The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-11-13
Was Not a Humorist.


bad '49er is not always the one who
sreaps the benefit in little deals between
the two. Sometimes the effete East
gets hold of the Western ''rustler' and
makes it very interesting for him even
at the latter's own gate
Patrick Healy has just dropped on
quiet little snap which has been going
on for years, and which resulted benefi-
cially to New England, while the great,
broad, noble, long-haired, jury-defying
West has been gently left.
Mr.. Healy has been for years a sheep
raiser and wool promoter of California
and the Pacific Coast, later, however
going into the business of purchasing
sheep on the coast for the Utah and
Wyoming trade. These California sheep
when at home feed over the old placer
grounds of the Golden State, eating the
rich grass that has sprung up all along
the broken and furrowed valleys, where
once, in the flush times of thirty odd
years ago, the miners of the great Col
conda, or whatever they used to call it,
hunted for gold during the week and on
Sunday did their washing or lynched
some one by request.
During the past summer mammoth
dipping corral has been erected at Lar
annie City, w. T., where all home and
foreign sheep are dipped, to abolish and
discourage that eccentricity of genius
among sheep known as the scab. This
tank is virtually trough, 800 feet long,
filed with solutions of sulphur. arsenic,
soda and other political opponents of
the scab. At this great watering place
10000 sheep have this summer resort
ed with their families. A great many
of them were from California, and some
were our own sheep.
At the lower end of the trough,
where the sheep come out, Mr.. Healy
noticed when the trough was clear of
dip that there was a sediment of black
sand. Black sand does not catch the
eve of the novice, but when an old
forty-niner notices the metallic glitter of
that material he naturally goes after a
gold pan and begins to inyesti cate. Mr..
Healy did so. He was surprised to find
that he got from twenty to eighty cents
to the pan in fine gold. He set an old
timer to panning at the foot of the dip.
and cleaned up S12 per day in dust for
week.
Then a large, octagonal chunk of
truth began to creep into Mr.. Heaiy's
{ intellect, The dipping of sheep does
not necessarily get out any of the dirt,
to speak of, but the Boston people who
scour the wool must be the ones who
have open to them q glorious. golden
fortune Mr. Healy came to this con
clusion at once, and acting upon it, be
went to Boston Immediately, and aS
fast as a hack could carry him, he went
to one of the largest wool emp0riums
and securing resorts of that great city.
1t was house that handled Pacific
coast wool exclusively.
Mr. Healy said he wanted to speak
with the boss preyaricator of the rancho
on an important matter. He was
shown into the conservatory where the
managing editor was beating down a
BIG Colorado sheep man on his prices
for his wool. Mr.. Healy waited pa
tiently till he could get the eye of the
speaker. When he got the proper OPP
pertunity he said:
ssSir, have made a discovery that |
desire to act upon at once 1t viii
bring you millions of dollars easily and
surely, and | only ask that you will use
me white in payment for the discovery.
If give this to you / want 800, 200. 1t
will make millions for you and you
needn't go out of your establishment
except to go TO Europe when you feel
like it, to buy Venus de Mcdics and
Venus de Milos and other fine-haired
bric-a-brac Wealth will come flowing
in to your Golfers in n golden stream.
s.Let us make few mathematical
calculations. You scour %, 0O0.00G
pounds of wool per annum. Fifty per
cent. of that, or II, 800, 900 pounds Is
black, gold bearing sand running say
fifty cents to the pan, or if You VII be
iudieious III buying of men whose
ranges are in the old hydraulic guches
of the coast, you can bring it up to 81 TO
the pan. Wen say that a pan averages
two pounds of sand, and you have from
$3, 900, 900 to $4,000, 900 per ear. Do
you tumble. you old gri2 ziy MOSS ;.-ate
of Massachusetts, Do you get on to
INV little scheme. noble Duke of the
Kingdom of Codfish?''
do I?n murmured the sage. do
/? Come with me"
He took Mr. Healy out to thc rear of
the great securing rink and showed him
where two Cinnamon were at work
with gold pans.
You think, Mr. Healy," said he,
t'that | am putty man from away up
the creek, no doubt. You do not know
me. You are in error / am an old
'49er myself. / came home by way of
the isthmus many years ago, and
knew black sand with little, fine rubies
and -four gold in it as well as you do. /
have been ON this little racket now for
some years, and am doing moderately
well. early learned that the growing
coatof California sheep was in many in
stances bonanza. People thought
was monkeying with stocks or dabbling
in oil when they saw how | was getting
ahead, but just told them THAT | was
n L \ 4