“Would you trust her to work, live and lodge in the slums of Chicago or down here about Five Points in New York? Would you want to expose her to such an existence? Especially if she was likely to encounter in these places a few refined men of reckless habits, who would be sure to misunderstand her position and whose very sympathy would be her greatest danger? Well, that’s what Creede is, Tom,” said I, “if you just add the physical exposure of a mountain climate in a camp where the best house is no better than a shanty built of wet, unseasoned lumber.”
He promised me he would telegraph money to her to-day and advise her to go to her mother. He laughed at my fears about Ketchum’s designs, and said he would trust his girl against a dozen Ketchums; but he was not insensible to the danger that the scamp might bring scandal on her, and I worked him on that line till he promised to go right away and telegraph money to her. I gave him your address and he will send in your care, to prevent the possibility of his message falling into K’s hands. That is why I have just wired you. I can realize that, even in Creede, it will compromise the girl to have any connection with that Sure Thing outfit, and expose her character to suspicion. Before this reaches you, no doubt, she will have gone home, and I shall have no further occasion to write you about her; but still, if you have an idle hour, you may write me here and tell me how Ketchum is working his game. While I have no further anxiety about Miss P., I confess to a curiosity to know if the anxiety I did have was well grounded.
How are you getting on with the paper? Every one wants to hear about Creede here, and I believe you could get up a big subscription list in Wall street if you had a canvasser in the field. Everybody has the most exaggerated notions of the extent and richness of the camp, and the newspaper people are as wild as the rest. They have the most childish notions—I mean the common run of men only, of course—as to the condition of silver mining. Their idea of a bonanza is a place where pure silver is quarried out like building stone. You couldn’t possibly tell them any fake story of the richness of mines they wouldn’t believe. In fact, you can make them believe anything else easier than the truth. This fact hurts our business dreadfully, too, in the East and creates a prejudice against the use of silver as money. It also helps the mining sharps who are working frauds. I shall have a curiosity to see how you roast that snide scheme of Ketchum & Co. Don’t fail to send me the paper.
You may address me here for two weeks.
Affectionately yours,
Fitz-Mac.
X.
Creede, Colo., April 20, ’92.
Dear Fitz:—Yes, the surprises in this life are surprising. We opened a couple of surprise packages here last night.