|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 41
The history of "Jules'," however, was once destined to offer a
singular interruption of this peaceful and methodical process. The
winter of 1859-60 was an exceptional one. But little rain had
fallen in the valleys, although the snow lay deep in the high
Sierras. Passes were choked, ravines filled, and glaciers found on
their slopes. And when the tardy rains came with the withheld
southwesterly "trades," the regular phenomenon recurred; Jules'
Flat silently, noiselessly, and peacefully went under water; the
inhabitants moved to the higher ground, perhaps a little more
expeditiously from an impatience born of the delay. The stagecoach
from Marysville made its usual detour and stopped before the
temporary hotel, express offices, and general store of "Jules',"
under canvas, bark, and the limp leaves of a spreading alder. It
deposited a single passenger,--Miles Hemmingway, of San Francisco,
but originally of Boston,--the young secretary of a mining company,
dispatched to report upon the alleged auriferous value of "Jules'."
Of this he had been by no means impressed as he looked down upon
the submerged cabins from the box-seat of the coach and listened to
the driver's lazy recital of the flood, and of the singularly
patient acceptance of it by the inhabitants.
It was the old story of the southwestern miner's indolence and
incompetency,--utterly distasteful to his northern habits of
thought and education. Here was their old fatuous endurance of
Nature's wild caprices, without that struggle against them which
brought others strength and success; here was the old philosophy
which accepted the prairie fire and cyclone, and survived them
without advancement, yet without repining. Perhaps in different
places and surroundings a submission so stoic might have impressed
him; in gentlemen who tucked their dirty trousers in their muddy
boots and lived only for the gold they dug, it did not seem to him
heroic. Nor was he mollified as he stood beside the rude
refreshment bar--a few planks laid on trestles--and drank his
coffee beneath the dripping canvas roof, with an odd recollection
of his boyhood and an inclement Sunday-school picnic. Yet these
men had been living in this shiftless fashion for three weeks! It
exasperated him still more to think that he might have to wait
there a few days longer for the water to subside sufficiently for
him to make his examination and report. As he took a proffered
seat on a candle-box, which tilted under him, and another survey of
the feeble makeshifts around him, his irascibility found vent.
"Why, in the name of God, didn't you, after you had been flooded
out ONCE, build your cabins PERMANENTLY on higher ground?"
Although the tone of his voice was more disturbing than his
question, it pleased one of the loungers to affect to take it
literally.
"Well, ez you've put it that way,--'in the name of God!'"--returned
the man lazily, "it mout hev struck us that ez HE was bossin' the
job, so to speak, and handlin' things round here generally, we
might leave it to Him. It wasn't OUR flood to monkey with."
"And as He didn't coven-ant, so to speak, to look arter this higher
ground 'speshally, and make an Ararat of it for us, ez far ez we
could see, we didn't see any reason for SETTLIN' yer," put in a
second speaker, with equal laziness.
The secretary saw his mistake instantly, and had experience enough
of Western humor not to prolong the disadvantage of his unfortunate
adjuration. He colored slightly and said, with a smile, "You know
what I mean; you could have protected yourselves better. A levee
on the bank would have kept you clear of the highest watermark."
"Hey you ever heard WHAT the highest watermark was?" said the first
speaker, turning to another of the loungers without looking at the
secretary.
"Never heard it,--didn't know there was a limit before," responded
the man.
The first speaker turned back to the secretary. "Did you ever know
what happened at 'Bulger's,' on the North Fork? They had one o'
them levees."
"No. What happened?" asked the secretary impatiently.
"They was fixed suthin' like us," returned the first speaker.
"THEY allowed they'd build a levee above THEIR highest watermark,
and did. It worked like a charm at first; but the water hed to go
somewhere, and it kinder collected at the first bend. Then it
sorter raised itself on its elbows one day, and looked over the
levee down upon whar some of the boys was washin' quite comf'ble.
Then it paid no sorter attention to the limit o' that high
watermark, but went six inches better! Not slow and quiet like ez
it useter to, ez it does HERE, kinder fillin' up from below, but
went over with a rush and a current, hevin' of course the whole
height of the levee to fall on t'other side where the boys were
sluicing." He paused, and amidst a profound silence added, "They
say that 'Bulger's' was scattered promiscuous-like all along the
fort for five miles. I only know that one of his mules and a
section of sluicing was picked up at Red Flat, eight miles away!"
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|