The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-01-17
FORTUNE ESCAPED HIM.
how Abe Austin Missed the Chance e.
Becoming . Multi-MulIonaire.

low Abe Austin Missed the Chance e.
Becoming . Multi-MnIIOnsire.
Maj Abe Austin is type of the old
school westerner who retains all theele-.
nents peculiar to that school he has
spent more than 30 years beyond the
Mississippi. and during that period he
has met everything peculiar 10 pio-
neer's life. For a number OF years be
las been a resident OF Helena. Mont
Mai. Austin has been in the city for NE
past ter days The writer met him as
one OF the Broadway hotels. The tall.
bronzsd major leaned back in his
chair. blew a cloud of smoke from .
fragrant cigar and queried:
Did you ever hear that Chicago as
one period of its existence very mar
Towly escaped being snapped for .
pair of mules? It's worth telling.
think. il YOU never heard about it.
The story sounds like fiction. but IA
fact. assure you. IL all came about
In this way; My father pulled up IS
Chicago alcag in the DOS, toting along
with bin everything he possessed on
earth, and IL wasn't much of load. Z
can assure you-tnst an old carpet
sack and a chunk of a boy. That boy
was myself. We'll, as / say. be landed
there in Chicago. but At that time q few
scattered log cabins was all there WIS
10 it. II was only pioneer settle
ment, ind a shaky one at that WAS
small, handy legged lad, just big
enough TO stand guard over our scane
worldly possessions when we bad
pitched our tert, while my father Skin
mished around for IN outfit He was
making grim preparations 10 begin
life over again, this time in the over
land freight business
He had boaght q wagon from q
Connecticut Yankee. who had barely
landed on the shore OF Lake Aichi-
gan, G swampy wilderness. when the
tall Yankee timber soc the asyue, and
il mighty soon had the western FEVER
shaken out of him. Our outfit was
completed when my father traded u
small tract of Ohio land for a hloeky
little team of mules. Well prpara-
tions were at once made 20 leave With
the next overland wagon train
az think it was on the very morutnA
that we were breaking camp prepara-
tory 10 leaving on our first trip over the
long trail to the continental divides
that a tall, bronzed woodsmnn came
into camp. / well remember thaa his
long. frowsy hair. grizzly beard and
formidable dispisy OF six-shoot~rs
gave me q decidedly uncomfortable
feeling. ! fully expected 20 be per-
iorated or fiayed alive by this rough
looking specimen OF the woods Ha
seated himself on q stump and greeted
us with:
II reckon, stranger. We must bo
goin' ter take a trip overlandT
Yes replied my father. and he
went on Harvesting the mules
wall. pa'dner. I own this patch or
cumberland heTeabouts. and had cAlc'-
lated ter stay hyar, but now I've got
er notion ter 60 fur,lcr west an try
my luck at mimi. Now. how would
yer like ter swap That pair o mules
fer this quarter section o TIMBER
my father considered the proposi-
ton for a few minutes. and then de-
clined 10 make the swap II was The
mistake OF his life, for that quarter
section of timber lies in what Is now
the hub OF the city Of Chicago. rbs
land for which my father refused 20
swap a pair of Aea- bitten mules is now
worth untold millions.--N. y. Mcr-
curry.