Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1897-02-04
THE CITIZEN.
No 81 900 Night Shirts Now.
From the Chicago Times Herald.

OF one OF the hneSt opera houses IN
the world, Lieutenapt-Governor of
Colorado, United States Senator, and
now poor man once more, delving in
the dirt for another fortune among the
golden hills of Cripple Creek-this, IN a
paragraph is the history of man who
has received more fattery and criticism
more favors and launts ot fortune than
| fall to the lot of most men. The other
| day a brief telegram from Denver was
published to the effect that the last piece
of property owned by ex-senator Tabor
had been sold under the hammer to salts
fy a mortgage for 500, 900, thus closing
one of the pages in a strange, eventtul
! history.
Nov. 20, 1890, this man of varied for
tunes was born, and on the 10Th OF Nov
einber, 1896, he found himself at the age
of &C. as bereft of earthly possessions as
as upon the day of his birth, uotwlth-
standing the tact that less than ten years
ago his fortune was rated at over So, COO
COO. When Tabor was rich and prosper
Gus he was fond of recalling the days of
poverty and labor through which he had
passed, and the following facts are
condensation of his history as he related
it to me, seated in his private Office in
the Tabor Grand Opera House before
adversely had overtaken him.
In 1889 Tabor came to Denver, leaving
farm in Kansas and a seat in the Legis-
1ature. He stayed in Denver through
the winter, and early in the spring OF
1860, with two friends drove yoke OF
oxen attached to rickety old wagon
out of the city en- route to California
Gulch, the present site of Leadville.
Rumors of the finding of gold IN the
grlch had reached Denver, and thus ear
ly in his career Tabor began his search
for the yellow metal. The oxen were
experienced travellers having trudged all
the way across the plains from the Miss
ouri River to the foot of the front range
of the Rocky Mountains the season be-
fore, but it must be confessed that there
was great lack of style about the turn
out.
It is a curious coincidence that i'll max
ing this journey more than thirty six
years ago Tabor must have passed direct
ly over the rich gold fields of Cripple
Creek, ignorant 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 be held
back from a tumbling descent by fasten-
ing big pine log behind it to serve as
| break; often after days toilsome march
camp was made is sight of the smoke
from the fire of the previous night.
Filled with experiences of this kind
it took just six weeks to make the jour
| ney from Denver to California Gulch,
the party arriving at their destination in
April. The snow was from three to five
feet deep and there wasn't more than
fifty men in the camp. 1t did not take
very long, however, to change these con-
ditions and by July there were
10000 men at work prospecting and
washing gold. In recalling those 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 gold he has rescued, day after day
week after week, month after month.
There isn't any romance in any kind
of hard work. The romance is always
in results. The pre1ininaries are always
| prcsaic. 1t is sufficient for me to say,
therefore that / worked hard, and at the
end of the season found that l had clear
ed S., 900. That isn't much money now
adays, and very often since then l 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 sum-
mer worked my claim and in the two
seasons made $4,000.
After this Tabor moved to Buckskin
Joe, booming mining camp then, will
derness now, where he opened store OF
general merchandise and was made Post
master There he stayed for several
years. Then when the Printer Boy mine
was discovered at California Gulch, he
moved his store over to the old camp and
was made Postmaster there. Then for
nearly twenty years Tabor logged along
meeting with moderate prosperity.
Thousands of times as he says he walked
over Fryer hill and never thought it
worth while ''to stick pick into it."
when within twenty-seven feet of the
surface lay the crest of silver deposit
worth millions of dollars. Every season
he "grnbstaked' men to prospect for
him and themselves, and every season
was "out" just that much, for they never
found anything For the benefit of
those not familiar with mining terms it
may be said that to "grub-stake" pros
pector is to furnish him with food free
of cost for share i'll any mine that he
may discover. But on the 18th of April
1873, Tabor GRUB -staked" Rische and
Hook. They began to dig on Fryer Hill
and all the old miners laughed at them
They dug away and at the depth of
twenty seven feet struck silver ore that
ran 200 ounces to the ton. They called
their mine Little Pittsburg. This was
the foundation of Tabor's fortune. In
less than a month after the discovery he
paid Hook 500, 900 for his share of the
mine, and in three months more he paid
Rische 1862, 900 for his third thus becon-
ing sole owner of the Little Pittsburg
and of the greatest mines ever discovered
at Leadville from which he received
more than 81, 900, 900.
Tabor was now bonanza king; he was
more than that, be was public-spirited, |
open handed citizen. He built a fine
opera house for Leadville at a cost of
over $50, 900. Then he built the Tabor
Block in Denver and had chiselled on
the keystone of the arch.over the entrance
the two words, "Dies Fsustes,'' for
those were indeed happy days. The block
was worth nearly half million dollars.
Then he erected in Denver the Tabor
Grand Opera House, second only in
beauty to the Grand Opera House of