LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2694, 25 November 1882, Page 4

LITERATURE.

THE COL. BILL WILLIAMS SILVER

MINE.

By Joaquin Miller. Concluded.

There was a chorus of vociferous answers and another drink, then the colonel continued. 'Yes, I've got principle, that was the trouble. I wouldn't give him half, on a p'int of principle—p'int of honor. It was too much. I offered him a third.'

' And he wouldn't take it,' ejaculated the doctor, as the honest miner mournfully shook hia head.

' No, no ! Then them fellows up the canon yonder offered him two-thirds of all they got, and he took it. No principle in them miners up thar at all.' 'Ah, principle don't pay in Colorado, Colonel Bill,' sighed the doctor. ' Pay! I lost a fortune right thar, gentlemen, on a p'int of principle, a p'int of honour. But I'll catch 'em this time, boys. Come up and drink again, every one of you.' Again the great swooping arm brought the boy 3 together in a knot at the rickety bar.

'And you'll all stand by me,' cried the colonel, as he shot his glass in the air. They all nodded assent. ' I'll tell you a thing, and you swear to it Oh, I'm all here,'he added, in a vociferous tone.

Again all assented boisterously a.% the colonel struck his broad breast and ended his speech. Setting down his glass, and unloosening his back from the bar, with the eye of a bravo, battle-loving captain, he looked to see that everything was ready for action. He glanced at the creaking derrick, at the perpetual stream of men passing up and down the shaft, pushed his hat a little farther back from his brow, turned the quid of tobacco in his cheek, and then tranquilly waited, certain of victory, certain that at last he was to sell his mine, pocket the money, and again see old Maine, Maria, and the little ones.

' Shoo I I thought I heard someone acomin',' said the doctor, looking toward the doorway.

For a moment the miners all craned their necks and looked; but, as the expected visitor did not appear, Old Kit creaked out, ' And how will you know him, Colonel Bill, when he comes ? A live lord ! A real live English lord ! Hie—all gold lace down here, eh ? Jist that way iu picter-books, Colonel Bill. But will you know him without a introduction, Colonel Bill ? '

' Know him ? Why, I'd know a lord as far as I could see him. Don't I know the 'stoccracy '! Haint I bin to Boston ? Oh, I'll know him. Why I could tell a lord by the noble look of his brow!'

The ricketty, drukeu, old trapjier seemed satisfied, and tottered away, chuckling to himself as he jostled through the crowd—- '. A real, live, English lord! All gold lace, lace and gold, all up and down before.'

'Yes, and he'll be here in a minute too,' cried the colonel ; ' listen ! There he comes ! Po3e, boys, pose! Look dignified! Look your best ! Look your darned level best!' The miners all struck imposing attitudes, and the colonel shouted out to old Kit, in a voice of thunder, 'Pose, I tell you.' But the old trapper only paused a moment in his meandcrings, and then, tottering help lessly back to the colonel, fell laughing, maudlin-like, in his arms. The colonel spun him about, and again shouted as he pushed and dragged him to tho other side of the shaft—

'Now, you stand in your place, you old juniper stump, and pose.' He planted him hard, and again shouted, as a stout, dumpyfigure darkened the narrow pass in the stone wall—' pose, I tell you ! Hang you, pose ! ' Poor Kit tried to pose, but could notstand still.

' Stand still and pose ; and don't you dare to move till that old duffer oom;v' cried the excited colonel.

Then, leaving the limp man with his knee smiting together, he stepped back, and mounted a pile of rocks by the bar. ' Now, boys, yank out your specimens and be a-lookin' about my mine. Say that the Colonel Bill Williams Mine is the biggest thing in all Colorado. Say that the Colonel Bill "Williams Mine is bigger than the Comstock !'

There was a llourish of rocks, and a chorus of approving voices. The colonel was hardly in a more exalted state of mind than his men. The prospect of selling a mine for half a million, together with the flood of Colorado whisky, had lifted them far above the plane of ordinary expectation, 'The Colonel Bid Williams Mine is a bigger thing than the Comstock,' roared the miners as they rallied round their chief, and flourished their long, ragged arms in the air. As this proceeding was at its height, the stout, dumpy figure at the gateway, clad in a very rough, soiled suit of gray, advanced down tho narrow stone pass to the inner edge of the wall, and looked on in mute amazement. The colonel was delighted with the enthusiastic behavior of his boys, and, with head high in the air, shouted — ' That's splendid ! That's glorious ! Keep it up ! Keep it up ! Keep it .'

Observing something unusual in tho look of the crowd, the colonel turned, saw the figure iu the narrow passage, and pausing and lowering his voice, queried—' Now, who in the name of Old Nick is that ? Get out of tho way thar! Thar's a lord a-comiu'; iio you hear ?' roared the disgusted colonel; * get out or come in, you bloated old loafer. Who is he, Ginger, anyhow?' 'Oh he's a tender foot, I guess. Get out of the way thar !' ' Oh, get out or come in !' shouted the colonel ; 'do you hear ? We are lookiu' for a gentleman.' The double chin of the stout, dumpy figure dropped an inch or two, perhaps, but the man himself did not move back, forward, or aside one single inch to make way for tho 4'stinguished nobleman who had come to Colorado to buy a mine. The enraged colonel leaped down from the rocks at last in a fit of desperation, and, rushing forward, took the stranger by the collar. 'lf you won't go out, come in and clear the pass, I say.' And with one jerk he brought him half-way across to the bar ; ' there is a lord a-comin' here, all lace and gold and ruffles. Do you hear?' And then he shook him till his teeth chattered. 'Do you hear, I say ; or are you deaf ? Or are you dumb ? Or what's the matter with you ? Haint you got no manners ?' Again he shook him till the breath was out of him, and the stranger attempted in vain to speak. 'No ! Don't you speak ! l)on't you dare to speak to me ! If thar's any speaking to be done, I'll do it myself. And don't you dare to speak to that lord when he comes ; for I know your grammar's bad. Now you stand thar and poso !' and here, being quite out of breath, he planted the half-strangled man by the shaft as if he were a post, and belonged there as a part of the machinery of the mine ; ' pose, I tell you, and make an impression. And when that old Lord Howard come '

' Why, why, bless me soul, I—l—l'm Lord Howard !' at last gasped the honest Englishman. 'Eh ? Eh ? Be you the lord V 'l—lam.'

The colonel fell back against the bar. He did not cry out. He did not curse. He did not even ask for anything to drink. 'Beaton ag'iu, boys,' at last murmured the colonel meekly; ' another fortune slipped through my honest grasp. Ah, Colorado's a hard country to make a livin' in.' One miner, a green one, who had not been there long, swore furiously for a moment, but, seeing he was alone, and feeling how inadequate were even the most massive oaths, ho suddenly stopped, and then the silence that followed was painful. At last, the two men began to gasp and gaze at each other as they got their respective breaths. The Englishman, who had been rubbing hi 3 throat, saw the bar, and, as if resolved to see if he could still swallow, called up the crowd with a jerk of his thumb, and treated promiscuously. This broke the ice ; for he swore lustily as he drank, with the very first breath he had to spare. ' He's a gentleman,' squeaked the doctor aside to the colonel, as he wiped his mouth on his sleeve.

' Swears like a gentleman,' answered the colonel.

' Treats like a gentleman,' croaked Kit. • ' And pays like a gentleman,' said Ginger, as he raked in and clinked two sovereigns.

'Well, who cares for a live English lord,' anyhow,' half sneered the doctor, taking heart again from his full tumbler of Colorado lightning.

'"We licked 'em at Bunker Hill, didn't we ?' courageously responded the colonel, to his piping little partner, and then, with the new inspiration upon him, he advanced and, bowing profoundly to Lord Howard as he reached his hand, he exclaimed with a flourish of the arm that took in the whole Rocky Mountains : ' You are welcome, sir. Welcome to the balmy breezes, the lofty altitudes, and the aurif'rous regions of Colorado.' He broke down, struck an attitude again and went on : ' The British Lion, sir—and the American Eagle, sir. The American Eagle, sir—sir—the British Lion and the American Eagle—sir—sir—sir—l—l—l'd like to sell you a mine, sir. No—no—not this one. Got another up canon. Can have it in full operation in two hours, sir.' My lord seemed a bit dazed, and did not respond. ' Come to Colorado for your health, I s'poso my lord ?' piped in the doctor edgewise.

' 80, ho ! bless me soul, no!' puffed the old nobleman at last, with his glass to his eye, and a hand still to his throat. ' Well, that's queer. Everybody comes to Colorado for their health,' answered the doctor.

'Of course, then, you came to Colorado, my lord, to buy a mine V cried Colonel Bill; ' got the biggest thing in America, sir.' 'Why, bless me soul, no. I want no mine. I want neither mine nor medicine. I—l—will you drink, gentlemen ?' He had learned a Colorado trick or two. 'The bloody alkali dust of Colorado make 3 me throat hurt ; or was it the w'isky ? Hot, bless me soul that was hot!?

The old nobleman wrestled bravely with the burning liquid, and Colonel Bill, who now struck like a burr to his elbow, continued, ' Climate ! Climate, my lord ! Colorado's a hot country. But I'd like to sell you a mine up the canon, sir : or down the canon, or anywhere you please, my lord; forty-foot vein, dips, spurs, and angles, all solid silver, 'cept the gold in it. : Sx>ect to find it in a liquid state on next cross-cut. and intersection level. Like to sell you that mine, my lord. Buy a silver mine, sir ? I'll sell yon a gold mine ; sell you a diamond mine.' * Why, bles3 me soul, do you Colorado men think of nothing but selling a mine ?' blustered the old nobleman, finally, after he had screwed his eye-glass in its place and had looked long and curiously at the giant before him ; ' why, at Denver, a dozen men wanted to sell me a mine before I got the dust out of me eyes ; and here you all seem to think, talk, dream of nothing else.' He went over to the bar and reached his hand to Ginger for his change. He had heard enough, and wanted to go away. 'Oh, that's all right. That's all paid,' answered Ginger. 'I want me change. I gave you two sovereigns, me man. I gave you two sovereigns. ' ' Yes, yes, I know. That's all right. You see, "sovereigns are at a discount at Colorado.'

' Bless me soul! Then I'd better go at once, and get on into Canada.' And he walked aside, and, big with unborn English oaths, looked down into the now empty shaft. ' Don t want any mine,' said the colonel, mournfully, to the doctor. ' Nor don't want any medicine,' gloomily answered the doctor; 'he's a sort of ole'margarino lord,|anyhow, he is. Let's go for him.'

'Says he want3\jto git into Canada,' chuckled the colonel.

The big-hearted Colonel Bill Williams was reckless now. He had met with many failures in his stormy life on the border, but none so inglorious as this he had just encountered. He was in disgrace before all his men, who had been appalled at the audacity of the stranger, and were correspondingly losing confidence in Colonel Bill. Now they stood about, gloomy, helpless, almost penniless. If he could not sell the mine, he thought to himself he would at least sell the very green old Englishman. Assuming a gay air of banter, he began, 'Didn't you say you wanted to git to

Canada. The line runs right through my silver mine here,' and he winked at the crowd back over his shoulder, as he advanced towards my lord, and drew a line with his foot. ' That's Canada, and that's the United States. You pays your mon y and you take your choice.'

The nobleman looked at him in admiration of this unexampled impudence. Then, as if believing all, and quietly accepting the situation of tilings, ho stepped forward and said : ' Why bless me soul ! Is that Canada ?' and this seemingly simple old man looked at the spot with his glass ; ' English soil! God bless old England ! 1 love her ! I love every foot of her ?' and the honest old Briton crossed over and set his foot firmly 'And this is Canada, hey? Glad to be again on honest English soil. Then, winking an eye, not to that crowd, but to the north star that just grazed the brow of the steep bluff above him, he pompously pretended to take possession. His face was toward the narrow pass in the great stone wall by which he had entered, and taking three or four duck-like strides forward, he passed out and they saw him no more. The miners melted away in the darkness, one by one, as the lights grew lower, and, as the last torch flickered out, the great speculator, whoso feeble imitators have since overrun the world, rolled himself in a blanket by the side of his lirospoet hole, and left Colorado to the wonderful stars and the coyote howling from the hill.