About four o'clock in the afternoon of the day appointed for commencing
housekeeping, our miners gathered at this new home. The provisions,
bedding and chairs had been sent in advance, in care of Miller, who had
remained above ground that day, in order to have things in apple-pie
shape. The chairs were typical of the men. Brewster's was a common,
old-fashioned, flag-bottomed affair, worth about three dollars. Carlin
and Wright each had comfortable armchairs; Ashley and Harding had neat
office chairs, while Miller and Corrigan each had heavy upholstered
armchairs, which cost sixty dollars each.
When all laughed at Brewster's chair, he merely answered that it would
do, and when Miller and Corrigan were asked what on earth they had
purchased such out-of-place furniture for, to put in a miner's cabin,
Miller answered: "I got trusted and didn't want to make a bill for
nothing," and Corrigan said: "To tell the truth, I was not over-much
posted on this furniture business, I did not want to invest in too chape
an article, so I ordered the best in the thavin' establishment, because
you know a good article is always chape, no matter what the cost may
be."
The next thing in order was to compare the bills for provisions.
Brewster drew his bill from his pocket and read as follows: Twenty
pounds bacon, $7.50; forty pounds potatoes, $1.60; ten pounds coffee,
$3.75; one sack flour, $4.00; cream tartar and salaratus, $1.00; ten
pounds sugar, $2.75; pepper, salt and mustard, $1.50; ten pounds prunes,
$2.50; one bottle XXX for medicine, $2.00; total, $32.60.
The bill was receipted. The bills of Wright and Harding each comprised
about the same list, and amounted to about the same sum. They, too, were
receipted. The funny features were that each one had purchased nearly
similar articles, and the last item on each of the bills was a charge of
$2.00 for medicine. It had been agreed that no liquor should be bought
except for medicine.
The bills of Carlin and Ashley were not different in variety, but each
had purchased in larger quantities, so that those bills footed up about
$45 each. On each of the bills, too, was an item of $4.75 for demijohn
and "half gallon of whisky for medicine." All were receipted.
Corrigan's bill amounted to $73, including one-half gallon of whisky and
one bottle of brandy "for medicine," and his too was receipted.
Miller read last. His bill had a little more variety, and amounted to
$97.16. The last item was: "To demijohn and one gallon whisky for
medicine, $8.00." On this bill was a credit for $30.00.
A general laugh followed the reading of these bills. The variety
expected was hardly realized, as Corrigan remarked: "The bills lacked
somewhat in versatility, but there was no doubt about there being plenty
of food of the kind and no end to the medicine."
When the laugh had subsided, Brewster said: "Miller estimated that our
provisions would not cost to exceed $15.00 per month apiece. I tried to
be reasonable and bought about enough for two months, but here we have a
ship load. Why did you buy out a store, Miller?"
"I had to make a bill and I did not want the grocery man to think we
were paupers," retorted Miller.
"How much were the repairs on the house, Miller?" asked Carlin.
"There's the beggar's bill. It's a dead swindle, and I told him so. He
ought to have been a plumber. He had by the Eternal. He has no more
conscience than a police judge. Here's the scoundrel's bill," said
Miller, excitedly, as he proceeded to read the following:
"'To repairing roof, $17.50; twenty battens, $4.00; to putting on
battens, $3.00; hanging one door, $3.50; six lights glass, $3.00;
setting same, $3.00; lumber, $4.80; putting up bunks, $27.50; total,
$66.30.'
"The man is no better than a thief; if he is, I'm a sinner."
"You bought some dishes, did you not, Miller?" inquired Ashley. "How
much did they amount to?"
"There's another scalper," answered Miller, warmly. "I told him we
wanted a few dishes, knives, forks, etc.--just enough for seven men to
cabin with--and here is the bill. It foots up $63.37. A bill for wood
also amounts to $15.00; two extra chairs, $6.00."
Brewster, who had been making a memorandum, spoke up and said: "If I
have made no error the account stands as follows:
Provisions $357 56
Crockery, knives, forks, etc. 53 37
Wood 19 00
Repairs 66 50
One month's rent 50 00
One month's water 7 00
Chairs 6 00
-------
Making a total of $559 43
Or, in round numbers, eighty dollars per capita for us all. I settled my
account at the store, amounting to $32.60, which leaves $47.40 as my
proportion of the balance. Here is the money."
This was like Brewster. Some of the others settled and a part begged-off
until next pay-day.
The next question was about the cooking. After a brief debate it was
determined that all would join in getting up the first supper. So one
rushed to a convenient butcher shop and soon returned with a basket full
of porter house steaks, sweetbreads and lamb chops; another prepared the
potatoes and put them in the oven; another attended to the fire; another
to setting the table. Brewster was delegated to make the coffee. To
Corrigan was ascribed the task of cooking the meats, while Miller
volunteered to make some biscuits that would "touch their hearts."
He mixed the ingredients in the usual way and thoroughly kneaded the
dough. He then, with the big portion of a whisky bottle for a
rolling-pin, rolled the dough out about a fourth of an inch thick. He
then touched it gently all over with half melted butter; rolled the thin
sheet into a large roll; then with the bottle reduced this again to the
required thickness for biscuits, and, with a tumbler, cut them out. His
biscuit trick he had learned from an old Hungarian, who, for a couple of
seasons, had been his mining partner. It is an art which many a fine
lady would be glad to know. The result is a biscuit which melts like
cream in the mouth--like a fair woman's smile on a hungry eye. Corrigan
had his sweetbreads frying, and when the biscuits were put in the oven,
the steak and chops were put on to broil. The steak had been salted and
peppered--miner's fashion--and over it slices of bacon, cut thin as
wafers, had been laid. The bacon, under the heat, shriveled up and
rolled off into the fire, but not until the flavor had been given to the
steak. One of the miners had opened a couple of cans of preserved
pine-apples; the coffee was hot, the meats and the biscuits were ready,
and so the simple supper was served. Harding had placed the chairs;
Brewster's was at the head of the table.
Corrigan waited until all the others had taken their seats at the table;
then, with a glass in his hand and a demijohn thrown over his right
elbow, he stepped forward and said:
"To didicate the house, and also as a medicine, I prescribe for aitch
patient forty drops."
Each took his medicine resignedly, and as the last one returned the
glass, Corrigan added: "It appears to me I am not faling ony too well
meself," and either as a remedy or preventive, he took some of the
medicine.
The supper was ravenously swallowed by the men, who for months had eaten
nothing but miners' boarding-house fare. With one voice they declared
that it was the first real meal they had eaten for weeks, and over their
coffee they drank long life to housekeeping and confusion to
boarding-houses.
When the supper was over and the things put away, the pipes were
lighted. By this time the shadow of Mount Davidson around them had
melted into the gloom of the night, and for the first time in months
these men settled themselves down to spend an evening at home. It was a
new experience.
"It is just splendid," cried Wright. "No beer, no billiards, no painted
nymphs, no chance for a row. We have been sorry fools for months--for
years, for that matter--or we would have opened business at this stand
long ago."
"We have, indeed," said Ashley. "To-night we make a new departure. What
shall we call our mess?"
Many names were suggested, but finally "The Comstock Club" was proposed
and nominated by acclamation.
[Illustration: THE COMSTOCK CLUB.]
It was agreed, too, that no other members, except honorary members,
should be admitted, and no politics talked. Then the conversation became
general, and later, confidential; and each member of the Club uncovered
a little his heart and his hopes.
Miller meant, so soon as he "made a little stake," to go down to San
Francisco and assault the stock sharps right in their Pine and
California street dens. He believed he had discovered the rule which
could reduce stock speculation to an exact science, and he was anxious
for the opportunity which a little capital would afford, "to show those
sharpers at the Bay a trick or two, which they had never yet 'dropped
on.'" He added, patronizingly: "I will loan you all so much money, by
and by, that each of you will have enough to start a bank."
"I shtarted a bank alridy, all be mesilf, night before last," said
Corrigan.
"What kind of a bank was it, Barney?" asked Harding.
"One of King Pharo's. I put a twenty-dollar pace upon the Quane; that
shtarted the bank. The chap on the other side of the table commenced to
pay out the pictures, and the Quane----"
"Well, what of the Queen, Barney?" asked Carlin.
"She fill down be the side of the sardane box, and the chap raked in me
double agle."
"How do you like that style of banking, Barney?" asked Ashley.
"Oh! Its mighty plisant and enthertainin', of course; the business sames
to be thransacted with a grate dale of promptness and dispatch; the only
drawback seems to be that the rates of ixchange are purty high."
Tom Carlin knew of a great farm, a store, a flour mill, and a hazel-eyed
girl back in Illinois. He coveted them all, but was determined to
possess the girl anyway.
After a little persuasion, he showed her picture to the Club. They all
praised it warmly, and Corrigan declared she was a daisy. In a neat hand
on the bottom of the picture was written: "With love, Susie Richards."
Carlin always referred to her as "Susie Dick."
Harding, upon being rallied, explained that his father came with the
Argonauts to the West; that he was brilliant, but over-generous; that he
had lived fast and with his purse open to every one, and had died while
yet in his prime, leaving an encumbered estate, which must be cleared of
its indebtedness, that no stain might rest upon the name of Harding.
There was a gleam in the dark eyes, and a ring to the voice of the boy
as he spoke, that kindled the admiration of the Club, and when he ceased
speaking, Miller reached out and shook his hand, saying: "You should
have the money, my boy!"
Back in Massachusetts, Brewster had met with a whole train of
misfortunes; his property had become involved; his wife had died--his
voice lowered and grew husky when mentioning this--he had two little
girls, Mable and Mildred. He had kept his children at school and paid
their way despite the iron fortune that had hedged him about, and he was
working to shield them from all the sorrows possible, without the aid of
the Saint who had gone to heaven. The Club was silent for a moment, when
the strong man added, solemnly, and as if to himself: "Who knows that
she does not help us still?"
In his youth, Brewster acquired the trade of an engineer. At this time,
as we learned before, he was running a power drill in the Bullion. He
was a great reader and was thorough on many subjects.
Wright had his eyes on a stock range in California, where the land was
cheap, the pasturage fine, the water abundant, and where, with the land
and a few head of stock for a beginning, a man would in a few years be
too rich to count his money. He had been accustomed to stock, when a
boy, in Missouri, and was sure that there was more fun in chasing a wild
steer with a good mustang, than finding the biggest silver mine in
America.
Ashley had gained some new ideas since coming West. He believed he knew
a cheap farm back in Pennsylvania, that, with thorough cultivation,
would yield bountifully. There were coal and iron mines there also,
which he could open in a way to make old fogies in that country open
their eyes. He knew, too, of a district there, where a man, if he
behaved himself, might be elected to Congress. It was plain, from his
talk, that he had some ambitious plans maturing in his mind.
Corrigan had an old mother in New York. He was going to have a few acres
of land after awhile in California, where grapes and apricots would
grow, and chickens and pigs would thrive and be happy. He was going to
fix the place to his own notion, then was going to send for his mother,
and when she came, every day thereafter he was going to look into the
happiest old lady's eyes between the seas.
So they talked, and did not note how swiftly the night was speeding,
until the deep whistle of the Norcross hoisting engine sounded for the
eleven o'clock shift, and in an instant was followed by all the whistles
up and down the great lode.
Then the good nights were said, and in ten minutes the lights were
extinguished and the mantles of night and silence were wrapped around
the house.