The period is not very distant when the ores | There are now some fifteen or twenty small frame now discarded will be the source of permanent and adobe houses erected for the use of the workwealth in Nevada. It is to a general reduction men; a boarding-house is already established; of expenses, and not to the discovery of richer lots and streets are laid out by means of stakes; leads, that we must look for that high state of new houses are springing up in every direction, prosperity which I think, despite all the losses and speculation in real estate is quite the fashion. and drawbacks which have attended the invest-It was amusing to witness the enthusiasm with ment of capital in Nevada, is the ultimate des- which the citizens went into the business of tiny of that region. trading in lots. Groups of speculators were constantly engaged in examining choice locations, and descanting upon the brilliant future of the embryo city. A pair of boots, I suppose, would have secured the right to a tolerably good lot; but having only one pair, and that pretty well worn, I did not venture upon an investment. Some of the city dignitaries, however, duly impressed with the importance of having a view of their town appear in the illuminated pages of Harper, paid me the compliment to attach my name to the principal street; and thus, in future ages, I confidently expect my memory will be rescued from oblivion. Here is the promised view of the town. Whether or not the Bodie mines will be worked profitably on a large scale depends very much upon the system of operations introduced by the owners. As a general rule, large companies are less successful in the working of mines than small parties and private individuals. The cause of this may be found in the fact that mining, like any other business, requires judicious and economical management, and strict personal attention, to be permanently profitable. Indeed the risks are so much greater than in any other business, that those maxims of economy and accountability which apply to the ordinary transactions of life possess still greater force as applied to the business of mining. Unnecessarily expensive mills, a loose system of disbursement, incompetent managers, and inefficient experts, have effected the ruin of many mines and many stockholders in the Territory of Nevada. The same causes would produce similar results in any other business. Exorbitant and unreasonable demands for high dividends have been a fruitful source of failure. Capitalists are not satisfied unless they receive from two to five per cent. a month upon their investments; and superintendents work under a heavy pressure, and assume great hazards to produce that result. Now I am very confident that no ten mines in Virginia City have ever yet yielded an average of one per cent. a month over and above expenses, and I venture to assert that no mines in South America, Mexico, or Nevada have continued to pay such high dividends for any great length of time. Permanency and extraordinary dividends are incom- the nearest part of which lies about fourteen patible. Where the yield is evidently reliable, a reasonable per-centage, regularly paid, is better than a larger amount which must necessarily involve greater risk and increased expendi ture. At the head of the Bodie Valley, where I spent a day very pleasantly among the miners, is a beautiful natural location for a town, sheltered by surrounding hills from the chilling winds that sweep down from the snow-capped peaks of the Sierras. Although the altitude is greater than that of any inhabited spot within the limits of the United States, and only surpassed by those of Potosi, which is 13,330 feet, and Quito, 9540 feet, the climate is exceedingly healthy; never too warm in summer, and rarely rigorous in winter. This, at an elevation of nearly 9000 feet, is remarkable. Water is abundantly supplied from a fine spring distant a few hundred yards from the centre of the town; wood, for mining purposes and for the use of the inhabitants, can be obtained from a pine-forest situated on the side of a hill about four miles from the camp. The supply of this latter article, however, is limited, and can not be depended upon for more than a few years; but the ravines in the main range of the Sierra Nevada, bordering on Mono Lake, are clothed with inexhaustible forests, suitable for lumber as well as fuel. A good road is now open to the shores of Mono, miles from Bodie. A view of the lake from the eastern side of the bluff presents one of the finest specimens of scenic grandeur to be found in the whole range of the Sierra Nevadas. Mountain after mountain rolls off in the distance, like the waves of an angry sea. Perpetual snow covers the highest peaks of the Sierras. Dark forests of pine stand in bold outline on the inferior ranges, and vast chasms and rocky cañons open out upon the shores of the lake, which lies dead and still apparently within a stone's-throw of the beholder. Circling deposits of alkali and drifts of wood mark the barren plains that lie on the eastern shore of the lake, showing that in by-gone centuries it covered a vast extent of country from which it has now receded. A direct communication from the valley of the San Joaquin, via Sonora, has recently been opened by the citizens of Mono and Esmerelda; thus saving in transportation, from the head of navigation at Stockton, at least four or five days of wagon travel over the usual time required by the old route from Sacramento via Carson Valley. This will greatly reduce the cost of transporting supplies of machinery and provisions from San Francisco. Mark the Dull Witness. Have you not seen him times out of number? At the police-court, in a case of assault and battery-he happened to be in the way at the time, of course: at the inquest-he was passing just at the moment the deceased threw himself from the first-floor window. In the Marine Court, on a case of collision, where the defendant is sued for damages on the score of having taken the wrong side of the road. Of course he gets into the dock instead of the witness-box; of course he stumbles up the steps, and equally of course stumbles down them again. He takes the book in the wrong hand, and when he is told to take it in the other. that hand is sure to be gloved; the court is kept waiting while he divests himself of this article of apparel; and the consciousness of the witness that all eyes are upon him, concentrated in a focal glare of reproof and impatience, only tends to increase and intensify his stupidity. He drops the book; he kisses his thumb-not evasively, for he is incapable of any design whatever; he I HAVE a theory that a man's fate lies in his looks at the judge when he ought to be looking natural disposition; not the disposition which he has control over, but a certain secret and unsuspected bent of his mind, which leads him, right or wrong, against his will or against his knowledge. In pursuing this theory I am disposed to believe that there is a certain kind of men and women whose bias is always rolling them into the witness-box; whose bias first of all rolls them into situations where they see and hear things bearing upon matters which will become the subject of litigation or criminal process. Look at the people sketched in illustration of these remarks. There they are, born witnesses; types which we see in the box repeated over and over again, with all the fatuity which leads them into the position of witnesses, and all the attributes which so peculiarly fit at the counsel, and at the counsel when he ought to be looking at the judge. There is such an utter want of method in the stupidity of this witness that counsel can make nothing of him. He perjures himself a dozen times, and with regard to that collision case, gets into such a fog about the rule of the road, that at last he doesn't know his right hand from his left. It is useless for counsel to point with triumph to the inconsistencies of this witness's evidence; for it is obvious to every body that he is quite incapable of throwing any light on the subject whatever, and that what he says one way or another is of no importance. The examining counsel is only too glad to get rid of such a witness, and very soon tells him to stand down-a command which he obeys by tumbling down and staggering into the He is prepared for the slips; he is ready at all points for the greasy New Testament. He looks the counsel steadily in the face, as much as to say-"You will not shake my evidence, I can tell you." The counsel meets this look with a glance of anticipated triumph. There is a defined position here whose assumption of strength is its greatest weakness. The Confident Witness has resolved to answer yes and no, and not to be tempted into any amplifications which will give the cross-examining counsel an opportunity of badgering him. The counsel can make nothing of him for a while; but at last he goads him into an expression of anger; when, seeing that he is losing his temper, he smiles a galling smile, and says-"No doubt, Sir, you think yourself a very clever fellow: don't you now? Answer me, Sir." The Confident Witness falling into this trap, and thinking "Answer me, Sir," has reference to the question about his cleverness, snaps the counsel up with a retort about being as clever as he is; and immediately the badgering commences. "How dare you interrupt me, Sir? Prevarication won't do here, Sir. Remember you are on your oath, Sir!" And the indignation of the witness being thus aroused-by, it must be confessed, a most unwarrantable and ungentlemanly course of proceeding-away goes the main-sheet of his confidence, and he is left floundering about without rudder or compass in the raging sea of his anger. It is now the worthy object of the learned counsel to make him contradict himself, and to exhibit him in the eyes of the jury as a person utterly unworthy of belief. There is a nervous variety of this witness, who is occasionally frightened into doubting his own handwriting. He is positive at first; has no doubt on the point whatever. It is, or it is THE WITNESS WHO DOUBTS HIS OWN HANDWRITING. "Is it like your signature?" "Is it your signature?" "Gentlemen of the jury; after most positively denying that this was his signature, the witness at length admits that it might be. What reliance then can be placed upon the doubts which he expresses with regard to the document upon which this action is based?" This witness has really no doubts about his handwriting at all, until he is artfully induced to commit himself with regard to the dotting of i's and the crossing of t's. The Deaf Witness is not a hopeful subject for counsel to deal with; and when, on entering the box, he settles himself into a leaning posture, with his hand to his ear, the gentlemen in the horse-hair wigs will be seen to exchange glances which imply mutual pity for each other. Those glances say plainly enough, "Here is a a question or two, when he thinks he is getting the best of it with the lawyers, he winks at the general audience, and so fondly believes he is taking every body into his confidence, against his cross-examiner. This is the gentleman who is credited with those sharp retorts upon lawyers which we find in jest-books and collections of wit and humor; but I fear he has little real claim to distinction as a dealer in repartee. Those smart things are "made up" for him, as they are made for the wag, and generally for Joseph Miller. The retorts of the Knowing Witness are usually on the simplest principle of tu quoque, and as their pith chiefly consists in their rudeness-only counsel are allowed to be rude in court-they are certain to be checked by the court. The court does not tolerate jokes that are not made by itself. The Irrelevant Witness, who introduces foreign matter into her evidence, is generally of the female gender, and is a person whose appearance and manner warrant counsel in addressing THE DEAF WITNESS. deaf old post, who will pretend to be much more deaf than he really is, and will be sure to have the sympathies of the public if we bully him." The Deaf Witness, when the counsel begins to ask awkward questions, says "eh?" to every thing; and if he be a knowing witness at the same time, pretends not to understand, which justifies him in giving stupid and irrelevant answers. As a rule, both sides are not sorry to get rid of a deaf witness; and he is told to stand down in tones of mingled pity and contempt. The Knowing Witness, who is not deaf, is a too-clever-by-half gentleman, who soon falls a prey to his overweening opinion of his own sharpness. They are not going to frighten him by asking him to kiss the book. He kisses it THE KNOWING WITNESS. with a smack of the lips and a wag of the head, by which he seems to indicate that he is prepared to eat the book if required. Then, after her as "my good woman." She will declare that she is not a good woman," and secure for that standard witticism the laugh which it never fails to raise, whether spoken innocently or with intent. She deals very much in "he said" and "she said ;" and of course the counsel doesn't want to know what he said or she said, but what the good woman saw with her own eyes and heard with her own ears. But nothing on earth will induce her to stick to the point; and though she is pulled up again and again, she still persists in giving all collateral circumstances in minute detail. I should say that when this witness goes to the play, she provides herself with a small bottle of rum and an egg-cup. The Interesting Witness is also of the feminine gender-slim, prim, modest, and demure. She is a young lady of "prepossessing appearance, and notably interesting. The moment she steps into the box and puts up her veil to kiss the book, the counsel fix their eye-glasses and scrutinize her narrowly; and, as these gentle men are proverbially polite, they will be seen, | creature that she appears, soon betrays herself while staring the interesting young lady out of under a severe cross-examination. Her only countenance, to nudge each other and pass round weapon of defense rises unbidden from the pleasant jokes. The interesting young-lady wit- depths of her wounded feelings, in the shape of ness is rarely to be met with in the civil courts. a flood of tears. The place to look for her is the Court of Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, where it is generally the object of the cross-examining counsel to prove that the Interesting Witness, who has prepossessed every one by her modest demeanor, is no better than she should be. There is possibly no warranty for this course of proceeding; but then the noble practice of the law requires that a lawyer shall do the best he can for his client, and that he must not scruple to blacken the character of the innocent, in order to protect from the consequences of his crime one whom he well knows to be guilty. She The interesting female witness is of two kinds. One is what she seems; the other is not what she seems. The mock-modest lady usually gives her cross-examiner a good deal of trouble. is wary; brief in her answers, decisive in her replies; and her habit of dropping her eyes enables her to conceal her emotions. This witness holds out to the last. The other, who is really the interesting, modest, demure, timid THE INTERESTING WITNESS. HEROIC DEEDS OF HEROIC MEN. BY JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. IX.-THE PURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF MORGAN. The Rebel Raiders.-The Heroine.-Commencement of the Pursuit.-Bravery of Colonel O. H. Moore.-Re pulse of the Rebels.-Rebel Barbarism.-Plan of the Raiders. The Quaker and the Copperhead.-Morgan in Cincinnati.-The Repulse at Jackson-Rout of the Rebels at Buffington Island.-Anecdotes.-The Escape of Morgan.-His Treachery.-Final Capture. IN N a Prayer-Book in a church in Louisville a worshiper found written, "Hurrah for John Morgan! the Marion of the South, following his footsteps as much so as the apostles followed the footsteps of Christ." Despite the bad rhetoric and the irreverent comparison, we can from this get some idea of the admiration felt by a large portion of the Southern people for the most daring freebooter and the most lawless adventurer since the days of our childhood's hero, Robin Hood. It is said that the Saracen mothers quieted crying children and subdued angry boys with the nursery threat, "If you do not stop King Richard will catch you." It is not unlikely that for years to come the name of John Morgan, the rebel raider, may be the terror of little ones in that part of the country where he rode his great ride. The narrative of his bold march through parts of Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio, and the heroic pursuit by the militia and a small command under Generals Hobson and Judah, will not be one of the least interesting sketches in the history of these eventful days. John Morgan, with twenty-five hundred effective men and four pieces of artillery, left Sparta, Tennessee, on the 27th of June, 1863. His command was divided into two brigades. One he led himself. The other was led by Colonel Johnston. The men comprising this raiding party were from both classes of the Southern people. Some were young men in high life, the sons of planters and of merchant princes, who, impelled by a restless spirit of adventure and a deluded sentiment of devotion to the rebel flag, and of hatred of the national banner of Stars and Stripes, flocked to the standard raised by that noted guerrilla chief. The larger portion, however, of the marauding band was composed of that part of the Southern community known as "poor whites." These illiterate, half-starved, semi-barbaric men chose the exciting cavalry raiding in preference to the idleness of the camp or the tediousness of the trenches, because, poor fellows! they were hungry and almost naked, and the abundance of food and clothing, rich treasure, license, and the easy victory promised by Morgan, resistlessly tempted their sorely tried flesh. It was a motley crew gathered in Sparta that bright spring morning. Some were in what had been once white linen, now sadly the worse for wear. Some wore blue homespun. Some were in jackets. Some wore long coats; some frock-coats, some dress-coats, and many no coats at all. Side by side with the "clay eater," in his filth and rags, rode the handsomely-uniformed and finely-mounted lord of the soil. |