The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-03-24

In little cabin far up the gulch the
first white child in this part of the world
was born. The girl-wife had followed
her lover from the States, and, Drawing
every hardship for his sake, had at last
found him. When the baby came the
gulch went on weeks spree. Gold in
handfuls was thrown by the rough miners
into the little ones cradle until it was
almost smothered under the yellow mug
gets. One poor fellow wanted to hear it
cry. and when the baby piped up the
miner wept, saying he had not heard q
q sound like that for years. How the
rough, big-bearded men crowded around
that little child, one asking il he might
kiss it, another if he might lift it, and q
third the privilege of seeing it fed out Of
q bottle. When it was sick business in
the gulch was almost suspended, and no
body could think of doing anything until
''the baby" was better. These were the
good old days of gulch mining in Mon
tana, when flour was one dollar . pound,
sugar and coffee seventy-five cents, dried
apples ten dollars a gallon. brooms five
dollars apiece, tacks seventy-five cents a
paper, calico one dollar per yard, and
when miner could take out sixteen dol
lars per day with q chance of rich mug
get turning up twice a week. Nugget
finding is the excitement of miner
life. Of course, as long as gold is found
in chunks weighing one and two pounds
there is no good reason why it should not
be found in Jumps weighing fifty pounds,
and it is these huge powders the gulch
miner is constantly looking for and daily
expecting to turn up. Montana has been
fairly productive in nuggets. One was
taken out of Snowshoe Gulch in 1865
which weighed 178 ounces troy, and
sold for $4,000. Another was found in
July, 1865. by Maxwell, Rollins & Co. in
Nelson Gulch, worth $2,073; another on
the claim of Deitrick & Brother in Rocker
Gulch, which sold for 81, 800. A boy on
Scratch Gravel Bottom found piece of
gold which he sold for S475; two other
pieces were picked up and sold for 1875;
and one on Captain Tandy's claim for
$3.50. Mr.. Rogers found in Nelson
Gulch, in 1873, nugget worth $500. A
farmer blowing in his field saw some
thing shining and picked it up; it proved
to be nugget of gold worth 5000. Mug
gets are still found, but not so often as
in the palmy days of Last Chance and
Alder Gulch.
Speaking of nuggets, do you know
where the largest gold nugget in the
world was found? 1t was discovered in
1858 in the Ballarat Diggings, Victoria
Australia. Itweighed 2,l66 ounces, and
was sold for $4l $50. 1t was nearly pure
gold and estimated in the British Ex-
change as the equal of standard gold or
pounds sterling. This mammoth nugget
was called 1.-The Welcome" and for
many years was reckOned one of the
seven wonders of the world. New South
Wales produced gold to the total weight
of 1928 900 ounces, valued at $59, 4l5,-
O85. Victoria exceeded this quantity
nine-fold, her product in the same ten
years being 26,OOO,OO0 ounces. equal in
value to 20,00O,O00. In 1862 the col
ony sent to the Great International Ex-
hibition an obelisk called 1.-THE Gold
Trophy" 1t was forty-five feet high by
ten feet square at the base, representing
in cubic contents the bulk of all the gold
raised in the colony in eleven years-185l
to 1862. Down to the end of 1867 the
gold from this colony was reckoned at
$3.50, 900, OO0-besides the gold of New
South Wales.-FOrt Keogh Cor. Chicago
T,.;h1oo