Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1870-02-10

and advised every body to travel. lie
said man never imagined what sur.
prisiug things there were in the world
ill he had travelled. ri
One day, on board ship, the passen-
gers made up pool of s50o.. which
was to be the property of the man who
should come nearest to guessing the run
of the vessel for the next "a hours
Next day, toward noon, the figures
were all ia the purser's hands in seald
enveIlopes. Smith was serene and hap.
DIV. for he had been bribing the engin-
eer. But another party won the prize.
Smith said: T. !,
aHere, that won't do! He guessed
two miles wider of the mark than 1
did," go. .... FL,
The purser said, "Mr. Smith, you
missed it further than any man on board.
We travelled two hundred and eight
miles yesterday" 81
We'll, sir" said Smith, /" that's just
where I've got you. for | guessed two
hundred aud nine. If you'll look at my
figures again you'll find a 9 and two
naughts, which stands for 200, don't it!
and after 'em you'll find 9 (2O09),
which stands for two hundred and nine.
[ reckon I'll take that money, IT you
please" 1918 - .e.c'Fa p no.
Well. Smith is dead. And when he
died he wasn't worth q cent. The les
son of all this is, that one must learn
how to do everything ne does--one
must have experience in being rich be-
fore he can remain rich. The history
of California will prove this to your en-
tire satisfaction. Sudden wealth is an
awful misfortune to the averages run OF
mer. 1t it wasting breath to instruct
the reader after this fashion, though for
no man was ever convinced OF 1t yet
tiIl he had tried it himself; and | am
around now bunting for mau who is
afraid to try it. haven't had any luck
so far.
All the early pioneers Of California
acouire more or less wealth, but an enor-
nous majority of them have not got
any. now. Those that have, got it slow.
ly and by patient toll.
The reader has heard of the great
Gould & Curry silver mine Of Nevada -
believe its shares are. still quoted in
the stock sales in the New York papers.
The claim comprised POO feet, if re-
member rightly, or may be it was 800
and | think it all belongnd originally to
the mon whose name it bears. MIR. Cur
nv owned two t nirds of il, and he said
that be sold it out for $4,000, in cash,
and an old plug horse that ate up bis
market value in seventeen days by the
watch. And he said that Gould sold
out for pair of second hand govern
mept blankets, and a bottle of whissey
that killed nine men in three hours. and
an uuoffendiug stranger that smelt the
cork was disabled for life. Four years
afterward the mine thus disposed of was
worth in the San Francisco market 81
600, 900 in geld coin.
In the early days a poverty strickefi
Mexican who lived in canon right back
of Virginia City, had stream of water
rs large as q mans wrist trickling from
the hill side on his premises. The Ophir
Company segregated 100 #. of their
mine and snapped it to him for the
stream oe water. The 100 #. proved TO
be the richest part of the entire mine :
four years after the swap, its market val
ne Embedding its milD. was 81, 500. 600.
| was down in it about that time. 600 #.
under the ground, and about half OF it
caved in over my head-and yet. valu'
able as that property was, l would have
given the entire mine to have been out
Of that. j do not wish to brag--but |
can be liberal if you take me right.
An individual who owned 20 feet in
the Ophir mine before its great riches
were revealed to men, traded it for a
horse, and very sorry looking brute ne
was too.1 A year or so afterward, when
| Ophir stock went up to $4,000 foot,
this man, who hadn't a cent, used to
say he was the most startling example
/ of magni6cence and misery the world
has ever seen--because he was able to
ride a 100000 horse and yet had to
ride him bareback because be couldn't
scare up cash enough to buy. a Saddle.
He said if fortune were to give him
another 100000 horse it would ruin
him. -..-.i.. y.
The shiftless people have been talk
ing about have settled sedimentally down
to their proper place on the bottom, but
! the solid mining prosperity OF California
and Nevada continues-the two together
producing some s4O.OOO,OoO annually
in gold and silver. White Pine is Civ
ing birth to the usual number of sad
denly created nabobs, but three years
hence nearly every one Of them will be
scratching for wages again. Pretrole-
um bred a few of these butterflies for
the eastern market. They don't live
long in Nevada. | was worth half a
million dollars myself, once. for ten days
and now am proving around the lee
ture field and the field of journalism. in
structing the public for q subsistence
| was just as happy as the other butter
flies, and no wiser--except that l am
sincerely glad that my supernatural stu
pidity lost me my great wlndfall before
it had a chance to make more inspired
ass of me than was before, / am sat.
isfied that i do not know enough to be