New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1880-05-05

Further elopments followed. Ar
mold added to the dazzling and pictur-
esque accounts of his predecessors q
lively narrative Of how, in crossing 4
stream on "a bad raft, he had lately been
wrecked or capsized, and SO had lost in
the river diamonds to the value of a
million Of dollars. He had been, like
Monte Christie, to inspect his treasure,
and had broug away this triHe by way
Of additional specimens sof it. After
that Mr.. Barlow quietly telegraphed to
the cashier of the Bank of California.
and received from him q reply to the.
effect that it was true that bag con-
tanning articles of great value had been
left with the bank by the persons who
claimed to have made such deposit.
Most people by this time would have
begun to believe that the tale of Arnold
and his friends was true, and Mr.. Bar
low in fact agreed 20 interest himself
in the matter and to advance one hun
dred thousand dollars on two condi-
tons, to-wit: that the persons negoti-
ating should get an act passed by Con-
gress to secure them in the fruits of
their discovery, and that survey
should be made of the location by .
competent engineer. ssse..ss,5s.s, .ss<y
All this resulted in the formation Of
the GOlconda Mining Company and
the dispatch, in the spring of 1872, of
an engineer named by Mr.. Barlow to
examine and report upon the "saine."
Arnold and his party accompanied the
engineer, and the curious drama was
continued with the same craft and
steadfastncss of purpose with which it
was begun. The engineer found dia-
monds at various points in the spots
pointed out by his companions, who
were naturally confident that he would
do SO, and he went back to New York
and reported that what he had exam
med was really deposit or field of dia-
monds. Mr.. Barlow afterward ad-
vanced the cash which he now sues to
recover. Ugly rumors crept into circu-
latlon subsequently, that the ''Golconda
Mining Company was not what it
should be. Another engineer was sent
out, MIR. Clarence King, we believe,
and reported the matter to be a huge
fraud, and that the ground of the dia-
mond mine had been "salted." Liti-
cation followed which was supposed to
have been ended by compromise; but
the proceeding Instituted yesterday
shows that this reputed settlement was
not q conclusive one.
! The history of this singular con-
spiracy is, of course, not now told for the
first time, but it is interesting enough
to bear repetition at moment when it is
entering upon q fresh phase. The re-
cital has value as proof that even an
uncommonly shrewd and habitually sue
cessful man of business may sometimes
fall into the traps of sharpers; and as
furnishing new argument against the
policy of trusting to even the most
plausible appearances. So far rs
diamond field are concerned, notwith-
standing the recurrent precedents of
''salted'' gold mines, we suspect that
Mr.. Barlow's experience will brighten
American capitalists from such en-
terprises for some time to come; for
even were real diamond field to be
discovered, and its earth shown to be
actually crusted with the sparkling
gems. it would be very hard to get any
body just now to believe in it; or even
to 60 and pick them up if they could be
had fcr the taking.-M y Eueniag