The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1880-05-05
The MArlzona nIamonds. >

A writer in the San Francisco Call re-
wives the recollection of the famous and
fabulous story of the Arizona diamond
fields. and gives its origin in this wise:
Several years ago the always large
floating Bohemian population of San
Francisco included Thomas Seymour,
who will be remembered by many of the
profession, and who was kind of para
graphic tramp, having successfully done
local itemizing" on every paper of
every town west ofthe Rocky mountains.
Seymour 3 knowledge of the topography
of this slope was a most detailed one,
and had been painfully acquired by al
ways going aioot, but always of necessity
and never of choice, from the place
where his usefulness had just been ex-
hausted to where he hoped to have it re-
newed. In San Francisco Seymour made
his usually precarious living by writing
specials for the Sunday edition of such
papers as would buy them. By virtue
of the common guild of vagabondage
Seymour had made the acquaintance In
this city of one who was, when his
energies set in any direction whatever,
a mining prospe; tor. How do you
newspaper fellows liveP" once asked
the prospector curiously of Seymour.
Come with me and l will show YOU"
said Seymour. and he led the other to
his meagerly furnished room. Now.
see. Here's a good two columns. I'll
probably get $l2 for this. Listen" and
Seymour subjected his friend to the fear
ful punishment of listening to an author
reading his own manuscript. "Were
you ever there, at that p. ace describedP"
asked the miner, who had listened with
out an interruption to the tull reading
Well. l was never exactly there,
but I've been near where that place is
supposed to be, and it's tough coun-
try"
"What put it into your head to spin
such yarn as thatP There's no truth
in it."
Anything is true that YOU can't
prove to be false. How can one prove
that it amt trueP"
The miner dropped his head in his
hands, thought long and intent ly with
out moving, Notwithstanding Seymour's
growing impatience to get back to the
beer cellar from which they had issued.
Finally, the prospector asked abruptly:
What's the most a paper'll give for
that roorbackP"
"Oh, $I2 or $l9 at the outside"
yarnP"
"Not person."
"Say, Seymour" said the miner, after
another pause, 81 know something
about that country, too. There amt
no stones there, that's fact; but that
whOpper you have there is pearl itself,
if you only knew it. I'll give you S25
for it, and if you keep your mouth mum
on it l 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 publ
cation, had long been forgotten, when,
individually, he was astounded at the
announcement of the discovery of the
great Arizona diamond fields, in almost
the identical spot where he had To-
Gated in newspaper fiction a field of
precious stones. That announcement
was one that startled the whole civil
lied world. Seymour followed the sue
cessivey- y-announced facts with the in
tense interest of one who believed that
his own genius had been prophetic.
Ihen came the even more startling ex-
position OF the even more wonderful fact
that the diamond field was the crudest.
most barefaced and most enormous
"plant " that had ever been made
in Pacific coast mining. The pros
pector, whom Seymour never saw
again. was not one to forget mis- prom
ises, for Seymour received an unsigned
letter, presumably from him, and in
closing certified check for 81 800, and
which reads as follows: do You
think | have improved on your storyP
| think so. 1t has made great deal
more than two columns. and as it was
very interesting, inclose what hope
you will think fair pay for it. When
you invent another equally good dia-
mond field or a gold mine, or anything
of that sort, please hunt me up, as /
will give the story point, and it will be
Tor the interest of both of usl Sey-
mour was so startled that it was long
after the diamond pant had lost its in
terest that it was generally known that
1t was founded on the invention Of
Bohemian and that it was only acci-
dental that its interest was not the
ephemeral one of the publica alton of
surprising story in newspaper.