Daily Yellowstone journal., 1890-04-04
A DECEPTIVE OWNING ROD.
II Worked Well on Gold Coin. but Failed
to Locate u bonanza.

or llt NGht. NJ one SctlllS 10 KNOW
its ori.ia, uur can any one determine
its practical use save as a trap for the
unwary and a share for the cIedulous.
OF the latter some ten years since |
was a very fair specimen, but nay ey-
perience with the ''diyining rod lend
did much Ia cure me Of my credulity
IN this and many other respects.
first met him, the ''tiend." summing
himself one day while standing at the
corner of California and Montgomery
streets, San Francisco. AS he is still
a prominent figure among the hope
fuls of ''Pauper alley, and may be
seen almost any day in his familiar
haunt near the Stock Exchange. | will
not call him by name. Mr.. Dennis,
therefore, will do. That isn't his name,
of course, but it ought to be, as the
following will show.
He was introduced to me by a friend
a being a man it would be well TO cul.
tivate. l then had a few thousand
dollars at my command, which fact
MIR. Dennis was soon aware of.
He was tall and spare, with restless
gray eyes and an altogether unprepos.
sessing figure; but this made no differ
nee. He could, he said. put me in
the way Of making millions, and he
was therefore just the sort of man |
was looking for.
He knew, So he informed me. a
place located hear Los Angeles, where
$1,000 600 in gold was buried that he
could lay his hands oil at anymoment.
There were various other localities in
the state where gold and treasure were
also buried, but which he did not 60
after because, as he explained, he
lacked the means wherewith to defray
his travelling expenses.
He looked absolutely destitute and
poverty stricken, and wen struck"
me for a quarter then and there; but
there was, withal, something soplausi.
BILE in his romarces that | could not
but feel Interested in him and give
sredence TO his yarns.
Come with me" said he, finally,
land I'll show you my apparatus, and
let you see it work" With my curl
osity Greatly excited We then proceeded
TO a vacant room in the Bank of Cali.
fornia building, where he produced
from under his coat a V shaped affair
which he said was a divining rod.
AT the point or apex was a small brass
knob which contained some mysteri.
Gus chemical compound, 1.-The secret
of an eminent German chemist, long
since dead" and which, he said, would
invariably turn and point to the prec-
ious metals.
He then grasped the handles Of the
instrument in either hand, with the
apex pointing upward, and | looked
with wonder at the rod twisting and
turning in his hands, and at his appar-
emily futile efforts to prevent it from
moving.
Its no use" said he; 1--WE are d.
rectly over the bank vaults, where q
great quantity Of gold coin is stored,
and it would be impossible for me to
prevent its turning. then tried the
thing myself, but it failed to work in
my hands, because, as he explained ii,
] was not magnetic. Physical magnet
ism, it appeared, was necessary in its
operation.
To make q long story short. I was
oon bound for a locality in FL Do
RADIO county, Cal, accompanied by
q divihing rod man, where, as Mr..
Dennis assured me, he had located a
rich vein Of gold bearing quartz that
would yield at least $3.50 to the ton.
! don't know why / didn't first go af.
ter the buried treasures in other local..
ties, but as a $3.50 quartz ledge was q
sure fortune, and Mr.. Dennis had some
ready excuse for delaying our expe.
dition after these other ''bonanzas,"I
had TO be content with the rich gold
mine in prospect.
That | had to pay Mr.. Dennis trav.
cling expenses goes without saying;
but the prospect Of a certain and rich
reward therefor caused me no uneasi-
ness on this account
The spot-I might say the fatal spot
was finally reached, and Mr.. Dennis
at once commenced his experiments.
After hunting about for am hour or SO
the rod began to gyrate. and then we
knew, or at least | thought l knew,
that the bonanza was there waiting to
be uncovered.
After stalking out our claim and
posting up the usual mining notice |
engaged the services of six experienced
miners at IS. so per day, and the work
was commenced. The miners were in
credulous, and even poked considera-
BILE fun at the lightning rod man; !"
but as they received good pay for their
labor they wisely concluded to stand
1t as long as their wages were forth.
coming.
We sank a shaft and struck aquartz
vein at "A depth Of thirty feet. This
was encouraging, particularly for Mr..
Dennis, who somehow didn't appear
10 enter into the thing with the same
spirt as formerly. After several more
days of digging and blasting, during
which time | watched eagerly for
''signs" of gold, we struck water. We
struck it hard, too, for the shaft, then
ver sixty feet deep, filed up to within
fifteen feet Of the top in less than two
days.
To add TO my discontinue Mr.. Den
mis- coolly informed me that perhaps
we had made a mistake, but that il I
would go with him TO Los Angeles
He never got beyond that sentence.
"Git," said !, ''as fast as your legs can
carry you, or l pointed signif-