| Show GRAVES WO GRAVES INA I 1 A LONELY 11 story toll told by a fo mor prospector in tho Colorado Monn tims leadville demol democrat it 1 I noticed a few weeks ago in in our paper a description of lonely raves raes it in the mountains of colora I 1 0 remarked a gentleman to the riter at the time I 1 14 eadith d it I 1 was travelling tra velling in the bouthern portion of the tile state and t recil recalled led to my mind two lonely 4 raves that I 1 know of which lie hidden CU in the recesses of the mountain a pa routt aft county of course there is i bist history ory attached to them and if roil on have time I 1 will spin you the am arn in ila the year 1872 1672 1 I was proa pros acting in the neighborhood of lacs little peak and null the rabbit ear bar lange tango and at thit time but very ittle was known of the rich B balver reins eins which traversed that portion f fahe tha state there were other ill prospectors in the country and the t k ew of us felt elated over the thel finding f several leads that contained 4 ray copper and we went t to 0 work 4 I 1 with a will to open the veins up 4 you have no idea of the man many i that one has to contend with in a new country and the privation privations one has to suffer but i the excitement attending the ht life e of 17 a PI prospector os that some day he will ill strike it and be recompensed I 1 for or all his rouble trouble buoys him up and be he endures all hardships ana and privations with good grace the tile caunt sauntry at that time was well locked stocke rg with game and we never neve r s iad had any difficulty in procuring all the he fresh meat that was needed I 1 iad had built a rude cabin at the head ofa of a small gulch ami aud not far from Is my claims it was a lovely spot with groves of quaking aspen trees burrou the tile cabin and about i fifty yards from the door stood two majestic pines that I 1 named the tile sentinel i one day when I 1 returned froni from work I 1 found two strangers man and wife bad had taken i 6 sou affy I 1 i house and was a little e aston astonished ishol I 1 at first to see a woman iu in that part pirt of the country J hey asked per mission to remain there for a few days and it was wits readily granted I 1 was indeed glad to see stran strange cre faces and welcomed them to my humble abode from the very first I 1 noticed that the woman was not strong and this aroused my curiosity ai a I 1 auld not figure out why a woman in delicate health should be in such a wild part of the country she had bad been a very pretty woman once but consumption the malady from which she was suffering had robbed her of anif arst st of her beauty she had a sweet temper that won for fur her friends wherever she went she was also resigned to the inevitable and knew that her pilgrimage on earth was short but she bore up wilh with the greatest fortitude they had been at the cabin about a wee and everything about it hail hall been changed alice that was the womans comans name had remodeled the I 1 place lace and all things showed the touch of a i vr omans band well one eve evening fling f after supper we were bitting eitting in front of tile cabin enjoying the tile beauties of an august evening when the husband alfred told me whet what brought him to that section of colorado ilia story was brief he stated that after being married in the east for two years hia his wife had bad shown unmistakable at a ble signs of colsum consumption eption and the doctors had advised him to take tako her to california and if possible to go across the plains by wal wagon 0 D as be he would find that journeying that way she would gain strength they found a party of emigrants at a small town in nebraska who were going to the coast and engaged their passage for the first week out alice gamed gained strength but one evening she and the malady in creased with awful rapidity mierl larimie city was reached ahe she could go no further and the trip had to be abandoned at that town they were advised to go into the mountains as the fresh ai air r laden with the tile perfume of pi pine was beneficial to consumptives ives A wagon was procured that took them lo 10 north park and by easy stages on horseback they had bad reached my cabin it wae was bythe by the merest chance they found it and I 1 was glad that they did ia A month passed the happiest of my life but I 1 1 saw that gradually alice was sinking and that A she e would never leave the gulch her husband noticed the change and was wa inconsolable he ile administered to her every want which were not many and realized what an awful I 1 change chang eit it would be when she was I 1 laken taken from him one night the end came she called me we into the little room that I 1 ha had d partitioned their use and in a feeble voice thanked me for all my kindless to her and hoped that when ray time came to cross the lous ni river river she would meet me in that and land where gorro ii unknown she told alfred that it was bard to leave cave him but that he must be etrone and bear the a affliction illic tion that a who master blaster had in hia his just wig lorn dom sent seat him to carry and that thai ill all things were done for the tile beat best it it was a scene the like of which I 1 vish never verto to witness again the feeble girl full of hope for the future future bidding good by to the man ohe loved and the strong power ful ul man bowed down with grief at the thought of losing her who ras was the only tie which bound him to this world the end came with tier ler head bead pillowed billowed pill owed on the breast of her protector her spirit winged its light flight to eternal rest underneath one ne odthe of the pine nine trees we laid her and nd carved her name and nod the date of f her death on its trunk alfred was broken hearted and wondered about the hille hills like one lost et he lie had no rio purpose in life so I 1 used to ask him to do the chores about lout the place to engage his mind with ich ani one day lay I 1 asked him im to go out and kill a deer as we e were out of meat whether he suicide or whether the ii gull in was discharged I 1 shall wl never know but I 1 found him the e following day about two miles from the cabin with a bullet through his ilia brain the gun could have been discharged as I 1 found the body in a email small thicket of willows and while pass inc through it the hammer might have caught on a twig and so discharged the gun 1 I got assistance and carried hi him in to the cabin and he was buried alongside of his beloved w wife i fe at the foot of the other pine tree find and to day the place ia is known as lonely gulch after the tragic death of alfred I 1 could remain no longer in the place so I 1 left I 1 returned to it a few years ago and looked upon the two lonely graves and thought of the few happy days that the tile three of us spent there in the au guat gu st of 1872 by reading the article on lonely graves I 1 thought the first time I 1 came to leadville that I 1 would tell you the story about the two graves in lonely gulch few people know the history of those that lie sleeping in that little ravine in doutt county now you know it and it will in a int asure clear up any mystery that may have been woven around them by those who may have happened to stumble against them |
