The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1891-09-19
AND WINDING UP WITH THE
TRACK OF A BEAR.
Going Into the Mining Industry by
an Original Process.
II sPans OUT Some Information but
not much Gold.
Yankee Tricks as Practiced in the West.
The Difference Between an Investment
In Chance and Charity.
Pioneers Who Worshiped the Golden
Calf.
Fought Their Way to Its Possession.

Special corr. OF the New DOMINION:
BERRIES AND BEAR TRACKS.
HELENA, Montana, Sept. Ill have
certainly had the full benefit of the
strawberry crop this year. l be-
gan eating the southern berries dur.
ing March in Washington, d. c.,
and when / arrived here in July the
Montana crop was in the plenitude
of its luscious perfection. / had the
last ones of the season, at Deep
Creek, on the. 18th of August, also
some delicious dew berries and red
raspberries; the latter crop was just
ripening in the foot hills, and one
day when out walking, | saw a huge
track made by bear, which was
out berrying too. They are very
fond of all sorts of small fruits, and
so am |, but at sight Of that track /
concluded / did not want raspberries
half as bad as | thought / did.
PANNING FOR GOLD.
People who live in remote locali-
tiles here are so delighted to have
visitors that they humor their every
within. One day while on Deep Greek
l expressed wish that could see
how "gold washing was done. In an
hour or so Mr. II. saddled up horse
and rode off toward the "gulches"
equipped with shovel and sack. On
his return he dumped" at the irri-
eating canal and calling me we set up
a temporary mining industry on our
own account.
We washed from three prospects"
but none of it 'panned out" We
never got color" but / learned the
modas operandi any way. A quartz
cliff faces their residence which as
says $3.50 per ton in gold but being
twelve miles from the railroad it
does not pay to develop it, neither
has any one thought it worth while
to pre- empt it as a claim.
During the past few days l have
seen several walls from the East re-
garding the warmth of the weather
there. On September lst l made a
note of the temperature here. At 8
A. NJ, the hour arose, the thermom
eter marked 81, at u, 60; at 4 P. M.
IS. When here five years ago, snow
fell the night of August 31st, and
valley and mountain top were white
the next day till noon.
PIQUANT PERSONALITIES.
One hears some spicy PERSONAL
ties in place like this, where
there are so many nouceaus riches
people. 1t would not do to tell all
l hear for should certainly have the
F. F. Ms hurting hornets nest at
my head, but with malice towards
none l transcribe from my note book
the following personal points:
The handsome home of Col. Smith
has been pointed out to me in fash
ionable part of the city. call him
"Smith" because that is not his
name, but it will do better than bis
true one in view of what follows:
Away back in the sixties he was q
baker and he made pies of dried APP
Piles and sold them to the miners for
rs cents a piece. Those particular
pies only had one crust of dough
the other was of broacn paper. BY
using that inexpensive and some
what indigestible article for an un.
der crust, he is now able to be con-
sidered one of the supper crust
In the days when the railroad was
still "over the hills and far away
Mr.. G. raised his fortunes by deal
in yeast powder. After the last
freight team was in for the winter
and deep snow had fallen, he went
round and bought up every can Of
baking powder in the place and then
ran up the price TO fabulous sum.
AS the making of light bread by the
miners was an unknown art, they
were absolutely obliged to have the
baking powder to tighten their bis
cults and slap-jacks no matter what
the price, and thus this modern Shy.
lock realized a handsome sum from
the necessities of his fellow men.
FoTUNE MISSED BY A SCRATCH.
While attending the fair last week
l saw man taking tickets at the
gate who missed fortune by mere
scratch-a scratch of pen. He and
Nate V. had two mining claims. v
told him to take his choice and be
wrote down the name of the one he
preferred, which never developed any
richness. V. set about developing
the one which had fallen to his
share and begged and borrowed every
dollar be could command, and kept
three men at work several weeks
without success, finally his money
and his credit among friends was
gone and he announced that on Sat
urday night he'd abandon the s,rug-
gle A widow who kept the miners
boarding shanty hearing of his diff
culties put her hand in her pocket
and drawing out 81 900 handed it to
him and told him to go ahead a
while longer Iwenty-fours later he
had uncovered an ore lead of fabu-
lous richness and in short time
sold out to ST. Paul syndicate for
a handsome sum.
He settled $4,000 on each of the
widows daughters, made her a gift
OF 100000 and then married her
She dropped her pots and pans. sent
to New York and had magnificent
Brewster carriage and an equally
magnificent driver imported. and set
up in the city as one of the "Nobs OF
Mob Hill" So if Mrs. V. went to
the fair her carriage wheels may
have scattered dust over the ticket
taker who once had the same chance
other husband to "strike it rich" a
man born in Wheeling. w. Va, and
now a prominent citizen of Helena
married one of the daughters.
If the average Helenites had lived
when Aaron went into the smelling
business for short slime, they GER
tainly would have enjoyed them
selves. They 90 deeply adore the