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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 26, 1899)
THE G0U1RBR Spearflsh I eat near a worthy gentleman who said, and I was prepared to believe him that he had had a real good time in Spearfleh. Place does not seem to cut much figure in the problem of hav ing a real good time in the Hills. Liquor flows more freely than clear water woll it is an old story. One says at first sight that he would rather live in Deadwood than in Lead. For Lead is a city with a Roar, contin ual, by day and night, omnipresent and overwhelming; the roar of the stamp mills, whore all the time the 040 long iron bars beat down upon the ore that comes from the crushers above. Doubtless the Lead people get to call ing the roar a buzz or a hum, or some thing with poetical associations. But when you have just come through the silence of the Hills you use unvarnished English. They tried to get mc to go through the stamp mills begining at the top and going down. Go through? Don't if you value your tympanums. Stuff your Angers in your ears, go in on the ground door; exercise your optic nerve , and don't try to ask questions. When safely away from the door again you can rpliove your digits of their unwonted duty, but the roar will be with you still, and its sound waves will follow you over the cify. All Lead was laughing when I was there over the joke played by a prominent merchant on a friend visiting him. He warned the stranger, who was about to visit the works, that no one was allowed to talk above a whisper there. The friend obediently kept mum but after his return home said he re gretted that he couldn't ask questions. So Lead jokes about its great pest. What does it matter when the hills are full of gold and Homestake stock can hardly be bought for thrice its par value and there is rush by day and rush by night and work for everyone? What does it matter though certain deafness await the workmen in these mills? If the Allison hoist is in operation WMm you go to Lead it will perhaps be tj(e goal of your first pilgrimage, for the fame of the big engine is wide spread. Unfortunately we were rewarded for iur climb up the atony path by just a jlance into the spotless room where the great machine Bhioes black in state. They were making repairs and the massive wheels were still. I was anxious as a child to see it go and know that away down a thousand feet below in the dark it was doing its work. any of the pictures of Lead are taken from the path in front of this new and inflniBhed engine house pictures ilways doubly inadequate because they iust needs leave out the characterizing oar. Deadwood I saw first by night. The Saturday night closing problem has not vet come to vex the souls of the buyers and sellers in Hill towns; besides night Is the day of the day-shift. So early iu the evening is a gala time iu Deadwood. he stores are open, the multitude of iloons blaze with an extravagance of llectric lights and the sidewalks are arooced. The streets are narrow and innaved except by stones. No street fear tracks are seen you might better Dok for toboggan slides. There are so nany restaurants in Deadwoodall ex cept ope are called Chinese because the Dip-tailed brethren do the cooking. r.ne of them, I am b suro as' 1 can be, lavora his mashed potatoes with tallow. Your daylight view of the city should be from the top of White Rocks, the aountain which makes the sunrise late In the city. It is well worth all the hoe leather and muscle strain it costs to gain the white summit. The path is veil worn, but nevertheless you have a stood stiff climb. The Deadwood ceme- tery lies on one of the foot hills, and the liKhtseer always stops there to look at the red stone statue of Smith, the pioneer preacher, and the bust of Wild Bill, the Indian scout. "CuBtor was Idnely without him" is his 'famous and sufficient epitaph. The impious hands of curio vandals or possibly small boys who are generally born vandalB have disfigured this bust so that tho faco is hardly recognizable, It was porhaps not a work of art, but sometimes the rude monuments of a rude ago are worth preserving. Those whose hands work with the gold hidden in all tho hills, and strangers from far away through whose flngors it slips and Blips need reminders sometimes of all that the glittering stuff represents beyond its face value. The cometery looks like a child's "play' graveyard, and the city is a hazy Lilliputian dreamland when you stand free at last upon the very height of the white rock and enjoy tho woll earned chanco to "view tho landscape o'er." That is just what you can do up thero. For White Rocks is not one of those tantalizing and illusive peaks which you climb with a plainsman's hope of seeing over and out, only to find your view shut off by higher hills beyond. From White Rocks you can look dowu and around on hills and hills, on eeven or more towns and mining camps tucked away in gulches you must pick them out with a good field glass and out and away to other bills Paid mountain, always re membered by those who go the way to Spearfisb, and its next door neighbor, Rgged Top, full of burrow holes. Off to the east through a gap in the ranges is1 the inscrutable blue-white haze of the prairie land. I doubt if a finer view can be obtained with as little effort, comparatively speaking, anywhorn else in the Hills, though with every peak you climb you see anew panorama. Pictures and visions, to dream about, never to paint nor reduce to Anglo Saxon. It you have courage and not too threatening an appetite you can slide down on the east side of White Rocks on a bee-line for the smelters, sustain ing your waning strength at thb con tinuous refreshment counter of service berries afforded for the convenience of fast express passengers. Should it be out of berry soason by all means go down the way you came, unless you wish to make a reputation as a sort of back-slider. Tho delicious service berries the chef d'veuvre of the Hills in the hoiticultural line abounds on this precipitous mountain side, and they are sweeter to your hungry eyes than gold nuggets. I imagine Deadwood does not know what treasures are hanging out in phin sight just on the other side of her mountain, or all the good people would give up the mad pursuit of bidden things for a little time in August and would take stiff morning constitutionals up White Rocks and down the other side in the track of the service berry. Of course every traveler goes up to Spearflsh. It isn't up, though; you might say that it is two thousand feet up and three thousand feet down; you feel like saying that after you have been there. The down trip, which begins just after the train leaves Portland on the crest of Bald mountain is the inter esting part of the journey. The good fairy who had us in charge obligingly arranged an A. O. U. W. excursion from Deadwood to Spearfish the day after we camped just outside of Deadwood. Ex cursions are rarely taken over this road; it requires a good deal of nerve all along the line. The train men will not admit it, but down in the office, I know, they are not enthusiastic over excursions to Spearfisb, and while we waited impa tiently at Englewood for the train then coming down. I heard the engineer say to the conductor as he handed back the yellow paper, "Well, that saves my job. I wouldn't go up there and try to flag that train." But the greatest care is used by all who have charge of the train and a pleasanter trip could not bo imagined. If you aro on tho loft hand side of the coach b you loavo Engle wood you will have plenty of time to tnink of tho norvo, and tho curves, and gradoB. For tho view is all on tho right hand side, and you can got but stolen glimpses of tho valley, tho track far bo low and tho river on its way down with you. On your sido thero Ib little but tho everlasting hills, vory stoop and suggestive of mountain scenery, and tho road wiuds from curvo to curvo until at last it is a surpriso whon the canyon opens suddenly and you glido smoothly out upon a level prairie, who. o tho cloan little country town of Spoarfish suns itself bb calmly bb it nothing bad hap pened. The river widens and bubbles on as clear as crystal over its stony bod and through the beautiful woods west of the town. It is so seductive that one cannot resist tho impulse to seek out a secluded spot and "go wading" letting tho shackles of years slip easily off. No wonder Deadwood sings the praises of Spearfish. From the point of vantage in the high lookout of the caboose we saw tho real beauties of the canyon as we went homo in the evening following tLo course of tho foaming river for many miles, gain ing a passing view of the falls, tho castle rockB and all. But it seems to me that this place is beautiful chiefly from an engineer's point of view. It is mountainous scenery, and interesting; but the upper canyon of which I wrote last week is more attractive. The river there is just as pretty, as it goeB rush ing over the stones. The spruces grow to statelier heights and much more densely there where the river takes its start than in this canyon made famous by the show-case road. As an exhibi tion of engineering science the trip to Spearfleh is fine, beyond dispute. We had little time in our short stay at Deadwood to poke around much in the gold mills. But it was of interest to note the various processes, The noisy stamps at Lead are' simply one variety of crushing machinery. Thu gold is gathered up quietly enough on the quick silver covered tables over which the tine ore is washed. The smelter at Deadwood where all the ores are melted together to a fiery liquid represents an other process. Tho chlorin .tion works seemed to be the most complex and I should judge, the most expensive. Here the ore is crushed in different machines until it is like ground coffco, Then it is put into great "roasters" you can see here the "red, red gold" of ancient story and thoroughly browned, one might say. It is next cooled, put into an acid bath where it becomes a cear water. Finally it is run through lhe metal plates which mysteriously gather the gold up. This is a subtle and scientific process used by one big mill at Dead wood and one at Plums, midway be tween Deadwood and Lead. The. washing and quicksilver process of the Homestake mills is about the next thing to the old panning out method. At least I thought of that when, on our homeward journey we came across a "bunch" of miners, an engine "chooing" as vigorously as a road engine, a big coffee mill crusher ar rangement slowly revolving and the usual slanting table covered with flow ing water. It is long miles from Dead wood, but to all appoarauces the coveted sbeeu is there in the yellow rocks. The vigorous young fellow who ran the wheelbarrow their primitive method of feeding the crusher said tboy had "pay dirt." But, well, there are boles all over the bills and only one homestake. About seventeen miles from Deadwood on the railroad is as unhappy a monu ment of perhaps wasted capital as I have ever seen. It is a fine large mill, which would look almost as if it were simply shut up for the day, if it were not r ! THE TENT . . . . . . GALLERY A dozon stamp pictures, four Cobitions, for 15 conta. Photo uttons of all kind. 14th and O, MMMOMf ARTISTIft PRINTINfi X Of ovnry illncrlptloii. It will jmy you to consult C. L, Lkhmon, at tho . LEGAL NEWS PRINTING . . Kxcollotit Work. Katiifntory Prices, HOI IV utreoti M :-. V 0 YOU J KNOW . . . THAT . . . f'Q DRUG Has been C STORE moved from the corner of 10th and P street to 104-106 north 10th. Call and see them. rxrxrxrxi xrx w u r npnuM a If LSAlX TV 11 Druggist and Bookseller. vrtiitins'a Fine Stationery and Calling Card 127 So.Bleventh Street. PHONE 08 xXJCJi exoooool Cycle Photographs Athletic Photographs Photographs of Babies Photographs of Groups Exterior Views S&USHrifiMjfci THE PHOTOGRAPHER 129 South Eleventh Street. News and Opinions of Na tion Importance. THE SVlH Alone Contains Both. 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