Gold Part 23

Our visit to the town we postponed from day to day because we were either too busy or too tired. We thought we could about figure out what that crude sort of village would be like. Then on Sat.u.r.day evening our neighbour with the twinkling eye--whom we called McNally, without conviction, because he told us to--informed us that there would be a miners' meeting next day, and that we would be expected to attend.

Accordingly we visited the town. The street was full of men idling slowly to and fro. All the larger structures were wide open, and from within could be heard the sounds of hurdy-gurdies, loud laughter and noisy talk. At one end of the street a group was organizing a horse race; and toward this Don Gaspar took his immediate departure. A smaller group surrounded two wrestlers. At one side a jumping match was going on.

Among the usual incongruities we saw some that amused us more than ordinarily. The Indians, for example, were rather numerous, and remarkable. One wore as his sole garment an old dress coat: another had tied a pair of trousers around his waist; a third had piled a half dozen hats atop, one over the other; and many had on two or more coats. They were, to a man, well drunken. Their squaws, fat and unattractive, squatted outside the single store of the place. We saw also a dozen or so white men dressed very plainly and shabbily, tall, lank, and spindly, rather weakly in general appearance, their faces sallow, their eyes rather childish but crafty and treacherous, their hair thin and straight. The points in common were pointed, nearly brimless hats, like small extinguishers, and that they were the only men to use suspenders.

They were from Pike County in Missouri; and in our experience with them we found their appearance a close indication of their character. They were exceedingly skilful with both axe and rifle, were expert backwoodsmen, but without physical strength, very childish and ignorant, vindictive, narrow, and so extremely clannish and tenacious of their own opinions that they were always an exasperating element to be reckoned with, in any public matter. We saw also a compact little group of dark small men, with bright eyes and quick manners. They held close together and chattered like a lot of magpies. McNally, who had spotted us from afar, informed us that these were "keskydees," and that they always did stick close together.

"What are 'keskydees'?" I asked him.

"That's what everybody calls them," said McNally. "I suppose it's because they always say it, 'Keskydee, keskydee,' like a lot of chickadees."

"French!" cried Johnny, suddenly enlightened. "_Q'estce qu'il dit._"

"Yes, that's it," agreed McNally; "keskydee. What does it mean, anyway?"

"What is he saying," translated Johnny.

At this time there were a great many French in California; and for a number of years I could not quite understand why. Then I learned that most of them were prize winners in a series of lotteries, called the Lotteries of the Golden Ingot. The prizes were pa.s.sages to California, and the lotteries were very popular. The French, or keskydees, as they were universally called, always went about in gangs, while the other nationalities were more inclined to amalgamate with the rest of the community. We saw, also, several "Dutch Charleys" who had struck it rich. They were moon-faced, bland, chuckle-headed looking men, generally with walrus moustaches, squat and heavy, with fatuous, placid smiles. I suppose they had no real idea of values, but knew only the difference between having money and not having money. These prosperous individuals carried two or even more watches at the ends of long home-made chains constructed of gold nuggets fastened together with lengths of copper wire. The chains were looped around their necks, about their shoulders and waists, and hung down in long festoons. We had three apparently, of these Dutch Charleys, all deadly rivals in magnificence. They paraded slowly up and down the street, quite satisfied with themselves, and casting malevolent glances at each other when they pa.s.sed.

The two gambling places and saloons were hard at it. The low rooms were full of smoke, and crowded with slowly jostling men. In contrast to the deadly quiet of such places in San Francisco, these were full of noise and hubbub. The men moved restlessly, threw down their little bags of dust impatiently, and accepted victory or defeat with very audible comments. The gamblers, dressed in black, pale, sat steady-eyed and silent behind their layouts. I suppose the life must already have developed, if not a type, at least a uniform mental att.i.tude that showed itself in outward expression. That was, first of all, an intent, quiet watchfulness; and, secondly, an iron resolution to meet whatever offered. The gambler must be prepared instantly to shoot; and at the same time he must realize fully that shooting is going to get him in trouble. For the sympathy of a mining camp was generally strongly against him when it came to a question of this sort. We treated ourselves to a drink at the bar, and went outside.

Already the drift of miners was toward the end of the street where a good sized crowd had gathered. We fell in. Under a large oak tree had been placed a barrel and several boxes from the store, and on these latter our friend John Semple, the carpenter, was mounting.

"John's the _alcalde_," McNally explained to us. "He's the most level-headed man in these diggings."

Most of the miners sat down on the ground in front, though some remained afoot. Semple rapped sharply on the barrel with the muzzle of his revolver.

"This is a miners' meeting," he stated briefly. "And we have several things to talk about. Most important thing, 'cordin' to my notion, is this row about that big nugget. Seems these yere three men, whose names I disremember, is partners and is panning down there in the lower diggings, and while one of them is grubbing around with a shovel getting ready to fill the company pan, he sees this yere nugget in the shovel, and annexes it. Now he claims it's his nugget, and the rest of 'em claim it belongs to all of them as partners. How about it?"

Two men sprang to their feet and began to talk.

"You set down!" Semple ordered them. "You ain't got nothing to do with decidin' this. We'll let you know what to do. If the facts ain't right, as I stated 'em, say so; but we don't want no theories out of you.

_Set down!_ I say."

They subsided, and a silence fell which no one seemed inclined to break.

"Well," said Semple impatiently, "come on! Speak up! Whar's all this a.s.sorted lot of theories I been hearing in the say-loons ever since that nugget was turned up?"

A man with the most extraordinarily ragged garments got to his feet and began to speak in a pleasant and cultivated voice.

"I have no solution to offer this company," said he, "but I am, or was, a New York lawyer; and if my knowledge of partnerships will help any, this is the New York law." He sketched briefly the New York rulings on partnerships, and sat down.

"Much obliged, I'm sure," said Semple cordially. "We're glad to know how they've figgered it out down thar. Only trouble, as far as I see, is that they ain't usually findin' many nuggets down that neck of the woods; so they ain't precisely fitted the case. Anybody know anything nearer to home?"

"I panned in Shirttail Bar last two months," blurted a hoa.r.s.e and embarra.s.sed individual, without rising, "and down thar they had a reg'lation that airy nugget that weighs over a half ounce that is found before the dirt is thrown in the cradle belongs to the man that finds it, and not to the company. Of course this here is a pan, and not a cradle."

"That's more like business. Anybody know if anywhar they do it the other way around?"

Apparently n.o.body did.

"Anybody got any idees as to why we shouldn't follow Shirttail in this matter? Dog-gone you! _Set down!_ You ain't got nothin' to say here."

The man appealed to the crowd.

"Ain't I got a right to be heard in my own case?" he demanded.

"This ain't your case," persisted John Semple stoutly; "it's decidin'

what the policy of this camp is goin' to be regardin' nuggets. Your dog-gone case is mighty unimportant and you're a prejudiced party. And if you don't set down, I'll come down there and argue with you! If none of you other fellows has anything to say, we'll vote on it."

We then and there decided, almost unanimously, to follow Shirttail.

"Now," resumed Semple, after this matter had been disposed of, "there's a bunch of these yere keskydees around throwin' a.s.sorted duckfits all this morning; and as near as I can make out they say somebody's jumped their claim or their camp, or something. Jim, supposin' you and your tin star saunter down and eject these jumpers."

A very tall, quiet, slow moving man arose, aimed his tobacco juice at a small tree, drawled out the words, "All right, Jedge," and departed, trailed by a half dozen jabbering keskydees, to whom he paid not the slightest attention.

"Now," said Semple, "we got a couple of Greasers yere caught stealin'.

Buck Barry and Missouri Jones caught them at it, so there ain't much use hearin' witnesses as to the fact. Question is: what do we want to do with them?"

"What did they steal?" demanded a voice.

"They just nat'rally didn't steal _nothin'_," said a heavy built, square-jawed, clean-shaven man whom I guessed to be Buck Barry. "Not while I was around."

"Yes," persisted the other, "but what was they after."

"Oh, an extry pair of boots, and a shirt, and some tobacco, et cetery,"

replied Buck Barry contemptuously.

"Let's see them," shouted several voices.

After a moment's delay two ragged and furtive Mexicans were dragged before the a.s.sembly. A contemplative silence ensued. Then an elderly man with a square gray beard spoke up.

"Well," said he deliberately, "airy man so low down and shif'less and miserable as to go to stealin' boots and shirts and tobacco in this camp is sh.o.r.e outside my corral. He sure must be a miserable person. Why'n h.e.l.l didn't Buck and Missou give him a few lifts with the toes of their boots, and not come botherin' us with them?"

Both Barry and Jones started to reply, but Semple cut them short.

"They was going to do just that," he announced, "but I persuaded them to bring this matter up before this meetin', because we got to begin to take some measures to stop this kind of a nuisance. There's a lot of undesirables driftin' into this camp lately. You boys all recall how last fall we kep' our dust under our bunks or most anywhere, and felt perfectly safe about it; but that ain't now. A man has to carry his dust right with him. Now, if we can't leave our tents feeling our goods is safe, what do you expect to do about it? We got to throw the fear of G.o.d into the black hearts of these hounds."

At this juncture Jim, the sheriff, returned and leaned nonchalantly against a tree, chewing a straw.

Accepting the point of view advanced by the chair, the miners decided that the two thieves should be whipped and banished from camp. A strong feeling prevailed that any man who, in this age of plenty, would descend to petty thieving, was a poor, miserable creature to be pitied. Some charitably inclined individual actually took up a small collection which was presented to the thieves after they had received their punishment.

"And now, _vamos_, git!" advised Semple. "And spread the glad tidings. We'll do the same by any more of you. Well, Jim?" he inquired of the sheriff.

Jim shifted his straw from the right corner of his mouth to the left.

"That outfit don't eject worth a cuss," said he laconically.

"How many of them is there?" asked Semple.

"Two--and a shotgun," stated Jim.