[Sam Davis, Bill Magee of Pine Nut: An Epic of a Nevada Mining Camp, Sunset, August 1904]

 

Bill Magee of Pine Nut

An Epic of a Nevada Mining Camp

By SAM DAVIS

                        'Twas a dreary day at Pine Nut, and gloom was everywhere;

                        There was sadness in the little camp and sorrow in the air.

                        A more doleful set of faces one would not care to see,

                        The day the boys laid out the corpse of poor old Bill Magee.

 

                        'Twas pneumonia or whisky—they couldn't quite decide—

                        That sent the fleeting soul of Bill across the Great Divide;

                        But with very little wrangling over life's extinguished lamp,

                        They arranged a mighty funeral to advertise the camp.

 

                        I know of places where a man who shuffles off his coil

                        Is pitched face down with boots on in scarce a foot of soil ;

                        But now the boys of Pine Nut said such things had had their day,

                        And they'd bury Bill with socks on, in the decent Christian way.

 

                        So they hired a Carson preacher, of noted funeral skill,

                        And agreed on forty dollars for some extra words for Bill.

                        There are some parsons in the land that 'd go a little higher,

                        But this man was no grafter but my own illustrious sire.

 

                        At two o'clock the coffin passed through Bill's wide cabin door,

                        With Otto Shultz and Joe Raycraft and Jackson at the fore.

                        Tony Kramer, with his goggles, helped to hold the coffin up,

                        Then followed tall Miles Johnson and his little brindle pup.

BILL MAGEE OF PINE NUT            319

                        Pratt, with a Heitman flour-sack sewed firmly on his pants;

                        Bill Peckham, Baldy Adams, Lew Stevenson, Old Nance;

                        And loomin' up ahead of all, the big long-bearded Zern,

                        All headin' toward the bourn from which no travelers return.

 

                        They finally reached the grave that yawned beneath a spreading tree,

                        The parson told how pure had been the life of Bill Magee;

                        And as they heard the kindly things the clergyman had said,

                        They almost thought that angel's wings was sproutin' from the dead.

 

                        They lowered the coffin down with hands as steady as a clock's,

                        And then began to shovel in the gravel on the box,

                        When suddenly they stopped the work. Somebody hollered "Whew !"

                        And then a golden nugget came a-flashin' into view.

 

                        Joe Raycraft, straddlin' o'er the grave called out, "I locate here";

                        And then Lew Stevenson gave Joe a swat upon the ear;

                        Next Johnson jumped aboard of Lew in a most decided way,

                        And then the savage brindle pup plunged headlong in the fray.

 

                        Then Baldy Adams pulled his gun, and Billy Peckham his,

                        And in 'bout a half a second the lead begin to whiz.

                        For several humming minutes it was a fearful fray,

                        With all upon the ground before the smoke had cleared away.

 

                        The parson, when he heard the shots, whipped up his old gray mare,

                        To find the coroner and send that functionary there.

                        When that official reached the spot, immediately did he

                        Tack a location notice on the headstone of Magee;

 

                        Remarkin' to the wounded: "I regret you can't agree.

                        I'll record these placer diggin's and consider it my fee."

                        And so before the sun was down the records was complete,

                        All in accordance with the law at Douglas county-seat.

 

                        And now that thrifty coroner, as many are aware,

                        Is livin' off that placer claim, a multi-millionaire,

                        While the parson oft has mentioned, confidentially to me,

                        From that eventful day to this he never got his fee.