Saas Cs rare SoS ey NEN SGI mo. 500 20 600 |) 300 i 700 | ;400 | i 200 | ®500 850] 550 ENtisiihD ACCOKDING iv av Ur CONGKESS IN THE YEAK 1871 BY STREET & SMITH, IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGKESS, WASHINGTON, D. C. ees LECT FRANCIS S. STREET, Vol. XXVI. =a [Note.—Our friends, and the admirers of Ned Buntline, would favor us greatly by ex- hibitine this copy of the NEW YORK WEEKLY to their acquaintances, and di- recting their attention to the front-page il- lustration. By this plan many persons not now regular readers would be induced to subscribe for the paper. Our boy friends could aid us, and increase the sale of the NEW YORK WEEKLY very much, by speaking of it to their comrades and schoolmates, telling them whata delightful story “WRESTLING JOE” is. and assuring them that the hero isa “living” character, at present roaming through the far West, in quest of adventure, like “Buffalo Bill” and “Little Buckshot.” Now, boys, do your best to extend the fame of Ned Buntline’s last great hero, the valiant and invincible “WRESTLING JOE.” WRESTLING JOE. CHAPTER I. The Great Timbuctoo Gulch, on the Yuba, in 1852, was filled with miners, gamblers, and adventurers. For years cn years the Cement Mountains, filled to this day with gold, had been washing away, and the torrents of the rainy season had been. Sweeping the gold down into the bed of the great ravine, where now, most likely, for a hundred feet in depth, may be found ‘color’? in the soil. During the day most of the miners were at work, and While they were thus engaged, the gamblers and despe- radoes were asleep, for their nefarious occupations kept them up all night. Night, then, was the time when the “wild life’’ of the place was in full play. : In the center of the settlement of huts, tents, and slab shanties, which gained the name of Timbuctoo, the oldest inhabitant knows not how,.there stood in that fall of 1852 a large, one-storied frame building, known as the Casino. It combined beneath its roof almost every means of temptation. and every species of vice. Its floor had been many a time stained with blood, even in the brief time it had been standing. Every kind of gamb- ling was carried on there—it had its band of music and its alluring nymphs for the dance—a bar where all kinds of liquor was sold, and a lunch-table, where food could be had by those who had the coin or. dust to pay for it. Gambling, drinking, and dancing were the chief allure- ments of the place, And now to our story. The rainy season had just set in, and the miners were wild with joy at the consequent increase of their profits, when water became plenty. The Casino was unusually crowded. The most of the men in the place had gathered there, for the proprietor had announced a new attraction. A beautiful woman, just from the States, was te make her debut as a singer. A large painted banner had hung for two days across the street, announcing that ‘‘La Belle Oreana’’—of course, an assumed name—the greatest Singer oi the age, and the most beautiful woman then on the Pacific coast, would appear in ballad and operatic gems for seven nights only. When the crowd gathered, the band commenced play- ing; a place was cleared for those who wished to dance, and the various games occupied the space along either side, from one énd of the room tothe other, The bar occupied one end, the lunch-counter having a small space at one side of it, while the band held the front of the room, with a door for entrance on each side of the grand music stand. The singer was frequently asked for, and finally up- roariously demanded by many who had come purposely to see and hear her. It was just ten o’clock, when a curtain was drawn aside from the rear of the music stand, where a small dressing- room had heen arranged, and the stranger made her ap- pearance. : All was noise and bustle when the curtain was drawn —loud talk, laughing and cursing, the chink of coin and the clatter of glasses—but in a second after you might have heard a pin drop on the floor. For she was more than beautiful! She was like an an- gel:hovering above fiends in that place. Faultless in fea- ture, exquisite in form, dressed in snowy white, her dark hazel eyes seemed to speak belore her rich red lips opened in song. Breathiess and silent,even the gamblers, dropping cards and dice, every man and woman in the room stood and gazed at her as she stepped to the front of the plat- form. Then, in a voice which seemed low, but which swelled in a flood of harmony till it filled all the room, she sung “Home, Sweet Home,’’ as no one there had ever heard it sung before. Not until the last word left her lips could another sound be heard—was a motion of head, hand, or foot to be de- tected. Her auditors scarcely seemed to breathe. She finished and turned to retire. Then rose 2, shout which made the house tremble from floor-joists to rafters—a universal cheer, which was deat- ening. Hands clapped and feet stamped, and it seemed as if the people forgot everything but the singer and her song. She had vanished beliind the curtain, but the cheers rose and rose until the proprietor was obliged to go and lead her out before them. She came, not in the way one used to appearing hefore the public would come—she came at first white-faced and trembling, as if more frightened than gratified at such boisterous applause. Then the color rushed ina flood ae brow and cheeks, making her more than ever beau- iful. She bowed, and would have retired—but ‘‘encore—sing again,” and with these words a perfect shower of nuggets of gold, pieces of coin, and even bags of dust thrown at her feet, forced her to remain and bow her assent to the wishes of the multitude. \ She chose the touching and beautiful song written by Burns, commencing: “The gloomy night is gath'ring fast,” and sang it with such pathos that again the audience went almost wild withdelight. Gilts were literally heaped up at her feet, and a third time she was obliged to sing before the crowd would even allow a rest. “Who isshe? Where did she come from? Isshe maid, wife or widow ?”’ These were only a few of the questions poured upon the proprietor of the Casino after the lady had retired. He had but one answer to all. Hedid not know. The lady with a little boy, not more than four or tive years old, had come to the cabin where he dwelt, just in the rear of the Casino, toid him she was a good Singer, and wanted an engagement. She had told him to select a stage name, refusing to give her own. Struck with her beauty, her gentility and lady-like manner, he had given up his cabin to her, and taken his own bed in a corner of the Casino. A gambler, a giant in stature, rude and desperate in character, Known as Bully Hank, listened to this state- ment he a sneering smile on his coarse, sensual face, and saids “(ll bet twenty ounces she is my property inside of four- and-twenty hours! Who dares take the bet? Twenty ounces up for a bDid—who talks?’ “What is the bet?’ asked a man who entered the door as the huge gambler roared out-the challenge. owWe've.had an angel in petticoats here, singing the boys crazy. Sbeis the handsomest bit of flesh and blood you ever saw, Dandy Joe, and I'll bet twenty ounces I win and wear her inside of twenty-four hours!” “You may for alll care—women are nothing to me!’ said the man. and he walked carelessly over to a monte- table, where the game had taken a fresh start. The gambler looked at him as he passed on, and mut- tered in a contemptous tone: “That's Wrestling Joe, the Dandy of the Mines. They say he can lay the best of these chaps on their backs. But he hasn't tried me, and he had better not!”? The man of whom he spoke, was not above medium hight, but in form was lithe and graceful. He was dressed better than any of those around, yet in a peculiar fashion of hisown. His coat, a short frock, was of black velvet, with a gold cord in the seams. His shirt white, with ruffies at bosom and wristband. His pantaloons were a light blue, and fitted down over a faultless boot. He wore a jaunty velvet cap above his jet-black hair, which curled glossily about his well-shaped head. FRANCIS S. SMITH, } Proprietors. HL Hip Po Wy) iy) if WU, ; yy ip Hil 1, Yi NEW YORK, JANUARY 5, 1871. TERMS f GAEL Lee ee SRS PRUNE NER ; KSEE SS Lille LLL: ALL: LLM: LLY Dp tee LE Lz) 44 LAO LEI fa SS 7 NZ. LLL AE LE: Soe PEE as P “4 z iW Au ‘ i) \ } nN) 2) . : — Ve Tos PY Wi Sed EMD : \ pVCys OD GAO PF GAS @ SFR