The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1888-04-21
IN OLD MINERS STORY.
The Effect It Produced on Colorado
Hotel Keeper.

u
invalids and gamblers were seatet
about an evening fire in the ofic,
of a Colorado hotel. The institu
ton was in the center of a regior
where nature had launched hel
gifts. Healing springs and invig
Grating mountain breezes attracted
invalids from every quarter, anc
the proprietor of the Sanitariun
was reported a rich man. He had
been in that country 80 years. HI
was silent, uncommunicative man
not morose or sullen, but simply
uncommunicative. He never spoke
OF his family or of 'the States,
and were it 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 developed, for
anything he would ever say of the
world outside of its 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 Cali
fornia in 40, leaving a wife and
child behind him. He prospered
in the land of the Argonauts and
Kept up a regular communication
with his family, sending them sufi-
olent sums from time to time to
keep them in comfort, but saying
nothing about the "pile" he would
have within year or so. He wanted
to surprise the folks at home with
his good fortune. At last he had
accumulated $4,000 and the long
ing came over him to go home.
His dust was converted into crisp
bank notes and he started home
ward.
You see, boys, didn't rig up in
new toys, or anything like that. A
fellow likes to go back home in his
Old camp togs, and knock around
tor a 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, I
made the trip overland all right,
and was on a railroad train within
three hundred miles of my wife and
baby when | dozed off for a few
When I awoke and found
that | had been robbed I gave the
alarm. No one had left the train.
There was great excitement, and
one man proposed that everybody
IN the car be searched. No one OBJ
Jected and the conductor and my
self 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. | couldn't go home and face
them, so got off at the next city,
and the next day | was on my way |
TO the coast to begin all over again. |
was just getting on my feet once
more when | got a letter with a
black border. My little gal had
been taken sick with the typhoid |
ever and died, and two days later
they laid her mother away with her.
That settled it. l have been no
good since, and am only waiting
The time when | can join them up
here, if l can get in"
The silent proprietor of the sani-
tarium had listened to this sad
story with his face buried in his
hands, a common attitude with him.
When the old man had finished the
proprietor left the room abruptly.
The group noticed that he was
deadly pale, and one Of them re-
marked that it appeared as though
lin had been taken bad.
Two hours later pistol shot
'ang out from the hotel mans pri-
rate office. When the group ran
nto the room "Jim" lay on the
1oor with bullet hole in his head
IN the desk lay two documents.
reshly written. One was marked
my WILL" the other, "my confes-
SION" The will left everything to
he old miner who had the sad
story. The confession was to the
Effect that he had robbed the re-
urning miner as he slept, Retiring
o a closet he had with a knife
'cooped out the inside of a cake of
oap and secreted the roll of bills
md replaced the cake, which showed
40 signs of having been cut in two
pieces, in his valise. 1t was he that
lad suggested the search of passen-
'ers.-St. Louis Globe-Democrat.