Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1884-08-16
THE CLEAR STEAL OF A MILLION.
How Diamonds Were Sewn With Shot.
guns in the Hills Of Arizona.

How Diamonds Were sewn With Shot
guns in the Hills Of Arizona.
From the Chicago Herald
In 1871 two rough-lookinr rrospeetors walked
into the Bank OF California and asked for Mr.
Ralst0n, the cashier and leading spirit of the
bank They had two little buckskin bags which
they said contained something and they did not
know exactly what it was One Of the bags they
said they believed had diamonds in the rough,
but the other they said they did not "know
what kind of d-n stone It was They mout
be garnets." Raston laughed at the idea of
diamonds, +" but he asked to see them There
Was about half pint of black, dirty-looking
crystals, ranging in size from pea to a hazel
nut. The other bag had dark blood-red stones
that were promptly pronounced Arizona gar
nets by the great banker. and cast aside as
bag with the black crystals, and he would have
them examined by experts. He did so. Prof.
LIE Conte, the geologist of the University of
California, pronounced them diamonds. So
did Professor Janin, the best mining expert in
San Francisco Shreve and other leading lew
elers all agreed they were diamonds Shreye
had one partially cut. and it revealed beauti-
full white stone. The question then arose:
''Where did they come from?" Raston was
greatly excited. He called in Sharon and even
prospectors gave their names as William Arnold
and Isaac W. Slack and said they had been
prospecting in Arizona and Utah and Wyoming.
and they had found these stones in one of the
regions named but refused to say just where.
They said. however, that there were ''bushe s.
Of the same kind left. The diamond fever grew.
and finally RalstOn" Sharon, Nicholas Luning. a
great San Francisco capitalist; William NJ Lent.
s. l.. M. Barlow. of New York; George d. Rob-
erts, the present postal telegraph man; Michael
a oh mill
others formed syndicate and agreed to take
the diamond fields" at 81, GOO, 600, provided the
representations of Arnold and Slack were yeri-
fed by experts. Meantime the other little bag
of specimens was submitted to tests ard found
to contain genuine rubies. Some were sent to
New York to be cut. and were found to be gen.
uine stones. These were said to come from the
same "fields."
"When they had the bargain drawn up in
black and white and S25, 600 paid as earnest
money Arnold and Slack revealed secretly to
Ralston the location OF the find and offered to
pilot three of the banks own experts to the
ground. One morning in April, 1872. four dis
guised figures crept down in the dawn to the
Roberts, Henry Jann and George Hearst. Janin
was the most accomplished geOlogist and
mining engineer in the city. and Roberts and
Hearst were, and are yet, the best practical miners
In California. The party took the cars and Ar
mold piloted them to Green River, Wv. T. There
they left the train. got mules and an ambulance
and struck for the Green River mountains, IS
miles south of the railroad They were on the
ground week. The diamond field did not
seem to be more than SO acres in extent, and
barren red sandstone hills They found dia-
monds in the greatest quantities scattered
about In the low beds of dry gravel. They
dug down and found them in groups Of six and
eight: They were all greatly excited, except
Arnold. When at the end of a week, they pre-
pared to leave, they had more than a quart of
diamonds and rubies Of all Sizes Well, when
they got back to San Francisco the town was
a1ame. company was at once organized with
So. 600 capital. The million dollars to pay
Arnold and Slack was advanced by RalstOn, and
In part made good by the syndicate. Roberts.
Luning. Lent, Ralston and Sharon each put in
100000, and Barlow made up q pool in New
York to take $500 600 more. Then the public
began to clamor for the stock, but so confident
were the promoters of the scheme that they had
new Goconda that they locked the stock up
In the Bank of California and refused to let
share go out. Arnold and Slack took their
money and left the coast. Arnold got $40. 600
in cash. He went to Elizabethtown. KY, bought
q magnificent farm and settled down. Slack
went to Europe, and was never heard Of again.
Clarence King, the United States geologist.
had made survey OF that region and remem-
bered the exact spot in which the diamonds
were said to be found. He knew it was not q
diamond country. He suspected fraud ANY,
at stake, and he went to examine 1t quietly
by himself. weeks close study revealed the
whole truth. and in an elaborate report he
showed how the ground had been salted. and
even the mechanical appliances used. He found
few of the diamonds and unhesitatingly de-
clared them OF the same character as the stones
from South Africa. An investigation followed,
and in few months the whole truth came out.
Harpending had put up the job and had sup
piled Arnold and Slack with the money to carry
it out. The latter bought in London 1000
worth of rough diamonds and $4,000 worth
of common rubies. They picked them up at
odd times and in odd lots, and Arnold SNUG
gled them into the country by way of Quebec
Slack, who had been in South Africa. selected
the feld-and Clarence King said the immediate
region was we'll selected too-and together they
planted them. poking them down one by one
with slim steel rods They also scattered some
into gravel bank with shot gum and it was
this last method that King detected by thepow-
der stains.
''The company burst up at once, and Ralston
and the rest set about recovering portion Of
the money. Lent and Roberts hunted up Ar
mold. In Kentucky, and it was said by some he
gave up portion of the money but Others af-
firm that he never did. Several suits were be-
gun, and not long after Arnold was murdered in
a local quarrel. 1t was a clean steel of about
million dollars"