The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-06-26

Ell Reno, o. T, June 25.-(Special)-
mind of the newspaper reader, the gold
| excitement is over. AS matter of fact
it is not. The gold excitement was not
| a newspaper flake" as fakes usually
| run. Ii did not start with a dispatch
to some newspaper published away off
| in Chicago or New York. 1t started
at home in Arapahoe and Cloud Chief,
two towns very near the place where the
| gold was supposed to be located. The
| local papers had talked about it week
| before the outside world caught on and
| raised such a hubbub. Then dispatches
| began to roll into Oklahoma from every
part of the country asking for informa-
| ton. 1t is sad but nevertheless the
solemn truth that good many men in
/ the territory took an evil delight in con-
Meeting brilliant stories and sending
| them out. 1t was told with great guSto
| from New York to San Francisco that
as many as three thousand miners were
| on the scene. that three dance halls
! Were going and money was being made
hand over fist.
These were all lies. What was not
lie was that farmer named Williams
discovered what he thought TO be gold
in the sand of Doggy Creek. He went
to work "panning" il. Several of his
farmer neighbors followed his example.
| In a day or two one of these farmers
Strolled into Arapahoe. He told the
story OF the gold discoveries and was
listened to incredulously. A local news
paper man heard the report and wrote
it up in a lively, half-humorouS way.
Nearly a week passed when some enter
prising correspondent at Guthrie came
across this notice in the Arapahoe
paper. He seized upon ii, made a dis
patch of it and it was sent broadcast
over the land.
There was some excitement for the
week following with deep current of
incredibly and fun underlying that ex-
element all the while. Then the stor-
les of denial began to go out. Assays
were made and no gold found. The
whole thing was rated a fake.
If it was a fake it was not Intentional.
In fact there are some people who per-
sist in believing that there is gold on
BOggy Creek and who bear up bravely
ag? inst all guying and official denials.
One of these men who does not pro-
pose to give up his belief in the gold
fields is Neils Esperson, who by the
way is a genuine "old miner" Esper
son has gone over to the gold fields
He said before leaving that the ques-
ton would be thoroughly sifted and the
field prospected on this trip so far as the
sand containing the flour gold is con-
cerned and an effort to find the lode
that contains the great deposit will be
made. The question as to there being
gold in the sand already found has been
satisfactorily proved and it now re-
mains to be seen whether 1t will pay to
mine it or not. Some sand has been
found that is worthless to handle so far
as is yet known, but if only a small
quantity or portion of it is as rich as
some of the assays demonstrate it to be.
it will be very rich.
A party of three prospectors, COM
posed of NJ. l.. Stanley, o. r. Symmes
and W. E. Mcdaniel, returned from
the golden desert yesterday, filled with
enthusiasm and pockets full of sand.
They express themselves as delighted
with the prospects for the future of the
Oklahoma gold fields and are satisfied
that gold will be found in paying guam
titles in that district in the near future
if it has not already been found. The
gentlemen have sent their find to Oma-
ha for analysis and expect to return TO
the fields next week They have made
partial assay and have found gold
enough TO convince them that there is
something in il.