Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1885-07-29
Stories Illustrative OF Persist
ency and Luck.
Jnearthing Big Lumps of the Precious
Metal in Peculiar Places.

Slstency in the face OF bad luck that
this Dutchman possessed. lie had
been plodding along for several
months digging a tunnel Heavy, dull
clay was all about him. Not a prom
Ising sign beckoned him on. lie
seemed to get more settled in his de-
termination to work the tunnel to the
end the more unpromising it looked.
lie had been working on iu the face of
encouragement for several months.
One morning he was making his way
into his tunnel. and before he had
gone fourteen feet bis heart hal sunk
within him. There in front of him
was his tunnel cavedl The path that
be had labOriously dug into the hill
was cloggcd with tons of earth. But
The quality of his character asserted
itself Most men would have vOlleyed
paths at his i'll luck, and packed up
their kit and left. The miner moved
more slowly than before, but he star.
ted to work again in the same tunnel.
He crawled into his tunnel, and with
pick and shovel set to clearing away
the hill of earth that blocked his path.
lie had not struck a dozen blows with
his pick before the sharp iron point
struck something solid Mechanically
ne bent forward and cleared away the
earth, and there before him was a big
augget. as nuggets go, weighing four
teen ounces. He crcpt out of the tun-
nel. bringing his precious nugget with
MIN, and when he got into the fresh
air and heard the birds singing, he sat
down and wept. No one Degrudgcd
the Dntchman his luck.
"A nuggety country that has been
nnly partially worked is just as good Il
field as virgin SOIL" continued the
miner "rhe spots that have not been
touched may bo the very nests of the
precious metal. 1t is dangerous to
leave single foot of ground unworll-
ed. The fortune of lifetime might
thus be passed by and lost forever,
There are many instances of just such
eases. There was poor, shiItless fel.
low, with Il wife in rags and children
In squalor. The whole family used to
90 into the diggngs together and shift
about till they had got enough to buy
something to cat. They kept sinking
lower and lower. But one day they
struggled into the diggings, not having
energy enough to push on abreast OF
the workers. They fell to picking q
little pillar that had been left stand
ing in the midst of the diggngs, all
about it having been worked. | du
not think it could DC more than three
feet across, certainly not more than
six. 1t was spot that had bnen ne
elected us the diggers pushed their
drifts ahead. The slualid family had
began to work on this solitary pillar;
all they hoped was for few grains to
feed them for the day. AS the man
continued listlessly, the sunlight was
caught up by speck in the pillar
that glistened and flashed. The eyes
of the poor fellow saw it; he thought
his work for the day was done. lie
knelt down to clean away the dirt
from the bright spot. AS he did 80
the shining metal grew to larger pro-
portions. Immediately tho whole
family was around it in eager haste to
uncover it. The further they cleared
the soil away about it the further it
seemed to recerle. After working two
hours with growing astonlShment
they saw the full outline of their prize
lone of the largest humps Of gold ever
found. That WAS the luckiest find
ever made.
"'rhe Mount Moliagul nugget was
found in Il most peculiar place" re-
sumed the miner. There was IN
unusually rich digging IN the vicini-
ty of Mount Moliagul, Victoria, that
had made a hundred men rich. 1t
had been thoroughly worked in every
direction, and it was thought that
every grain of gold in the neighbor-
hood had been collected. The crowd
that once made the camp busy scene
of life dissolved as quickly as it had
collected, leaving the shanties to the
mercy of the weather, which soon
made them picturesque ruin. OF
toward the east there was solitary
tree stump standing on pillar of
earth that had not been cut away by
the gold hunters because of the old
roots of the tree that spread through
the soil. 1t was not more than ten
feet in circumference as it had been
left by the diggers. One day
two miners came to the deserted
camp, and stopped over night on the
site of the old camp. The stump
struck one of them as singular feat
ure of the old digging, and being askil-
full miner, he knew that one part of a
nuggety country was as likely to hide
the precious metal as another. 1t &C,
CURED to him that the ground under
the stump was as likely to prove rich