Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-08-15

about 10 cents on the dollar, and the ore
is so rich that he has to keep back his
workmen for fear that he will not be able
to invest the money which he receives from
the gold which they get out So far he has
spent his surplus in buying other mines.
and he has today properties which l am
told, make him the largest individual owner
of gold mines in the world. doubt whether
he knows himself what he is worth.
know that no one can figure upon his possi-
bihties. I am told that Marshall Field and
other Chicago capitalists offered him ST.
too.6O0 for his Independence mine alone
and long ago he refused offer of 5000
700 for it, He does not like to talk about
1t, and doubt whether an offer of 10000
tD would tempt him. He says that the
gold is in the mine and can't run away.
1t is safer there than in the safe deposit,
and the best bank for him liz Old Mother
Earth.
Ho. stratton Struck 1t.
And still I would not like to be Winfield
Scott Str1tton. 1 would not exchange
places with him for all his millions This
thought came forcibly upon me as 1 sat
with him in his little Office over a bicycle
store in Colorado Springs the other day
and watched him closely as l listened to
him He is only forty-eight years of age,
but he looks to be more than sixty. His
hair Is as white the driven snow and
his naturally dark complexion has been
changed to mahogany brown by the
hardshtps of his laborious career and the
anxiety OF his hunt for gold He is nerv-
GUS in the extreme. and he has I believe
little capacity for happiness The story of
ms life IS that of a man who has devoted
himself to finding n mine. and who after
twenty years of failure has at last sue
ceeded He has succeeded by luck and
work more than by any special ability, and
though he is a man of good common sense
1 judge YOU might find ninety men quite
as good out of any one hundred carpenters
that you could select. Born in Indiana
tor ho
. drfted out to Colorado Springs when he
was along about twenty years of age He
began at once to prospect for gold He
worked at his trade in the winter to get
the money necessary to keep him alive i'm
the mountains in the summer and day sf-
ter day and year after year he climbed the
rocks and VIZ ndered over the hills looking
Tor mines. At one time he had saved three
thousand dollars. He invested this in a
mine snd lost 1t. He is a man of few
anus ementS and of little intellectual re-
source He failed again and again. and up
until 1891 he was worth practically moth
ing. He had at this time a house in Colo
RADIO Springs, which was mortgaged and
1t was in May of that year that he rem
dered almost desperate by his repeated
failures, went to prospect about Cripple
Creek. He realized that there was some
gold in the boulders or float which Law nm
on the grazing lands of this region but up
to this time one had considered the
rock to be worth much.
As Stratton walked over the fields he no.
tioed one stone, the corner OF which some
former prospector had Clipped off. He
picked up the broken piece and sent it TO
Denver to he assayed. 1t yielded over $500
TO the ton. This was a surprise to Stratton
He at once gathered wagon load of other
stones lying about the place and sent these
TO the assdyer's- They told him that the
last was worth only 80 ton. This how
eyer. showed Stratton that there was gold
there, and he staked out a claim about the
big boulder. and went to work. 1t was the
Fourth of July when he began to mine and
he named his property The Independence"
IN honor of the day He found gold almost
from the grass roots The ore grew richer
as ne dug down, and. after q short time, he
found pockets and assures filled with gold.
Inc gold did not run regularly. Sometimes
there would be a pocket as big as the aver
tanning the rich ore would extend only To
the size OF tumbler- He sunk his shaft
However, and ran out lateraIs from two to
three hundred feet on either side. He soon
tegan TO find gold everywhere. Even the
rocks lying on the surface Of the ground