WEST SHORE.
6"
IN A MINING CAMP.
I have succeeded in taking the photograph of a protpector'i cabin.
Come in and eit down on one ol the three legged stools. The sheet iron
stove Is hot, the beans and coffee are babbling a top and the bread in the
dram oven 1b probably burnt. The tin cups and plates are set on a home
made table. On the window ledge are bits of rock, and on the little table
a Police Qazettt, a Century, a candle end, a broken comb and a dishrag.' In
the bunk, among the tumbled blankets, will probably be found a stray pin
and a needle or two. Overhead in the provision loft the chipmunks are
freely abusing the miner's hospitality. Underfoot are old gum boots, steel,
a towel, a kitten and another disbrag. On the log walls hang the fragments
of a hat, a prize fight on pink paper, a rifle, a scrap of looking glass, sun
dry pans and a shirt. Here comes the man, dressed in two h?avy shirts on
account of the blazing heat, a pair of ragged overalls, a red cotton hand
kerchief round his neck and his hair down over his eyes a figure with
INTERIOR OF A PB08I'ICT0R'S CABIN.
some of the savage dignity of these hills. He is bronzed, with eyes bright
with sunlight, muscular and full of radiant health. He swears hard and
his grammar is infamous. If yon be ever so big a chief he treats yon ex
actly as an equal, and yet wilt he abase himself humbly before " eddica
tion." He has himself an education beyond that of books varied experi
ence, the thougbtfulness of lonely years and strong views matured in argu
ment around the camp fire. Inform him and he will believe you; argue
with him and he wilt worst you; exaggerate and he will lie to you with a
cheerfulness, candor and good faith that yon will find very impressive.
Wild as his stories are he is eager to show credentials bullet wounds,
knife wounds and fractures all over his sturdy body; and everyone says he
is the champion liar and the whitest man in the camp. In his own busi
ness he is oracular, possessing the following tenets, unless someone else
possessing them evokes his violent opposition :
" An expert is no good.
" A small capitalist is generally a 1 tin-horn 'bring him to me and I'll
sell him a wild cat.
" The trader has little ways about him charges too much for steel and
powder, and for beans, the miner's ammunition ; finds it easier to freight in
whisky than grub, and shares the prospector's blood with the'motquitoes.
" There are some men In camp who never make a discovery them
selves, but sit round the bar room stove and talk mining. They're the kind
that stake off the 1 extensions ' and tit up till midnight to jump another
man's claim. They do more harm to the country than a real estate agent.
" A prospector 's a fool, anyway. He lets himself out as a mule and
packs his blankets and grub up the mountains; be works like a bull team
opening up his claim, and then sells out to a capitalist and puts up a gen
eral drunk for the crowd until he's dead broke. Then all the boys say lie's
a fool. If this here transmigration of souls is the correct doctrine, I guess
I'll ,be an aristocrat next trip or run a gymnasium for young ladies.
" You want to buy a mine? Well, I've the best "
When little prospectors are born into the world their mothers should
easily know them. They cut their teeth, not by fits and start, but all the
time; they rob orchards before they can talk and they habitually get
drowned, poisoned, horse-kicked, dog-bitten, boy-pounded, lost, stolen and
strayed. If they are silent, mothers sit in strained, aching suspense, and
their presence is readily dispensed with when they are not. Never will
such a boy etand behind the counter, sit at a desk, or plow. In an age in
which It is the faith of old-time believer to make money, he will not wor
ship our god, but wilt probably run away at the mature age of eleven.
The frontier is conquered for civilization, and they who do the work are
these outlawed lads, facing, shoulder to shoulder, privation and hardship,
without the society of women, or the lost home love, or any guide in life.
They are among the noblest men of our generation. They do not believe in
religion, and are very religious. To them religion means bible and the
faults of Christians. But can it be said of the average Christian that no
man cornea to him in want and goes away empty handed? That he will
share up all the money he has with a comrade who has been on a drunk
and is in need? That he makes of the stranger a friend, and will serve a
frieud to the death?
You took him for a laboring man when he came Into the cabin and
asked you at first sight to have dinner with him. He told me once that
there have been times when, carrying a load up the mountains, he had lost
bis footing on a cliff and from sheer weariness never cared whether he
lived or died. He is working, not for a day's wages, for there Is no risk in
that, but on a claim which may prove worthless and leave him in debt, and
may prove valuable and make him a wealthy man.
Believe me that no sermons could ever teach the lessons that I have
learned about sterling manhood In the prospector's cabin.
II. R. A. Fococx.
NEW BUILDINGS IN PORTLAND.
Building in Portland is progressing at a rapid rate. Business blocks
and residences are under construction in every quarter of the city. There
is scarcely a block where the work of Improvement Is not going on. Wist
Shohs has given illustrations of many of the finer structures, such as the
city hall, chamber of commerce, union depot, Marquam block, Thompson
Burrell block, Washington block, Hotel Portland and others, and In the
center of this issue it presents engravings ol two others.
St. Helen's Hall is being built on the plateau in the western portion ol
the city, just east of the city park. A more healthful and charming site for
an educational institution could not be found anywhere. When the site of
the old building was sold to the city for the city hall, this new location was
selected and work at once begun on the elegant building shown in the en
graving. The structure, now nearly completed, Is built of stone and brick,
in the form of an II, with a frontage of 140 feet and a depth of 100 feet on
the wings. Besides ample school rooms, reception rooms, library, studio,
dining room, kitchen, etc, it contains dormitories and bed rooms for 200
pupils and teachers. When completed it will be one of the best and most
beautiful institutions for the education of young ladies in America.
The Hibernian block is being erected on the southwest corner of Sixth
and Washington, fronting on the latter street, and will be a handsome
structure of brick and stone, four stories in height and 100 x 50 feet in size.
It will be one of the handsomest and mott substantial buildings in the city.
The cost of the structure will be 40,000. The large hall in the upper story
will be occupied by the Hibernians, and the remainder of the building will
be rented for stores and offices.
THE DEER SKINNER.
On the first page is given an engraving ol a man who 1 in bad odor
with the people of the Pacific coast. He is the man multiplied many
times In Oregon, Washington and California who Is rapidly exterminating
the best game of the mountains the beautiful deer. He Is not a sports
man, who spends a wetk or two in the mountains hunting, but a man who
make It a business to bunt deer for the value of their hides. Old and
young, male and female fall equally before hi deadly rifle, and the breed
ing season is no more sacred to this ruthless destroyer than any other. A
few year ago the mountains were full of deer, and the huntsman could find
them within few miles of any settlement, but chiefly through the opera
tions ol these men who slaughter them lor their hides they are rapidly dis
appearing, and il a check be not put to it they will become but a memory,
a has the buffalo. Effort have been made to put a atop to this work ol
destruction. Stiong penal laws have been passed by the three states
named, but the difficulty ol enforcing them is very great. The Oregon
Alpine Club haa been very energetic In tills work and has, doubtless, dimin
ished the number of deer tkinners very materially. By arrangement with
the railroad and express companies it ha now become tlmost impossible to
ship deer skin to market, and tills is the severest blow yet struck, for a
long as a market could be found unscrupulous merchant would deal In the
contraband article. It wa only a few week ago that a prominent merchant
In an Oregon city endeavored to ship a bundle of skins nnder the name of
some other article and lost the entire shipment, a well as the respect of hi
townsmen.