‸P. S. I wrote for $40 or $50 & some 3 & 10ct stamps—get the letter?‸
‸“Stand by” to let me have $150 when I call for it.‸
Aurora, 17th/62.
My Dear Bro:
As to the “Live Yankee,” I will see the President in the morning, and get the Secy’s address.1
No, don’t buy any ground, anywhere. The pick and shovel are the only claims I have any confidence in now. My back is sore and my hands blistered with handling them to-day. But something must come, you know.
We shall let a contract on the H. & Derby in a day or two. Most folks like these ledges. I don’t. It will not cost much now, though, to test it with the [tunnell].
I, too, have seen very rich specimens from East Walker.2 Not quite so rich, and gold hardly as fine as that taken from the National, though.
The “Live Yankees,” as you call them, are a pack of d—d fools. They have run a tunnel 100 ft long to strike the croppings.3 They could have blasted, above ground, easier. It is the craziest piece of work I know of, except that wherein the owners of the “Esmeralda” discovery sold one-half their interests to get money to run a [ tun seventeen-thousand-dollar] tunnel in, to strike the ledge just under the croppings, when said croppings are 100 feet high, and pay $300 a ton in Clayton’s Mill4—which, by-the-bye, is an excellent mill, and cannot be beaten any where. It is the only mill here.
Oh, Dewy be d—d. Keep a chance at the “six” if you can, but pay Harroun no money.5 If I can dig pay rock out of a ledge here myself, I will buy—not otherwise.
Yes—if we find good rock in the H. & Derby, [ wil we’ll] incorporate it. Raish and I would then have full control of it—we represent 750 feet in it.
Got Billy’s letter. Tell him to be Recorder.6
Crooker7 wants you to certify his claim, as enclosed, or, if it isn’t figured up right, why, [ ma figure] it up right yourself, get the scrip for it, and, if you can sell the scrip for 75 cents, do so, and forward the money—if not, forward the scrip. I told him it was a d—d sight easier to sell tracts than scrip in Carson. (It may be well enough, though, to sell enough to pay your fee for the seal, you know.)8 Also, do ditto and likewise for R. M. Howland, who was Messenger, only, but traveled 30 miles more, (to Mono,) making 150 miles. You can sell his for 50 cents, [ and if any] body offers that, and send u the money to me or Raish—don’t collect your fee in this case, though. Crooker sent his bill by Kinney to Turner, once.
Well, things are so gloomy that I begin to feel really jolly and comfortable again.9 I enjoy myself hugely now.
Saturday—I have fixed the “Live Yankee”—it is all right now. Port-folio & the Gen.’s letter came to hand all right.
. . . .
O. Clemens, Esq. | [ C Karson] City |N. T. [postmaster’s hand:] Esmeralda Cal, |April 21st 1862 [brace] [postage stamp cut away]
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
Source text(s):Previous publication:
L1, 189–191; MTB, 1:198–99, brief excerpt.
Provenance:see Moffett Collection, p. 462.
Emendations and textual notes:
tunnell • [sic]
tun seventeen-thousand-dollar • [‘sev’ over ‘tun’]
wil we’ll • [‘we’’ over ‘wil’]
ma figure • [‘fig’ over ‘ma’]
and if any • [‘if a’ over ‘and’]
C Karson • [‘K’ over ‘C’]
