The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-24


Have ever TAD you about the three
men from the west with their lump OF
gold. asked an old capitol guide. OF the
y dshington Post. That story IS true,
Isl ana can De easily NeIiAel-
don't know how many years ago. three
men from Colorado, or the Pacinc coast,
came TO the capitol with a lot OF the
nnest gold quartz you ever saw worth
about $4,000. They owned IL in partner
snip. and came all the way to Washing
ton TO have il assayed and coined. i
reckon they must have been mighty sim
PIE; PROBABLY spent their lives IN the
mountains and had just heard Of Wash
ington- You have no idea what simple
notions some folks have about Washing
tomas though II was sort OF polltlcal
heaven. where YOU can cash your chips
when every bank. is broken. reckon they
had a congressman here. Anyway, they
hung up at committee room, located in
the southwest corner of the capitol. I'M
der the terrace, the same that the ciVn
service committee used TO occupy BY
singular coincidence every one OF the three
men went crazy ana was put away in an
asylum. / don't know the particulars, ex-
cept that the gold remained unclaimed in
The hands of the committee until it was
turned over to the courts. They tried to
fnd out the relatives of the three, but i
reckon they never had any, or maybe they
had changed their names for good and
sufficient reasons when they went west,
and their friends had lost track Of them.
Or maybe again they had robbed a stage
coach Who knows? never did learn
still in the hands of the courts. and their
heirs can come and get 1t oy proving
property
''Speakin' of gold" said the old guide,
meditatively. you perhaps heard of the
excitement over what was supposed to be
a rich find of gold in the capitol grounds
some years ago. 1t was the talk of the
town while the excitement was on.
"WOrkmen were diggin' shaft on the
west grounds, l disremember exactly what
for but maybe it was for one of the air
blnV
ozone into the chambers. 1t might have
been well, however. Anyhow, they
had gone so deep as to be on level with
the river bottom when they struck a
petrified log. All around this log was
scattered a mass of glittering metal OF a
right rich yellow shade, like pure gold
Everybody thought it was gold and they
had struck pocket, and there was the
greatest excitement Then some of them
scientific gents from the survey or the
Smithsonian came along. They had heard
of the goings on up here, and, of course,
you can't keep the gentry from stickin
their nose into anything like science or
mythology. So they pick up a few speci-
mems ana turn microscope on it, ana
then give a smile. Whey, say they that's
gold sure enough, but commonly deslg-
mated fools gold, iron pyrites. Well, that
killed the gold boom on Capitol HILL
If Capt. Basset, the watchdog of the
Senate, ever dies. hope he'll leave TO
posterity one of his secrets that would
make rich picking for us guides" resumed
the old fellow after a moments pause.
You know JEFF Davis had a seat in the
Senate before he switched off on seces-
sion That seat Is still there. Some
senator sits in il through the whole ses-
sion, but don't know that ii once belonged
to JEFF Davis. Why2 Cause Bassett won I
tell, though he knows. He's so blanked
careful about the property of the Senate
chamber that he's too stingy to tell, for
fear visitors will chip off splinters for
souvenirs During the war, a lot of sol
diers got into the chamber and stuck their
bayonets into the desk, and l reckon
they thought they'd made kindling wood
of it. But old Capt. Bassett goes to
work and patches it all up with screws
and putty and Varnsh, till it looks like
any other old desk in the chamber. I
know for certain that some mighty in
fiuential senators have tried to get the
secret out of old man. but they might
as well talk to the Goddess of Liberty on
top of the dome as to get him to tell
which is Jeff Davis seat AS l before
enunciated, he's too stingy to tell, and the
| secret will die with him, | reckon, unless
some of his senatorial friends, like Sher-
man or Hoar: get right down into the
| old mans soul and pray with him to re-
| veal the secret in his will