Show THE GOLD CAMPS men who once swims picks la in gall call fornia gulches the iwan of the Ale Al caldes aldes A school master waster who threw the law out of or tho window A Law lawyers start as a waiter walter 0 an fn N Y sun suit the world has always turned an cagor eager par ear to tales of mining camps and of curious happenings in in that frontier land which every year sees pushed further and further away these tales crop u up in in the most unexpected ways ant and places last winter at a famous german writer heard an american student tell of bell helping to organize a camp in Col colorado orad A few months ago on the coast of maine a white t e haired fisherman while cutting his rod square field of bay bartold told him reminiscences of 1846 and 1847 in california and only the other day a leading new york merchant related to him over the tile lunch table vivid tiomir of events in the camps where he lie swung a pick some of the stories storie s thus gathered are am perhaps worthy of reck record rd as illustrations of the tile days when in a single mining camp nevada city men nien lived who afterward became governors of slates states judges oil on the supreme bench united S sena eda to foreign courts the hon A A sargent judge stephen J field judge lorenzo sawyer senator st stewart i ewart general ellis who fell while leading a charge at Shi loli governors phy af pf of arkansas fairchild of vis wis conditi con ansin siti and brave bravo old dick oglesby y of illinois were all residents oath at region nearly every one of the thousand thou fand and one mining camps once scat scattered erea over the pacific coast from josephine county or ore go gonto rrt thes an bernardino region contained men who afterward be came prominent in business politics or dr literature benjamin 1 P avery long on the editorial blau of the san francisco also of the overland monthly and minister to chinaga china a brilliant strong and much loved man whose literary powers were late in ill ripening and life was pathetically unfinished abed and uncrowned wrote a 0 letter years ago to lie tile editor of ft a little nevada county directory giving a graphic account odthe of the early carly history of that amous network of camps it was n october 1850 that lie started roin mormon island now sacramento county on a prospecting lour tour to redding springs now shasta city and several hundred miles distant he ile rode a little v hite mule pork beans hard bread I 1 ind and blankets packed behind tearing hearing of pound diggings or hoc those ii yielding elding some per day lay ie changed his course to gold run at thai that time timo caldwelle cald Cal wells dwells upper store now nevada city flapped its canvas sides bides and protected to the best of its ability a slender stock a d drink rink whisky and dollar a 11 pound flur and biscuits down on tho the flat were a few tents and th tho 0 bars ars were being worked with dugout cradles and wire and rawhide toppers hoppers pork was sa 2 a pound and boots cost 80 or 90 a pair mr nr avery found good biggin diggings g and returned for his companions butchen ut when they arrived the entire gulch was occupied by longs haired I 1 who had staked out heir their thirty foot cla claims imsand and were taking out their piles at night mar many ay iy a long torn tom party took a quart tin pail full osgold of gold to their cabins those were the times when it cost 82 50 to have a letter carried from sacramento to the camps when mrs stamps the wife of the first elected alcalde of the region and her sister were the only ladles ladies in the county and when lawlessness was quickly suppressed and the steady increase of social protective organization was everywhere man manifest the first alcalde of nevada city was elected by a voting population of but in many camps ten or a dozen men chose this peculiar and all powerful officer giving him all the powers granted under the mexican ican and early iq spanish lanish system ho he became the judge of tho the vil village loge the petted lord of the tented town and only the voice of the people could brinn bring his powers to an end brief though the reign of the Al caldes was it left a deep impress upon society OCiC tyl as a story will illustrate tle writer once knew a california school tea teacher chert a roan man of mighty muscles and great energy ener y who had spent his boyhood in pla plas mining in siskiyou you in ill cattle baisi raising on oil the eastern oregon up lands and d iu in indian fighting and wild prospecting ceilie tours along the frontiers of british columbia when the war broke c out ut he be rode for foi missouri misouri cross crossed ed the lines joined a virginia regiment and came back so crippled and battered that the old free ca careless relesa life was IM impossible isible always a great reader ansa and a close stude student nt he lie turned to the schoolroom and won a reputation over three counties aa as ft a successful teacher under these circumstances circum he waa was called to take tako charge of lv what batla was with undoubted justice austice lu stice called the th worst school in northern california the trustees had bad written tc to him at his cabin perched per clied on a pine dud clad height beight of tho the sierras trout t streams within a stones throw grouse in tho the woods and deer and bear his gun and rod his marcus and aurelius Aureli usand rind noches ambro diante on tho the shelf within reach he paddled his horse and rising at early dawn reached the village once a mining camp before nine nine when school was called to order he found that efficient work demanded a reclassification for the previous teacher had tried to gain cheap favor by advancing grades and skipping the hard places and had bad come to grief by begging a big boy oy not to smoke a cigarette in the s school C hool room T the he pa playful u I 1 lads ads ducked him in in the adjacent stream in cousing him up and d d down own till he e escaped aped waded to the farther shore and sought other pastures but the new teacher was of sterner mot erial 1 I shall have an examination to day to see where you belong and must turn you back in your grades if you deserve it ho he said A loud murmur of discontent and almost open rebellion followed not nothing inz abashed the teacher made lis his first anil and last speech he lie took from tho the table a book and addressed an older puril pupil do you know w what at this is yes sir sir the school law and it defines the grades and you ou all think you have passed the examinations and that I 1 cant go behind the law yes sir sir very well now you aro are quite in mistaken I 1 am the alcalde orthis of this school I 1 am sheriff and a ud register and judge and jury and absolute finality here and with this revolutionary and comprehensive statement he lie threw the school law out of the window and proceeded amid an awe struck throng to break up and consolidate class after class reorganizing the schoolhouse on his disown own system yes an alcalde is what the district needed was what the old pi sneers said when tho the story wan was told and a better school for the krestof he the year northern northe rif california never knew anew the flush mining camps campa have often been described with their curi ous sabbath day mingling of ministers gamblers auctioneers dog fights and street sales all concentrating about tho the gorgeous saloon saloons where faro fare roulette poker un and other games of chance were in full blast there were indians mexicans chileans Chi leans Hawa ians europeans yankees westerners southerners men fresh from their claims still be begrimed egri med with auriferous mud men dresen in the latest fashions of ari cb one of them all measured u that virile sinewy community for or exactly his worth of mau manhood hood but of daily life in the camps are not so frequent there is an old story of main st in nevada city in 1851 some miners began to sink a shaft in the middle of the street and in the most important business center of the town own expostulation postulations Ex long ong con cou tinned were of no avail miners liners rights come first tho the I 1 intruders argued and there is no law against dig digging in the burcet and we mean g daig 5 to dig the storekeeper whose property was most in peril went in m to his store and returned with a loaded and cocked revolver which 1 be le pointed grimly at the miners miners already waist deep in the shaft then 1 ill 11 make a law he fig cried just you boys po go back and hunt bunt up a rich gulch no gold here plenty of lead good law judge res re spondee the leader Bet battern tern the average supreme court decision boys lets fill up the hole and start for la last st chance or too A later tradition reports that the party struck it rich a mouth later and sent a nugget in remembrance to the irate citizen eten who drove them from main street one of the best known lawyers 0 of f the early california bar commenced his career soon after college ego graduation as a waiter in a restaurant in a mining camp tho the salary was a month but his career as wearer of the white apron was cut short in this way A miner upon whom our college graduate was waiting was telling a companion the points of a lawsuit he had lately lost clo closing sing with if I 1 had had a decent lawyer I 1 ought ter have won that is so yes you could have won if you have stated the case honestly broke in the waiter then stopped abashed know about law was the natural inquiry A little and I 1 know camp juries then yonn 9 man ill give you 81 1000 to appeal my case and win it for me they shook hands the youna fellow doffed coffed his apron and within an hour was at work on the case carried it to a successful end co corn m plated liia his law studies was ad admit ni t led d to practice in the state courts and became a leader odthe of the bar |