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Show STORY OF A DESERTED CAMP. Mysterious Stranger Csres fcr Graves of Early California Miners. Ono of tho old residents of Calf-fornla Calf-fornla Is Jeremiah Van Horn, who Is now a retired merchant and spends his tlmo.ln traveling. Ho Is full of tales of tho state and last night told one of an old mining enmp near Murysvlllc, "Near tho town of Mnrysvllle," said he, "thero Is an old mining camp, now deserted. On a hlllsldo He tho bodies of CO minors. Their resting places nro fenced in and it few hardy flowers bloom in the spring, only to dry nnd wither In tho summer. No namo Is to bo soeu on tho rude headboards. Hut ono man himself as nnknown to tho people of tho region as tho dead mon below knowBthe secret of thogvaxes. About Eastertide of ench year this man now ased nnd somewhat hont, but with vigor still In his walk appears ap-pears from out of tho mysterious caBt. Ho arrlx-cs at Marysvlll, hires a conveyance, con-veyance, nnd "Islts tho graves fcf three of tho old-timers. ThcTe Is nothing of tho miner about him. IIo is prosperous prosper-ous and perhaps wealthy. His clothing cloth-ing Is of tho city cut. Ills gray beard 1b well trimmed and his gold rimmed glasses hldo n pair of Bhrowd bluo eyes. His business Is to look after tho graves. Ho straightens up the fence, wnters the thirsty plants and when everything Is shipshape spends n half hour in looking over tho valley and tho hills. Then, Jumping into his carriage, car-riage, he returns to Mnrysvlllef takes tho train to San Francisco, and Is lost for another year In the solitude of clvi lltzatlon. "Who Is he? What tlo binds him to the three men whose bodies long ago crumbled Into dust? Was ho himself ono of tho Argonauts, bound by ties closer than those of blood to tho trio upon whom tho xvlnter ralns.h-ive fallen fall-en for half a century? Great Is tho curiosity of the peo- Io of Marysvllle. They watch him narrowly on his annual an-nual pilgrimages, and some of the forward for-ward ones have been made bold to question him. Ho has always turned them -away with courtosy and strict reserve. They do not oven know his name or station, but they marvel much over what they bollevo to be an example ex-ample of brotherly love and affection that stretches over many decades and never forgets the past." |