The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-06-27

fraud has not vet been determined.
Secretary Chardr of the board of
trade has n large glass case in his pri-
vaie Office NJ the exchange building, in
which he keeps sam, les of ore from
mines in different parts of the west.
Since the organization of the mining
and stock exchange, samples nave
been received almost daily and added
to the collection. air. Charde has a
system of labelling the different sam
pies. Yesterday after gazing tenderly
upon the remains of the sample whieh
had come near involving him and
other Kansas Cityans in an unfortu-
nate speculation, he gathered up the
Ray county rock and marked it thus:
s'Goid-nit."
And so it will go down TO history.
The story of the attempt to swindle
a number of Kansas City spectators
reads a great deal like the selling of Il
gold brick. 1t is very interesting.
Last Thursday an elderly man bowed
himself into the Office of Mr.. Char,Ie
and asked for a private interview, which
was granted. After they entered the
private office he drew his chair close up
to Mr.. Charde and told the latter in II
very confidential manner that he was
the president of a gold NINE located at
Rayville, and that he wanted 10 learn
what was necessary to be done in order
to have articles of incorporation drawn
up aud the stock placed on the market.
He incidentally mentioned the fact
that some of the ore taken from the
mine, which had been named the
Crock Fork" showed up gold and
assayed 1870 per ton. He had with
him II certificate from the assayer,
which showed what he said was true.
When the president of the Rock
Fork began TO unroll the statement
above mentioned to Mr.. Charde, the
latter was all attention, and began
building large air castles OF how many
millions he would be worth if he only
owned a few shares IN the Rock Fork.
The old man was perfectly willing to
let a number of Kansas CiIyans in ''on
the ground floor as it would greatly
help the new company, he said, 30
have n board of directors composed of
business men from the second greatest
city in Missouri. He left Il sample of
the ore from the mine with Mr.. Charde,
anu aNlNp OiC i u ~. hoOIY lhC
Ninth street halter.
The now mine was talked of Il great
deal by three or four of those who were
to DC let in 'on the ground floor
which finally resulted in their taking
into their confidence james E. Riley,
of this city, who has valuable interests
in gold mines at Cripple Creek, and
George ID. tombstone, II mining man
from Colorado.
After several consultations it was
agreed to let the last two named eX-
anime the ore that assay ed $50 per
ton and see if it was good enough to
%.splunge' on. Yesterday morning was
the time selected, and the quartette
met in Mr.. Chard's Office. Mr.. Charde
washed the sample and Mr.. tombstone
look n knife, and by ocraping discover
ed small holes in the rock. After some
picking and a great deal of scraping,
tiny specks of the yellow metal Uttered
on. on the desk. One or two of the
punctures were explored and a guam
tity of the gold dust discovered, when
Mr.. tombstone, the expert, paused and
said s.That stuff is good clay to make
bricks with, but il is no good to buy
for ore" He further explained that
the samples had been very c~leverly
s'salted" and that the ore was no good.
Further investigation proved that
Mr.. Johnstone's statement was correct,
for when the balance of the ''dump"
was ground up there was not II particle
of gold to be found.
The ore is still on exhibition mt Sec
rotary Charde's Office, and Mr.. Wood, |
who was preparing for a visit to the
''mine," has postponed 1t indefinitely.
Mr.. Charde says he does not think
hat the man at Eayville knew of the
swindle, but he Is Of the opinion that
else was trying to swindle the
people here through him. The old man
his name us Thomas IIankins and
his residence as Hallard, Il little town
northwest of Richmond and east of
Excelsior Springs.
Jas. w. Wood who spent ten years
mining in the west and knows proba-
bly, as much about gold mining rs any
in Kansas City, tells an interesting
story of his acquaintance with ~llankins.
al met Hankins . week or two ago.
said Mr.. Wood last night. ''lIe was
introduced to me 10y some II whose
name | do not recollect, but | believe
it was Major Jones. lie told me that
he had quartz rock on his place that
had shown free gold. | did not have
much confidence in it, but gave him
my address and told him TO send me
pounds of the ore, and would
make ii miners assay Of it.
''The ore arrived about Il week ago.
| took il down to the store and pro-
cured a mortar from Fredermann Il
the druggists, in which to
pulverize it. The first lot, which con
sisted of a rotton rock, somewhat like
quartz, but not quartz, yielded nothing
at all. The second lot, which was
a sort of amalgamated rock, also re-
sembling quartz, yielded nothing until
| GOT almost to the bottom of the can,
when | was astonishcd to find, not
traces, but actual free gold in quaint
les of at least II cent to the pound, or
5000 IA ton. If gold like that was to
be found in Ray county, Mo-, deter
mined to nav some of 1t.
al ooh the gold | had found and
1t to IL friend, telling him
where il came from.
=. Nothing but yellow mIca,' he said.
s'lf that's yellow mioa,' | replied,
.sthen | never saw gold
81 met Jim Riley and told him of
ny discovery. lie sad that MIR.
Chardc had some of the same ore. We
vent to Chardc and sure enough his
ample hal come in the same kind OF
| little baking powder can rs mine.
'sWhcn Mr.. Johnson ran his knife
blade around the rock this morning he
must have accidentally Knocked out
he plug, for the sand and the gold q
anne out OF the hole almost without $
scrupcd. If that piece had gone
o the assayer and been ground up IT
would have have shown big returns