The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1884-02-28
SUDDEN WEALTH.
Some Interesting Recollections of the
Flush Times in Colorado.
How New Made MilliOnaires Cele-
brated Their Good FOrtune---
Anecdotes OF the Kings
for q Day.
["Vera" in Kansas City Times. !

much as SlUU at time were suddenly masters
of $40, 900 or 800, 600, their greatest trouble
was to know what to buy first The luxury
of purchasing intoxicated them, and no Won
der they bought diamonds before dinners.
There is an old story-and it is likely true
one-that one clustering winter night
miner who had just made a big
haul was standing on street corner
in Ieadville, when hollow-eyed woman,
clutching ragged shawl about her shivering
shoulders, drifted up and stopped irreso-
lutely. There was famine in her eye and
desperation in her rags. The miner was UNI
used to ladies' soci-e; and felt embarrassed,
but he felt also that she in distress, and
in the flush Of his prosperity and higness OF
his heart he wanted to do something for her.
Finally he said:
Wait here a minute, missus; I'll be right
back
| In a short time he returned and pressing
bundle into her hands, hurried away before
she could stammer out her fearful thanks.
The outcast opened the package eagerly. 1t
contained pair Of silk stockings.
Among the people knew around the camp
was man named Ed Braden. who divided
his time between reporting on newspaper
and prospecting, and who loved to tell what
good and noble and sensible things he would
do should he happen to strike it. When for
tune did smile on him one day, he launched
! Immediately upon several enterprises not con-
| templated in the original prospectus. Among
other vagaries he became enamored Of
vivacious little soubrette who was playing at
the opera house, and arranged a unique and
remarkable testimonial to her beauty and
talents At great expense he procured from
Denver some twenty or thirty hot-house
bouquets. The holders Of these he had
weighted with :. leaden spike-point down
ward, so when it was thrown upon the stage
it would stick in the boards and stand erect.
His idea was to precipitate the whole number
at once when the soubrette made her appear
ance, and, to use his own language, trans
form the stage into a bower of roses" To
this end he had number of friends stationed
at different points in the audience. each bear
| ing deadly bouquet.
The curtain rose, the actress tripped on,
when bang! bang bang! the flower-decked
missiles hurtled through the air. The poor
girl who had read something Of wild west
ern ways, thought it was plot to kill her.
and flel to the cellar, from which she had to
be subsequently dragged by main force, utter
ing piercing shrieks. The Braden party
were all somewhat nebriated and the more
enthusiastic fired their bouquets with such
reckless aim that one of them hit the leader
of the orchestra on the bald head, and he
had to be neld by two men while the gore
was being mopped off and explanations
made. All went a great ways toward
marring what might have otherwise been a
pleasant occasion. This is fair specimen of
the pursuits in which Braden spent very
decent fortune and succeeded in three brief
months in getting back into scrub Journalism
and prospecting again.
/ contemporaneous gentleman of fortune
was Capt. Connors, well known to all resi-
dents of the camp. He has often told me the
story of his first stake" He received &40.-
600 for his interest in some mineral property,
and it was paid to him at the bank in four
rectangular packages Of bills of $40, 900 each.
The captain had kept his good fortune So
cret from l. wife and he hurried home to
tell her. She was sitting down after a hard
days work, and without word he dropped
the arinful of greenbacks in her lap 1t was
a loyal ana touching thing to do. For mo-
ment she sat paralyzed with establishment,
and then, hugging the mass up to her, she
sobbed out
"Oh, Tom, how dirty they are! Let me
put them in a tub and wash them"
do it il you want to, dear" he replied,
/
other rich men of Colorado to emulate, ''but
you will never wash anything else again"
One Of these kings for day can't recall
his name, but a subsequent trial in the GRIM
inal court Of Leadville in 1881, created quite
sensation, made lucky strike that netted
him $50, 600 in cash. He at once wrote to his
wife OF his good fortune, and intended to
leave for his home the following day. That
/ ~ N ~ n NJ
these couriers Of crime, and in less than two
hours was gambled out of every dollar. He
made a complaint to the police, and the
larger portion of the money was recovered,
but too late, for, hopeless and distracted he
had locked himself in his room and committed
suicide.
1t was by no means the rough and iliterate
who succeeded in making the most glaring
idiots OF themselves under the stimulus of
sudden fortune, but a degree of prior culture
seemed to ha % the effec, of adding a sort Of
weird and eccentric variety to their freaks
A miner nameu Luke Fuller, a graduate Of
Bowdoin and IA man of really brilliant mind
and wide information, one afternoon, en-
tircly unanticipated by himself, consummated
a sale that placed in mis- hands over 10000
IL was to be supposed that three or four years
of grinding poverty had given him an appre
citation of the value of money, and he had
never been known to drink or dissipate in
any form. To the surprise of everybody he
went on monumental spree which he wound
up by taking four or five boon companions
ON a sort of trumphal tour into the east
The party stranded in Chicago and the next
time | saw Fuller he was in Saul's saloon de.
stroying free lunch and furtively watching
the bartender.