The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-02-28
MILLIONS IN MINES.
Poor Senatorial Investments in
the Carolina Gold Regions.
NEW COLORADO DISCOVERIES.
Ex-senator Tabor a Good Miner but .
Poor Politician - His First
Wife q Millionaire.

Wife Millionaire.
WASHINGTON CRY, Feb. 22.-TSpecial
The new gold and sill
yer mines which are being developed in
Colorado are creating considerable inter
est at Washington City. 4 large number
of the senators are interested in one way
or another in mining, and there are a
bakers dozen OF them who have financial
ventures out on gold and silver seas. Sem
ator Sawyer is still working his gold mines
near Washington City These are about
fifteen miles up the Potomac, where the
senator owns about 400 acres of land, and
where he has a little stamp mill which
runs along, pounding the quartz TO pieces,
but which. up to the present writing. has
not made fortune for its owner. Some
large nuggets have been found, and some
OF the quartz is very rich, and for time
the average Of the stamp mill was S33 q
ton. On the whole, however. L understand
that the mine has not paid, and it is q
repetition Of the old story of Southern
mines. l interviewed Thomas Ed
son last summer on the mines
of North Carolina, and he
told me that every farm in the state seemed
TO have gold mine, but that none OF these
mines were valuable enough to pay for
working them. He said the slaves had
dug for their masters all of the gold out of
the South, and that most of it lay in peck
cts rather than in large veins. Still, 4
number of the senators are investing in
North Carolina mines, and Senator
Spooner and the late Senator Hearst had
what they considered very valuable lead.
Spooner had a number of large nuggets of
the purest OF pure gold, which he kept on
his library table and showed to his brother
senators when they visited him. There
were enough of these nuggets TO have filed
a quart measure, and they were of all
shapes and of different sizes. Senator
Plumb had some interests in the South.
but he owned some very valuable mines in
Colorado, and he was, | think, interested
in the Little Pittsburg and other mines at
Leadviile.
| chatted with Senator Teller last night
about the Colorado mines. He says that q
great deal of fine gold-bearing rock is be-
ing gotten out at Cripple Greek, under the
shadow of Pixies Peak, and that this
promises to be one of the great gold camps
of the future. People are coming in from
everywhere to prospect and speculate, and
two railroads have been surveyed, which
will open up the region. AS it is now, it
is only eighteen miles from the railroad.
and there will not be much trouble in con-
Meeting it with the rest OF the world. Sem
ator Teller says that the new silver mines
which have been opened up at Creole, Col,
a. n Il II h.
the indications are that this To-
cality may become a second Lead
vile. II is here that Senator Wolcott
and his brother Henry have mine which
they bought last tslI in connection with
two other parties for 100000. They paid
$4,000 cash, and were to pay the remain
ing 500 by the lst of next June Their
mine has paid from the start, and they
had gotten enough out of 1t by the middle
Of January 10 pay the S100, 900 for which it
was sold to them, and all that they get
now Is pure profit. The mine has turned
out thousands OF dollars day. and during
the month of January more than $67. coo.
The mine cost Senator Wolcott cash
payment of only $500 and if it lasts it
will make him rich. This will. however,
not be the first time he has made money
IN mines. He made, it is said, between
SlUJ,QJ0 and SoD0O00 out of a mine he
bought in LeaivilIe, and his brother and
himself are said to be among the shrewd-
est OF investors and spectators.
Senator Teller says that Dave Moffatt
the Denver millionaire. has large interests
at Creole. and that he is making big
thing out of the mine at LeadyiIIe for
which he paid $4,000 shortly before the
bank robber bulldo:ed him out of that
$4,000 with dynamite, and that this mine.
instead Of being a poor investment. has
been an excellent one. Motfatt, it is said.
considered it worth nothing for some time.
and his friends pitied him and condoled
with him about his bad purchase. You
will remember how the robber drew pis-
toi on Motfatt IN his private room, and
with this in one hand and bottle of some
kind OF liquid in the other, which he said
was nltro-glycerine, threatened TO blow
NoIatt and the bank UP unless he would
write him out check on the bank for
$4,000 and get the money on it, Moffatt
looked into the shining barrels OF the re-
volyer. He glanced with terror at the
curiously shaped bottle of curiousiy col
ored mud. and seeing that there was moth
ing at his hand with which he could de-
lend himself, he wrote the check
and accompanied by the man
with the dangerous bottle in his
hand ne walked with him TO the cashiers
desk and handed over the check 10 the
cashier, saying in low tone, This man
IS ro3bing me-" The cashier. however.
thought he was referring to some new
mine he had bought. and his mind went ct
the time TO this $1,000 mine which was
then thought TO have turned out badly,
and lie handed the money over to Moffa:t
MoHat gave 1t TO the man, and he rushed
from the bank, and though Moffatt raised
& hue and cry ne was able to escape He
threw oil MS coat in doing so, and in il
the bottle was found. and the supposed
nitro-giycerlne turned out TO be sweet oil
Inls thief was never discovered. but the
S'o,vH mine speculation which promised
so poorly and which indirectly aided the
villain. has since paid several times as
much as Motiat's loss by him.
Ex-senator Tabor, Of Colorado. was in
Washington City few days ago. and dur
ing his stay here he sad that ne was 60
ing 10 make big fortune out OF mis- Mexi-
can mines, his suits concerning which
have Just been settled in his favor. These
are Old mines which are being re-worked
and Tabor paid, / am told, $4,000 Tor his
interest N them, and he contracted at the
same time 10 put up stamp mills and 10
ouLd such machinery as wolid enable
them 70 go in at the side OF the mountain
and get night at the great vein of ore in
thet way. Tabor put up his stamp mills,
ana while the miners were digging their
way to the side Of rho hill no bauov,