CHAPTER XVIII
BEGINNINGS OF GOVERNMENT
Our visit to the town we postponed from day to day because we wereeither too busy or too tired. We thought we could about figure out whatthat crude sort of village would be like. Then on Saturday evening ourneighbour with the twinkling eye--whom we called McNally, withoutconviction, because he told us to--informed us that there would be aminers' meeting next day, and that we would be expected to attend.
Accordingly we visited the town. The street was full of men idlingslowly to and fro. All the larger structures were wide open, and fromwithin could be heard the sounds of hurdy-gurdies, loud laughter andnoisy talk. At one end of the street a group was organizing a horserace; and toward this Don Gaspar took his immediate departure. A smallergroup surrounded two wrestlers. At one side a jumping match was goingon.
Among the usual incongruities we saw some that amused us more thanordinarily. The Indians, for example, were rather numerous, andremarkable. One wore as his sole garment an old dress coat: another hadtied a pair of trousers around his waist; a third had piled a half dozenhats atop, one over the other; and many had on two or more coats. Theywere, to a man, well drunken. Their squaws, fat and unattractive,squatted outside the single store of the place. We saw also a dozen orso white men dressed very plainly and shabbily, tall, lank, and spindly,rather weakly in general appearance, their faces sallow, their eyesrather childish but crafty and treacherous, their hair thin andstraight. The points in common were pointed, nearly brimless hats, likesmall extinguishers, and that they were the only men to use suspenders.They were from Pike County in Missouri; and in our experience with themwe found their appearance a close indication of their character. Theywere exceedingly skilful with both axe and rifle, were expertbackwoodsmen, but without physical strength, very childish and ignorant,vindictive, narrow, and so extremely clannish and tenacious of their ownopinions that they were always an exasperating element to be reckonedwith, in any public matter. We saw also a compact little group of darksmall men, with bright eyes and quick manners. They held close togetherand chattered like a lot of magpies. McNally, who had spotted us fromafar, informed us that these were "keskydees," and that they always didstick close together.
"What are 'keskydees'?" I asked him.
"That's what everybody calls them," said McNally. "I suppose it'sbecause they always say it, 'Keskydee, keskydee,' like a lot ofchickadees."
"French!" cried Johnny, suddenly enlightened. "_Q'estce qu'ildit._"
"Yes, that's it," agreed McNally; "keskydee. What does it mean, anyway?"
"What is he saying," translated Johnny.
At this time there were a great many French in California; and for anumber of years I could not quite understand why. Then I learned thatmost of them were prize winners in a series of lotteries, called theLotteries of the Golden Ingot. The prizes were passages to California,and the lotteries were very popular. The French, or keskydees, as theywere universally called, always went about in gangs, while the othernationalities were more inclined to amalgamate with the rest of thecommunity. We saw, also, several "Dutch Charleys" who had struck itrich. They were moon-faced, bland, chuckle-headed looking men, generallywith walrus moustaches, squat and heavy, with fatuous, placid smiles. Isuppose they had no real idea of values, but knew only the differencebetween having money and not having money. These prosperous individualscarried two or even more watches at the ends of long home-made chainsconstructed of gold nuggets fastened together with lengths of copperwire. The chains were looped around their necks, about their shouldersand waists, and hung down in long festoons. We had three apparently, ofthese Dutch Charleys, all deadly rivals in magnificence. They paradedslowly up and down the street, quite satisfied with themselves, andcasting malevolent glances at each other when they passed.
The two gambling places and saloons were hard at it. The low rooms werefull of smoke, and crowded with slowly jostling men. In contrast to thedeadly quiet of such places in San Francisco, these were full of noiseand hubbub. The men moved restlessly, threw down their little bags ofdust impatiently, and accepted victory or defeat with very audiblecomments. The gamblers, dressed in black, pale, sat steady-eyed andsilent behind their layouts. I suppose the life must already havedeveloped, if not a type, at least a uniform mental attitude that showeditself in outward expression. That was, first of all, an intent, quietwatchfulness; and, secondly, an iron resolution to meet whateveroffered. The gambler must be prepared instantly to shoot; and at thesame time he must realize fully that shooting is going to get him introuble. For the sympathy of a mining camp was generally stronglyagainst him when it came to a question of this sort. We treatedourselves to a drink at the bar, and went outside.
Already the drift of miners was toward the end of the street where agood sized crowd had gathered. We fell in. Under a large oak tree hadbeen placed a barrel and several boxes from the store, and on theselatter our friend John Semple, the carpenter, was mounting.
"John's the _alcalde_," McNally explained to us. "He's the mostlevel-headed man in these diggings."
Most of the miners sat down on the ground in front, though some remainedafoot. Semple rapped sharply on the barrel with the muzzle of hisrevolver.
"This is a miners' meeting," he stated briefly. "And we have severalthings to talk about. Most important thing, 'cordin' to my notion, isthis row about that big nugget. Seems these yere three men, whose namesI disremember, is partners and is panning down there in the lowerdiggings, and while one of them is grubbing around with a shovel gettingready to fill the company pan, he sees this yere nugget in the shovel,and annexes it. Now he claims it's his nugget, and the rest of 'em claimit belongs to all of them as partners. How about it?"
Two men sprang to their feet and began to talk.
"You set down!" Semple ordered them. "You ain't got nothing to do withdecidin' this. We'll let you know what to do. If the facts ain't right,as I stated 'em, say so; but we don't want no theories out of you._Set down!_ I say."
They subsided, and a silence fell which no one seemed inclined to break.
"Well," said Semple impatiently, "come on! Speak up! Whar's all thisassorted lot of theories I been hearing in the say-loons ever since thatnugget was turned up?"
A man with the most extraordinarily ragged garments got to his feet andbegan to speak in a pleasant and cultivated voice.
"I have no solution to offer this company," said he, "but I am, or was,a New York lawyer; and if my knowledge of partnerships will help any,this is the New York law." He sketched briefly the New York rulings onpartnerships, and sat down.
"Much obliged, I'm sure," said Semple cordially. "We're glad to know howthey've figgered it out down thar. Only trouble, as far as I see, isthat they ain't usually findin' many nuggets down that neck of thewoods; so they ain't precisely fitted the case. Anybody know anythingnearer to home?"
"I panned in Shirttail Bar last two months," blurted a hoarse andembarrassed individual, without rising, "and down thar they had areg'lation that airy nugget that weighs over a half ounce that is foundbefore the dirt is thrown in the cradle belongs to the man that findsit, and not to the company. Of course this here is a pan, and not acradle."
"That's more like business. Anybody know if anywhar they do it the otherway around?"
Apparently nobody did.
"Anybody got any idees as to why we shouldn't follow Shirttail in thismatter? Dog-gone you! _Set down!_ You ain't got nothin' to sayhere."
The man appealed to the crowd.
"Ain't I got a right to be heard in my own case?" he demanded.
"This ain't your case," persisted John Semple stoutly; "it's decidin'what the policy of this camp is goin' to be regardin' nuggets. Yourdog-gone case is mighty unimportant and you're a prejudiced party. Andif you don't set down, I'll come down there and argue with you! If noneof you other fellows has anything to say, we'll vote on it."
We then and there decided, almost unanimously, to follow Shirttail.
"Now," resumed Semple,
after this matter had been disposed of, "there'sa bunch of these yere keskydees around throwin' assorted duckfits allthis morning; and as near as I can make out they say somebody's jumpedtheir claim or their camp, or something. Jim, supposin' you and your tinstar saunter down and eject these jumpers."
A very tall, quiet, slow moving man arose, aimed his tobacco juice at asmall tree, drawled out the words, "All right, Jedge," and departed,trailed by a half dozen jabbering keskydees, to whom he paid not theslightest attention.
"Now," said Semple, "we got a couple of Greasers yere caught stealin'.Buck Barry and Missouri Jones caught them at it, so there ain't much usehearin' witnesses as to the fact. Question is: what do we want to dowith them?"
"What did they steal?" demanded a voice.
"They just nat'rally didn't steal _nothin'_," said a heavy built,square-jawed, clean-shaven man whom I guessed to be Buck Barry. "Notwhile I was around."
"Yes," persisted the other, "but what was they after."
"Oh, an extry pair of boots, and a shirt, and some tobacco, et cetery,"replied Buck Barry contemptuously.
"Let's see them," shouted several voices.
After a moment's delay two ragged and furtive Mexicans were draggedbefore the assembly. A contemplative silence ensued. Then an elderly manwith a square gray beard spoke up.
"Well," said he deliberately, "airy man so low down and shif'less andmiserable as to go to stealin' boots and shirts and tobacco in this campis shore outside my corral. He sure must be a miserable person. Why'nhell didn't Buck and Missou give him a few lifts with the toes of theirboots, and not come botherin' us with them?"
Both Barry and Jones started to reply, but Semple cut them short.
"They was going to do just that," he announced, "but I persuaded them tobring this matter up before this meetin' because we got to begin totake some measures to stop this kind of a nuisance. There's a lot ofundesirables driftin' into this camp lately. You boys all recall howlast fall we kep' our dust under our bunks or most anywhere, and feltperfectly safe about it; but that ain't now. A man has to carry his dustright with him. Now, if we can't leave our tents feeling our goods issafe, what do you expect to do about it? We got to throw the fear of Godinto the black hearts of these hounds."
At this juncture Jim, the sheriff, returned and leaned nonchalantlyagainst a tree, chewing a straw.
Accepting the point of view advanced by the chair, the miners decidedthat the two thieves should be whipped and banished from camp. A strongfeeling prevailed that any man who, in this age of plenty, would descendto petty thieving, was a poor, miserable creature to be pitied. Somecharitably inclined individual actually took up a small collection whichwas presented to the thieves after they had received their punishment.
"And now, _vamos_, git!" advised Semple. "And spread the gladtidings. We'll do the same by any more of you. Well, Jim?" he inquiredof the sheriff.
Jim shifted his straw from the right corner of his mouth to the left.
"That outfit don't eject worth a cuss," said he laconically.
"How many of them is there?" asked Semple.
"Two--and a shotgun," stated Jim.
"I reckon we'll eject them if we say 'eject'!" cried some onetruculently; and several others growled assent.
Jim cast a humorous eye in that direction.
"Oh, I reckon I'm ekal to the job," said he, "and if you say 'eject'again, why out they go. Only when I looked that outfit over, and sawthey was only two of them and six of these jabbering keskydees, why, Ijest nat'rally wondered whether it was by and according to the peace anddignity of this camp to mix up in that kind of a muss. I should thinkthey ought to be capable of doin' their own ejecting."
A discussion arose on this point. The sentiment seemed unanimous thatthe Frenchmen ought to have been able to protect themselves, but wasdivided on the opinion as to how far the camp was now committed toaction.
"They'll think they've bluffed us out, if we drop her now," argued oneside.
"It ought not to be the policy of this camp to mix up with privatequarrels," argued the other.
John Semple decided the question.
"It looks like we're in the hole," he admitted, "and have got to dosomething. Now, I tell you what I'm going to do: I'm going to have Jimhere give these keskydees blank warrants that they can serve themselves,and to suit themselves."
This ingenious solution was very highly commended.
"Unless somebody else has something to bring up, I guess that's aboutall," announced Semple.
"No inquests?" some one asked.
"Nary an inquest. This camp is gettin' healthy. Adjourned!" And themeeting was brought to a formal conclusion by a tap of the pistol on theempty barrel.