The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1881-02-25


ton cat challenges the notice of the passers-
/ by In its teeth il holds skeleton rat, caught
no one knows how long ago. Just as we see
them now, cat and rat were taken from the
chimney, where the house was undergoing
alteration. a more grisly chimney-f1nd fell
to some workmen a few years since in the
old house in the High Street of Hull notable
as the birthplace of Wilberforce, the slave
emancpator, for the skeleton they disturbed
was human one. A banking business was
at one time carried on in the house, so the
bones were set down to belong to a thief who,
hiding in the chimney, either preliminary to
committing felony, or to escape pursuit after
committing it. had been suffoeated.
Burglars and robbers sometimes get into
tight places, and fall a sacrifice to their evil
/ ways. Nuuez, the Spanish banker, had a
strong room in his bank at Lerida which was
never entered unless some heavy payment in
gold had been made. To this there were or
iginally two keys, but one of them mys-
! teriously disappeared. One day it became
necessary for the cashier to visit the reserve
safe, and he was not q little startled at ind
| ing that there was key already in the lock
( He hurried to Nunez with the news and the
I banker himself opened tn strong-room door.
Inside lay the body of a man, the corpse of
a discharged bank servant He had stolen
the missing key, and ayaiied himself of an
Oppnrt unity to rifle the safe; but too eager
perhaps to finger the coin, had forgotten that
the door fastened with a spring, and letting
it close behind him, had wrought his own
punishment
InJanuarv, 1873, the soda-laden ship H-rine
arrived in the Thames from Peru, and dis
charged her cargo at Rotherlithe., ImbeG-
ded in the soda was found the wellpreserved
body OF a woman, supposed-we know not
. on what evidence-tO be one Of the victims
Of an earthquake occurring mauY-cent1ries
ago. There was not such utteF uncertaintS
respecting q wooden coffin containing a
guano effcy of 4 man, discovered in 1915.
some seventeen feet from tile top Of the
. Cuauo mound in Ichaboe for although the
coffin and its contents cIumbIed to dust al
ter an hours exposure To the air, the finders
managed to decipher all that remained of a
rude inscriT tion, namely, herman and
"6s9 :" and TO come TO the conclusion that
the remains we're those of the carpenter or
toDtJeTmaHn Of a Dutch sailing ship, who had
departed this life in 1859.
The child Of a Dutch farmer atIhe Cape
was won't to spend his Idle hours on the riy-
er-bank searching for pretty pebbles. One
Of the youngsters acquisitions attracted his
mothers notice as something out of the com
mon, and she showed it to a neighbor curious
in such things. lie would have bought it :
but Mrs. Jabobs ridiculed the idea, and made
him present Of it. He kept it little while
and then as readily parted with it to somebody
wiser than himself, who passed it on to
an ordinary unregistered letter to Dr. Ather-
stone, a mineralogist in Graham's Town.
! The expert declared the boys pebble to be
vQritable diamond as such it was exhibited
in the Paris Exhibition OF 1861, and purchas-
ed by an English gentleman for five thous-
and pounds.
Some five or six years ago, young man
was traversing the mountains, canons, and
valleys Of EsneraIda County, Nevada, pros
pecting for gold and silver As he looked
down OH the valley Of Teel's Marsh, he saw
a vast bed Of white sand or something like it,
and was tempted to e1amin it. be found
the place 60 be a bed Of dry lagoon, five miles
in length, and about half as wide; and what
had been taken for white sand proved to be
a clay-ii1e deposit, in which he sank ankle
deep as he cautiously walked over it. Fill
ing his pockets with the curious stuff, he
mounted his horse again and rode to his
home in Columbus There an assayer pro-
nounced the contents of bis pockets the fn-
est samples of crude b5rax he had ever seen.
The astonished prospector-one of the large
family of Smiths-lost no time in making for
mai claims to his fnd aud that obtained, he
and his brother went to work with tanks,
boilers, cTystallizers, and all necessary appIi-
ances, and are at the present writing, as the
masters Of an immense establishment, driv-
ing very profitable trade, one likely to be
as permanent as profitable, since the deposit
of borax in Teers Marsh reproduces Itself
every two or three years, so that Smith Bros.
have no fear Of the supply falling.
Wonderful reports have come of late from
Arizona and Colorado of rich mining Strikes
Mr.. Chilson the owner Of the most valuable
claim in the Globe District OF Arizona, thus
relates the story of its discovery
Il was travelling alone over the Sierras in
the fall of 1876, AMI had reached Pinal coun-
~ on my way back 20 the Globe District
where hoped to find ledge that would give
better paving ore than the one recently
abandoned. Being pretty near worn out
with my three weeks prufitlesS prospecting
1 was jogging quietly along on the back of
an old jack, looking out for a quiet gully
Wiislb l tOuti ctlilp IOF the night out of the
, rtach OF TIC road agents and redskins. See
. ing likely spot on the other side Of a low
ridge Of rock / was then ccastiue, l made for
1t, when my mule stumbled over blind cleft
and threw me head FIRST to the ground. NV
shoulder hit a bit of loose rock and that saved
NY head although IL was some time before
l could put myself together again When
was able to pick myself up L looked at the
rock tit on, with critical eye and it was
not long before | found it 10 he a solid lump
OF as pure silver as IS to be seen on the out
side OF an assay office. II was a long brown
mass, which shaltd OF when cut with nv
pocket-knlie, and was considerably more
than l could lift, although I can handle a
tWo-hundrrd-p pound bag of ore without diff
Guilty 1t iay in a kind Of split in the rock,
and this split was the OutcroD of silver
ledge, respecting which / concluded that ]
cOuld not better my luck if I travelled till
doomsday. 1 went to work. and set of at
once as big claim as the laws of the Terri
tory would admit. Following the streak f0I
some way, l came across several crevicrs of
the like character to the FIRST, all full Of
Shreds OF the same shaiy stuff known to the
miners as silver horn. Every ounce of il
was worth as much as a Mexican dollar
eptthere for the night, and earlyuext morn.
ing covered up all traces till I colId get force
enough To hold my own. In fifteen days my
brothers Joined me, and then we set about
developing. The first lot of ore we got ont
l packed on the hacks of seven mules, and
started for San Francisco, which / sold out
for clear gain Of eight thousand dollars
Since then my brothers have taken out over
sixty thousand dollars in cash and reckon
the miue Is worth clear million lust as it
stands, and will sell for twice as much as
soon as the railway now building reaches the
district"