The San Francisco call., 1897-08-18
FOUND A FORTUNE
TN four DAYS
How Two Early Californians
Struck a Rich Find
and Lost It.
One Hundred and Sixty Thou
sand Dollars in a Pocket
in Nuggets.
But the Gambling g-Houses Got All
the Money and the Boys
Found No More.

While Klondike and Peru are now at
tracing the attention of the world with
their stories of vast wealth to be gained
by finding gold and while many tales of
fabulous discoveries are being told, none
of them have yet reached in magnitude
many of those told about the early days
OF California-"the days of old, the days
OF gold, the days of 49," Nor have they
even equaled the more recent discoveries
where $42, 900 worth of the yellow metal
was taken from one pocket
DR.. Boutier, who is now living in peace
and quiet at San Bias, Mexico, after q
most exciting and eventful life, was one
of the early arrivals in California, having
come to this State when a boy. Hetells
a most interesting story, one that prob
ably carries with it a moral that can be
observed by those who have rushed to
Klondike. in that it shows how easy it is
TO lose your gold after you find it. This
is his story:
"Yes; 1 went to San Francisco when it
was but little place. Oh, so many peo-
pie, but no town. Every body was after
the gold and everybody he get it. Some
he get it in the mines, some he get it in
the gam bling-room. | get it in the mine
and I4ose it in the gambling-room.
me and my partner We were boys. We
were very green boys. We know nothing
about anything. We went prospecting
and find nothing for many days. One day
we washed sand in a little creek and find
some gold; not much-very little. We
follow the stream up and then we follow
the stream down. No gold-just little
bit. We think We have to go back to San
Francisco. One day we go down the
stream and find it go over and fall down
may be hundred ieet. We could not get
down so we 60 around and look up. The
stream break and strike the rocks about
hundred teet from the top and we thought
we try to get to that place. We got long
rope and tnen got another long rope and
tied them together, and, as / was the
smallest, l clim down.
II elm b down, climb down, clim down,
climb down. At last l reach the bottom,
and then l call up. My partner could Just
hear my voice, and then he clim bed down
to me. We look all around but see no
gold. The water made a little mole in the
rock, and in the hole were many little
black rocks. l scoop these rocks out and
find them very heavy. l take my knife
and cut the rock and find it pure gold.
We pick up the rock until we got all of
them, and then we try 10 get out. 1t was
hard, but we got out and buried the gold
and went to San Francisco for burro to
pack it down. We took it to San Fran.
cisco, and it was worth 100000 and we
got it all out in four days.
when we got to San Francisco we put
the gold in the safe in the hotel and then
went to the gam Dliug-room. We were
known to be the boys who brought the
big pile ofgold, and We were given drink
that made US crazy. We played all night
and went to the MOTEL and got our gold
and played it all away. When we woke
up in the hotel after it all our 16U 600 was
gone. We went back TO the gam bling
room and said they stole our money, but
the man said no, we lost it gambling. He
gave US 500 each and told us to go find
more. We went back, but never found
any more"