The
first settler of Rough-and-Ready--one Low, playfully known to his
familiars as "The Poor Indian"--declared that the Saints were afore
his time, and occupied a cabin in the brush when he "blazed" his
way to the North Fork. It is certain that the two were present
when the water was first turned on the Union Ditch and then and
there received the designation of Daddy Downey and Mammy Downey,
which they kept to the last. As they tottered toward the
refreshment tent, they were welcomed with the greatest enthusiasm
by the boys; or, to borrow the more refined language of the "Union
Recorder,"--"Their gray hairs and bent figures, recalling as they
did the happy paternal eastern homes of the spectators, and the
blessings that fell from venerable lips when they left those homes
to journey in quest of the Golden Fleece on Occidental Slopes,
caused many to burst into tears." The nearer facts, that many of
these spectators were orphans, that a few were unable to establish
any legal parentage whatever, that others had enjoyed a State's
guardianship and discipline, and that a majority had left their
paternal roofs without any embarrassing preliminary formula, were
mere passing clouds that did not dim the golden imagery of the
writer.
Pages:
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78