2g2
THE WEST SHORE.
December, 1883
THE PARTNER'S STRUGGLE.
Y HAIIY L. WELLS.
One August ermine in the year 1848, a trareler
patting down the beautiful Willamette would
nave witnessed a quiet scene of rural life that
strongly spoke of happiness and peace. In the
valley the hazy brightness of an Indian summer
aay was turning to tbe deep blue lints that pre
cede the gray of twilight, while the sun, just sink
in? behind the pine-covered ridies of the CmsJ
Range, was tinging with carmine, purple and
gold toe summit peaks and snow-capped monarch
of the Cascades. A few rods back from the
stream stood a log cabin, warmly chinked and
banked op around it base with dirt and sod, and
roofed securely with shakes. The neally-k'ept
dnor-rard. the flower Dial whtn dill hlmnu.1 th
latest blossoms of tbe season, the dean-thatched
stable and substantial fences, all travt assurance
thai thrift and industry were the watchwords of the
household. From the clay chimney curled up
ward a thin wreath of smoke, while the sarory
odor of a cooking dinner issued from the wide
open door.
Within the domicile a little girl sat upon the
fl.wr, playing quietly with tome rude toys carved
by her father's knife, and near by an infant by in
a low, boa cradle, carine wonderim-lv with in
large baby eyes at the chubby hands held before
is lace, toe molher, still young and bearing
upon her countenance a look of contentment that
showed how lightly her domestic and maternal
cares bore upon her. was busily preparing the
evening meal, making frequent trips to Ihe door
to take a hasty glance down tbe river. At last
she was rewarded by tbe sight of a skiff coming
rapidly around a bend in the stream, propelled by
the sturdy strokes of its only occupant, and
Matching from the flaot the little player, she held
her aloft in her arms for papa to see as be glanced
over bis shoulder towards his home.
In a few moments the rower grounded his boat,
threw the painter over a stake driven in ihe bank,
and leaping lightly out hastened up to tbe cabin
where a waim welcome awaited him. While the
wife was placing the steaming supper upon the
table, Ihe head of ihe happy family attended to
Ihe wants of his hor.es and cattle, which being
finiihed, he wubed bis face and hands in the
large Hough that stood beneath the pump just
without the cabin door, and sal down lo the Uble
with an appetite such as a good cook delights lo
see.
" Well, Mary," he said, as he heaped upon his
plate a quantity of provender measured by his
appetite raiher lhan the capacity of his stomach.
"Guesa what that old Yankee captain wanted of
so many tinpans and things ? "
"Why, I doq'l known, Peter, unless it was lo
set out milk in ; though what he is going to do
with so many is more than I can imagine."
" You're wrong, little woman ; guess again."
" O, I give it up; you know I can never guess
anything. Please tell me. You always keep me
ao in suspense that I never relith anything when
you do tell it."
" Well, 111 not keep you in suspense this time.
It b very easy. He simply wants them to tale to
California to wash dirt in."
"There, Peter Warren, I knew you would
. - I
like that. It 1 loo bad you aan'l tell me
anything when you know I want to hear so
badly."
" But its true, just as I tell you."
"Why, Peter, how aUuid ! How can they
wash dirt ? Il will all dissolve in the water and
run away."
" Exactly : I see vour scientific attainments are
considerable ; that is just what they desire to have
it do."
" But what good can it do that way ? "
" Get gold out of it, my dear. They have dis
covered gold in California, and every pan on the
coast is worth 6ve dollars as quickly as it can be
taken to the mines. Nearly every man I have
seen is going to California, and I am too, just as
soon as I can get things in shape for the winter."
It was an exciting time in Oreeon when the
news was spread among the settlements that gold
had been discovered in almost unlimited quanti
ties along the streams and gulches of the neigh
boring province so lately conquered from Mexico.
The massacre of the lamented Dr. Whitman, less
than a year before, and the war with the Cayuse
Indians which followed, though they may have
produced more temporary excitement, were far
less potent and lasting in their effects upon Ore
gon than was Marshall s accidental discovery at
Sutter s mill on the south fork of American river.
There was at that time no regular communication
between California and Oregon. An occasional
ressel trading along the coast from Chili to Alaska.
out to the Sandwich Islands and even across the
Pacific to China, came up the Columbia to
exchange commodities, and now and then a trader
direct from the east around Cape Hom, or a ves
sel belonging to the great Hudson's Bay Com
pany, put in an appearance. Annually, also,
emigrants passed up and down the old trail made
by the trappers years before, dissatisfied with the
cnoice they had first made; but no emigrants left
t-aworaia that year the mines absorbed them
all and thus for nearly nine months the settlers
in Uregon worked quietly alone subduinir th
wilderness, in utter ignorance of the intense fever
01 excitement raging in the neighboring province.
now long this condition of affairs whould have
continued had it not been upset by the demands
ol trade is very uncertain. Sometime during Ihe
summer it occurred to the captain of one of these
roving traders that there was a good chance to
speculate in buying for almost nothine a canro of
such things needed in the mines as could be pro
cured in Oregon, and selling them in San Fran
cisco at the enormous prices current there. H.
put Ibe idea into execution at once.
It was a quiet August morninp when the
sailed up the Willamette and tied up to the bank
where stood the little village that was then Ore
gon's metropolis. The population turned out n.
masse lo receive Ihe visitor, for Ihe arrival of news
irom the outside world was an unusual event in
the lives of these far western pioneers. Thev
CTgeny upon ail papers the captain had to
offer them, considerine them far from :r
printed no longer than six months before. The
snipper imparted what information he possessed
on all subjects of interest lo his nnM
cept that of the discovery of gold. On this topic
he preserved a judicious silence until he had
ecured a cargo of flour, vegetables, bacon and
pnmwoos 01 ail kinds at the prevailing rates, and
but little curiosity was aroused until U began
buying everything in the shape of a shovel or tin
pan that he could lay his eyes upon. It was onl,
when he could find no more and had bis cam
completed Uial Le unhealed his lips and infonned
the inquisitive people the meaning of these stance
purchases, and offered to give passage to San
Francisco to those who felt disposal to pay he
price he demanded.
The intelligence that gold had been discovered
in California spread rapidly from cabin to cabin
up the Willamette valley, and the effect upon such
a hardy and adventurous set as were the pionwri
of this region can easily be imagined. Every
man who was foot-loose, and many who were not,
determined at once to seek their fortune in the
mines. Some of them accepted the captain's
offer and sailed in the ship, while others, in par
ties of twos and threes, on horseback and on foot,
and one large company with wagons, started over
land as rapidly as they could get ready. Oregon
was suddenly drained of its young and able-bodied
men, progress was checked, and the territory
received a backset for which it was, a few years
later, fully compensated by the trade which sprung
up with the new state adjoining.
Peter Warren and Mary Sinclair had come to
Oregon in the first large immigration of 1843.
He was a sturdy young farmer from Illinois, in
telligent and well educated for one brought up to
labor from his early youth, while she was the only
daughter of an elderly Missouri frontiersmtn,
whose restless nature bad led him to seek the
beautiful valley so highly praised by hundreds of
roving trappers. They first became acquainted
one stormy night on the banks of the Platte,
when Peter volunteered his services in caring for
the cattle of the old gentleman, who had been
taken ill on the journey. This acquaintance
ripened into a closer relationship when the father
died near Fort Hall, and the orphan girl was
received into the family of her new friends.
When they reached Oregon City the young couple
were married, and taking up a section of land
about a mile up the river from that place, begin
making for themselves a home. A year later they
were made happy by Ihe arrival of a baby girl
whom they named Grade, and about a year before
our story opens little Georgie was born.
Peter Warren's announcement that he was go
ing to California fell like a dark shadow upon
that happy household. A nameless, indefinable
dread took possession of the mother. She felt
that if he went away she would never see him
again.
" Don't go, Peter," she entreated; " We are
so happy now, and have such a nice, pretty home.
Why do you want to go away from us ? We have
all we need to eat and wear, and are getting in
better circumstances every year, and why do yo
want to get rich so fast ? You may die or get
killed in those horrid mines. I fear if yoa go
away you will never come back to us."
But he only laughed at her fears and said that
women were always imagining something bad was
about to happen. "I'll be back in the spring
with all the gold my horse can carry, and we will
take life easy the rest of our days."
The gold fever had a stronger hold upon bio
than his family, and so, early one morning in
October, in snit. of his wife's tears and entreaties.
in spite of little Grade's protest Ihat she "W
not
want papa to eo away to those nasty nne
and in spite of Georgie 's crowing and scolding