Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-01-22

l reckon I'll take that money, if you
please"
Well, Smith is dead. And when he
died he wasn't worth cent. The lesson
of ell this is, that one must learn how to
do everything he does-one must have
experience in being rich before he can
remain rich. The history of California
! will prove this to your entire satisfaction.
Sudden wealth 10 an awful misfortune to
the average run of men. 1t is wasting
breath to instruct the reader after this
fashion, though, for no man was ever
convinced of it yet till he had tried it
himself-and l am around now hunting
for o man who is afraid to try it. /
haven't had any luck so far.
All the early pioneers of California
acquired more or less wealth, but an
enormous majority of them have not get
any now. Those that have, got it slowly
and by patient toll.
The reader has heard Of the great
Gould 4 Curry silver mine of Nevads. /
believe its shares are still quoted in the
stock sales in the New York papers.
The claim comprised 1900 feet, if l re.
member rightly, or it may be it was 500,
and | think it all belonged originally to
two men, whose names IL bears. Mr..
Curry owned two-thirds of il, and he said
that he sold it out for twenty i've hun
dred dollars in cash aud an old plug horse
that ate up his market value in hay and
barley in seventeen days by the watch.
And he said that Gould sold out for q
pair of secondhand Government blank
cts and bottle of whisky that killed
nine men in three hours, and an unof.
Tending stranger that smelt the cork was
disabled for life. Four years afterward
the mine thus disposed of was worth in
the Sln Francisco market seven million
six hundred thousand dollars in gold
coin.
Ia the early days poverty-stricken
Mexican who lived in q canon right back
of Virginia City, had stream of water
as large as a mans wrist trickling from
the hillside on his premises. The Ophir
Company segregated one hundred feet of
their mine aud swapped it to him for the
stream of water. The hundred feet
proved tA be the richest part of the entire
mine. Four years after the swap its
market value (ilcludirg it's milD was
81, 100000. / wss down in it about that
time, six hundred feet under the ground,
and about half of it caved in over my
head, and yet, valuable as that property
was, would have given the entire mine
to have been out of that. do not wish
to brag, but / can be liberal if you take
me right
An individual who owned twenty feet
in the 0phir mine before it's great riches
were revealed to men, traded it for
horse, and q very sorry looking brute be
was, too. A year or so sfterward, when
Ophir stock went up to $4,000 foot, this
man, who hadn't cent, used to say he
was the most startling example of mag
nifceuce and misery the world had ever
seen-because he was able to ride
sixty thousand dollar horse, and yet had
to ride bareback, because he couldn't
scare up cash enough to buy saddle.
He said if fortune we're to give him
another sixty thousand dollar horse it
would ruin him.
The shiftless people l have been talk
ing about have settled sedimentslly down
to their proper place on the bottom, but
the solid mining prosperity of Cslifor-
MIA and Nevada continues-the two to-
gether producing some $40,000,000 an
nually in gold and silver. White Pine is
giving birth to the ususl number of sud-
denly created nsbobs, but three years
hence nearly every one of them will be
scratching for wages again. Petroleum
bred few Of these butterflies for the
Eastern market. They don't live long
in Nevada. l was worth half a mill
lion Of dollars myself, once. for ten
days-snd now | am proving around
the lecture field and the field Of journal.
ism, instrueting the public for subsist-
ence. | was just as happy as the other
butterflies and no wiser-except that /
am sincerely glad that my supernatural
stupidity lost rae my great windfall
before it had a chance to make q mere
iuspired ass Of me than / was before. |
am satisfied do not know enough 10 be
wealthy and live to survive it. / had
two partners in this brilliant stroke of
fortune. The sensible enc is still worth
500, 00O or so-he meyer lost his wits
but the other one land by far the best
and worthiest of our triol can't pay bis
board.
/ was personally acquainted with the
several rahvbs mentioned in this letter,
and so, for old acquaintance cake, have
swspped their occupations szG expert
ences around in such way as to keep
the Pacific public from recognizing these
oues nstoyioas gen, have 20 desire
to drag them out Of their retirement,
aud make them uncomfortable by ex-
hibiting them without mask or Disguise
/ merely wish to use their fortunes for
aonspi f2r the adornment Of this news
pspsF article,