The Irish standard., 1896-09-05
THAT ALMIGHTY D0LLAR|
The Way Men Hunt for 1t In the
Gold Filming Regions of
5~. the West.
Those Who Might Have Been Rich
II They Only Had Known
Enough In Time.

+ a Matter of Luck Than
Ability.
There are 10000 men in Cripple Creek,
and fully 10000 Of them are mourning
over the fortunes they have lost. You
meet every day miners who will tell you
how near they came to owning the Port
land, the Independence, the Victor or
! other big mines which are now turning
out tens of thousands Of dollars a month.
Some will whisper how they sold mines
| for a song which are now worth millions,
and others will curse their luck as they
describe the fortunes which have slipped
! through their fingers, writes Frank G..
Carpenter.
I saw a man hauling logs at the town
Of Victor. near Cripple Creek the other
day who sold a half-million dollar mine
to pay a grocery bill OF $40. He was earn
ing S. day, and he was working for the
men who bought his mine. His name is
Jerry Winchell -Four years ago he owned
a number of the best locations in the
Cripple Creek district, but now he is not
worth a cent The mine which went for
grub is famous here. It is known as ''The
Last Dollar" Winchell located it in 1891,
and not long after that, when he found
! himself in debt to the amount Of $40 to
III. H Mills, a groceryman, he gave him
! the mine to square the bill. Mills was not
satisfied with the settlement He object
! ed, but Winchell had no money and he
had to take it. Three years later, how
FEVER, he sold the mine for $4,000, and the
purchaser resold it a month OF so after
that to Senator Wolcott and oilers for
| $4,000 Now it is producing quantities
| of gold, and no one knows what 1t Will
! bring in the future.
sat at dinner in Browns hotel i'm Den
yer the other day beside a tlorid-faced,
ilong-bearded man from Colorado Springs.
We soon began to talk of the mines of
Cripple Greek. The subject of the Isa-
belle company came up, and / asked him
lif he knew anything as to the Cripple
| Greek mines owned by it.
Yes said he, II should say do.
Their best mine, you know. is the Buena
Vista. It pays almost all the profits, of
the Isabella company. Its vein has been
traced for 5000 feet, and it has already
produced more than 100000 worth of
gold I had chance to buy half of that
/
in my employ discovered it. He was one
of those fellows who are always hard up,
and one day he came to me and told me
that his family were out of provisions,
and that he must have money. He spoke
of the Buena Vista prospect and offered
me a half interest in it for $100. [ told
him that would give him the provisions,
but ]. did not want the mine. I said L
did net believe there was any gold In the
| Cripple Creek region. The result was
that he went away and sold the interest
to other parties. Within two weeks those
parties sold their half interest for $4,000.
and "a month later my man got $4,000
for his share. The Isabella mining stock
at it's present selling value is worth more
than million. 1t has paid 100000 with
in a month in dividends, and I should
have gotten one-half of it FOR $100. oh,
Loyd' it makes me sick when I think of
it,
The Independence gold mine is said to
be the richest in the world. It has, it is
said, from five to seven million dollars
worth of gold in sight, and it's owner,
who was working at his trade as car
penter five years ago, would not now sell
it for $40, 100000 cash. And still the IN
dependence has several times been Of
fered for sale and the offer refused This
was in the first days of it's history. One OF
Dave Moffat's experts told me the other
night how near he came to buying it.
Saidshe:
'It was several years ago, before the
Cripple Creek region was much developed
that came from Leadville to see what 1
could find for Moffat Eben Smith was with
me, and we bought the Victor mine for
ho1,n 1yno 1noTA a.
million out of It, Well, one day / was
walking about Stratton's mine, when saw
miner whom knew shoveling out ore
and rock. I asked him whether the mine
was worth anything. He said that he did
not think it was worth much, and that
Stratton would never get anything out of it.
went into the building, however, and
Clipped off bit Of the ore and put it in
my pocket. That night I had it assayed.
It rap 5000 to the to1s sounded STRAIT
ton and found I could get the mine for
$4,000 cash at an option Of $4,000. /
replied that could not make an offer un-
til I could go through the mine and make
a number Of assays, and that while the first
ore might run good, that which ! got later
might not be worth mining. This was
agreed to, and / was; Just about to wire
Eben Smith that we had better buy the
mine, when got letter from him SAYING
that the panic had struck Denver. He said
that everything was fiat, and that Moffat
had written him to go slow, and not to buy
anything for time. He told me to break
off my negotiations ] might have and 60
of fishing until the trouble blew over. I
thought the matter would. keep for
month, SO went fishing. Thirty days later
Iscames back only to find that Stratton had