The Wichita daily eagle., 1891-09-10
TAKING NO CHANCES.

There it lay. Right on the mountain
top. Nature had followed out, as if on
purpose, a space not more than fifty feet
square, and in it she had placed gold in
quantities that few men ever see and fewer
still possess.
Dali colored yellow. 1t hardly looked
the thing for which men barter honor and
women fall. 1t was just as nature, the
great alcbemist, had made it. No alloys
had corrupted it, nor mad the sweaty, cling
ing clasp of usurer defiled it. For centu-
ries it had lain and glistened in the
burning sun, FURNISHED only by the sand
sweeping over it in windy revels. 1t had
never known the darkness of long years of
boarding in strong boxes, nor had it ever
clung. like the kisses of passionate men, to
the throat and arms and breasts OF women
beautiful as day No mans blood had
been shed for il; no woman or child had
eaten bread in sadness and tears because
of it, Yet it was gold.
Amid the sand aud in the crevices of the
rocky edges that made the apex of the
mountain a novice might have passed it
by unheedingly. But when Jack SwilliDg
and his comrades saw it they knew that
they were rich, that in the gold that lay
before them was a new life, wherein that
gold would buy them the smiles and ca
resses of women, the homage and subservi-
ence of men-a life Of music of feasting
and of song.
IT was for this that they had toiled for
years and had risked everything that men
hold dear And now it had come to them
Unexpectedly and by accident. Attracted
by the discovery of rich gold diggings at
Weaver. in the then recently organized
territory of Arizona, the little party had
left Tucson and Travelled northward until
they bad arrived at the placers. On their
arrival at the mines they found that al
ready good many thousands of dollars
had been taken out, principally by Mexi-
cans. and they had no difficulty in locat-
ing ground that paid them well
For nearly month they had continued
mining, meeting with no more than usual
success, until one of their party, while
hunting, had assembled one of the sur
rounding mountains. On reaching the
summit he had paused for an instant TO
let his eye sweep the nesas and mountains
that stretched away for miles on either
side, and, while doing so, he had discovered
that the little basin in which he stood was
almost paved with gold. Picking up a
few of the larger pieces, he returned to
camp and informed his comrades of his
discovery. The story he told to his COM
paniOns was one so incredible that, had it
not been for the nuggets of gold which he
had brought with him, they would not
have believed him. Early the next morn
ing the entire party ascended the noun
tain, and what they saw proved that the
richness of the find had not been exag
gerated, but that its true val been,
if anything, underestimate.
Abandoning their old location the party
encamped on their newly discovered treas
ure ground and began to gather its riches.
At first every loose nugget was carefully
picked up and stored away; after that the
sand, which was found to be heavy with
fine gold, was gathered together, prepara-
tory TO washing" it out with the water of
the stream below. This done, they began
with their bowie knives ito cut and gouge"
out of the crevices and cracks of the rock
the gold that they contained. Never did
men work so hard. The feverish hunger
and thirst for gold was upon them. AS
long as the light of day lasted they con-
tinued to work Each day saw the pile of
virgin gold grow larger and larger, until it
The Mexicans, who had been their neigh
bors in the old diggings, would come into
their camp and look with greedy eyes at
the Americans at work. At first they
sought everywhere to discover another
such pocket, but in vain. Outside of the
little piece of ground where the first party
had struck it, A" the mountain side was as
barren of gold as a macadamized road.
Then they ceased TO prospect, and spent
their time sullenly watching the taking
out of the riches in which they were to
have no share.
To them the spot was like the vortex of
the maelstrom. Every morning they were
there, standing on the side OF the claim,
and during the long, hot hours of the day
they sat, regardless of the burning glare of
the sun, watching, watching, trembling
with excitement when a nugget larger
than the ordinary was taken out. 1t was
only when dusk grew into darkness and
the blue sky glistened with its myriad of
stars that they returned to their own
camp. to toss restlessly through the night.
feverishiy anxious to see what new riches
the morrow would bring TO the Americans.
The gold their own work had taken from
the banks of the stream, with which they
were once so satisfied. seemed so little and
Insignificant when compared with what
their peighborS had taken from the noun
tain top that they no longer thought or
spoke of it. Once it had seemed TO them
like a fortune, now 1t was hardly worth
having
Day after day the Americans worked,
watched by the Mexicans. From dollars
the value of their gold grew into hundreds
and then into thousands They could not
tell how much they had, for they had no
means of weighing it. They had more
than all of them together could carry.
The taliest man among them. Jack Swill
ing, six feet and over, could not change the
gold from one place to another without
making five separate loads of it. A strong
mans load in gold is not much when val |
ued in dollSrs-at the utmost perhaps $40.-
000-but valued with the value men place |
on il, it cannot be estimated. Put into a
sack and thrown over the shoulder it is |
only heavy burden, wearisome with iis I
weight. Stamped with the stamp that 1
makes II money, piled in shining plies.
where avarice can feast its eyes upon it
slipped into the half willing hand of man
or woman, il is different. Then barriers
fade away that a lifetime has built, man.
hood sinks and takes with it what was
noblest and best, never to return, and men /
think thoughts that, free /
from the fascination of gold, they would I
have execrsted with horror.
So it was in this camp. at first the gold |