in to supper—a very, very rough set. +There were one or two Overland stage drivers there, also, and +half a dozen vagabonds and stragglers; consequently the house was +well crowded.</p> + +<p>We walked out, after supper, and visited a small Indian camp +in the vicinity. The Indians were in a great hurry about +something, and were packing up and getting away as fast as they +could. In their broken English they said, "By'm-by, heap water!" +and by the help of signs made us understand that in their opinion +a flood was coming. The weather was perfectly clear, and this was +not the rainy season. There was about a foot of water in the +insignificant river—or maybe two feet; the stream was not wider +than a back alley in a village, and its banks were scarcely +higher than a man's head.</p> + +<p>So, where was the flood to come from? We canvassed the subject +awhile and then concluded it was a ruse, and that the Indians had +some better reason for leaving in a hurry than fears of a flood +in such an exceedingly dry time.</p> + +<a name="218"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="218.jpg (37K)" src="images/218.jpg" height="317" width="452"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>At seven in the evening we went to bed in the second +story—with our clothes on, as usual, and all three in the same +bed, for every available space on the floors, chairs, etc., was +in request, and even then there was barely room for the housing +of the inn's guests. An hour later we were awakened by a great +turmoil, and springing out of bed we picked our way nimbly among +the ranks of snoring teamsters on the floor and got to the front +windows of the long room. A glance revealed a strange spectacle, +under the moonlight. The crooked Carson was full to the brim, and +its waters were raging and foaming in the wildest way—sweeping +around the sharp bends at a furious speed, and bearing on their +surface a chaos of logs, brush and all sorts of rubbish. A +depression, where its bed had once been, in other times, was +already filling, and in one or two places the water was beginning +to wash over the main bank. Men were flying hither and thither, +bringing cattle and wagons close up to the house, for the spot of +high ground on which it stood extended only some thirty feet in +front and about a hundred in the rear. Close to the old river bed +just spoken of, stood a little log stable, and in this our horses +were lodged.</p> + +<a name="219"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="219.jpg (173K)" src="images/219.jpg" height="1027" width="616"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>While we looked, the waters increased so fast in this place +that in a few minutes a torrent was roaring by the little stable +and its margin encroaching steadily on the logs. We suddenly +realized that this flood was not a mere holiday spectacle, but +meant damage—and not only to the small log stable but to the +Overland buildings close to the main river, for the waves had now +come ashore and were creeping about the foundations and invading +the great hay-corral adjoining. We ran down and joined the crowd +of excited men and frightened animals. We waded knee-deep into +the log stable, unfastened the horses and waded out almost +waist-deep, so fast the waters increased. Then the crowd rushed +in a body to the hay- corral and began to tumble down the huge +stacks of baled hay and roll the bales up on the high ground by +the house. Meantime it was discovered that Owens, an overland +driver, was missing, and a man ran to the large stable, and +wading in, boot-top deep, discovered him asleep in his bed, awoke +him, and waded out again. But Owens was drowsy and resumed his +nap; but only for a minute or two, for presently he turned in his +bed, his hand dropped over the side and came in contact with the +cold water! It was up level with the mattress! He waded out, +breast-deep, almost, and the next moment the sun-burned bricks +melted down like sugar and the big building crumbled to a ruin +and was washed away in a twinkling.</p> + +<p>At eleven o'clock only the roof of the little log stable was +out of water, and our inn was on an island in mid-ocean. As far +as the eye could reach, in the moonlight, there was no desert +visible, but only a level waste of shining water. The Indians +were true prophets, but how did they get their information? I am +not able to answer the question. We remained cooped up eight days +and nights with that curious crew. Swearing, drinking and card +playing were the order of the day, and occasionally a fight was +thrown in for variety. Dirt and vermin—but let us forget those +features; their profusion is simply inconceivable—it is better +that they remain so.</p> + +<p>There were two men——however, this chapter is long +enough.</p> + + + + +<br> +<br> + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Roughing It, Part 3. +by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROUGHING IT, PART 3. *** + +***** This file should be named 8584-h.htm or 8584-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/8/5/8/8584/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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