New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-03-30
He WoyLD THANK SOMEBODY TO KICK Mn
FoRrY-NINRr's EXPERIENCE IN MISSING TIE
RICHEST GOLD FINDS

HIGHEST GOLh fiNb''
81 tell Won what, sir,"-it was an OLD forty-
miner who spoke he sal with s feet on the top oil te
hotel stove there amt no ne Gods earth ~ comes
IN pip,. lca.yise no life that I'VE struck, and I've
t1ed n good many thinc, too A man don't make money
at IT, not one man five hundred; or rather they get
plenty but ,hoy gamble away in camps ~ fa7 a. 'hey
Get H. so't when regions pctercd ont there probably
amt three men outside the buncomen ana saloon Aee'7
a. have got a dollar in their pockets
"But its the fascination OF ii. Lor man, Wheh you w
struck It pretty rich and yer gold right in front OF
Won when You're piiug 1t up every hall honr q the day
with n nugget now and again big bullet to cheer
you aud then when the cvenin' comes and you count
ND and find hundred odd dollars lust picked out tue
earth that day-well, there amt notnR Ike H. lueh
when yOu don't strike it rich you always thhK you cB"
TO next day. an It's just ~ exciting heHiin olhoF iuo
tell In the eveun' what they pulled out AZ II 's couhu"
over your own Why I've been three and four months al
time without making dollar and without cent In my
pocket hut GecWhttakcr tho excitement OF II don't give
q man twice to think how hard mp he a.
"Buttherc are times when a man don't know how 10
kick himself hard enough; you bet nc don't IL was
down on the Stanislaus once, was mOnkeyhe roun"
with pard-Long Gus we called him--sn' picked up
ood TO throw at him, just lump OF earth that was gh
handy Well it Just went to one side o Long Gus ana ne
sOrter reached out his hand catch it, an II all broke III
pieces leavIn some in his hand expected he'd thro"
il back at me but he didn't He lust tossed II over ID
his hand careless like and then said he'd had enough
fooin' SO we walked on again. Next moThh "'S
didn't say word to me- but he just went on Win MA OUT
1T 10 the place where I'd thrown that clod at him, an
took $3.50 ont the first day. An don't know how many
thousands he took out before he'd done with that claim
As the clod broke in his hand 1t laid bare small nugget
maybe as largo pea-he showed 1t to me after"aru
an he said startled HIM he very nigh called OUT an
gave himself away, nobody supposed there was any
gold LETT just there 1t all thought to DO WORKED OUT
but the darned fools hal gone right by the richest part OF
IT, wish he had called know but you bet never
felt more like kicking myself into the river n ala then
WHY I'd only turned the cus,ed thing over or broken
il III wo-it was sight too large TO throw at once rs
thought when threw II, but!
.Buf there was another time when felt like hurting
myself too-hurng myscf right badand 30 dih oil me
other hovs can tell you There were 200 Of us
in It, sir An all fools II was one forth july
down TO Mokelunne an wanted to do suthin to cee
brate an we were pretty badly Xad for what to DO
Well after rakln round bit settled on an old Tree
one these sugar pines. The gold yc know used 70 lie
all along the bottom OF the gulchoS-or 50 we used 10
hlnk-an nobody thought OF gon mp The ll'ae 10
look for H. but just KEEP on working along Inc g'hes'
An this sugar pine 800 feet M The hillside
right away from where the gold II was fine tree
AZ ragh ms whiskey for hundred feet or more without
bough or leaf IT, and then the bouSh- began all OF
sudden II stood there all by itself Ike an we SET
tied we'd blow it up. so we gets twenty-five pound
kcg basn' powder and hauled ii ny the mn, an SET
TO work o hole under the tree. We got a. lar uh'I
as we could for the taprOot and then slowed me kr2
away an just hcaVed rocks and eaTth Oh TO " h," pe II
down hard Then we Int the fuse and scrambled away rs
fast as we could Well. you inst believe IL scattered the
rocks some Gee but had to look out for our heahs
ana the earth went al round the place. Bui II dldi
blow the old tree up not cent. IL lus sIoOu o ~ II
nothing had happened. cept that the trunk was spi UP
some twenty rect HOwscver we all cheeItt ana
bocred an felt we'd done suhn' To celebrate anu thth
we went back and 'rahed around the camp. .
"Tbat a. I'VE SAID was the Fourth July. Along 10
the end OF Sepembt it might be-, il rancd-raned quite
sight that year too Well after It d been ranin ot
a man called Harf--Jlm Harris, a. good f9r ho.nh
chan a. y< ever sec who couldn't work or do any
AM had never washed ont dollar honestly III his me-
CHANGED To come that hill his way to camp an
passed right by This ERE pine we'd tried 70 bio" up
Mono OF MS had been up to the burned tree again.
but selp ne Johnny Rogers " that rain hadn't gone an
washed all the earth tho powdered kicked up an th
Teller Harris picked sixty dollars as he sio0u ncc!
That proved the richest leads In the whole mOKe
umne an here had been washing away In gulches an
savn' "a there warnt gold up the husdes. Naint
there! This Teller, Harris got rich ont tal, cos e
never spent money like the rest OF u.s. an was aOout
the only man IN camp did git rich, guess. dldnt
know But tell there wasn't one OF us two huhureu
n wouldn't have taken 1t kindly II some one al Ached
him well when we first heard o what we'd DONE