St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-11
THE SENATOR SKINNED.
Col. Tom Kelly Tells How Senator
Hearst Lost a Mine.
IT WAS AN OLD HOLE.
Tom Buys the California Senator's
Stock Dirt Cheap and Makes a
Cool Million Dollars.


James hotel were drawn up together
company seated around them, Senator
Tom Bowen, of Colorado, was there and
s6was Senator Hearst, of California,
says the New York Graphic. Besides
the two statesmen there were Tom
Kelly, of Arizona, who is colonel when
at home; Judge A. G. Monson, Of San
Francisco, who knows as much about
horses as any other man on the coast;
Aleck Morrison, who is the champion
orator of the Sierras; j. C. Stubs, the
general traffic manager of the Central
Pacific, who pulls the wool over the
eyes of Eastern railroad magnates with
gentle truthfulness that cannot be ex-
celled; Mart Flavin, who went out
sleigh riding few nights ago. and as
serts that he dropped the tip of his
frost-bitten ear in the sleigh, and half
dozen other good story-tellers known to
fame Oh the Pacific coast.
Tom Bowen had told several of his
well-worn tales, the end of which al
Gus way, and the Judge for the hun
dredth time had related the particulars
of his trip to Europe. Tom Kelly had
not said word.
"Tom, old boy" said the long-beard-
ed senator from California, "do you re-
member that deal you gave us on that
mine near Tombstone back in 1880? l
really never knew the history of that
scalping business, but it is all over the
country now. and you ought to tell US
how you played it on US. You know
you cleaned me out of a cool 100000"
George" answered the colonel, and
he looked very solemn and truthful
like, II think ] did best you on that
bargain, and BY, the glaciers OF the
Rockies / think l am the one man on
the coast who ever downed the senator
in mining deal. But did-and this
is the story:
Tombstone, AriZ., was a very bad
town half dozen years ago, and it is
not much of paradise on earth just
yet. though they have hanged and shot
couple of hunnred of the worst rus
tiers within tine last year or two. l
was around there prospecting in the
neighborhood early in 1880, and, to
confess the truth, was hard up. l
was literally walking on my shoe
strings. l could not find anything
around that country worth getting
George Hearst and my other capital
istic friends to spend money upon, and
l.
ran across an old mine, called the
Morning Star, about two miles from
Tombstone, which was owned by some
of the toughest citizens in that town.
1t looking promising, and | wrote to
Hearst about it. He came on and looked
at the hole, nOsed around it for couple
of DAYS, and then said he would not
give 81 an acre for it.
''Twenty-four hours before he had
made that statement to me he and sew
eral of his friends had formed little
syndicate, and had purchased that very
mine for $4,000. | was left out. | was
mad, but not half as mad as | was
couple of weeks after, when | found
mine for 81 ,000, 000-1 900, 900 shares at 81
each-and we're selling the shares pretty
rapidly on the San Francisco market at
about so cents apiece. ltwaS enough to
make any man enraged.
George hired old Piggy Mclaughlin,
one of the best miners on the coast, to
clear away the debris around the place
and dig down to pay dirt. He had
force of twenty men with him. l
thought / saw my way clear when Mac
came along, for had often grub-staked
him in the old days, as he had me also.
So we put our heads together.
jsE'The Morning Star boom went right
along for little while, and | believe
George and his friends got rid of about
100000 shares and caShed into their
Golfers nearly $500, 900 on their outlay of
S25, OOO But eight months after the
shares were first put upon the market a
committee came along from the share
holders and found that there was not a
pound of paying ore on the dump.
s'Three days after they returned to
San Francisco and had got rid of their
own stock at profit the shares fell to
10c.
THE next day Mclaughlin received
dispatch from Hearst telling him to
stop work and discharge the men at
the end of the week. 1t was Friday
when the telegram reached Mac, and he
and l were condoling with each
other over the failure we had
of pay dirt had yet been reached. 1t
looked blue for both of us as we walked
over to where the men were preparing
for their last blast. 1t was an old hole,
drilled by the former owners, and had
been left untouched. Our fellows said
they would take 10 chances, but would
use George Hearst'S powder sticks to
blast everything within reach, for they,
too, were mad and ugly.
''When Mac and l looked carelessly
into that hole after the smoke had
cleared away you could have knocked
either of us over with feather. The
fortune we had lOnged for lay at our
feet. The last blast had disclosed one
of the finest bodies of ore we had ever
seen.
eve made no cutlery, and the miners
paying no attention to this hole, we COW
cred it up and went back to camp. That
night we let three of the most reckless
devils in the outfit into the secret, and
the next morning l started for San
Francisco. No man was to leave that
camp until i returned. Mclaughlin
and the other three fellows were to hold
them there by sweet words if possible,
by shotguns if necessary.
81 raised a few hundred dollars in
Frisco, played half of it in Gourley's
bank and stepped out of there with
more than $1,000. The shares of the
Morning star mine were worth, moth
ing, and l had trouble in gathering
them in. But went along quietly and
at last called upon George Hearst. l
knew he held about 100000 of them.
II told the old boy that thought
saw way of making couple of dollars
out of the shares by selling them to
Eastern capitalists, and as they were
Worth nothing to him 1 offered him a
S1OO-note for all he had. He jumped at
the offer and walked out of his Office
With nearly 10000 shares.
1.-The next morning the Chronicle had
ahalf-column story of the great discov-
cry at the Morning Star mine, and l
was on my way to Tombstone. Two
days after 1 got there George Hearst |
walked down into the drift, looked at |
the vein of ore, eyed me all over, and |
said:
g. Tom, you a -skin.' And then
he went away.
? 81 sold the mine in six weeks, and my
share was just plump s1,0O0,0c0. No! |
Il am done with mining now. New |
York, London and Paris are good |
anouph for me-