Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-01-17
A CONvI0TS STRANGE STORY
How silas McLeon's Prospects Wefe Ruined
BIZ Drink aud Speculation.

| A CONPICT'S STRANGE STORY.
How sllas yeLeon's Prospects wene Ruined
bY Drink aud Speculation.
A Chicago special says: Silas Nc
Loon, one of the four Deer-Island con-
victs who were pardoned at Boston
this week for heroism in rescuing the
remnant Of the crew Of the wrecked
schooner Juliet off Winthrop Point.
has had q romantic career. He is a
native of Rockland, and son Of the late
William McLoon, who was one Of the
foremost of Maine shipowners. His
father died some fifteen years
ago and willed nearly all Of his i'm
mepse fortune to this son, but Silss
generously refused to accept the for
tune and consented to the breaking Of
the will and sharing with the other
heirs, thereby receiving about $780,
600. Young McLoon is one Of the best.
known men in Rockland, Maine. lie
is man Of iron constitution, Of indom-
liable courage and warm hearted, aud
his bravery in Saturdays gale is char
acteIistic of the man. He has scores
Of firm friends in Rockland, who be-
lieve he will yet overcome his passion
for drink and make use of the business
talents he undoubtedly possesses.
Silas became the husband of young
lady distinguished in the society of
Hayerhill, Massachusetts,, for her beau
ty and accomplishments. A sixty
thousand-dollar residence at Rockland
was his first investment.
RASH sPEcULATIoNs.
His next was the fatal purchase Of
half interest in the uncompleted inven-
ton Of n Yankee to utilize steam with
out allowing an exhaust. lnexpe-
rienced and perfectly insane with en-
tbusiasm, be fastened to Europe with
imperfect models and illustrations to
introduce to the Old World an un-
patented patent. Sharpers at London
and Paris saw the weakness of both the
man and the machine, and while attesting
to the marvellous worth of one, showed
no hesitation in patronizing the appa-
rently inexhaustible wealth ofthe other.
Young McLoon, it is said, had dined
and wined himself out of nearly all his
fortune, when his married sister, then
in Paris with her husband, had him
spirited off to America. lie stuck to
the invention until all his resources
were dissipated. Nothing was left but
the Rockland house and a limestone
quarry that yielded an income OF
$1,000. These he gave to his wife,
convinced that he was irreclaimable.
His mother gave to him with lavish
hand, but when she saw that he was
falling lower with each gift she with
held her fayOrs.
RUINED BY DRINK.
At last his mother gave him a purse
with which to start anew in the West,
exactiDg from him promise that he
would never return unless he had over
come his unfortunate appetite for alco-
hOl. In 1877, in February, young
McLoon passed through Chicago on his
way to the Black Hills, then the scene
Of a gold excitement. He had not
allowed anything Intoxicating to pass
his lips for a full month. At Omaha,
while the train was waiting for lunch,
he bought bottle of ale. The
next night, while the train was speed
ing past Glbbon, a small station in
Nebraska, the station-agent was shocked
to see a body fall from the train and
apparently roll under the wheels. He
took the unconscious man in the station
and restored him. 1t was the young
New Highlander. lie had miraculously
escaped with few bruises on the head.
The next train took him on to Chey-
enne. Then for some days he surprised
the border men with his muniticence
and pIincely ways. On the fourth day
he awakened with a meagre 5000 rem
nant of the $4,000 which his mother
had given him as the first instalment
Of the purchase-money Of acattle ranch.
His next effort at reformation was
made in exile on the Medicine-Bow
mountain range, where for four months
be remained searching for gold where
human beings are rarely seen and where
intoxicants could not be had. At the
expiration of that period, having suf-
iered the adverse fate of most gold
hunters, McLoon returned home to his
wife and two children in Maine sure
that the circumstances had redeemed
him and resolved to recover by hard
labor the fortune he had so recklessly
squandered.
His release from q conyict's cell for
bravery is the first that has been heard
from him since then.