6 GOODWIN'S WEEKLY.
THE GOOD FELLOWS
H (Below Is the first of a series of sketches and
Hi impressions of a selected list of men and women
Hi I to be published from time to time in these pages.
H Different writers, those who know the subjects the
H1 best will contribute to the collections and none
H will appear who does not belong among those in
H the community who have done something destinc-
H live and who for some reason is entitled to com-
H mendable recognition.)
I JOSEPH FARREN
m By C. C. Goodwin.
H HTJETAT is, his parents christened him Joseph, but
H the last syllable was dropped years ago and
H since he has been plain Joe.
H As men reckon time, Joe was born a good
H while ago in New York City and grow up there.
H I) He never stole apples in his youth, principally, I
H suspect, because Now York City had ceased its
H farming era when Joe arrived there. But he
H learned to swim in the lower Hudson, to swim
B and to fish.
H He was never large of size; nature cast him
B first in a not too generous, but healthy mould,
H and then devoted all her energies upon his head
H and heart. These latter two adornments are as
H big as the biggest.
He attended the city schools, took In all they
MJk had to offer, and in addition a vast amount on the
H outside. If the big city had any mysteries that
H he did ont explore1, it was an oversight which did
B not happen often.
H He was tenderly reared at home, but was a
H gamin on the streets, and graduated with honors
H from that school which teaches boys to adopt
H means to ends. That branch of his education has
H been of vast service to him many a t,ime since.
H In that school he learned not to get excited
H without sufficient cause, and not to give himself
H away in following some impulse, and that has
H been of vast service to him on several occasions.
H When a lad of twelve he was standing with a
H group of other lads on the river bank when a
H man came rushing to them, telling them that an
H hour before another man had fallen into the
H river some distance up stream; that as the tide
H was going out the body must be floating down
H with the tide and offered a reward to the boy
H that should discover it. All the boys responded
H and in search dove into the river.
H The body had floated down, his feet hod caught
H in some sea weed brought up with the tide, and
H so caught was swaying nearly upright In the cur-
H rent. When Joe opened his eyes in the water
H this swaying figure was close to him. He lost
H no time in reaching the surface; he had just
H strength enough to cry out "Here he is," and
H pulled out for the bank, white with terror. When
H later he was asked why he did not remain and
H help bring the body in, he replied that he was a
&M scout, not a sexton; that the reward was offered
H to find it, and the contract called for nothing
H more. Now, when he reads about the exploits of
H the submarines in the war across the sea, he
H murmurs to himself, "I was the first one of
Bj them."
He was but a boy when he reached California
B and found his way to Plumas county. It was in
H the old placer mining di-.ys, but Plumas has what
j some other counties have not. In the long ago,
H how long no computation of modern man can deter-
JH mine within a million years, a river flowed
H through a part of what is now Plumas county.
IH How many centuries it. continued its flow only
H the Infinite knows, but finally, by a convulsion of
B nature, or more probably by the grinding of a
H glacier in flow, the river was buried "under moun-
H tains of debris. When singing its way to the
Hi sea it was suddenly transfixed with all its treas-
HI ures. Then nature resumed her course; the
streams in their courses on the now surface be
gan to hew out ravines and finally some of these
cut their way into the old channel of the sub
merged river. The miners found these and then
other miners began to run tunnels and to sink
Bhafts to find this old channel where it was not
exposed.
How many fortunes were lost in that search
will never bo known, but It was fascinating work
and many tried it.
The writer knew one man who all alone ran
a tunnel 1,800 feet to strike that channel, only to
find at the end that he was 60 feet too high. It
broke his heart; he never would work afterward,
though he lived and was physically strong and
healthy for thirty years after the failure. He fin
ally died of dry rot.
Well, Joe went there and was a placer miner
for a long time, but he studied the hidden river
and the quartz veins, until he caught most of the
mysteries of the hills and set to words the al
phabet that nature and the patient years had
embossed upon the rocks. Ho put the knowledge
in the cold storage chamber of his brain for fu
ture use.
But the placers began to fail after a while and
the news of the riches of Fraser river in British
Columbia came like an answer to prayer to many
a discouraged miner. Had not the great Hum
boldt written a half belief that the gold of the
west coast had its matrix in Alaska and was
not British Columbia half way to Alaska
Joe joined the rush. He is a little shy about
describing that episode in his history.
He will make an affidavit that he faA ' sump
tuously every day, but some of his eccentricities
seem to give him away. For instance, he will not
eat salmon, no matter how temptingly prepared,
and green gooseberries are poison to him.
It has never been clear how he reached San
Francisco on his return trip, only it is known that
he hates Lord Tennyson for ever writing
"The dead steered by the dumb went upward
with the tide."
He was next found in Placerville, Eldorado
county. It has never been known why he went
there, unless it was because Piacerville was
called "Hang Town' in those days and possibly
the. name sugegsted to him that he might find
the man there that lured him to make the trip
to Fraser river.
But ireaching that place he found everybody
crazy over the news from the Comstock. Again
he joined the crowd and brought up in Carson
City. iSince then he has been at the christening
of about all the new camps in these west
coast states. He was one of the fathers of Aus
tin; was the real godfather of Eureka; he put in'
that first winter at White Pine but why ex
patiate? He knows every sagebrush in Nevada
by sight.
At Austin he built the finest church the town
ever had. It was this way: He had found and
opened a most promising mine, but needed a
quartz mill. There was a most eloquent one-armed
clergyman in Austin, but he had no church, and
so preached to the ungodly on street corners, in
saloons wherever he could get an audience. We
will call his name Jones, principally because it
was not his real name.
Joe had watched him and listened to him and
had taken a liking to him, notwithstanding there
were whispers that he had lost his arm one night
because attached to a rope that he was carrying
was a horse that was another man's property.
Joe had discovered that this clergyman had
a wife and some little children in a cabin, and
became convinced that they did not have some
thing to oat every day. So, after thinking the
matter over, Joe incorporated his mine. Then
he made it his business to accidentaly meet the
preacher and draw him into conversation.
Electric Disc ;
Stoves
these A. E. disc stoves in two sizes
'Mr $4.50
phrto 7.00 4$
call nt our electric shop, 154 So. Main
IN OFFERING
FairbanksMorse Motors
to the public, we do so with a full appreciation of the good
qualities of other motors on the market, but also with the
knowledge that however satisfactory present equipment
may be, an improved product will find favor with pro
gressive and discerning buyers, and we offer the Fairbanks
Morse Motors for the investigation of those whd want
something better. Send for our catalog, No. 202-G, de
scribing our latest Cast-on-End Ring Construction.
Falrlbanlcs-Morse & Co.
167.169 Weft Second South St. Salt Lake City, Utah
SERVICE
UNDER ALL CONDITIONS IS fr
WHAT MAKES THIS COMPANY
ATTRACTIVE TO ITS PATRONS
A Trial will Convince You fa
Federal Coal Company
The Yard with a Concrete Floor
Telephone Main 171