Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1880-06-02
The Arizona Diamonds"


Several " 1rs ago the always large
floating Bohemian population of San
Francisco included Thomas Seymour.
and who was kind of photographic
tramp, having successively done ''loeal
itemizing' on every paper of every
town west of the Rocky mountains.
Seymour's knowledge of the topogra-
ply of this slope was a most detailed
one, and had been painfully acquired
by always going afoot, but always of
necessity and never of choice, from the
place where his usefulness had just
been exhausted TO where he hoped TO
have it renewed. In San Francisco,
Seymour made his usually precarious
living by writing specials for the Sun
day edition of such papers as would
buy them BY virtue of the common
guild of vagabondage Seymour had
made the acquaintance in the city of
one who was, when his energies set in
any direction whatever, a mining pros
pector. GLOW do you newspaper fell
lows liye:" once asked the prospector
curiously of Seymour. Come with
me and [ will show you" said Seymour,
and he led the other to his meargrely
furnished room. "Now. see. Here's
a good two columns. I'll probably get
twelve dollars for this. Listen" and
Seymour subjected his friend TO the
fearful punishment of listening to an
author reading his own manuscript,
"Where yen ever there, at that place
described - asked the miner, who had
listened without an interruption TO the
full reading.
"Well, | was never exactly there.
but I'ye been near where that place is
supposed to be, and it's tough coun-
trv."
What put it into your head TO spin
such yarn as that? There's no truth
in it,"
Anything is true that you can't
prove to be false. How can any one
prove that it amt true?"
The miner dropped his head in his
hands, thought long and intently with
out moving, notwithstanding Sey-
mour's growing impatience TO get back
10 the beer cellar frCm which they had
Issued.
Finally, the prOspector asked, alb
ruptly:
What's the most paper'll give you
for that roorbach ~
ooh, sl2 or SIS at the out sIde."
"DOes anybody else know about that
yarn ~
"NOt person."
"Say, Seymour" SAID the miner, af-
ter another long pause, 81 know
something about that country, too.
There amt no stones there, that's a
fact; but that whooper you have Is a
pearl itself, if you only knew it. I'll
give you twenty-five dollars for
it, ana if you keep your mouth mum
on it | Will make that story pay you
better than all the yarns you ever spun
in your life. Seymour gladly made
the sale, and soon lost sight of his friend,
and in succeeding literary inventions
that which he had sold, not for publica-
tion, had long been forgotten, when,
individually, he was astounded at the
announcement Of the great Arizona
diamond field, in almost the indeptical
spot where he had located in a news
That announcement was one that star
tied the whole civilized world. Sey-
mour followed the successivcly-an-
nOunced facts with the intense interest
of one who belived that his own genius
had been prophetic. Then came the
even more startling exposition of the
even more wonderful fact that the
diamond field was the crudest, most
bareface and most enormous ''plant"
that had ever been made in Pacific
coast mining. The prOspector, whom
Seymour never saw again, was not one
TO forget his promise, for Seymour re-
ceived ar unsigned letter, presumable
from him, and enclosing certified
check for 81 500, and which reads as
follows; "DO you think have improv-
ed on your story? / think so. 1t has
made great1ealmore than two columns.
and as ir was very interesting enclose
what hope you will think fair pay
for it. When you invent another
equally good diamond field or a gold
mine, or anything of that sort, please
hunt me up as | will give the story
point, and it will be for the interes: of
both of u.s. Seymour was so startled
that it was long after the diamond.pl plant
had lost its interest that it was general
ly known that il was founded on the
invention Of a Bohemian, and that it
was only accidental that its interest
was not the epheneral one of the pub
licatiOn of surprising story in news
paper.
How Gibralter was Captured.