Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1893-07-13
KICKED INTO A FORTUNE.
A Cantankerous Mules Heels Land
its Driver on a Rich Gold Ledge.

n ContauKerOuS mule hoels lahu
its Driver on Rich Gold Ledge
Any man without Tom Powers luck
would have been kicked into kingdom
come instead OF the richest diggings il
the territories. He was freighting
from Lake Valley to the mining camp
In the Black Range, and was lucky If
he could keep at work. He was about
as clumsy as they make men, and never
made trip without being kicked, Bit
ten, or trodden on by his team.
One mule in the string, Old Sam,
was regular devil; the brute knew
that Tom yrs afraid Of him and never
missed a chance to bite or kick at him.
One day in the latter part of September,
1887, Tom started from Lake VALLEY
with heavy load, bound to John
Burke,s camp. The distance was
eighty miles, and part OF the way the
road was hardly more than trail
along the side Of the mountains. Half
dozen good teamsters had refused the
contract, but Tom took it because the
price offered was more than double
what he could obtain on any other
route. Bets were freely made that the
outfit would go over the grade, but
Tom succeeded in getting over sixty
miles of the road without single
hitch. Then he was at the Hogbacs,
narrow ridge along which the road
ran, and on each side was deep canyon.
AT no place Is the road more than a
couple of feet wider than q wagon, and
the grade Is very heavy. Hall way
across something started Old Sam and
he began TO kick.
Tom whipped and swore, but sam
only made his heels fly faster. and at
last managed to get outside the traces,
and then, as II satisfied with the fun
he had had, the brute lay down in the
middle Of the road and defed Toms
every effort to get him up.
A couple of Mexicans happened
along, and at Toms invitation they
took a hand. One Of them gathered a
lot of dry grass and piled it close to the
mules headquarters and set II on ire.
Ii took Sam about two seconds TO
change his position and land his heels
on Toms stomach with force which
sent him over the edge Of the road and
down the bank. He dropped twenty or
LnlTty lteb uOMn lAo s'uS VI
tain.
Where did he land? Why, on the
ledge Of the MONDAY, Of course. He
had sense enough 10 keep his discovery
a secret, and wrote to his brother IN
Denver to gather up all the cash he
could and get down TO New Mexico as
soon as possible. The first thing
we knew iu Lake Valley gang OF
men were at work developing the
mine. All the rock taken out is sent 70
Cerillos TO be worked, and the deeper
they 90 the richer the ledge IS.
1t paid handsomely from the start
aud the boys are now getting cut about
500 a month clear OF expenses
The fist thing Tom did was to pur-
chase Old Sam, and the mule Is now
living a life of ease, with big pasture
70 Craze in and good stable to sleep
in at night.-Sdn Francisco Chronicle.
More than two-thirds of the male
prisoners in the states prisons OF the
various states are under 80 years OF age
The French Order of the Legion Of
Honor has $4,000 members, only twenty
of whom, or one in every $3.50, are
women.
A Pottstown, Pa, farmer keeps q
large number of snakes on his place for
the purpose of killing rats.
A Minneapolis paper claims that there
has never been bank failure In tina
city.
In one summer the defendants OF a
flI will number 2,0S0, $50.
God Save the Queen" is sung In
nearly twenty languages.
Sixty thousand people in Ireland
speak Irish only.