Brother Tom and myself enjoyed those new and wonderful surroundings.  Gold and silver was the only topic of conversation in Leadville those days.  One evening as I came home I noticed a jack or a burro near my cabin door and inside I found a mine prospector.  He told me that he owned a one-half interest in this cabin and that he was expecting to find his pard here.  I told him that I had met his partner back in the mountains and that he had sold half interest to me for thirteen dollars.  He was a Frenchman and was very agreeable.  He told me that he had come to Leadville for a load of supplies to take with him before the snow came as he could not come back here again before six months.

He said, "I am prospecting in a new territory near the Ute Indians reservation."  He told me that the Indians were on the warpath again and had slain the PRICE and MEEKER families, who were placed there to show them how to farm by the U. S. Government.  The uprising was caused by the young Indians, two hundred in number, and they were led by Sitting Bull, a chief.  I asked him if he was afraid of them, but he said, "No, as I was coming in I met several Indians.  See here", he said and showed me a pocket on the side.  It was cut clear down to his knees with a knife.  He told me an Indian squaw did it in a playful manner.  He wore buckskin pants.

He then showed me many samples of silver ore he had picked up in different places.  The pieces were of pure silver.  Some pieces were several inches square and some looked as if fire had melted them on the ground.  He was very kind and told me to take what I liked of them for he could get more.  I did not accept his offer.  Many times after that I wished that I had done so.  He said that he would leave in two or three days and why couldn't I come with him and be his partner.  We would surely make a strike in that new territory.  I felt like it was a good chance for me.  I was in good condition and strong enough to go anywhere.  Once I crossed over the mountains, there would be no mail nor could I send out mail for six months; that prevented me from accepting his offer.  We bid each other goodbye.  I do not know what became of him.  He had prospected for twenty years.

Brother Tom and myself found work at a shaft high up on the mountain -- a windlass shaft.  This work was of solid formation.  We were using high explosives when charges were exploded.  One of us would go down soon to load the bucket.  The fumes would be very strong, causing headaches and burning eyes.  We worked at this mine several months.  There were two brothers who owned this mine and lived in a tent on top of the shaft.  Their names were CLARK.  They were hard men to work for.  We heard that they could not hold their men that they employed.  Tom and myself worked from six p. m. to six a. m.  Long hours!  They watched their workers day and night.

Early one morning Tom went down the shaft to load up after a heavy blast.  He loaded up several buckets, then shouted up to me to hoist him up.  When he stepped out of the bucket he told me that the smoke was too strong for him and that his head was almost bursting.  Well, I said, "Let me go down and try it."  My eyes were burning me badly, too.  I went down and loaded up several buckets.  I wanted to clean up the shaft before six o'clock when the day shift would come on.  Tom shouted down to me to come up.  I was getting to feel badly from the hot smoke and I expected to do that.  Tom's head was giving him trouble when he pulled on the windlass.  He hoisted me up and said, "You are risking yourself staying down there so long." Just then one of the CLARK brothers came out of the tent with a heavy revolver in his hand.  He was angry and said to Tom with an oath, "Why did you call him up?  Tom told that we were both nearly down from the smoke.  With that they both argued with many words.  Tom started to go to him.  CLARK raised his gun and pointed it at Tom.  Then I rushed between them and pulled Tom away.

We both left.  That same day we went to Leadville to get our pay from another one of the mine owners.  I told him about the trouble we had at the mine.  He did not want to pay us off and tried to induce us to go back to work.  Under no conditions would we return to work.  Tom said that CLARK went too far by drawing a gun on him.  There would be no further trouble if we went back to work.  Anyway he reluctantly paid us off.

Tom and myself found work at another shaft and worked on up to the spring of 1880.  Then we decided that we ought to take a trip to Pennsylvania.  So we went down to Leadville and bought new outfits of clothes.  One day a man by the name of HILL came and commenced to build a cabin near ours.  He was a newcomer from the state of Connecticut.  He was past middle age, spoke with a real Yankee drawl and was easy to get along with, a good axe man building a neat cabin with logs.  I had given him the privilege to bake his bread in my stove.