The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-09-28 00:00:00

LATEST FROM CALIFORNIA.

The diamonds of Arizona and the diver mountains
of Utah we thrown it,, the shade, if a man c in be
depended upon who has jmt related to the Sun Fran-
cisco CA, °nide stale, which it ushers into its colunuus
with the .rts,rderi prefix that "the future may demon.
strate its truth" (says the New York Finies.)
It appears that between three and four mouths ago
a " plain.looking man" of American birth walked hit.
a San Francisco bank, asked to see the manager,
calmly placed a leatheni valise on the banker's desk
befoie him, opened it, took out an ingot of dingy
metal, and handed it to the other in silence,
said the man of " gilt-edged " and other paper, "what
of it? Fit, ain't it, or hrass ? " A sarcastic smile
illumined the face of the mysterious stranger. "Lock
again," he muttered sententiously. "What for ? "
mired the banker fretfully. "I'm no judge of
minerals, anyhow, except one, and I've no time to
study this particular spscimen." His visitor mildly per-
sisted, and to this end became more loquacious. "Do
you know gold when you see it? If not, will you call
in some trustworthy expert who does?" The banker,
with some rehactance, assented. A well-known assayer
was summoned, and to him the mass, with some others
like it, was submitted, On seeing the metal he asked
with excitement where it came from ; but receiving as
satisfaction, agreed to do what was requested, and took
it away for assay. The next day he came back, by
appointment, meeting the two others, and produced a
yedow bar. "That looks like gold," said the banker.
Rather," returned the assayer. "It is gold—nearly
a thousand fine; the finest I ever put in a crucible."
The mysterious owner said nothing. Questions were
put to him as to where he got the precious stuff,
but these were civilly evaded. He desired, as
a further test, that the bar should be sent to the
mint. This, too, was done, and the bar came back in
due time transformed into 8,000 dollars worth of
double eagles. The cash, by the request of the
stranger, was put to his credit. At the end of a week
he came back, and this time laid before the excited
banker a much larger quantity of the same metal.
"It is gold," he cried; "pure gold, like the last.
Where did you get it?" The stranger looked with
steadfastness at his interlocutor, and replied calmly,
"I made it—l made it myself.' The astonish.
ment of the banker was, of course, unbounded,
and was not diminished by the particulars after.
wards confided to him. Our modern Midas an-
nounced that, after long and painful effort, he
had discovered the secret of the transmutation of
metals. He could make gold by the ton—nay, by the
ship-load; but the process he would reveal to no living
soul. A bargain was, however, effected whereby he
and the banker became partners, Midas furnishing
the bullion, and his friend undertaking its cautious and
profitable distribution. The latter did not fail, by way
of getting his chance in so good a thing, to point out
the troubles and dangers that might arise from those
interested in values the momentous discovery would
impair were not secrecy as to the identity of the in-
ventor, and an intermediary such as his own bank, ju-
diciously employed.
At the time the article of the Chronicle appeared
more than half a million of coin made of the manu-
factured gold is said to have been put in circulation,
and plenty more of the same sort was soon to follow.
The intention of the partners, as stated by the
Chronicle, is to try to make San Francisco "the centre
of all commercial exchanges, and the great depository
, of the products of the world." This part of the other-
wise highly creoible story, we confer., strikes us as
rather dubious. Possessed of such a discovery, why
bother about a centre at all? We quite agree with the
Chronicle that it is "frightful to reflect what may be
the result of their ambition if it should pass beyond
reasonable limits.