The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-12-27
ARTIFICIAL GOLD.
Discovery Of an English GtliuS WHO Is Dying
in Poverty.

A savant has been discovered who has
succeeded i'll producing By the most simple
means the results so eagerly sought for by
the toilers in science ever since The days of
King solomon, who is thought by adopts to
have been himself one of tie most expert.
This wondrOus adept, who sees nothing eX-
traordinary in the wonderful work he has
accomplished is man 20 years of age,
doomed to solitude and poverty, as all such
great men are. cynically remarks a London
correspondent.
He lives in a quarter perdu beyond Gre
nellie, and the interviewer was astounded at
the extraordinary proofs of the mans gen.
ius as he untolded one by one the speci
mems of the progress and gradual pcrfec-
ton of the work to which he bad
devoted the better part of his long
life, with no more satisfactory result than
the miserable dwelling in which he was
barely sheltered from the elements
a wretched garnet through the roof
of which the rain was at the very moment
of the interview filtering in streams upon
the floor. The adept displayed before the
visitor several specimens OF gold in its vari-
Gus stages. a lump of gold, for instance,
taken from a mine in Mexico, and by It's
side another piece, produced by the mixture
of different metals, according to proportion,
and MOTTO be distinguished from tile original
substance ms taken from the mine.
Even with the magnifying glass no differ
ence could be detected. His explanation of
the method by which he had arrived Mt the
fabrication Of the metal was clear and simple.
He had always been impressed with the idea
that gold was created by the com blnatIOn OF
other metals and that it was simply the
highest perfection of breeding, upon the
same principle that is visible in the gradual
DEVELOPMENT of objects belonging to the
animal and vegetable Kingdoms. The de-
termination to ascertain the fact upon the
very SPOT of It's production induced him to
start forth. amid unheard-of hardships and
surp0S;lon, to begin his work in Mexico.
just fve-aud- forty wears ago.
The Identity of the two specimens now
before you, said the adept. lis absolute
and undeniable; they are the same in every
respect. defy the minutest examination
of the most skeptical among the savants;
the color, the weight, the proportions of the
component elements are identical. And yet
here | have been waiting whole lifetime
for some one to bring me help and encour-
agement to multiply my experiments. in
order to convince the world that the precious
metal to which mankind has ever attached
such undue value Is OF itself valueless The
mockery and laughter with which | was
greeted on my return to Europe nearly half
a century ago filled me with deS olr, and |
gave up at nee all the hope which had sus-
tanned me through tie long years of hard
ship and priyation bad endured-the hope
of enriching my country by means OF my
discovery, and rendering it independent,
whether Ct war or famine, Of commerce, or,
indeed, Of auy calamity hut death"
And how have you lived all these
years ?" inquired the Interviewer, shiYerng
as he gazed at the comfortless aspect of the
place IN which this Imaginative benefactor
of the human race was lodged. And then
the adept was fegn to confess that while
his moral nature was sustained By the dream
of the future wealth of the world, in which he
could not hope to share, his physique was
dependent on his labors as a cheap pho
tographer, at which profession he earns
just enough to keep the few sparks of life
still remaining in his poor wOrn-out body
from being eXtinguished altogether-Pa
Mall Gazette