ve this, and to think as charitably as
possible of many persons here, who have unconsciously adopted a custom
which I know they abhor. Whether there is more profanity in the mines
than elsewhere, I know not; but, during the short time that I have been
at Rich Bar, I have _heard_ more of it than in all my life before. Of
course the most vulgar blackguard will abstain from swearing in the
_presence_ of a lady, but in this rag-and-cardboard house one is
_compelled_ to hear the most sacred of names constantly profaned by the
drinkers and gamblers, who haunt the barroom at all hours. And this is
a custom which the gentlemanly and quiet proprietor, much as he
evidently dislikes it, cannot possibly prevent. Some of these
expressions, were they not so fearfully blasphemous, would be
grotesquely sublime. For instance, not five minutes ago I heard two men
quarreling in the street, and one said to the other, "Only let me get
hold of your beggarly carcass once, and I will use you up so small that
God Almighty himself cannot see your _ghost!_"

To live thus, in constant danger of being hushed to one's rosy rest by
a ghastly lullaby of oaths, is revolting in the extreme. For that
reason, and because it is infinitely more comfortable during the winter
season than a plank house, F. has concluded to build a log cabin,
where, at least, I shall not be _obliged_ to hear the solemn names of
the Father and the dear Master so mockingly profaned.

But it is not the swearing alone which disturbs my slumber. There is a
dreadful flume, the machinery of which keeps up the most dismal moaning
and shrieking all the livelong night, painfully suggestive of a
suffering child. But, O dear! you don't know what that is, do you? Now,
if I were scientific, I should give you such a vivid description of it
that you would see a pen-and-ink flume staring at you from this very
letter. But, alas! my own ideas on the subject are in a state of
melancholy vagueness. I will do the best possible, however, in the way
of explanation. A flume, then, is an immense trough which takes up a
portion of the river, and with the aid of a dam compels it to run in
another channel, leaving the vacated bed of the stream ready for mining
purposes.

There is a gigantic project now on the tapis, of fluming the entire
river for many miles, commencing a little above Rich Bar. Sometimes
these fluming companies are eminently successful; at others, their
operations are a dead failure.