“Seize him by the coat-tails,” said they; “roll him in the mud, let into him with pick-handles, that he may be knocked into a cocked-hat, that he may kick the bucket—the Honest Miner!”
They have kicked the bully Miner; they have ducked him in the ditch, but they can’t make him pungle. He has fallen back on his “dig,” swears by the soul of a beggar, by the soul of a Chinaman, by the soul of a Digger, by the soul of a nigger he has nary red—the Honest Miner, the bully Honest Miner! He has out-packed the Dutch peddler; he has travelled more than a candidate for Congress; he is older than Washoe butter; he is younger than the beef; he has drunk more cocktails than there are shares on the Comstock—the Honest Miner, the bully Honest miner!
He it is that makes it hot for the free-lunch tables; it is he that bucks at monte; plays draw-poker; fights the tiger; patronizes the Hurdies; sings like a “Washoe canary;” it is he who sees the first peep of dawn—through the bottom of a tumbler—through the same cocks his eye on the last smile of evening—the bully Honest Miner! It is he who carries the pick, pan, and shovel, who digs about croppings, who picks up “indications,” pounds them in a mortar, and “salts” the “prospect”—the Honest Miner, the bully Honest Miner! Thou wilt, one day, cease to carry sacks of “specimens” on thy shoulders; thou’lt go into thy last “prospect hole;” six feet will be the extent of thy last claim on earth; the stakes bearing thy last “notice” will be no further apart—six feet only; but six feet is a big “interest” in the “Eternal lead,” if properly “recorded;” the “pay-streak” there is broad, the bullion pure—no base metal. Every miner claiming on this lead shall find pay, even unto the farthest “extension.” Honest Miner, we shall think of thee as we halt and read thy last “notice.” So long as thou art remembered, thou shalt not be forgotten—oh, bully, Bully Honest Miner!
CHAPTER LIX.
PAY-DAY AT THE MINES.
The majority of the miners at present working in the silver-mines of Nevada are honest in the true and best sense of the word, and are the most charitable men, as a class, to be found on the continent; and the same will apply to the owners and officers of mines.
The money annually donated by the miners of the leading mines on the Comstock must aggregate a very large sum. When a brother miner is accidentally killed it is not at all unusual for the men of the mine in which he worked to make up a purse of from $1,000 to $1,500 for his widow and orphans.
A small sum is generally given at once—say, two or three hundred dollars—then on the first of the next month, which is always pay-day in the mines, each man, as he receives his wages, leaves in the hands of the officer who is “paying off” from one to two dollars, to be given to the person to be assisted. There being in the leading mines from five hundred to eight hundred or one thousand men, a large sum is in this way speedily raised. Each man gives cheerfully and as a duty, for he does not know but that on the next pay-day his brother-miners may be giving a share of their wages for the support of his own widow and her children.
When men are hurt in the mines the companies always render them assistance and they are also assisted, if long disabled, by their comrades. There are three Miners’ Unions, one at Virginia City, one at Gold Hill, and the third at Silver City, the object of which is the protection of the interest of the working miner and the keeping up of wages to the standard of four dollars per day—eight hours. These Unions have handsome and commodious halls in which they hold regular meetings, and, thus far, the principal officers and leading spirits of the several organizations have been men of such honesty of purpose and have shown such fairness in all of their demands that there has been no trouble between miners and mine-owners.
These Unions always have money with which to assist the distressed in case of emergency. The excursions of the Unions, and balls and benefits of all kinds, are always very liberally patronized by all classes of citizens, and thus, when their treasury has been depleted by some calamity in the mines—as a fire—large sums of money are speedily placed in their hands.