Kansas City daily journal., 1897-02-08
NO $1,000 NIGHTsHIRTs NOW.
The Romantic Career of Tabor, Now
Swinging n pick mt Cripple Creek.

The Romantic Career of Tabor, Now
Swinging IA Pick Mt Cripple Creek.
From the Chicago mes-Herald.
The fact that Fortune is Il tickle god
dess" was never more aptly illustrated
than i'll the career of ex-senator II. a. W.
Tabor, of Colorado. y farmer, ii stone.
mason, small grocery keeper, great
miEe owner. Il Hulti-millionuirc and pro-
prietor of great blocks of buildings i'll
Denver the posSeSSOr and builder OF one
of the finest onera houses in the world.
lieutenant governor of Colorado, United
States senator. and now Il poor man once
more deiviug in the dirt for another for-
tune among the golden hills OF cripple
Creek-this in paragraph, Is the history
oil a man who has received more nattefy
ana more criticism, more fhvors ana haunts
OIL fortune than fall to the lot OF most
men. The other day Il brief telegram from
Denver was published to the effect that the
iast piece OF property owned by ex-senator
IaDor mad been sold under the hammer TO
satisfy mortgage for $Sh,0vD thus closing
history.
November %. 1SB, this man of varied
fortunes WIS born. and on the 26th of No
vcmher, 1896, he fOLud himself. at the age
OF Go. as bereft of earthly possessions as
upon the day of his birth Notwithstanding
the fact that less than ten years ago his
fortune was rated at over S60NO,UOO. When
Tabor was rich and prosperous he was
fond of recalling the days of poverty ana
labor through which he had passed. and
the following facts are u condensation of
his history as he related il to me. seated
i'll his private office in the Tabor Grand
opera house before adverSity had over
taken him:
In 1859 Tabor came to Denver leaving a
farm i'll Kansas and Il seat in the Kan
sas legislature. He stayed in Den !cr
through the winter and early in the spring
o. lSGU. with two friends. drove a yoke OF
ONch attached to rlckety old wagon
out of the city en- route, to California
SuEch, the present site of LeaGville. RU-
mora of the finding of gold in the gulCh
had reached Denver. and thus early IN his
career Tabor began his search for the yell
low metal. The oxen We're experienced
travellers, having trudged all the way
across the plains from the Missouri river
10 the foot of the front range OF the ROCKY
mountains the season before, but 1t must
be confessed that there was u great lack
OF style about the turnout.
1t IS curious coincidence that in max
ing this journey more than thirty-siX years
ubO Tabor must have passed directly over
the rich gold fields of Cripple Creek, lgnor-
ant OF their presence. where to-day he IS
beginning life over again in search of gold.
The difficulties of that journey were many;
often the grade was so steep that the
wagon had TO bo held back from a tum-
bling descent by fastening big pine log
behind it to serve as a brake: often after
Il days toilsome march, camp was made
in sight of the smoke from the fires of the
previous night.
Filled with experiences cf this kind 1t
took ;uSt six weeks to make the Journey
arriving at their destination IN April The
snow was three TO five feet deep and there
wasn't more than fifty men in the camp. 1t
did not take very long to change these
conditions and by the middle of July there
We're 10G00 men at work prospecting and
washing gold. In recalling these early
days in the gulch. Mr.. Tabor said:
The everyday life of miner is not very
interesting. He digs in the gravel he
throws it into the sluice, he forks out the
boulders, he cleans up TO see how much
old
after week. month after month. There
isn't any romance in any kind of hard
work. The romance is always in results.
The preliminaries are always prosaic. 1t
is suttctent for me TO say, therefore, that
| worked hard, and at the end of the sea-
son found that | had cleared 5000 That
isn't much money nowadays. and very
often since then | have cleared ten times
that amount in less than half the time
but never have | felt so happy as over that
little pile of dust dug out of the gravel of
California gulch in the summer of 1860.
The next summer | worked my claim and
in the two seasons made $4,000"
After this. Tabor moved to Buckskin Joe.
booming mining camp then. IL wilderness
now, where he opened Il store of general
merchatdise and was made postmaster.
There he stayed for several years. Then.
when the Printer Boy mine was discovered
at California SulCh. he moved his store
over to the old camp and was made post
master there. Then for nearly twenty
years Tabor logged along, meeting with
-
as he says he walked over Fryer Hill, and
never thought 1t worth while Ito stick a
pick into it," when within twenty-seven
feet of the surface lay the crest of Il silver
deposit worth millions of dollars. Every
season he 'grub-staked' men to prospect
for him and themselves, and every season
found anything. For the benefit of those
unfamiliar with mining terms 1t may be
said that to "grub-stake' prospector is
to furnish him with food free of cost for Il
share in any mines that he~Inay discover.
But on the 18th of April. 1878. Tabor grub
staked'' Rische and Hook. They began TO
laughed at them. They dug away, and at
the depth of twenty-seven feet struck sill
Yer ore that ran 200 ounces to the ton. They
called their mine the Little Pittsburg. This
was the foundation of Tabors great fort
une. In less than a month after the discov-
cry he paid Hook 100000 for his share of the
mine, and in three months more he paid
Rische $262,500 for his third. thus becoming
sole owner of the Little Pittsburg, one of
the greatest mines ever discovered at
Ieadrille. from which he received more
than Sl.0O0.o00
Tabor was now bonanza king: he was
more than that, for he was Il public spirit
ed. open handed citizen. He built q fine
opera house for Leadville at cost of over
$4,000. Then he built the Tabor block in
Denver and had chiseled on the keystone of
the arch the two words, ''Dies FausteS,' -
for those were indeed happy days. The
block was worth nearly half a million dol
lars. Then he erected in Denver the Tabor
NITanU opera mouse. SetUnu only IN beauty
to the Grand opera house of Paris. and
costing $500, ,00N
For ten years everything went well with
Tabor. He was rated as worth $500, 900.
He became ambitious for political honors.
He poured out money like water to ac-
Complish his ends. He was always be-
trdyed by those who pretended to be his
friends. He was given the lieutenant
governorship, which he didn't want. Then
he entered the race for United States sena-
tor and was chosen for a term, mado VA
cant by the death of the incumbent. He
was senator for three or four months.
After his return from Washington he he
gan to invest in real estate. He loaded up
with Chicago property and got the worst of
the bargain He invested in mines in New
Mexico, Arizona. and old Mexico. They
were failures. He borrowed vast sums. He
mortgaged his Tabor block and his grand
opera house. The panic of 90 finished the
work begun by injudicious investments. He
fought foreclosure. but in vain. The
sheriff took possession of all the property
he had. His wife gave UP her diamonds,
and but Il few days ago the last fragment
of property WAS taken from him. Now he
digs in the gravel. There isn't any ro-