Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1894-04-15
HOW A FORTUNE
WAS WASTED.
REMARKABLE CAREER OF A CAEEY YOUNG
SCoTcHNAN.
His Schrswins~ Brought Elm Wsal!h-Bui
ina Few Months BE WastsdHundreds
Thousands, and Was Reduced 70 the Condi-
ton Of a Tramp-HOw Fool and Dis
Money We're Soon Parted.
IC0DyrighteGl

New YORK, April IA dihed one
evening last week, alta New YORK hotel,
with five western men, the poorest OF
whom was worth d million dollars, ana
all OF whom, within the memory OF men
Younger than themselves would nave
been glad to work for ten dollars
week.
Oae of the men, Captain Burr OF New
Mexico, but formerly OF Pennsy lVanls'
from which state he went into the
army as 2 drummer boy Of sixteen, ana
came out at the close OF the war with
captains commission, has made nVe
separate fortunes OF about a million
each. and been four times reduced 10
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.
Captain Burr, sturdy, bronzed man
OF middle age, settled himself comfor-
tally back in shis chair, and, with
lean finger tips together and his eyes
liked refectively on the ceiling, he
gave expression to this trite aphorlsm'
II have had rich and varied ex-
porience in fortune hunting, and I've
come TO the conclusion That almost any
fool can make money, under favorable
circumstances, but that il takes a wise
man to hang on 10 the pile alter he mas
got it. Now there was Duncan Ross,
his was a case in point"
The captain stroked his thick eye
browS against the grain, with thumo
and forefnger, as II rallying his mem
DRY, then told the following odd story
Of sudden fortune:
Duncan Ross was born in Glasgow,
Scotland, sometime In the early fortles
His father, ship carpenter on the
Clyde, gave the boy good common
school education, and at the age OF six
teen young Ross was apprentlced TO the
same trade.
Along about the close Of the Ameri-
can civil war, Duncan saw in the Clyde
ship bound for San Francisco, and
without consulting his parents, or the
employers TO whom BIO was apprentlced,
be secured a 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, 10 come back to Glasgow
in her; indeed, be 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.han-
per his movements. He ran away from
the ship, and on foo. started for the
diggings along the western slope OF the
SierraS.
After good deal OF starving, which
he bore with q Scotchman'S fortltude,
Duncan secured a place, but he was
quick TO see that at the wages he was
earning it would take him from July
to eternity to lay by modest com
potency, even If he saved every cent.
While working in the diggings with
the snow peaks looming above him to
the east, Duncan Ross did great deal
OF quiet thinking, as to tho why's and
wherefores of the gold deposits In
which he was grading and digging, and
this is how he reasoned:
"All the free gold that IS found along
these streams must have come from
some great deposit further up and back
in the mountains. notice that much