has redeemed, and now it is crippled and help
lessly poor, but proud of its former glories.
We, though given a voice feeble as the feeblest
wave that beats on our western shore, will lift that
voice, if but in a vain appeal in behalf of that sil
ver belt, and the stricken but gallant people who
still hold the fortress in which are held the muni
tions of war that may yet decide the fate of our
country and her priceless institutions one and all.
Strike but here—was the pleading cry of the
Grecian—in the desperation of his cause. The
powers that be in Washington, have for twenty
long years struck destroying blows at the sil
ver miner and the monuments he has built,
and it is now time to speak. Passion has had its
sway, let anger and oppression pause and listen.
For to an old miner who has seen every phase
of mining life, from the palmy days of forty-nine
down to the time when Grover Cleveland issued
the proclamation convening Congress for the pur
pose of taking by storm :the last rifle pit left to
the silver miner, there is nothing so mournful as
a trip through the Rock Mountains.
Here, there, and everywhere are evidences of
former habitations, industry, and enterprise.
Here is a dam of Cyclopean masonry, twelve hun
dred feet long and a hundred feet high, thrown
across the lower end of a mountain valley, making
a lake miles in extent for the storage of water.
Here is a canal leading from a cut through miles
of solid granite upon the declivities of deep can
yons through tunnels and over chasms in lofty
aqueducts, rotting and going to decay. There
in a gorge is an immense tube of boiler iron which
carries the Water from hill top to mill, rusting
and going to ruin. Everywhere are mills of gi
gantic dimensions erected at a cost of thousands of
dollars capable of crushing millions and millions
of tons of ore ; now idle, for the noise of industry
is gone, the miners havp fled. Young pines and
chaparral are claiming again their ancient domain,
and the grizzly is invited anew to the land of his
fathers restored to its former savageness. The
traveler among the ruins of Palmyra or Tadmor
THE FREE LANCE.
in the wilderness indulges in no sadder reflection,
than the miner when he looks down on the deso
lation and ruin, the lifelessness and despair every
where apparent in the region that has given more
wealth to the world than any equal extent of
country on the face of the globe.
Here were once society, health, vigor, enterprise,
homes, happiness, thrift, and all that made life
complete. But some Goldsmith has here now
many a theme on which he may descant in more
mournful numbers than those which -made the
"Deserted Village" immortal. What memories
cling around these old haunts of the brave, the
ardent, the wholesouled miners; their deeds, their
ways, their matchless heroism, the story of their
everyday life is a part of the national history.
They exist no longer but in annals and in song.
Look back on the past, and see your cities rise
and expand. Look at them now and see how
many of the noblest edifices owe their origin to
mines and miners, and how few to the products of
our grain fields, vineyards, or wide extended pas
ture lands. •
But for silver and lead mining, Denver would be
in swaddling clothes, Salt Lake a struggling Mor
mon village, Spokane would he unknown. Will
two million free men quietly submit to the ukase
that has gone forth from Grover Cleveland, more
sudden, more arbitrary than was ever issued by the
Czar of all the Russians condemning a great in
dustry to death, taking $4.500,000 per month
from the people of these United States thus work
ing hardship and everlasting ruin. Or. will we to
a man join the silver haired Waite of Colorado,
and with the watchword 16 to x or fight, march on
to victory. P. A. n.
P. S. C. 12, Pittsburg Athletic Club o. Our
team was to have met Franklin and Marshall at
Lancaster, cn Thanksgiving Day, but, owing to the
large guarantee offered by the Pittsburg people,
the management thought best to cancel the ear-
THE THANKSGIVING GAME