The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-29
A FOOL AND HIS MONEY.
The Remarkable Career Of a CanRy
Young SCOtChman.

igality-He is Almost a Tramp Now.
Thousands Upon Thousands Squan-
dered With the Recklessness of
Maniac.
From the New York Morning Advertiser.
dined one evening last week, at New
York hotel, with five western men, the
poorest of whom was worth a million dol
lars, and all of whom, within the memory
of men younger than themselves, would
have been glad to work for $40 a week.
One of these men, Capt. Burr, of New
Mexico, but formerly of Pennsylvania,
from which state he went into the army
as drummer boy of sixteen, and came
out at the close of the war with cap
taln's commission. has made five separate
fortunes of about million each, and been
four times reduced TO absolute poverty by
his efforts to double his pile" by the
quick process.
When the cigars were lit, the subject
that occupied the conversation during
dinner was continued.
Capt. Burr, sturdy. bron zed man of
middle age, settled himself comfortably
back in his chair, and. with his lean fin
ger tips together and his eyes fixed re-
fectively on the ceiling, he gave express
sion to this trite aphorism:
Il have had rich and varied exper-
fence in fortune hunting, and I've come
to the conclusion that almost any fool
can make money, under favorable circum-
stances, but that it takes wise man to
hang on to the pile after he has got it,
Now there was Duncan Ross, his was a
case in point"
The captain stroked his thick eye
brows against the grain, with a thumb
and torehnger, as if rallying his memory,
then told the following Dad story of a sud
den fortune
Duncan Ross was born in Glasgow,
Scotland, sometime in the early forties.
His father, a ship carpenter on the Clyde,
gave the boy good common school educa-
ton, and at the age of 16 young Ross was
apprenticed to the same trade
Along about the close of the America
civil war, Duncan saw in the Clyde a ship
bound for San Francisco, and without
consulting his parents or the employers
to whom he was apprenticed, he secured
place before the mast, and, with high
hope in his heart. sailed for the land of
sudden fortunes.
Duncan agreed when he signed the ship
papers TO come back to Glasgow in her:
indeed, he could not draw all his wages
till he had done so, but once inside the
Golden Gate at Frisco, he did not permit
these restrictions to hamper his move
ments. He ran away from the ship and
on foot started for the diggings along the
western slope of the Sierras.
Alter good deal of starving, which he
bore with a Scotchman' s fortitude, Dun
can secured place, but he was quick to
see that at the wages ne was earning it
would take from July to eternity to lay
by a modest competency, even if he saved
every cent.
While working in the digginRs, with
the snow peaks looming above him to the
east, Duncan Ross did a great deal of
quiet thinking as to the why's and where
tores of the gold deposits in which he was
grading and digging, and this is how he
reasoned:
'All the free goldth is found along
these streams must have come from some
great deposit further up and back in the
mountains. l notice that much of this
alluvial gold is fastened to bits of quartz.
and so if quartz is not the mother of gold.
they are at least closely related. Now,
ii | follow up one of these gold streams to
its source, l should come upon the quartz
rocks from which some of it has been
washed away, but the greater part must
be left behind. If, therefore, | can reach
the original deposit, the gold headquar-
tiers, as it were, shall strike it rich. It's
new wrinkle at any rate, and I'll try
it"
He began this search in 1865, and
whenever he had money enough ahead to
buy grub, he kept il up till 81. The
spring of that year found him prospect
ing about the headwaters of Kern river,
to the east of Tulare lake
One evening, ragged and dirty Dun
can Ross called on weekly mining oper-
ator at the Occidental hotel in San Fran
cisco. He looked so disreputable that MIR.
Baldwin, Lucky" Baldwin. was about
to order his visitor out, when he adj
vanced to the table and laying a soiled
handkerchief down on 1t with a bang, he
said in his rich Scotch accent:
MIR. Baldwin, there's wee bit some
thin in yon, I'd like you take a look at"
pointing to the handkerchief.
open the rag yourself" said Bald
win, brusquely.
The young man complied, and brought
to light about six pounds Of rich, angular
gold nuggets, the bits of glistening, ad-
herring quartz showing at once that they
were not obtained by washing.
Great SCott2' cried Baldwin, as he
leaned over the table" where did that
come from2'
From place" replied Duncan,
''where there's no end more of stuff just
like it."
"And who owns the layout-the find?"
well, Mr.. Baldwin, . said Duncan, as
he held up the handkerchief, that
claim is mine for every foot that the law
allows"
And you want to SELF"
That's what Pm here for. If can get
anything like the price, I'll sell and take
things kind of easy for a while" was the
reply.
Baldwin was not the man to let slip
through his fingers a thing so full of
promise With some friends, he investi-
gated, and the outcome of it was that
Ross got 100000 for his interest, and the
parties, who bought, cleared ten times
that sum.
Duncan Ross had shown the most ad-
mirable qualities while struggling for
wealth now that he had won, his man
hood was to be put to a severe test in
spending it.
1t should be recorded to his credit, that
Immediately, and before he bought a
gold watch, diamond pin and expensive
clothes for himself, he sent thousand
pounds to his old father III Glasgow This
done, he proceeded to NOW a wide swath
down the meadows of pleasure, with the
aid of all the modern appliances for such
work.
lie started overland for New York on
his way to Paris, after having carminated
san toancsco Tor month, and became
so attached to some new-found friends
that he offered to pay the expenses of
four Of them as far as New York, and the