The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-08-16
A REALITY LIKE A ROMANCE.


A few years ago the opinion was quite
general among those who watch the move
ment of the precious metals that the output
of the gold fields was slowly but surely
falling of. and that in a short time a gold
famine would be inevitable. This opinion
was sustained by statistics. The highest
annual output of gold was that of 1855
$155, 450. 900. Twenty years later it was only
$S6. 200 0O. 1t probably would have contin-
ued If the supply had depended upon placer
mining: but early in the last decade science
and capital began experiments to ascertain
il the gold imprisoned in the hard quartz
in small quantities could be proftably set
free. 1t took time to make the expert
ments. but at length the ingenuity of man
has triumphed. The finty quartz must give
up it's precious metal. In 1890 the worlds
output of gold was s12O. 5ls. COO: in 1894 it had
| risen to $50, 62s, 100: in 1895 il was s203, 800. 900;
this year it will exceed 1920, 900, 900. and men
who are familiar with the subject predict
that in 1900 the output of the gold mines
| will be worth $500. 900. 600. A plethora of gold
is now more probable than was a famine
twenty-five years ago.
Mr.. Carpenters letter in this issue of the
Journal relative to gold mining at Cripple
Creek reads more like a romance of the Or
der of the Arabian Nights than a reality
| of to-day. In the working of those great
mines there is no longer uncertainty. Prac-
tically tens of millions of the precious metal
are in sight. one owner saying that he is
in no hurry to reach it, as it is safer in the
earth than in the banks. The account
which MI. Carpenter gives of the men
whose lives have, in a few months, been
changed from poverty to the affiuence of
| millions. is full of interest. One of the most
successful Of these men was a native Of
! this State, who it is said found it to his adj
vantage for several reasons to leave In
| diana. He was a carpenter. but. drifting
into Colorado, be became a miner and a
| luckless prospector. losing in one venture
the little he had saved in a previous ore.
| He knew the whole there was of poverty
and privation. yet he seemed infatuated
and kept at work. One day on an aban-
doned claim he knocked a piece from a
| rock which revealed signs of an abundance
OF gold. AS he went on the precious metal
seemed In the roots of the grass awaiting
him. In a few days this victim of years of
hard luck knew that he was a millionaire.
To-day he is many times a millionaire. He
cannot tell within many millions what he
is worth.
1t appears in the case of this and other
men whom Mr.. Carpenter names as COM
ing suddenly into great wealth that they
are not prepared to enjoy it. They cannot
break out of the environment of poverty.
which held them for years. to enjoy the
boundless life which it 4 is generally believed
| that wealth affords. If they were younger
they might go forth into the world; but
many of those who came into millions thus
suddenly by mining have soon become the
| victims of dissipation and reckless specula-
ton. In other cases, sons and daughters,
who are not educated. some into these
great fortunes to scatter them in riotous
living. So far as those who so suddenly
| come into these millions are personally con-
| cerned. it would be generally better for
them if they had not dore so. The ex-
Indiana carpenter is now troubled about
the care of his millions, spending with the
penuriousness of a man to whom a dollar
has counted all his life for a dollars worth
of the bare necessaries of lie. His five
room cottage fits his past life. but that life
in the future cannot be so changed that he
will not be a stranger i'll at ease in the
SOS. 900 house he is building. In a few years
his millions or tens of millions will pass
into the hands of heirs who will doubtless
be able to scatter them. Still. these min
ers, who have added millions to the worlds
indestructible measure of values, have been
instrumental in broadening the basis of
that credit which carries forward the work
of civilization.