Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1869 — A California Yarn. [ARTICLE]

A California Yarn.

.There is a fellow over at Groundhog's Glory who ha» a rich claim for sale. Sqm Ilodgers hoard ah oj)t it the other .lav nml went over there to tiee tvhat the chance* were for making a good bargain. Sam is u dissatisfied sort o! a fellow, and is always Irving to buy into something rich. So, as l was saving, he bulged right over to Groundhog's Glory the moment he heard of it. When he got. there he found that the owner of the claim 3nd his wife had gone on a visit to another family in the Big Bug. Canon. The only person about the place was 8 small hoy about twelve years old. From him-Sam obtained some information which the owner himself might not have communicated Sam went down with the boy and took a look at the claim. While he -was casting--h-ir-rye «ronnd,-tlrg-bo]r sat on the bunk and whistled, “Oli Gosh! my own Jemima. ’ Having finished his survey, Sam went up and sat down beside the innocent juvenile. “Bub,” said he, “I've heard that this is a rich claim, and it does look pretty well. Now tell me the honest truth, what does your father want to sell out lor if it's as rich as they say?” The small boy stopped whistling, cocked his head to one side, closed one eye and squinted thoughtfully at Bam with the other. “Stranger, have you got half a dollar about you? If you have perhaps I wouldn’t mind telling you.” Sam forked , over the/half dollar and the boy looked at it a moment and whistled, “Get out of the Wilderness.” “Well, feller, bein’ as it is you, I don’t object to saying that the reason dad wants to sell this here claim is cause its too rich.” “Too rich! Flayed out," put in Sntn. * “Now, slratiger; yofi jest holtl hokses till I get through, and I’ll explain it too you. You see this ain’t like other claims where the gold is in sandy gravel and mostly in the bed rock, but the bank here is near : ly all ojay, and there’s heaps aud gobs of fine gold all through it. The clay is the all-firedest stickiest stuff that ever wur., a.id you can’t begin to work it. When dad get* to work down- there Its natorally gets the darned stuff all over him, and when he comes in ,»t night he’s jest coated with it about six inches deep more or less, and this clay is plum full of gold.” “I don’t see that that’s any reason for his wanting to sell out,” interrupted Bam. “Well, old boss, you keep cool an don’t get rampagious an' I’ll you Jtow it is. When dad comes in at night he’s mighty fired; but mam,

yon see, is such an awful economical Woman that she don’t liko to sec so much gold wasted as. Dad lias about him in the clay every night, so mam slio allors turns in and cleans him up. At first she used to be satisfied with scraping hint down with a hoc and panning him out. She made lots of money at that. Ho used to pan out rich, I toll you. But pretty soon Mam got unsatisfied, ’cause it took too long to pan him out every night, and, besides, she didn’t get half the gold. Tho clay was so sticky it wouldn’t wash good. Then | she got a string of siuicea out in front of the house and pul up a little I hydraulic and used to pipe him off’, j Dud was dreadful mad about it.— j You ought to hear him growl and ! cuss. He said it was too weariij’ I for a man to work in tho drain all | day and then be worked hisself at j night. He had to give in, though. | Mam said ho shouldn’t board with i her if lie didn't, and that fetched I him, you bet. “Thing? ran on in this way for some time. The old woman made two or three hundred dollars a week reg’lar. But as I told you before, ! she was awful savin’ anil she found ' she couldn’t pipe him off clean, and I lost ever so much iu tho toilin’s.— You don't know how sticky the clay. .is round here. The only way in I which you can work it dean is to | chuck it into a kittle of In'in’ water | and bile it for two or three hours. — That’s the way the fellow what first struck the claim used to work the rich crevices. MaiaJjeerd of this, aid she thought if she could work the old man in some such way, she could save the gold. Of course she didn't expect to bile him right down, you know. That would not have been exactly on the square, but she thought if she could let him stand in mhhiiin’ hut water for an hour or two every night, she could run him through the hydraulic then and wash him oft' pretty clean. “Yell, stranger, you .mightn’t think it, bat Dad was so pesky contrary tiiHt he wouldn’t do it. Mam said he'd got to do it ’cause she wasn’t goiif to see money thrown away by no such contrariness. Neither one of them, wouldn't give in, so they coil eluded they’d split the difference by lettin’ Dad sell out and go below and buy a ranch. “That’s jest how it is, stranger; if you ain’t married and want to buy tills claim, you can make a mighty good thing out of it, hut if you’ve gut a \ulussho won't let you rest for tryin’ to work you to good advantage.” Here the unsophisticated infant finished and walked away, calmy whistling “1 Wish I was a Daisy,” while Sam retired to reflect on the matter, for ho was, and is, married. Gulden Era.

Important to Lettar Writers. According to a recent change in the regulations of the Posfcofiioc Department, no letters addressed in initials will be delivered at any residence nor in any postoflioe box. The may who addressed his communications to A. D. 0., box 10,001 may rest assured that his epistle will never be deposited in the hoi in question, but that, on the other hand, it will be immediately arid effectually destroyed. The information we desire to impress niton the popular mind, especially concerns the advertisers in the public press. .Many miscellaneous advertisements, such as “Wants,” or “Lost” and “Found” notices, simply bear the initials of the advertisers, an 4 in very ffljmx_alLtliuc&a- - address is not to the newspaper office, but to some box in the postoflice. Such advertisers nijiy be certain that not a single reply to them will over - reach them. The letter, if not addressed to the office of the* paper, must be directed to the name and n3t to the initial or nont de plume of party recipient.—Philadelphia Press. A traveler down in Jersey, riding past one 6f the “sand barrens” remarked, “What a poor cuss the fellow must bri who owns this farm!” “Not so poor an you think,” cried the owner, rising up from behind a fence, “I only own half of it!” A Georgia editor, who got angry at th* passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, expressed himself in the following terjns; “Let Congress fill its slop-tub with abominations, the Georgia Legislature can gpmlc thanrVjtHout blinking ” • " * ‘ " ’’ , .