Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 89, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1917 — GOLD [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GOLD

By STEWART EDWARD WHITE

SYNOPSIS Talbot Ward’s challenge to Frank Munffoe to a personal encounter to determine Whether Munroe is fit to make a trip to California in search of gold is accepted. Manroe gets a hammerlock on Ward and Wins the bout. Ttiej reach Gatun, and, after passing through several villages where Ward always diplomatically handles the natives, they arrive in Panama. Ward puts it up to each man to get 1220 in one day. Munroe makes $25 as a laborer. Johnny gambles and gets $220. Ward astounds the party by telling bow, by shrewd business deals in one day bi the Golden City, he accumulated several thousand dollars. The party dig their first gold. They are Bet much encouraged when told that the value of their first pan Is 12 cents. Don Gaspar, a Spaniard, and his manbervant Vasquez join forces with the trio and the gold is divided Into five parts. After working like beavers several day* the miners decide .to take a day off And attend a miners’ meeting in town. For sls a week in gold and a drtnk of Whisky twice 'a day Bagsby promises to bead the party to a rich unexplored mlncountry. A band of Indians come into the camp b> trade. They are thankful for blankets. Hater the Indians attempt an ambuscade, but are routed bv rifle shots. johnny and his express messenger friends arrest two of the Hounds who •re tried for robbery. The lawless ele■Mnt controls the trial and the Hounds Are freed. Robberies grow more frequent as the lawless element holds sway. McNally Cid Buck Barry are murdered after the wleas element gets control of the city. Danny Randall organizes a vigilance committee. It is decided to publicly hang the leaders of the lawless element The camp buzzes with excitement Outbursts of the friends of the doomed man ore checked by the determined attitude Danny Randall and his committee. Arriving at San Francisco with little to show for their stay In the gold country, the party hunts up Talbot Ward. They meet Ward. He is one of the magnates of the city. While they have been bunting gold Ward, by clever real estate •peculation, has grown rich. Ward thrills the gold seekers by declaring that each will receive his share of tthe monev he has made. ( CHAPTER XXXI. The Catastrophe. SO things went along for a month. Christinas drew near. Every joint In town was preparing for a big celebration, and w e were fully In the mood to take part in It. The Ward block was finished. From top to bottom it had been swept and cleared. Crowds came every day to admire the varnish, the glass, the fire-

(places, the high plastered walls; to eniff the clean new smell of it. Everybody admitted it to be the finest bundling in the city. On Christmas eve we went to bed, etrangely enough, very early. All the ( rest of the town was celebrating, but ■we had been busy moving furniture and fixtures, had worked late in order [to i'nlsh the job and were very tired. The first Intimation of trouble come ito me in my sleep. I dreamed we were Iback on the Porcupine and that the stream was in flood. I could distinctly hear the roar of it as it swept” by. and I remember Johnny and myself ■were trying desperately to climb a big pine tree in order to get above the encroaching waters. A wind sprang up and shook the pine violently. I came slowly to waking consciousness, the dream fading into reality. Yank was standing by my cot, shaking me by <he shoulder. He was fully dressed and carried his long rifle. “Get up!’’ he told me. “There’s a big fire one or two, doors away, ..and it's headed this way.”

Then I realized that the roar of the had induced my dream. | Fifteen or twenty men wers trying to help Warren’s place resist the heat They had blankets and pails of water, apd were attempting to Interpose these ' feeble defences at the points most se- ! verely attacked. Each man stood it as long as he could, then rushed out ’ to cool his reddened face. • | “Reminds me of the way I used to ' pop corn when I was a kid.” grinned a miner. “I wouldn’t care for that job.” i “Just the same, they'll save it,” obl served Talbot judicially. ! Almost coincident With his words a long drawn “A-ah!” burst from the crowd. A wandering, gust of windi came In from the ocean. For the briefest instant the tall straight column of flame bent gracefully before it. then I.came upright again as it passed. In that Instant it licked across the side wall of Warren’s place and immediately Warren’s place burst into flame. “Hard luck!” commented Talbot. The fire fighters swarmed out like bees from a disturbed hive. “Our hotel next.” said Johnny. “That’s safe enough. There’s a wide lot between,” I observed. A fresh crew of fire fighters took the place of the others —namely,"those personally interested in saving the hotel. “Lucky the might is so still,” said Talbot. We watched Warren’s place burn with all the half guilty joy of those W’ho are sorry, but who are glad tp be there if It has to happen. Suddenly Talbot threw up his head. “Feel that breeze?” he cried. “Suction into the fire,” suggested Johnny. But Talbot shook his fciead impatient- I Ty, trying to peer through the glare ' into the sky. It was a very gentle breeze from the direction of the ocean. I could barely feel it on my cheek, and it was not strong enough as yet to affect in the slightest the upward roaring column I of flame. For a moment I was inclined , to agree with Johnny that It was sim- J ply a current of air induced by the conflagration. But now an uneasy motion began to take place in the crowd. Men elbowed their way here and there, met, conferred, gathered in knots. In less than a minute Talbot signaled us. We made our way to where he was standing with Sam Brannan, Casey, Green and a. few others. “Thank God the wind is from the i northwest,” ’ Talbot said fervently. “The Ward block Is safely to windward, and we don’t need to worry about that, anyway. But it is a wind, and it’s freshening. We’ve got to do something to stop this fire.” As though to emphasize the need for some sort of action, a second and stronger puff of wind sent whirling aloft a shower of sparks and brands. We started at double quick in the direction of the flimsy small structures between the old El Dorado and the Parker House. Some men, after a moment, brought ropes and axes. We began to tear down the shanties. But before we had been at work five minutes the fire began to run. The wind from the sea increased. Blazing pieces of wood flew through the air like arrows. Flames stooped in their stride and licked up their prey and went on rejoicing. Structures one minute dark and cold and still burst with Startling suddenness and completeness into rioting conflagration. Our little beginning of a defense was attacked and captured before, we had had time

to perfect it The half dozen fehanties we had pulled to the ground merely furnished piled fuel. Somewhat demoralized, we fell back and tried rather vaguely to draw a second line of defense. The smoke and sparks suffocated and overwhelmed us, and the following flames leaped upon us as from behind an ambush. Some few men continued gropingly to try to do something, but the most of us were only too glad to get out where we could catch a breath. Almost immediately, however, we were hurried back by frantic merchants. , “Save the goods!” was the cry. We labored like slaves, carrying merchandise, fixtures, furniture, anything and everything from the darkened Interiors of buildings to the open spaces. I worked as I had never worked before, and not once did I know whose property 1 thus saved. At first I groped In the darkness, seizing what I could, then gradually, like the glow of a red dawn, a strange light grew, sh owing dimly and ruddlly the half guessed features of the place. It glowed, this light, Increasing in power as heating metal slowly turns red, and then the flames licked through, and, dripping with sweat, I abandoned that place to its enemy. All sense of time and all sense of k>

locality were lost The world was a I strange world of deep, concealing shadows and strong, revealing glares and a miss of smoke and hurrying, shouting, excited multitudes. Sometimes I found 1 myself in queer little temporary eddies of stillness, where a certain calm and leisure seemed to have been insulated. Then for a brief moment or so I rested. Occasionally I would find myself with some stranger, and we would exchange brief exclamatory remarks. r • “Whole city is going!” ’ “Looks like it.” “Hear a roof fell in and killed twenty men.” “Probably exaggerated.” ’ “Probably. Don’t catch me Under no falling roofs! When she gets afire I get out." “Same here.” - “Well, I suppose we ought to try to do something.” “Suppose so.” And we would go at it again. At the end of two or three hours —no man can guess time in such a situation —the tire stopped advancing. I suppose the wind must have changed, though at the time I <}id not notice it. At any rate, J found myself in the gray dawn looking rather stupidly at a row of the frailest kind of canvas and scantling houses which the fife had sheared cleanly in two and wondering why in thunder the rest of them hadn’t burned. A dense pall of smoke hung over the city and streamed away to the south and east. In the burned district all rense of location had been lost. Where before had been well known landmarks I now lay a flat desert. The fire had burned fiercely and completely and in lack of food had died down to almost nothing. A few wisps of smoke still rose, a few coals glowed, but beside them nothing remained to indicate even the laying out of the former plan. Only over across a dead acreage of ashes rose here and there the remains of isolated brick walls. They looked through the eddying mists and smoke like ancient ruins separated by wide spaces. I gazed dully across the waste area, taking deep breaths, resting, my mind numb. Then gradually it was borne in on me that the Plaza itself looked rather more empty sided than it should. A cold hand gripped my heart. I began to skirt the smoldering embers of the shanties and wooden warehouses trying to follow where the streets had been. Men were prowling about everywhere, blackened by smoke, their clothing torn and burned. “Can you make out where Higgins’ store was?” one of them hailed me. “I had a little shanty next door and some gold dust. Figure I might pan it out of the ashes if I could only find the place!” I had no time to help him and left him prowling around seeking for a landmark. The Plaza was full of people. I made my way to the northerly corner and, pushing a passage through the bystanders, contemplated three Jagged, tottering brick walls, a heap of smoldering debris and a twisted tangle of iron work. This represented all that remained of the Ward block. The change of wind that had saved the shanties had destroyed our fortune.

A tong drawn “A-ah!” burst from the crowd.

This Represented All That Remained of the Ward block.