Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1895-09-15
4 FATAL MISTAKE.
How the Gold Hill Settlement Was
Ruined.

an III pear right smart chance o watch
in-tbat's what I think"
He's dead wrong" assented little Ike
Bullet, who always agreed with the
major in everything. 90 course his
actin myetesrious hain't really nothin'
p'uclar agin him. Folks out yere-
that is. they hain't nobody, hardly, th't
hain't got sOmethin' t be mys-that is,
some o. them ducks Is mysterious an
some's noisy, like" finished Ike, lame
ly, realizing that he had almost slipped
into personalities.
Tried t. talk to i'm" sighed Lazy"
Wolf. with his customary stretch. S
l. Firm tn states, l reckOn% Yes
: he. 'Xpect t. 90 intuh minin'? s I.
Possibly S he. an then e gets out of
q good, cOmftble cheer an walks off. "
"Hain't nobody but my barkeep gifts
no talk out of i'm put in Colonel
Hanks, the landlord, IAN about all e
says L Billy is Nice day. an Cocktail,
please But e pays is bills, an car
ries roll, too; I s'pose that's all l ought
q worry bout"
oh. yesl oh, yesr' snapped little Ike,
eNcitedly. AN all tn time, him layin'
most likely, IF Z jerk tn props firm un-
der yol I'm If startin' i'm, I am, an
- quick. tool"
II wouldn't be too hasty gentlemen"
counseled the mild voice OF Professor
Hendrix, editor OF the Gold Hill Avail
anche." We may, after all, be enter
tanning an angel that is, a sucker
uuawares. Let no guilty capitalist es-
cape ere he has been induced to invest.
He haint no capitalist" interjected
the major. scornfully. He's tOO-toO
quiet. / think he'd better have the
rum"
Easy. major. easy" said Hendrix,
softly. Now I would suggest that we
select q committee Of. say, two. to sound
the gentleman and endeavor, by peace
ful means. if possible, to cause him to
give an account of himself. If he de-
clines TO do So" The editor con-
Guided with q tOlerably graceful wave
of his hand. for the subject of the fore
going remarks-a pale. somewhat or
dinary-lookiBg young man. in clothes
Of eastern cut, had just entered and was
passing through the bar-rOom.
Time was when Gold Hill had been a
thriving, busy camp. with metropolitan
aspirations. But its boom died. and the
glcries of Gold Hill were only memory
to the three hundred citizens (whO had
remained behind because they could
not afford to leave what little was left
SUN the center of a fairly good but
steadily 'petering" mining district, and
there vet remained the hope on the part
of many citizens that some one might
make another big strike and the old
times come back, i'm which case they
would be Gin ON the ground floor. But
several years has seen only a steady de-
cline iu Gold Hill. and an increase Of
prosperity on the part of its hated rival.
New Kimberly. the inhabitants Of
which were wont to profess ignorance
of the existence Of the former metro
polls albeit only 90 miles separated the
two camps.
It was ir the second year after the
death of the Gold Hill boom that the
business men of that camp began to re-
aIize that retrenchment was necessary.
There was always the hope of a
"strike." or q chance of unloading some
thing mt good price on some unsOphis-
tic9ted "tenderfOOt" but. in the mean-
time. it was necessary TO look after the
leaks The gentlemen who kept the
liquor disponsaries had as lively a sense
Of the necessity for retrenchment as
the rest. and they went about econo-
MIXING I'm O practical manner.
There was I'm the camp a prominent
but somewhat impecuniOus citizen,
known as Joe Godfrey, and Mr. Godfrey
had formerly resided i'm the moon
shine" districts Of North Carolina. This
latter fact gave Major Fulton and Col
Ouol Hanks an idea The bOttOm-lands
near by grew large quantities Of cereals
including corn. Putting two and two
tCgether-Joe Godfrey and the corn
crOp-and why, it was as easy as any
thing could be- In a short time Mr..
C0Gfrey's work made itself felt by the
wholesale liquor men. who shook their
heads over their decadence OF business,
not only I'm Gold Hill. but in several
outlying camps, as we'll. Revenue Of
fcers shook their heads too, and sought
TO ascertain the cause of this unac-
.c0uDtabie state of things. But only one
of them had found what he sought, and
Ike mysteriouslv disappeared, failing
even TO call for his baggage or to pay
his bin at the hotel. And Messrs Full
ton. Hanks. ct al waXed fat and pros
Porous in the midst of seeming adver-
sitv yet were ever circumspect, as be-
hOoves gentlemen who defy the laws
of government There we're no in
/ formers i'm Cold HILL The man who
gave the revenue officer who myste2,
i0uslv disappeared the information that
lea to- the finding Of he still, was shot
in "self-defense' by a henchman of the
whiskey ring within q Gay or two after
the officer turned up missing.
Several circumstances had caused
suspicion of the man who had been the
subject of the afternoons session in the
present instance. He had been en- Gold
linn about two weeks. and had scarcely
sp0kan to- any one i'm the camp; he-had
said nothing about his business: he took
not even q hammer with him when he
walked or rode about the country pre-
sumably prospecting); and he had been
seen ON several occasions after night,
fall his ight-COlored clothes We're con-
soicuOusl outside the camp. talking TO
some one. probably a stranger, who was
MS vet unidentified. inasmuch as the two
had never Vet been seen together by
daylight or within the limits of the
camp.
On the evening after the consultation
of the powers i'm the bar-room of the
Merchants Hotel. Professor Hendrix
met the stranger, who claimed the
name of Tennison, and tried in his
most suave and diplomatic manner, to
draw him ont and to learn something
! of his business; but the young man.
while willing enough to discuss mat