The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-08-07
BLYTaE's STORMY CAREER.
The English Convict Who Made Mill
ions as a San Francisco Gambler.

The English Convict Who Made Mill
ions as a San Francisco Gambler.
From, the Philadelphia Press
There are Pnila lei lhians who have
Scared memories OF a celebrated San Fran
cisco gambling hell, garish even among the
gilled palaces which furnished so numer-
OuSly on the golde coast from the stirring
US OF 40. These scars of memory viii
not be soo5hed by the syories of the litiga-
| ton which has lately arisen over the parti-
| ton of 10 estate OF Charles Henry Blythe,
| the proprietor of taat famous haunt Of the
| tigOr."
| Blythe died five years ago in San Fran
| cisco, leavln an es g valued at S5,OOO,0J
A woman named Dickson, who had been
| living with i'm. and claimed to be his wife by
| contract, put out hsr tentacle3 to grasp the
| entire estate The outcome the Sharon
| lilll litigation, which was ex lctiy like tlat
set goi by the Dickson woman, made her
faint-hearted as to her chances Of getting
he WHOLE and she produced a will, which
seems to be genuine. In S will bsqueathed
| $4,000 to charita lie aud benevolent n5ti-
| tutloni, $4,000 to Mrs. Die lso1, together
with small annual Inc )me, and other
small legacies. maing, with the above
| sums, a ut 500, 900. rhe renal der was
bequeathed to Bytae's Legitimate daugh~
ter, FiUre ce, w4o had already begun Hti-
CATION before the disclo, res Of he viii.
A CAREER OF ADVENTURE.
Blythe's adventurous career would make
! an intensely INTEREST," z booi. A ScOtc l.
man of this city. who kneY the man, re-
lates for the Press some thrilling i cidents
of his life not before publi-hei. H says
| that, alt o lgh h had come to California
before the discoverery If gold in '48. very
little was k own OF his life save that he
was an Englishmau by birth and had been
n Sidney DIck,n California for a convlc
from Van Die mems La ID, an exceptionally
desperate class of mel, W % gave a great
deal of trouble IN the "tifties," and led t.
the formation Of the fist viglla ICE commit
tee in Sa F a cisco. Blythe prospered by
Legitimate met lods, and was not more un-
scrupuloui and sharp bu mess Al men
who built CD h : and were prominent il
good works.
He Sc ms to have been very susceptible to
| female attractions, AMI at uIs d.ath no less
| than tive OuOatlve Wi ,ow came forward to
claim his estate. These the urt soon dis
! posed of but the legal conte ton developed
incide It's in the life # tle dead man that
mock 20 common place inventions of the
modern playwright aud novelist Ia tae
| rush and excitement of the gold fever
| scoundrelS from q parts of the world made
their way through the G Idea gate. Some
| of these nented their man ler5 and did
well, and even low it is considered breach
| of good manners to quire too c sel, into
the antec dents of an ArgOnaut or " '49er. y
These are the ascertained facts If Blythe's
life. He was a YetnOlm gypsy aid his
| name was Gordon. His great grandmother
was Jean Gordon, the Meg Merries of
Walter Scots novel, and he was a descend
ant of John Young, ia ned in Ayrshire
story as gypsy highwa'man and robber
| In 1929 Byte was convicted at Sterling
81 nf infr int ~
at that place a ID sentenced to 10 * term
! of penal servi ude in Van Die n9n's L nd
There was no mercy for law-breakers IN
| those days and c0nvlctS in Australia be-
came utterly blopd-thirsty and desperate
from i'll treatment. Blythe seems to have
escaped into tn bush ana j ined one of the
bushranger bands.
THE ESCAPE OF THE BAND.
In 1882 the wna,i G barque Ranger, from
Hull, EuglaId was laying off Hobartown.
| the captain was ashore and tne craw stand
| ing anclor- watch, and most likely asleep,
| when sudle ly a boat came alongside aud in
a moment dozen wild, despe ate-looking
men were On deck Th4se were part of
! ODNnohue's band and were lead by a
Scotch weaver named Shaw, a fearless and
desperate fellow, for whose capture 5000
had been offered by the provincial govern
| ment. The male offered resistance and was
shot dead and the rest of the crew were
! ov0roo Werel.
Blythe was one of the captors-none of
| them were sail rs--bu they ordered the
crew to make sail. OFF this coast t. ere is
always WI d, ami in an hour the Rage
was miles IF saore Thea ali of the Gre v
buJ two men were ordered into tle boat,
furnished with p owl ions an water, a I'd
told TO make their way to land. La few
uours they were picked up by vessel bound
t. Sidney, and taken to that port, so t-e
busnra ger had five days start before tne
| authorities knew the facts.
Eastward lay free ON and safety, but
5000 miles of ocea and 1000 coral reefs
aud Islands lay between them ana the South
Anne lean asst. But they struck the
no tueastern trade WINS, and after fiys
evenjfut moths. tIs Range vas beacAei
sou IA of Conception i'll c ii All hands
took to the boats and got ASHORE. 1t was 81
ia"leSs coast in tho-e days, pirates and
beach ombers ab9unded, ana Shaw lost his
life IN brawi, but Blytae made his way to
NalparaiS. Tnel as now the British gu /
boats were the police If the seas, and
! through the influence of the British consul
Blythe a q five OF his as ,ociateS we're selz ed
| a d seat back to Van Diene IS L md on the
English corvette Coqlet (.
He was sslte ced to Norfolk Island, but
/ IN some ma lner agai escaped, aad made
his way to California in 1916. Saa Fran
CISCO was then Il placs of soma $500 iIhab-
itauts. and most o. the land IN the vicinity
wa owned by the Franciscan Mission
Among the convicts with whom BlVt e was
ass ci1tei was ons of good family named
Thomas Henry Blythe, aud dropping his
EipSy name Gordon became Blythe, his
namesake having died on the scaffold.
although his father was a church dignitary
IN Canterbury, England.
In the old times when the Spaniards or
Mex cans ruled in California gambling was
universal. Blythe was a born card player
and this was the origi Of his wealth. 1t is
said that at ono sitting he won fifteen
arpents Of land from Gov. Iglesias, d his
| b, rs afLarNara taa busineSs mart of Marxat