Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1891-02-21
BY A SINGLE CAST.
How a California Millionaire b
came q Pauper.
He stakea All on . slngle Throw Of the
Dice and Lost-A Fortune Easily Made
and Recklessly Squandered "A
Harmless. worthless BeSgar.

and Recklessly Squandered "A
Harmless. worthless Besgar.
Shambling about the streets Of San
Francisco may be seen. daily. the
warped and twisted figure Of man
with singular history. His clothes
are tattered and greasy. his face is
wrinkled and distorted, and about his
shoulders his greasy. dirty. unkempt
hair falls in a shaggy mass His feet
are always encased in fragments of
shoes, and he invariably carries in each
hand piece Of bread and cheese, at
which he nibbles as he shifts from one
saloon to another.
Mathew Mills is the name Of this
strange creature, and. though now feed
ing from the meagcr hand Of charity. he
was at one time, when California was
in the height of her prosperity. man
who reckoned his wealth to run into a
million Of dollars. with a splendid pros
pect of yearly increase in his income
Then Mathew Mills rode about the
streets of San Francisco In turnout
that cost thousands of dollars, and he
lived in a style that dazzled the quarter
Of ahundred other millionaires contem-
poraneous with him. Now he travels
lTOln SSbiOOIl IOSS.4Oou dlO lISS IuLSA
to free lunch, asking aims Of whoever
comes in his way when he feels thirsty
and never ordering drink without first
asking for the dice-box, that he may see
whether he Is obliged to pay for it or
not, and when he is in restful mood
he may always be found in the card
room Of some cheap saloon, throwing
the dice alone and muttering to himself
cx-itedly as the spots turn up He has
q mania for dice-throwing, and this pc
culiar craze has won for him the title Of
Dice-box Mills
Mills has no confdants nowadays, and
it is only when his thin blood is warmed
by a few libations Of absinthe that he
will converse beyond the limit of few
words with his companions, and then
he has but one topic, and that is his
early days in California, and the sudden
manner in which he lost his wealth
and came down to the exceedingly low
plane upon which he has ever since
travelled.
Mills was born in New Bedford,
Mass, in 1920. He was a sailor in early
days, and at the age Of eighteen years
had made two trips around the world
with his father, Joshua Mills, who was
the captain Of merchantmen sailing
from New Bedford. In ls40 Mills
caught the gold craze, and came around
the Horn, working his passage. and
landed in San Francisco with less than
twenty dollars in his pocket, and twenty
dollars in those days in San Francisco
went but a very short way toward lin
ing the stomach OF a healthy man or
covering his back But Mills was Of a
speculative turn Of mind, and he went
u y1,0 .1l
acquaintance Of his father in New Bed
ford, and proposed that he let him take
a cargo Of hob-nails, shovels, pick-axes,
| washing-pans, ETC.. into the mining
districts and sell them on commission.
| The hardware merchant fell in with the
idea, and n few days later Mills started
| out for the mines with a half dozen
| pack mules loaded with articles that
| would be Of use to miners. The vent
ure was a success The articles sold
readily and the margin on them was
wide. In few months Mills had
cleared enough money to enable him to
| buy an interest in the establishment Of
| the man who had given him the start,
and they did business together for two
| years, when Mills became restless, and
| selling out his interest to his partner,
| he started for the mines with $4,000 in
| his pocket. He stopped at Frazer s
| camp, then one Of the most prosperous
mining camps, and being of a convivial
nature, he lived a happy. careless exist
ence until his money was exhausted
| During Mills stay in California he had
become possessed with a passion for
| gambling, and whether with cards or
dice, the reckless manner in which he
| played made him a conspicuous figure in
the wild communities. that sprang up
among the Sierra Nevadas in those early
days AS a consequence OF his reck-
lessness he gambled with varying fort
une, until at last the game got the
best of him, and he found himself PEN
niless.
| But he possessed lively spirit, and
with pick and pan he set out for the
'diggins" on a prospecting tour. Good
| fortune attended him, and one day,
while bending over a spring OF water
| in a remote canyon, he noticed some
| glittering particles at the bottom. He
scooped up some of the sand, washed it
out, and found that he had tumbled
upon a rich placer deposit He staked
| out his claim, worked n week and went
back to the camp with pouch filed
| with gold dust.
| Once more the cards and dice went
against him. He found himself money