, 1885-05-01
OF MINING.
SOME or THE SENSATIONAL STORIES
WHICH ONCE WE'RE CURRENT.
A Lucky shot-A Boys Good Fortune
Tive Irishmen Find a
aIorgue-Like Story of Enriy
LeadviIe Days.



lcor. Philadelphia Pressl
SO many misconceived notions are enter
tanned about frontier mining towns and the
tlsodthirlty disposition Of the inhabitants,
thai | have recalled from memory scenes
that. while they may not counterast this be-
lies. willa to n certain extent, show that
romance and fate have a great deal to do
with tie promulgation Of this notion. In
1857 oar OF tho most productive mines dis
covered near Ieadville. Colo, was found by
a Mr. Long. who. hungry. emaciated and
with a large old English penny in his pocket.
@for luck. . as he called IL, went out shooting
for n breakfast A deer was his first
shot; the animal died hard. struggled,
kicked up the earth, and eventually
sulsidod in a particularly rocky spot.
Long hnstened to its side, and, instead OF a
dead deer. he discovered evidences Of gold
dust Long informed his partner, a Mr..
Derry, and they possessed themselves OF the
spot and became rich. That was before
leadville had become what it is to-day.
Hardly six months had passed, when news
rchashcd, magnihed and made sensational
hy eastern journalists went travelling over
the country that two gamblers, notorious
characters. had waylaid a party Of travel
en-. composed OF n lady and three men, as
cAiAltt4 AltM anu klllluR Altlllt louuu III
their pockets evidence of n rich gold mine
and pre-emptei it. Wilbur F. Storey. then
In tho height Of his power as a journalist
had seen the story. He knew Long, exam
ined into the truth of the tale and gave a
true version Of it.
The Eberhardt Silver mine was discovered
In 1858, near Elko, New, by a boy who was
working for a gang of men cutting ties for
the Central Pacific railroad, then in course
Of con struction. Elated with his success he
disclo oil his secret to q man who was fore
man Of the gang. The brennan p~re-empted
it AMI sold it, as guardian of the boy, to m
English company of capitalists, for a large
sum of money. Some friends of the youth,
who were Germans, became Interested
in the matter and found he had
been defrauded of his riShtful dues,
and they instituted suit against the com
pany to test their claim. The company com
promised with them for some $500, 900, and
another sensational story came east, was
published first in Boston, OF the kidnapping
of a boy by bloodthirsty cowboys, who
asked a ransom for him, as he was tho owner
of a wealthy silver mine, and what gave ad-
ditional color to the matter in Massachu-
setts at the time was the death Of an inn
mensely wealthy gentleman, who left his
entire property, amounting to millions, to
his son, a minor who was. missing for a few
days. / believe it was through the efforts
of n bir. Bacon, a Boston journalist, that
the matter WINS investigated and the truth
proclaimed
Some six years ago Mr.. Earnest Ingersoll
published in Scribneris Monthly a very long
article on Ieadville, and 1 remember h
mentioned the finding of tho Camp Bird
mine there by the Gallagher brothers, two
iiliterate sons Of the Emerald isle, but, as he
800. 81 -. 49, IA - Al.
sensation it produced east subsequently,
will relate it. These Gallagher brothers,
Dan and Michael, were exceptionally Irish
in everythinE, very poor, but honest.
shrewd, and, to a certain extent, supsrsti-
tious. One day, together they started out
with a hope Of getting employment, and, in.
crossing a piece OF country contiguous TO the
silver mine, Dan stopped to tie his brogans
or army shoes.
~Oh, Mickey. here's luckT' no exclaimed,
picking up a small sized silver quartz.
They both examined it and discovered it
was genuine rocky quartz silver, and they
posse sod themselves Of it Not long after a
paper published not fifty miles from Chicago
gave a sensational account of two Irishmsn
with pistols and etceteras, Jumping" n sill
yer mine, the rightful property OF an old
Sootchman. the whole thing originating in
the fertile brain OF the writer. DIR. Wood,
then on The New York Sun, had a suspicion
that all was magnihed, and wrote a long ar
ticle to n western paper, arriving at the
truth.
There has been more romance connected
with emily Leadville than any other place on
the frontier. One of the most morgue-liko
stories that was ever published was re-
lyamped from a minimum of truth into a max
imum Of romance. 1t was related to a claim
called the Dead Mans Claim, discovered
nenr Lsndville. A man came from the
eastern part Of New York hoping to estab-
lish himself as a physician. He was talented,
educated, but very delicate, entirely untitled
to stand the hardships Of a frontier life,
especially a winter life, when, penniless and
hungry, he found himself stranded and with
no shelter but that afforded by stray saloons
and gambling places, for Laadville was
already overrun with physicians, lawyers and
men OF Drain. He had a few friends among
the many h~appy-go-lucky fellows he met,
and they helped him as best they could.
Suddenly no was taken sick with pneumonia
and died. The poor fellows who stood by
him in his sick-room were determined that
he should have a decent burial, SO they
dubbed together and raised a purse Of $50.
An old miner, dead broke" and a sort Of
handy man around the saloons, named Par
ish, was given $50 to dig him a grave, and
S20 for a coffin.
1t was in the dead Of winter, the snow five
feat on tue level, so the body was taken out
and buried in the snow, while Parish started
at his work. The two men who had
collected the fund for his burial got in
ierested in a long game of poker, and, after
sitting nearly forty-eight hours, concluded
they would hunt up Parish and find
out how he vas progressing. So one
morning they adjourned to the spot, and
there WINS Parish digging away for lear life.
He had struck a paying mine, and, forget
ting all about the body, was unearthing
treasures. The two friends claimed their
SHIRE. Parish would not yield. Eventually
the affair was confronted. and sold out to
advantage to a company. Later the poor
doctor was buried, and the matter became
a ten days wonde and died out as far as
Leadville was concerned, when one morn
ing Parish's attention was called to a long
article in n newspaper of how he and a gang
of murderers had in cold blood murdered a
wealthy gentleman and Jumped" his claim.
Tho matter was the occasion OF a general
laugh around Leadville, and poor Parish for
some time after earned the sobriquet OF the
death dealers jumper"
ra-