Eureka weekly sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1887-1902, 1888-04-14
An OLD MINERS STORY.
The Effect It Produced on . Colo
adO HoteI-Keeper.

Inc ENttA - HEDMAGE9a 08 - WV"
RADIO HoteI-K keeper.
Not many years ago q group of in
valids and gamblers, were seated
about an evening FIRE in the Office of
q Colorado hotel. The institution
was in the center of a region where
nature had launched her gifts. Heal
ing Springs and invigorating mount
ain breezes attracted invalids from
every quarter. and the proprietor Of
the Sanitarium was reported a rich
man. He had been in that country
80 years. He was a silent, uncom
municative man, not morose or
sullen, but simply uncommucative.
He never spoke of his family or Of
"the States" and were 10 not that he
was a man Of evident refinement and
education he would have passed
as one born in the life-giving valley
which he, above all men, had devel-
oped. for anything he would ver say
Of the world outside of it's pine
fringed confines.
On this particular night an old
man in the group told, with the
simple pathos of an ~unlettered mind
the story of the great grief of his
life. He had gone out to California
in 40, leaving a wife and child be-
hind him. He ~prospered in the
land of the Argonauts and kept up
a regular communication with his
family, sending them sufficient sums
from time to time to keep them in
comfort, but saying nothing about
the " pile" he would have within a
year or so, He wanted to surprise
the folks at home with his good for
tune. At last he had accumulated
$40, 900 and the longing came over
him to go home. His dust was con-
verted into ten crisp bank notes and
he started homeward.
You see, boys, I.didn't rig up in
new toys. or anything like that. A
fellow likes to go back home in his
old amp toys, and knock around for
u few days, letting on as though he
had come home broke, and then,
when every one has about made up
his mind that you never were any
good anyhow, spring your fortune
on them and give them the laugh
that had been giving it to you. l
made the trip overland all right, and
was on a railroad train within three
hundred miles of my wife and baby
when l dozed off for a few minutes.
When l awoke L had been robbed of
my pile. 1 always was a-fool
about telling my business to strang-
ers, and there wasn't a man on the
car that didn't know that / was a
miner going home with O fortune.
When I awoke and found that l had
been robbed I gave the alarm. No
one had left the train. There was
great excitement, and one man pro-
posed that everybody in the a be
searched. No n objected and the
conductor and myself went through
every man on the car and examined
every valise and piece of baggage in
it. l just felt as though my heart
would break, not for myself was
used to hard luck-but for my wife
and little gal. 1 couldn't go home
and face them. 80 1 got off at the
next city, and the next day 1 was on
my way to the coast to begin all over
again. 1 was just getting on my
feet one when l got q letter
with q black border. My little gal
had been taken sick with the typhoid
fever and died, and two days later
they laid her mother away with her.
That settled it. 1 have been no
good since, and am only waiting the
time when I al join them up there,
il / can get in"
The silent proprietor of the sani-
tarium had listened to this sad story
with his face buried in his hands, q
attitude with him. When
the old man had finished the pro-
prietor left the room abruptly.
The group noticed that he was
deadly pale. and one of them re-
marked that it appeared as though
Jim had been taken bad.
Two hours later q pistol shot rang
out from the hotel mans private
office. When the group ran into the
room Jim" lay on the floor with a
bullet.hold in his head. On the
desk lay two documents, freshly
written. One was marked 4" my
will" the other. my confession"
The will left everything to the old
miner who mad The sad story. The
confession was to the effect that he
had robbed the returning miner as
he slept. Retiring to q closet he had
with a knife scooped out the inside
Of u cake of soap and secreted the
roll of bills and replaced the cake.
showed no signs of having
been cut in two pices, in his %valise.
was he that had suggested the
search of passengers. st Louis
Globe Democrat.