When the Club reassembled Carlin, addressing the Colonel, said: "You
told us of a royal old bummer last night, and Miller told us of an angel
in miner's garb. Your stories reminded me of something which happened in
Hamilton, in Eastern Nevada, in the early times, when the thermometer
was at zero, when homes were homes and food was food. There was a royal
fellow there, too, only he was not a miner, and though he lived upon the
earnings of others, he never accepted charity. By profession he was a
gambler, and not a very 'high-toned' gambler at that. He was known as
'Andy Flinn,' though it was said, for family reasons, he did not pass
under his real name.
"Well, Andy had, in sporting parlance, been 'playing in the worst kind
of luck' for a good while. One afternoon his whole estate was reduced to
the sum of fifteen dollars. He counted it over in his room, slipped it
back into his pocket and started up town. A little way from the lodging
where he roomed he was met by a man who begged him to step into a house
near by and see how destitute the inmates were.
"Andy mechanically followed the man, who led the way to a cabin, threw
open the door and ushered Andy in. There was a man, the husband and
father, ill in bed, while the wife and mother, a delicate woman, and two
little children, were, in scanty garments, hovering around the ghost of
a fire.
"Andy took one look, then rushed out of doors, the man who had led him
into the cabin following. Andy walked rapidly away until out of hearing
of the wretched people in the house, then swinging on his heel, for full
two minutes hurled the most appalling anathemas at the man for leading
him, as Andy expressed it, 'into the presence of those advance agents of
a famine.'
"When he paused for breath the man said, quietly: 'I like that; I like
to see you fellows, that take the world so carelessly and easily,
stirred up occasionally.'
"'Easy!' said Andy; 'you had better try it. You think our work is easy;
you are a mere child. We don't get half credit. I tell you to make a man
an accomplished gambler requires more study than to acquire a learned
profession; more labor than is needed to become a deft artisan. You talk
like a fool. Easy, indeed!'
"'I don't care to discuss that point with you, Andy,' said the man. 'I
expect you are right, but that is not the question. What are you, a big,
strong, healthy fellow, going to do to help those poor wretches in the
cabin yonder?'
"Andy plunged his hand into his pocket, drew out the fifteen dollars and
was just going to pass it over to the man when a thought struck him.
'Hold on,' he said; 'a man is an idiot that throws away his capital and
then has to take his chances with the thieves that fill this camp. You
come with me. I am going to try to take up a collection. By the way,' he
said, shortly, 'do you ever pray?'
"The man answered that he did sometimes. 'Then,' said Andy, 'you put in
your very biggest licks when I start my collection.'
"Not another word was said until they reached and entered a then famous
saloon on Main street.
"Going to the rear where a faro game was in progress, Andy exchanged his
fifteen dollars for chips and began to play. He never ceased; hardly
looked up from the table for two hours. Sometimes he won and sometimes
he lost, but the balance was on the winning side. Finally he ceased
playing, gathered up his last stakes, and beckoning to the man who had
come with him to the saloon, and who had watched his playing with lively
interest, he led the way into the billiard room.
"Andy went to a window on one side of the room and began to search his
pockets, piling all the money he could find on the sill of the window.
The money was all in gold and silver.
"When his pockets were emptied, with the quickness of men of his class,
he ran the amount over. Then taking from a billiard table a bit of chalk
he, with labored strokes, wrote on the window sill the following:
hul sum $263 50
starter 15 00
-------
doo ter god $248 50
"He picked up a ten-dollar piece and a five-dollar piece from the
amount, then pushing the rest along the sill away from the figures,
asked the man to count it. He did so and said:
"'I make altogether $248.50, Andy.'
"'I suspect you are correct,' said Andy, 'and now you take that money
and go and fix up those people as comfortably as you can. Tell 'em we
took up a collection among the boys; don't say a word about it on the
outside, and see here. If you ever again show me as horrible a sight as
that crowd makes in that accursed den down the street, I'll break every
bone in your body.'
"'But,' said the man, 'this is not right, Andy. It is too much. Fifty
dollars would be a most generous contribution from you. Give me fifty
dollars and you take back the rest.'
"'What do you take me for?' was Andy's reply. 'Don't you think I have
any honor about me? When I went into that saloon I promised God that if
He would stand in with me, His poor should have every cent that I could
make in a two hours' deal. I would simply be a liar and a thief if I
took a cent of that money. You praying cusses have not very clear ideas
of right and wrong after all.'
"The man went on his errand of mercy, and Andy returned and invested his
money in the bank again, as he said, 'to try to turn an honest penny.'"
"That was a right ginerous man," remarked Corrigan.
"May be and may be not," was the remark of the Colonel. "It is possible
that he had been 'playing in bad luck,' as they say, for a good while
and did it to change that luck. Confirmed gamesters never reason clearly
on ordinary subjects. They are either up in the clouds or down in the
depths; they are perpetually studying the doctrine of chances, and are
as full of superstitions as so many fortune tellers."
"That class of men are proverbially generous, though," said Harding;
"but the way they get their money, I suspect, has something to do with
the matter. Had the man earned the money at four dollars a day, running
a car down in a hot mine, he would hardly have given up the whole sum."
Here Miller took up the conversation. "I knew a man down in Amador
county, California," said he, "who worked in a mine as we are working
here, except that wages were $3.50 instead of $4.00 per day. He came
there in the fall of the year and worked eight months. His clothes were
always poor. He lived in a cabin by himself, and such miners as happened
into his cabin at meal time declared their belief that his food did not
cost half a dollar a day. He never joined the miners down town; was
never known to treat to as much as a glass of beer. We all hated him
cordially and looked upon him as a miner so avaricious that he was
denying himself the common comforts of life. He was the talk of the
mine, and many were the scornful words which he was made to hear and to
know that they were uttered at his expense. Still he was quiet and
resented nothing that was said, and there was no dispute about his being
a most capable and faithful miner. At last one morning as the morning
shift were waiting at the shaft to be lowered into the mine, Baxter
(that was his name) appeared, and, after begging our attention for a
moment, said:
"'Gentlemen, there is the dead body of an old man up in the cabin across
from the trail. It will cost sixty dollars to bury it in a decent
coffin. The undertaker will not trust me, but if twenty of you will put
in three dollars each, I will pay you all when pay-day comes.'
"Then we questioned him, and it came out at last that Baxter had found
the old man sick a few days after he came to work, and of his $3.50 per
day had spent $3.00 in food, medicine and medical attendance upon the
man, all through the long winter, and had moreover often watched with
him twelve hours out of the twenty-four. It was not a child that
something might be hoped for; there was no beautiful young girl about
the place to be in love with. It was simply a death watch over a
worn-out pauper. I thought then, I think still, it was as fine a thing
as ever I saw.
"There were sixty of us on the mine. We put in ten dollars apiece, went
to Baxter in a body, and, begging his pardon, asked him to accept it.
"With a smile, he answered: 'I thank you, but I cannot take it. I have
wasted much money in my time. Now I feel as though I had a little on
interest, and I shall get along first rate.'
"Talk about royalty, our Baxter was an Emperor."
"He did have something on interest," said Brewster. "Something for this
world and the world to come."
"Did you ever hear about Jack Marshall's attempt to pay his debts by
clerking in a store?" asked Savage. "Jack brought a good deal of coin
here and opened a store. He did first rate for several months, and after
awhile branched out into a larger business, which required a good many
men. When everything was promising well a fire came and swept away the
store and a flood destroyed the other property. There was just enough
saved out of the wreck to pay the laborers.
"When all was settled up Jack had but forty-three dollars left and an
orphan boy to take care of. Just then a man that Jack had known for a
good while as a miner, came into town, and hearing of Jack's
misfortunes, hunted him up and told him that he had given up mining and
settled down to farming, and begged Jack to come and make his home with
him until he had time to think over what was best to do. He further said
that he had twelve acres of land cleared and under fence, with ditches
all dug for irrigating the crop; that he had a yoke of oxen to plough
the land; that his intention was to plant the whole twelve acres to
potatoes; that a fair crop would yield him sixty tons, which, as
potatoes then were four cents a pound, would bring him nearly $5,000 for
the season. But he explained that he could not drive oxen, and more than
that, it required two men to do the work, and as he had not much money
and did not want to run in debt, his business in town was to find some
steady man who could drive oxen, who would go with him and help him
plant, tend, harvest and sell the crop on shares. The ranch was down on
Carson River, not far from Fort Churchill.
"When the man had finished his story, Jack said to him: 'How would I do
for a steady man and a bovine manipulator?'
"'My God, Mr. Marshall! you would not undertake to drive oxen and plant
potatoes, would you?' said the man.
"'That's just what I would,' said Jack, 'if you think you can endure me
for a partner. I will become a horny-handed tender of the vine--the
potato vine. What say you?'
"Well, that evening both men started for the farm. No friend of Jack
knew his real circumstances. They knew he had been unfortunate, but did
not know that it was a case of 'total wreck.' He bade a few of them
good-bye, with the careless remark that he was going for a few days'
hunt down toward the sink of the Carson.
"Well, he ploughed the land, the two men planted the crop and irrigated
it until the potatoes were splendidly advanced and just ready to
blossom. It got to be the last of June and the promise for a bountiful
crop was encouraging. They had worked steadily since the middle of
March. But just then a thief, who had some money, made a false
affidavit, got from a court an injunction against the men and shut off
the water. It was just at the critical time when the life of the crop
depended upon water. In two weeks the whole crop was ruined. In the
meantime for seed and provisions, clothes, etc., a debt of one hundred
and fifty dollars had been contracted at the store of a Hebrew named
Isaacs. News of the injunction reached the merchant, and one morning he
put in an appearance.
"'Meester Marshall, hous dings?' asked Isaacs.
"Pointing to the blackened and withering crop, Jack answered: 'They look
a little bilious, don't you think so?'
"'Mine Gott! Mine Gott!' was the wailing exclamation. Then, after a
pause, 'Ven does you suppose you might pay me, Meester Marshall?'
"'As things have been going of late, I think in about seven years. It is
said that bad luck changes about every seven years.'
"'Mine Gott! Meester Marshall,' cried Isaacs; 'haven't you got nodings
vot you can pay? I vill discount de bill--say ten per cent.'
"'Nothing that I can think of, except a dog. I have a dog that is worth
two hundred dollars, but to you I will discount the dog twenty-five per
cent.'
"'O, mine Gott! vot you dinks I could do mit a dog?' said the despairing
merchant.
"'Why keep him for his society, Mr. Isaacs,' was the bantering answer.
'With him salary is not so much an object as a comfortable and
respectable home. There's too much alkali on the soil to encourage fleas
to remain, so there's no difficulty on that score; and he's an awfully
good dog, Isaacs; no bad habits, and the most regular boarder you ever
saw; he has never been late to a meal since we have been here. You had
better take him; twenty-five per cent is an immense discount.'
"By this time the Hebrew was nearly frantic.
"'Meester Marshall,' he said, hesitatingly, 'did you clerk ever in a
store?'
"'Oh, yes.'
"'Vould you clerk for me?'
"'Yes: that is, until that bill shall be settled.'
"'Ven could you come?'
"'Whenever you wish.'
"'Vould you come next Monday--von of mine clerks, Henery, goes avay
Monday?'
"'Yes, I will be on hand Monday. Let us see; it is seven miles to walk.
I will be there about nine o'clock in the morning.'
"'Vell, I danks you, Meester Marshall; danks you very much.'
"He turned away and rode off a few steps, then stopped and called back:
'Meester Marshall, if you dinks vot de society of de dog is essential to
your comfort, bring him.'
"'Thanks, Isaacs,' cried Jack, cheerfully; 'considering where I am going
to work, and the company I am going to keep, it will not be necessary.'
"Jack went as he had promised. Isaacs, who was a thoroughly good man,
was delighted to see him, shook hands cordially, and then suddenly, with
a mysterious look, led him to the extreme rear end of the store, and
when there, placing his lips close to Jack's ear, in a hoarse whisper,
said:
"'Meester Marshall, de vater here is ---- bad; it is poison, horrible.
You drinks nodings but vine until you gets used to de vater.'
"Marshall went to work at once. It was in 1863. The war was at its
height, and Jack was intensely Union, while Isaacs, his employer, was a
furious Democrat. Nothing of especial interest transpired for a couple
of weeks, when one day an emigrant woman, just across the plains,
leading two little children, came into the store.
"She was an exceedingly poor woman, evidently. All her clothes were not
worth three dollars, while her children were pitiful looking beyond
description.
"Isaacs was in the front of the store; Jack was putting up goods in the
rear, but in hearing, while another clerk was in the warehouse outside
of the main store. Isaacs went to wait on the woman. She picked out some
needed articles of clothing for her children, amounting to some six or
eight dollars, then unrolling a dilapidated kerchief, from its inner
folds drew out a Confederate twenty-dollar note and tendered it in
payment.
"Isaacs, who had been all smiles, drew back in horror, exclaiming: 'I
cannot take dot; dot is not monish, madam.'
"Jack overheard what Isaacs said and the woman's reply, as follows:
"'It is all that I have; it is all the money that we have had in
Arkansas since the war commenced. Everybody takes it in Arkansas.'
"This conversation continued for two or three minutes, and the woman was
just about turning away without the goods when Jack, unable to longer
bear it, stepped forward and said:
"'Mr. Isaacs, Mr. Smith would like to see you in the warehouse; please
permit me to wait upon the lady.'
"'All right,' said Isaacs, 'only (in a whisper) remember dot ish not
money.'
"Isaacs passed out of the store and Jack then said: 'If you please,
madam, let me see your money.'
"The woman, with a trembling hand, presented the Confederate note. Jack
glanced at it and said:
"'Why, this is first-class money, madam. It is just a prejudice that
that infernal old Abolitionist has. I will discharge him to-night. They
would hang him in two hours in Arkansas, and they ought to hang him
here. Buy all the goods you want, madam.'
"With eyes full of gratitude the woman increased the bill, until it
amounted to eleven dollars and a half. Jack tied up the goods, took the
Confederate note, handed the woman a five-dollar gold piece and three
dollars and fifty cents in silver, and she went on her way holding the
precious coin, the first she had seen in years, closely clasped in her
hand.
"Jack charged goods to cash twenty dollars, charged himself to cash
twenty dollars, and went back to putting up goods, humming to himself.
"'Half the world never knows how the other half lives.' Jack's salary
was one hundred and fifty dollars a month. He owed one hundred and fifty
dollars when he went to work. It took him four months to pay off his
indebtedness, but when he gave up his place he had all his pockets full
of Confederate money."
As the story was finished, Miller said: "A real pleasant but
characteristic thing happened right here in this city when Bishop W----
first came here.
"He wanted to establish a church, and his first work was to select men
who would act and be a help to him as trustees.
"It is nothing to get trustees for a mining company here, but a church
is a different thing. In a church, you know, a man has to die to fill
his shorts, and then, somehow, in these late years men have doubts about
the formation, so that when a man starts a company on that lead any more
he finds it mighty hard to place any working capital.
"At the time I was speaking of it was just about impossible to get a
full staff of trustees that would exactly answer the orthodox
requirements. But the Bishop is a man of expedients. It was sinners that
he came to call to repentance, and it did not take him long to discover
that right here was a big field. He went to work at once with an energy
that has never abated for a moment since. He selected all his trustees
but one, and looking around for him, with a clear instinct he determined
that Abe E---- should be that one if he would accept the place.
"Now Abe was the best and truest of men, but he would swear sometimes.
Indeed when he got started on that stratum he was a holy terror. But the
Bishop put him down as a trustee, and, meeting Abe on the street,
informed him that he was trying to organize a church; had taken the
liberty to name him as a trustee, and asked Abe to do him the honor of
attending a trustees' meeting at 1 o'clock the next afternoon.
"'I would be glad to help you, Bishop,' said Abe, 'but----it----I
don't know. I can run a mine or a quartz mill, but I don't know any more
than a Chinaman about running a church.'
"But the Bishop plead his case so ably that Abe at length surrendered,
promised to attend the meeting, and, having promised, like the sterling
business man that he was, promptly put in an appearance.
"Besides Abe and the Bishop, there were six others. When all had
assembled the Bishop explained that he desired to build a church; that
he had plans, specifications and estimates for a church to cost $9,000,
with lot included; that he believed $1,500 might be raised by
subscription, leaving the church but $7,500 in debt, which amount would
run at low interest and which in a growing place like Virginia City the
Bishop thought might be paid up in four or five years, leaving the
church free. He closed by asking the sense of the trustees as to the
wisdom and practicability of making the attempt.
"There was a general approval of the plan expressed by all present
except Abe, who was silent until his opinion was directly asked by the
Bishop.
"'Why ---- it, Bishop,' said he, 'I told you that I knew nothing about
church business, but I don't like the plan. If you were to get money at
fifteen per cent per annum, which is only half the regular banking rate,
your interest would amount to nearly $1,200 a year, or almost as much as
you hope to raise for a commencement. I am afraid, Bishop, you would
never live long enough to get out of debt. You want a church, why ----
it, why don't you work the business as though you believed it would pay?
That is the only way you can get up any confidence in the scheme.'
"Abe sat down and the Bishop's heart sank with him.
"With a smile, one of the other gentlemen asked Abe what his plan for
getting a church would be.
"'I will tell you,' said Abe, 'I move that an assessment of one thousand
dollars be levied upon each of the trustees, payable immediately.'
"It was a startling proposition to the Bishop, who was just from the
East and who had not become accustomed to Comstock ways. With a
faltering voice he said:
"'Mr. E., I fear that I cannot at present raise $1,000.'
"'Never mind, Bishop,' said Abe, 'we will take yours out in preaching;
but there is no rebate for any of the rest of you. If you are going to
serve the Lord, you have got to be respectable about it. Your checks if
you please, gentlemen.'
"All were wealthy men, the checks were laughingly furnished, with joking
remarks that it was the first company ever formed in Virginia City where
the officers really invested any money.
"'Abe took the checks, added his own to the number, begged the Bishop to
excuse him, remarking as he went out that while he had every faith in
the others still he was anxious to reach the bank a little in advance of
them, and started up town.
"He met this man and that and demanded of each a check for from $50 to
$250, as he thought they could respectively afford to pay.
"When asked how long he would want the money his reply was: 'I want it
for keeps, ---- it. I am building a church.' In forty minutes he had the
whole sum. He took the checks to the bank and for them received a
certificate of deposit in the Bishop's name. Carrying this to the
Bishop's house he rang the bell.
"'The Bishop had seen his coming and answered the summons in person.
Handing him the certificate Abe said:
"'Take that for a starter, Bishop. It won't be enough, for a church is
like an old quartz mill. The cost always exceeds the estimates a good
deal, but go ahead, and when you need more money we will levy another
assessment on the infernal sinners.'"
Strong, who had been listening attentively said: "I heard the Bishop
preach and pray over Abe's dead body three years ago, and watched him as
he took a last, long look at Abe's still, clear-cut splendid face as it
was composed in death. Abe never joined the church, and I am told that
he swore a little to the last. His part in building the church was
simply one of his whims, but for years he was a Providence here to
scores of people. No one knew half his acts of bountiful, delicate
charity, or in how many homes bitter tears were shed when he died.
"But the Bishop knew enough to know and feel as he was praying over his
remains, that while it was well as a matter of form, it was quite
unnecessary; that, so far as Abe was concerned, he was safe; that in the
Beyond where the mansions are and where the light is born; where, over
all, are forever stretched out the brooding wings of celestial peace,
Abe had been received, and that, upon his coming, while the welcomes
were sounding and the greetings were being made to him, flowers burst
through the golden floor and blossomed at his feet.
"Among the royal ones of the earth, the soul of Abe E---- bore the
sceptre of perfect sovereignty."
"I knew him," said Corrigan, "may his soul rest in peace, for he was a
noble man."
"I knew him," interposed Carlin, "no words give an idea of how sterling
and true a man he was."
"I knew him," added Wright. "When he died Virginia City did not realize
the loss which his death entailed."
"I knew him," concluded Strong. "His heart was a banyan tree, its limbs
were perpetually bending down and taking root, till it made shade for
the poor of the city."
Then Carlin, opening the door to the kitchen, called Yap Sing to bring
glasses. A night-cap toddy was made and as it was drank the good nights
were spoken.