HIS VOW.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2239, 13 November 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

HIS VOW.

Tw<iiK is a peculiar fascination in the half savagery and semi-civilisation of a western mining town. The artificial polish is rubbed off and a man stands naked for inspection with his good and bad traits exposed, like an anatomical figure showing the muscles in a wax-work museum. Euicka, Nevada, and its characteristic population of impoverished English gentlemen ; adventure loving American 3, who had bioken loose from the trammels of Eistoru countinc-housea ; plodding Germans ; rollicking, laughter-loving, unthrifty liisinr.e i ; and a sprinkling of gaml Ims, Jew, ready to buy, • r sell, or cleat, with an occasional rara avis in the shape of a woman. The silver mines were ii fu'l 1 la c t, and \,A\p the mountain sides wesetall chimneys to cairy off the fumes of ar^nic liberated in put Oyinsj the chloride. These ancn c fumes, like to niayic water of the fairy tale, had a similarly beautifying effect upon the complexion. Wrinkles were unknown, and tough miners showed, underneath their grime, skins that a City belle would have envied. • Hullo, Stanley, what are you diiig here V ' Cultivating green sajje and lizards and running the Bugiehorn of Liberty/ rerlied a d( licate looking young man with pale resolute features, whoso long fingers, playcvl nervously with the button of his coat. • Been long here ?' was the next query of his friend, who evidently had only recently arrived from some distant tamp, or he Would surely have known the trenchant writer of the Bugle-horn. 4 Long here ? No, lam never long anywhere. I'm a rolling stono ever siiue Bah, why think of the past ? Let us li.juor.' The motion was carried nem. con, as such motions are in camp ; when work and dissipation arc indulged iv with equal intensity. • But, I say, Stanley,' resumed his companion, ' when you do intend leaving? I'd like to run down to the Bay and see my old grandmother, but I've made a rash vow, p»rd, I'll never leave this place till I leave by water.' The words were reiftembered long afterwards, but not before any comment was made upon them, the attention of the editor and the miner was attracted by the sounds of music, furnished by two fiddles, a wheezy comet, and a snare drum. ' A marriuge,' replied Stanley, readily supplying the local news, as became the editor of an enterprising paper. '. s mith the little tailor, is getting spliced to Julia Morgan, the daughter of old Mcrgm, the blacksmith. The Rev. Mr. Gray will do for them. Come along and see t')e ceremony.' The Kpiscopal Church and the Pioneer Hotel were the only two buildings in Eureka that had any pretcis'ons to architectural style, and stran«e to say the church had rathpr the best of it. In mining towns rum generally gets ahead of religion. The Rev. Thomas Gr*»y was ,i splendid specimen of a mm, mx tVcfc tw> in hi-* stocking.", hrotd shouldered, deep choked, bearde.l liko n pard, with ar ns like an »thletf, eyes is blue us the western skips in sunshinD, dark as a tbii'ider cloud in tin ger. Tho Rev. Mr Gray had immense in-i flucnce with ' tho bo vs.' No was tho best «hot in the camp. He was t ho champion runner. Fie thiew Doll Pent wreath, the Cornish miner, t l r<>o tiir.es in succession, and having rescued a lad from bully B">b Brighton, ho tackled that redoubtable boxer, used him up completely in t'.\o rounds, and left him a< n friendly token of hi-* povvors a pair of black eyes, a broken nose, and a conspicuous gap in his mouth former'y ador.\e>l by three tobacco .stained teeth. He horsewhipped Tom Logan lor beating his wife ; and when a set wan made on old L°vi, the .Tow money-lender, ho protected him against a dozen of the roughest miuers in the camp, arinfd with bowie knives and derringers, sivlng him from being lynched. But the same hand that hit hard blows was also active in well doini'. He nursed Jos Stocker through malignant typhus, when his companion had left him to die. He jumped into a raging stream after Hank Brown's little girl, though death seemed certain, and restored her to her mother, and he cared for and took her into his own house, and looked after Jenny Smonley, the cast away of two camps, and made a new woman of her. Now his word was law, an'l no marriage was held binding unless the lines were written by the Roy. Tom. No baptism had sanctifying grace unless the sacred siijn was made by the Rev. Tom, and the men would as soon have left a comrade's corpse to be devoured by the kayoots as to h ivo the last shl comforting service read by anyone ehe than the Rev. Tom. He was the lawyer, the doctor, the parson, the family adviser, the friend of every man, woman, and child in the whole camp. O.i one occasion the Bi3l:op visited the outlying portion of the see. 'Ah,' said his lordship, 'I pity you, brother Gr.iy. The peop'e here do, indeed, need the Gospel.' 'There is Kotnotlirur needed before you give thorn tho Gosp •!, s ti J the Roy. Mr Gray. 'Before the Gnpe 1 , sii his lordship in astonishment. ' Yes,' said tho hunubli diving with a merry twiuklo in his eye, ' you must first corral them ; and he had corralled them. Hnhud that, marvel of camp life, a packed church every Sunday, and requests for money were always unhesitatingly complied with. When ho fir-t came to the camp the theatre was open every niirhtin tho weok, and the attend idco at church was — nil. the Roy. Mr Gray wrote to the manager, ' You have gool houses six nights in the ■week ; let us have a whacic «t the boys on the seventh.' It was a bargain. From that d.iy the theatre remained closed on Sundxys. Tho boyd kicked at first ; but after u whilo they got to like common-seme sermons, the apt illustrations, tho good advice, and tho church bcamo a popular institution. The marriage .<ervice th-iL Stanley had brought the miner to witness mi</ht liavo boon conducted with greiter pomp in tho fashionable church of some Extern city ; but no reverend dean or learned bishop could hive delivered the words more irnpreseively than they rolled out, liko tho swell of H'mio great organ, from the capacious chest of the R°v. T"m, find when, sonorously, tho words ' I pronounce* that they be man and wife together, in the namo of tho F.ither, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen,' Julia and Aim bmith looked timidly at each other, it was with evident witisfaolion and a full and comforting knowledge thai", if ever man and woman wero lawfnTy wed. thf»y were. Thero was great rejoicing in Eureka. Thoro was a least at the Pioneer Hotel, nnd the Rev. Mr Gny sat among the more immediate fiiends of the newlymarried couple. Whiskey also flowed abundantly at the Eagle, and the Miners' Luck, and fcho Washington House, and U'^-le Siim'ri, and the Eureka, and the ■whole camp got drunk liko one man. Tho Rev. Mr Gray left the i'ionoer Hotel while the revels were at th.<nr height, and fonud Stanley outside, with folded arras uad becit head, in deepest thought. The clergyman kindly laid his band on the joHrnalitfc's shoulder and siid softly. 'What's the matter? Why are you not in drinking the bride's health ?' ' I can't stir,' Stanley said very quietly. 'The old sad memories arc crowding upon me very quickly to-night. I seem to see her face in the shadow of the trees, in the moonlight, on the wa^er, in the clouds drifting along the sky. Not the old joyous merry face of my little dead j?irl— dead to me, sir ; but sad and tearlul, and shaded with trouble.' ' Nonsense, Stanley. Cheer up man, don't give way to womanish fancies.' • Indeed I cannot help it— not to-night.

I feel that some trouble has overtaken her. It was not her fault that sl.e imrlied a gambler -atifl \a dmnkard. Her father owed him money. Tlie cancellingof the debt wag made the price of the innocent child's hand. The unholy bargain was consummated, and the fresh young virgin, in this Christian country, but with less pure motives than was Iphigenia by her father Againemmon, and without even an Artemis to snatch her from the unsanctitied altar. I feel that some harm is happening to her.' 'Nonsense, mm. Take he.ivt of grace. This is not such a bad working woild, after all. If you eanuot lnve her, live woithy of hor, and do not give way to fool i*h fancies,' 1 The shadows lire all shaping to one end. I cum it see th^ end : how lam involved in it. lam supprstifcous to-night. Do, Mr Gray-—i n u beseechiug tone— promi-(» mo one thing-. Here aio five hundred dollar*. I'ionvso me to iuu down to the Bay, should anything iiappeu to me, find her out, ard if -he is in trouble and money can help hir, use this of mine. Promise mo Mr Gray.' ♦ With nil my heait, but why not run down yours- If ? 1 I dare not- ; I could not trust myself to see her villainous husband's fuco without striking him de.u 1 . Beside*, sir, you recollect my vnv. I'll never leave thi-< pl.iee tiill leave it by water. Good-night and God blp«-s you.' He turned away abruptly and walked under thoshado.v of tho treea. Nevada has a serious drawback in tho shape of cloud bur.sts. When these occur the windows of hoavon j»oom to open and he wa ( 'r> wli-jh aio above the firm* ment com*} down in torrents and rush along the cauyons, carrying everything before them —houses, cattle, trees, fanning implements, women and cliil Iren, and household furniture, in one fearful stream of destruction. The morning after the wedding the camp was astir early. The&e were no degenerate city drinkers, who because they were drunk overnight had to shirk woik and steady their nerves with curious drinks the next day. A deep draught of cold water and a walk through the bracing morning air, and the miners were at work, and the tall chimneys creeping up the mountain sides gave forth their magical arsenic fumes. But as the sun lose higher and higher the sky bccime more and more obscured. At Hrst it was shrouded in grey ; then the grey took intenser tiuts, and here and there rolled up from the honzon clouds as black as ink. More heavy clouds, till the whole face of heaven was blotted as with a funeral pall, followed, and the sun showed faint and rail through the vapourous atmosphere. The houses of Nev.ida C imp were built in a canyou, and as the sky darkened the peoplo went withiu doors, waiting for tho coining danger, powerless to do any thin ir to avett it, and equally powerless to avoid if. Stanley wa^ standing on tho verandah ••ut-Mo ths offi-jo of "The Buglehorn," looking up the canyon in tho direction in whioh the t>t >nn was gathering. His idee was ha<jr^ar 1, and hid eyes hid a worn expression, like tlioie of one who has been watolnuu all night.. Prustntly wj's heird a sudden rushing uoL^e. Thou name a torrent of watei, and in almost i<n instant the bed of the cinvon, which had been the main street of the town, became a raging torrent, toning the foundations of houses, and j-ucking up eagerly and carrying along whatever lay in its path. There was a >\ierd fascination iv the white-lipped waters, and Stanley stuod looking intently down into ihui hiving, strugirliny stream. The Rev. Mr Gray and a few of the servants wero on the verandah of the hotel, also watching tho progress of the bur3t. The floating objects became more numerous; great booms were carried along like chips on a mill dam, rattle wero seen struggling in the water, and then theie came something that brought a look of pain and resolution into the face of the journalist. While it approached he had taken off his coat and boots, and just before it passed he plunged into the surging stream, and next moment he was seen holding up with his left hand the little tailor Smith about whose neck clung convulsively his bride, whilst with his ri^ht hand he wa3 striving streuuoubly to reach the side of the canyon. The struggle was a desperate one. One moment he reached the houses, only the next to be swirled out into tho middle of the stream. The hotel was the last house in the canyon ; if he missed that they would be carried along for miles into the plains beyond, battered and bruised and lifeless. He strove hard ; but fruitlessly. Swept along ; with all his exoitions ho could not near the bank ; but jast as he approached the hotel tho waves which had been so merciless, relented, and lifted him up with his helpless Vurdens, with foam bubbles, hurled him agiinst the foundations of the house to which he citing. Willing hands Oi the verandah, above were also strong and ready hands. A rope was lowered, and Stanley fastened it round the waist of the unconscious woman. She was drawn up, and the Rev. Mr (s ray laid her down in the parlour of the hotel, leaving her to the care of the women folk, and then rushed out as they were hauling up the little' tailor. The rope was lowered once more ; but just as Stanley laid his hind upon it, just as rescue was within reach and vn'ccs were raised to shout for the hero, a great beam of wood came swimming down the angry stream, and struck him on the back of the head. With a groan that could be heard above the seething waters, he relaxed his hold, and was carried out into the middle of the rushing stream. They saw him, with open, staring eyes, and drooping, powerless arms, hurried along beyond all human help to the plains outside the camp. Next day his body was found bruised and torn beyond recognition. He had left Eureka by water.

Sir. \Viix*A\r Arm.stkoxg & Co. hive obtained a very large contract for the supply of their guns to the Chinese Government. They are wanted for the new fortifications of Formosa. This is the first ttme that an order of this kind has been to a Biitish firm. a 9 Mt-s^ia. Krupp, of Essen, have hitherto enjoyed a practical monopoly in the supply of guns to the Government of China.

Evkx England's "one general" is not beyond ridicule. This is how a comic p>«per deals with him: — "(i<?neial Wol-elev Fays lie will nor recognise Mr Ulad.stono iv any way; that he will not ovon sit down at tho table with him. Oh, well, JNIr Gladstone musn'fc mind that. General Wolseley is a very haughty man. Ho is just that way in war. Ho marched '2000 miles to meet the Mahdi, and ♦hen, just when he h.iw wh?t sort of a man he w;i«, turned his back oa him and wouldn't look at him. Wouldn't even look the vay he was ; came right back to Koglaud haughtier than ever. Slid he didn't .smash the Mahdi, but he cut him awfully ; did, by Jore. Sort of a cruel thing to do, but when it comes to doing" a soi t of thing like that, you, know, we don't know nf a man who can do it more kindly than WoKeloy.''

The Dunorlin Star rcporfca a public &U-<-iusion oil "The Immortality of the Soul," between Messrs Neil and MWlillin. The hitor affirmed that the Jiibio taught that tho hOul of man was iinmorUl; that 1) living 1 bogun an existence, it must con\wue for ever; that nearly .-ill the good and great believed m tin* doctiine, and unless Mr Neil could prove t > him that it was not »o t ho would oon'inue holding the old faith. Mr Neil a'liatkd (hat as immortal soul rnf.-mt an in I -tructible soul, those who believed in the immortality of the soul inu-,r yivu v,> believing in the omnipotence of O)d, for He could not de>tioy anything 1 uninort.il auj more than He could destroy Himself. Mr M'MilI'm fi'iid that, feeliuir himself unoijudl to the task, he would like unyme in the hall who so desiied to t.iko his phico and conclude the deba f o, bat no one responded. Mr N"il Hiid ho belie vfd thy subject -o i-nportnnt that he would bo happy to moot any man in. tho city f) discus it.