The Old-Time Miners by Charles Carroll Goodwin

The Old-Time Miners - Page 2

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Men who see no children for months have upon them a heart-hunger which men in civilization can never comprehend.

And because of the absence of women and children, the wild beast in many a soul in the hills comes forth. There was no restraint upon them and even a quartz mill runs away sometimes when the governor on the engine ceases to act.

Many drank, many gambled, many were killed in quarrels; many became boisterous and reckless, and lives were thrown away, which, under the restraint of good women's eyes, might have made great names. It is said that the great Blucher of Prussia, riding over a dead-covered battlefield, said to an aide who was half overcome by the horror and pity of it : "Control yourself, General! When the winds and the deep-sea surges engage in battle, the shore next morning is piled deep with sea weed and other debris of the storm. It is nature's way; these, too, are but debris cast up by the storm of yesterday."

Panning the Creek.

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The graves on the tops and flanks of the Sierra are still the marks on the shore where that debris was thrown.

In another way character was formed there. The resourcefulness which out of the rude surroundings developed into high manhood and superb citizenship; which with the means at hand accomplished mighty results; the resolution which hid suffering in men's own hearts; the transition which slowly strangled the brightest hopes ever nursed by mortals until they all went out; the self-sacrifices which were made, those making them wearing all the time the smile of contentment and peace, and giving up what was sweeter than life itself as the tired child drops its toys; acts of generosity and charity to make the angel of mercy weep for joy, these and kindred features made up the unseen tragedies that were enacted there, unseen but leaving their shadows on those heights.

What was visible was the joy and enthusiasm that reigned. What songs were sung, what stories were told, how vastly the vocabulary of the language was enlarged, to produce words to fit all occasions the echoes or the ghosts of them still roll like phantom drums through those hills.

Let no one think those camps were not schools of patriotism. All the papers from the lower cities were read and re-read; the magazines from the east were devoured, the new literature of California that rang out in the words of Bret Harte, of "Caxton of La Conte; of Barstow; of Bartlett; of Stout: of Coolbrith; of O'Connell; of Marshall, and the others, were household words in the camps. And the letters by the semi-monthly steamers why talk about patriotism? When a letter comes to a young man from his mother, or from the daughter of some other young man's mother five thousand miles away. He not only loves his country but loves the stokers that fed the coal to the furnaces in the ship that brought the letter.

And from among those men there grew up a race of scientists that had few instructors save as they set the hieroglyphics which nature had embossed upon the rocks and trees and hills, to words, and in their souls made histories of them, and through those histories caught the secret of the labors that had been going on there through the ages; the work of the earth- quake, the glacier, the winds, the heat, the cold, the sunbeams -- all the agents which the Infinite employs in rounding a world into form.

A prospector and his dog.

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No other study is more impressive. With every leaf turned in that book of nature, the more accentuated comes the realization of the majesty, the mercy and the power of the Infinite Architect which ages before man had an existence save in the mind of God caused the plans to be laid and approved through which, when man should materialize, a field would be ready for him where his mind and hands might find employment and where for earnest work a sure reward would be awaiting him; and where when he became great enough to understand how the work was framed and the reward provided, he would feel like "putting the shoes from off his feet." because he was standing on holy ground.

And another character of men was developed there: strong men of affairs, captains of industry, who when they left the hills and entered into competition with ordinary men were found to be masters to take charge of any work that was presented, for to wrestle with the forces of nature and overcome the bastions and battlements which the mountains have up-reared in their own defense, make men stronger.

They were, even as was Jacob by his all-night wrestle with the Lord, strengthened by the labor, and because of it, like Jacob, they took on new titles among men.

If I have made the foregoing plain, it will be seen that while there were miners before those first California miners, and while there have been miners since in many ways their superiors as miners, there never was before, never has been since, just such a band as were they.

They had no homes with tender home influences to hold them in check; but they grew tenderer and more considerate of others because of the absence of those influences; they had no children of their own, but that made them fathers by adoption of all the world's children; many of them were wild and reckless, for there were at first no restraints upon them, no church spires to turn their gaze upward; they turned to trees which were higher than church spires, and to the sky under whose dim sheen they slept, and were perhaps nearer God because of their environments and the sentinel stars that kept solemn watch above them.

With a steadfast courage they worked out their lives; most of them, personally, are forgotten, but because they lived and toiled and kept watch that society should be kept secure against wrong and the flag above them be kept stainless, the manhood of the whole coast was exalted and the influence they exerted has been an ennobling one to the whole coast ever since.

Added March, 2008

About the Author:

Charles Carroll Goodwin was a Nevada Judge, journalist, and newspaper editor who had an active interest in Nevada mining. During his lifetime he authored numerous newspaper articles, short stories, poetry, and several books including As I Remember Them, in 1913. The Old-Time Miners is a chapter of that publication.

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