THE COURIER.
0000909000000
A TOUCH OF HIGH LIFE
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(Writtea for The Courier.)
I say high life because we were camp
ed at Ragtown; and Ragtown, nestled
up close to the backbone of Terry's
Peak, is the highest mining camp in the
Black Hills. Our camp, with its equip
ment of hobos and implements of
construction, was the long expected
track-laying outfit on the Speartish
extension. The road-bed was 60 nearly
completed that the contractors would
be able to keep out of the way, and so
the track machine had been ordered
out and we were busy putting down ties
and rails at the rate of three-quarters of
a mile every day. In coming seven
miles from the junction at Englewood
the track climbs nearly fifteen hundred
feet and from the summit crest just
beyond Ragtown it drops over four
thousand feet before it swings into
Spearfish. twenty-four miles away.
There is a big rock tilted up on edge
jtwt at the crown tip of the hill where
two or three of us used to go and sit for
an hour or more after supper almost
every night, watching the curious
atmospheric effects and absorbing the
quiet beauty of the landscape.
at
The hills are bo complete in them
selves, so perfect in grandeur and
beauty that they fairly rival Rocky
Mountain scenery. It is a wonderful
region. It is magnificent in desolate
grandeur and wild simplicity. In detail
it is gorgeous in rocks and mosses and
trees and endless varieties of flowers.
What adds to the wildness and disorder
is the formation of the hills themselves.
Thoy are not like mountains, where the
ridges and chains and systems give an
idea of order and principle. On the
contrary, one of the most conspicuous
and pleasing features of the scenery is
the entire lack of principle in relative
forms and positions. Any particular
hill instead of being one in a regular
series, is simply one of a hundred ele
vations of various heights scattered
about much as the pine trees are scat
tered over the rocky hillsides. The
atmosphere is thin and transparent.
One seems to see clear across this world
and into the next. Away in front the
hills rise one after another for ten or
fifteen miles and beyond them the
prairie runs away to the horizon where
earth and Bky 6eem to "pass into noth
ingness." A good view of rolling
prairie from a mountain-top is peculiar
ly fascinating. The idea of immensity
is so much more impressive in looking
dowD than in looking up. The outlines
are clear and distinct. The smaller
crests peep out from between the peaks,
sometimes tinted blue by the birch and
quaking-asp, sometimes bare or var
iegated with monster rocks. The
gulches seem like bottomless pits, so
black are the pines and shadows. Off
to the left the high timbered bluffs
above Spearfish Canon shut out a
further view, but in front, looking north
west and north, the hills shrink grad
ually into knolls. The timber thins out
and disappears, and after that the
gentle roll of the prairie is unbroken as
far as the eye can see. The coloring is
Btrong. Many of the hills are literally
black. Others, where the trees are not
so thick, are brightened here and there
by a patch of grass or of rocks or of
silver spruce; and always there is the
gay blossoming undergrowth beneath
the pines. Further away the shades
are lighter and softer; the gray prairie
k streaked faintly with water-courses
or ridges of low bluffs, and continually
changed by the fantastic cloud shadows
Beyond the prairie where it joins the
sky everything is a soft blur of white,
which, coming back to the zenith,
changes gradually into the brighter,
clearer colors overhead. The effect is
powerful. The picture is a living and a
moving one. It is as strong and as per
sonal as a beautiful sermon, and tho
feeling of reverenco is uppermost.
There it all lies open like a book, with
infinite power in the hills and rocks;
infinite beauty in the pines and mosses
and graceful curves and outlines; infinite
love in the warm coloring and blending
of everything into one great harmony.
I used to wish that all the pessimists
and all the infidels in the world might
be herded together and driven to that
Ragtown summit. Two hours on top
of that tilted rock just before sunset
would, I am sure, induce moral expan
sion. It was into Buch a region as this that
the practical, pre-eminently material
railroad came, bringing with it as a
matter of course its bustling con
tractors, its constructing engineers, who
alone save the invasion from being
utterly sacrilegious; and its hobos, who
by way of contrast add strikingly to the
picturesqueness of the scene. It is
decidedly jarring on one's finer feelings
to look at the landscape and then at one
of these men and to think they are but
different parts of the same Nature;
merely different manifestations of the
same force; to find, instead of intelligent
beings a little lower than the angele.as
one feels they should be to match the
surroundings, these degraded, worthless
creatures, a trifle higher than the
brutes.
Once in a while there is a hobo in the
crowd who realizes the contrast between
the perfection and purity and inspir
ation of that landscape and his own
fallen condition. It is hardly a wonder
that tho thought of it drives him to
drink. 1 was lounging under a tree on
the hillside one Sunday morning read
ing a yellow-backed novel borrowed
from one of the men, when one of the
front spikers, whom we knew as "Slim,"
came sauntering along to where I lay,
I knew that Slim could drive a 6pike
Letter than any man in camp and I
knew he could drink more whiskey than
any of his fellows, but I had supposed
this was the limit alike of his acquire
ments and aspirations. lie was a quiet
almost a gentlemanly sort of a hobo
one of the sort who plods along at hard
labor for a month for the sole purpose
of earning enough wages to provide a
first-class spree of five or six days' dur
ation. He seemed thoughtful and pre
occupied as he walked along and I
thought I detected all the signs of a
coming spree.
"Hullo, Slim," I said, "haven't you
been working pretty near three weeks?"
"Only two," and he eyed me suspic
iously. "Shan't I mark you off for about
three days beginning with tomorrow
morning? Haven't you got some busi
ness in Deadwood? Aren't you tired?"
"Oh, the divil carry you, timekeeper,
there's not a soberer man in the camp
than meself. I've just come out to take
a look about is all. I like lookin' at the
sceneries there is around here, only I
can't stand it very good to get lookin'
at them and thinkin' about meself."
I thought I had experienced some
thing like the same state of mind and I
kept still. He sat down and "took a
look about" for half an hour.
"I'll slip into Deadwood," he said at
last, "and get me a bit of a new pipe and
be back before the whistle blows in the
mornin'."
He looked a trifle sheepish. The
pipe was a poor excuse, but it was worse
than useless to try to keep the man in
camp.
"Better get back by about Thursday,
Slim, for the woods are full of good men
looking for your job."
"I'll be back by six in the mornin',
timekeeper; but if 1 ain't, let tho first
man as can spike take me job for I'd
just as soon stay down in tho gulch a
while where you can't eee clear across
the country and then get thinkin' about
yerself."
Slim had a clear call and in less than
half an hour I could see him way down
at tho bottom of Nevada Gulch striding
along toward Deadwood, walking like u
man impelled by a mighty purpose.
Wo laid track just a week without
h ra. When he came back the end of
the line was way beyond the summit at
Ragtown and Slim seemed perfectly
content. T. E. Wing.
Canon City coal at the Whitebreaat
Coal and Lime Co.
XEW LOCATION
Full stock woolens. Latest styles
General Tailoring:
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120 SO I2TH ST.
- G. 1. CARPENTER
Mgr.
First publication Sept. 7.
NOTICE OF INCORPORATION
Pursuant to the provisions of tho
Statutes of Nebraska, notice ie hereby
given and published of the formation of
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1. The name of said corporation is
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Com pan y.'
2. The principal place of transacting
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3. Tho business to be transacted by
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lishing, circulating and maintaining a
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on of the business of printing, the
erection an'' masning of suchinta
buildings, structure, machinery andi
appliances as may be necessary for
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5. Said corporation shall commence
ou the 15th day of August 1895, and
continuo 100 years.
G. The affairs of said corporation
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Courier Printing and Publishing
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Sarah B. Harris, W.Morton Smith,
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seal.
Sept. 23.
First publication Aug 21
SHERIFF SALE.
Notice is hereby given that by virtue
of an order of sale issued by the clerk of
the districtcourt of the third Judicial
district of Nebraska, within and for
Larcaster county, in an action wherein
Charles W. Oakes is plaintiff, and
Kittie Melick et al are defendants, I
will, at 2 o'clock p. m. on the 24th day
of September A. D. 1895, at the east
door of tho court house in the city of
Lincoln. Lancaster county, Nebraska,
offer for sale at public auction the fol
lowing described real estate to-wit:
Lot number eleven (11) in block
seventeen (17) in Kinney'o "O" street
addition to the City of Lincoln, Lan
caster county, Nebraska.
Given under my hand this 21st day of
August A. D. 1895.
Fred A. Miller,
Sept 21. Sheri ff
First publication Aug 24.
SHERIFF SALE.
Notice is hereby given that by virtue
of an order of sale issued by the clerk
of the district court of the third judicial
district of Nebraska, within and for
Lancaster county, in an action wherein
Charles W. Oakes is plaintiff and
Joseph W. Winger et al are defendants
I will, at 2 o'clock p. m., on the 24th
day of September, A. D. 1895, at the
east door of the court house, in the
city of Lincoln, Lancaster county,
Nebraska, offer for sale at public
auction the following described real
estate to wit:
Lots number two 2 and seventeen
17 in Orr Sang's subdivision of a part
of the southeast quarter S. E. 341 of
section twenty-five 25 township ten
10 range six 6 east of the 6th prin
cipal meridian, in Lincoln, Lancaster
county, Nebraska.
Given under my hand this 21st day of
August A. D. 1895.
Fred A. Miller.
Sept 21 Sheriff.
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Blood and Nervous diseases. A special
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DRS- M. H. AND J. O- EVERETT
Managing Physicians.
A
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Cincinnati
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West half of trunk factory
1217 O St.
ALL WOOL PANTS
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BUSINESS SUITS
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VESTINGS
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Boost . 116 North Eleventh street.
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Telephones 358 and 458
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