The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1878-09-18

to direct the exact spot to look for them.
They spent seven days in the valley,
and gathered together about 1 900 carats
of diamonds and 5000 carats of rubies,
amethysts and other precious stones.
Then they started back for New York,
and there Janin's enthusiastic report on
the apparently exhaustless value of the
'hnd" was prepared, and made great
sensation among the shareholders both
in your city and in San Francisco.
Arnold had already been paid 800, 900
on account of only a portion of his share
in the original discovery and was promised
$3.50, 900 more in case of favorable re-
port by Janin. Lent and Ralston, it was
understood, had advanced this money.
The other $3.50, 900 was at once paid
him, and the stock in the company then
stood-Harpending, Dore (another Cali
fornian), Roberts and Ralston, one-half
of the whole in common; Dodge, Lent,
Barlow, Mcclellan, James McHenry,
and Mr.. Burt, the English lawyer in
Erie, one-quarter, and Arnold the other.
The interest of the New York parties
had cost them about $100, 900. The style
of the organization was ''The San Fran
cisco and New York Mining and CONNER
cial Company" and its trustees were the
first men in California. On Janin's re-
port $400, 900 of the stock were sold in
San Francisco within week after the
subscription books were thrown open to
the general public, and $500, 600 of this
was paid to Arnold for the remainder of
his interest.
The excitement, meanwhile, had
reached London, and the Times sounded
the first note of warning. The fact that
geology taught that the presence of such
various jewels in enc locality was i'm
possible, was supplemented by the
statement that parties from California
had attracted attention the year before
in London by buying up all the rough
diamonds to be found in the city. This
came back to California and the man.
ayers of the company took the alarm,
aud induced Mr.. Clarence King, United
States Geologist, to visit the valley.
He made an exhaustive examination, and
his report startled the country. The
ground had been SO plainly ''salted"
with the jewels that the swindle was
patent. Holes had been poked with
common stick into the clay, the Jewels
dumped into them and then stopped up
again. They were in but limited part
of the valley, and only in that exact sec
ton OF it where Arnold and Slack had
directed the Janin party to dig. More
over, the "salting" had been done within
a year or fifteen months, covering the
period in which Arnold and Slack had
reported their first discovery.
After the publication of this report
there was commotion in San Francisco.
Diamond stock was bought that same
! day by one adventurous broker, and by
one only, at 81 a share. Arnold had
disappeared-was in Kentucky, in fact;
and there he has remained since.
In few weeks after the exposure
Lent brought suit in the Kentucky
courts against Arnold and Slack for the
recovery of $3.50, 600" money obtained
from the said Lent by fraudulent repre-
sentations." b. 81. Bristow, since Sec
retary of the Treasury, and John NJ.
Harlan. since appointed Associate Justice
of the Supreme Court, we're retained by
Lent to prosecute the suit. Arnold was
away from home-in New Orleans-and
sherriff's officer attached an iron safe
in his house, large deposit in the. local
bank, and 5000 in one of the banks
here. On Arnold's return he had pub
lished in the Courier Journal a five
column card, affirming his innocence of
The alleged fraud, and to San Francisco
paper sent the following:
To the Diamond Company:
/ see by the papers that Arnold and
Slack are to be prosecuted, and that
eminent counsel has been engaged. 1
have employed counsel myself-a good
Henry rifle-and am likely to open my
case any day ON California street. There
are several sealps would like to string
on a pole. don't include Janin, your
expert. He is of no consequence. Send
him to China, where he will find his
equals in the expert business. Asyou all
are going into the newspapers, I'll take
fling at it myself some of these days. I'm
going to the fields on my own hook in the
spring with fifty men, and will hold
my hand against all experts you can
send along. If I catch any of your
kidgloved gentry about there I'll blow
the stufing cut of 'em.
p. ARNOLD.
But, after some months, he compro-
missed the suit by the payment above
mentioned, and the matter dropped. 1
don't think that any criminal action was
ever brought against him, and that is
one reason why Elizabethtown doesn't
taka pnuoh atOol in his oyniIt