, 1891-09-20
LINES OFLOCAL HISTORY.

Win the hansAS contingent curing INT
boomy period in Cheyenne about two
years ago, was a not entirely too prepos
sessing individual who answered to The
name of c. G. Coutant. He cheerfully
confessed, perhaps even publicly pro
claimed, that he was a journalistic lumin.
airy and soon blossomed out With q
weekly newspaper which was printed and
set IN in the Stock Journal office. The
Kansas colonel was a manysided man
he was a booster and a boomer and a pro-
moter all rolled into one and what he
didn't know about precipitating prosperity
upon a community wasn't worth knowing,
If his side OF the story was accepted.
Smelter projects were all the talk in
Cheyenne at this particular period and
before the board of trade with a PROPOSE
ton. He enjoyed the innermost conf
dense Of a man in Kansas City who
owned a patent process, which il it
of the whole cloth. as it were, would
certainly extract the very remotest and
most intangible particle of the precious
metal from the most refractory ore and at
a cost which was so trifliDg that it really
wasn't of enough consequence to take
into consideration. In tact, from all ao-
counts. if there was one thing above an
other in which this valuable machine
fairly reveled it was low grade ore. 1t
vearned for 1t with an unsatisied and ra-
pscious longing that no amountof feeding
could satisfy. 1t would get up in the
middle OF the night to ''chaw" upon it
aud the extraordinary intelligence with
which it eliminated and harvested the
golden particles was alleged to have
caused hoary headed miners to stand
aghast with amazement.
1t was quite evident that no pushing
community could afford to be without this
marvellous piece of mechanism. Col Cou-
tant alone enjoyed the ecstatic pleasure Of
knowing its gifted inventor. Out of
sheer philanthropy. from a pure and pat
riotic love Of the community, he would
bring the beniRhted people Of Cheyenne
into communication with the mechanical
genius. Nay, he would do more, he
would go to Kansas City and himself
fetch him to Cheyenne. As we rave said
Cheyenne was at that time fairly yearn-
ing for a smelter and it was with extreme
difficulty that members Of the board re-
strained themselves from embracing the
elo11ent colonel and believing his rotund
form with grateful tears.
There followed his announcement sew
ersl moments of delicious silence.
This silence was rather rudely dissipated
by the colonel's mellifluous tones. he
was a Door man, he said. II he conferred
this inestimable boon upon Cheyenne its
property holders should remember him
with a Christmas gilt. He didn't want
much. His own tastes we're simple, he
intimated, and his wants were few.
He would require his expenses TO Kansas
City and return. and If he brought the
Inventive Genius back with him a quarter
bCCllOu VI bu III II hCaat vi tuC CiD WOuio
satisfy his modest needs. We regret to
say that this announcement threw a chill
over the gathering. The silence seemed
to fall in well defined chunks. 1t IS sim.
pie justice to the colonel to say, however,
that he maintained a perfect equanimity
and never turned a hair IN the frosty at
mo.phere. The matter was finally com
promised. Col. Coutant was to get his
expenses, and in case the smelter was
actually erected he was to get in addition
a couple of thousand dollars worth OF
lots. put in at a fair valuation.
The colonel disappeared bright and
early next morning. He was heard from
by telegraph en- route, on the ears, over
the river-ln fact the omnipresent colonel
seemed to not merely permeate but actu-
ally saturate the entire country for a
radius of several hundred miles. He
finally returned to town With q fanfare of
trumpets. He was accompanied by a
gentleman with a prolific and well Guilt
waited moustsche but apparently without
an overplus of linen and whose trousers
were not allowed to come in too close con-
tact with his unpublished shoes. 1t was
the Inventive Genus. BE was domiciled
at the Cheyenne club and within our
recollection we have never known a gen
tleman more thoroughly satisfied with the
fare. Then began several DAYS Of tantal-
izing unrest. The entire community was
on the qua ute. The Inventive Genius
was the center OF attraction, but he kindly
permitted his alter ego, Col. Coutant, to
reply to all technical questions. All
negotiations were conducted through the
blithesome colonel and if the mechanical
master was at a loss the ever ready Cou-
tant was at his elbow with an
answer. With a prodigious amount
of parading the patentee of the
low grade ore iend was taken to Silver
Crown to view the camp. The town was
in a palpitatIon and ferment until he re
turned. When he did SO the community
was dellrious with joy, for the patent pro
cess was just aching to handle Sllvea
Crown ore. Then followed negotiations