Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-03-18
WEALTH IN OLD TAlLlNes.



There are some men In this world
OF q living-and then there are others
one OF these latter is Mr.. Luce of
Cargo Muchacho. Luce's experience
reads like romance. For twenty
years he had knocked about the coast
on the desert, in the mountains, pros
pecting and mining and had finally,
by hard work and the closest econ
omy, managed to scrape together q
few hundred dollars. one day on the
shores of the Colorado, some twenty
miles north of Yuma, he met an old
Mexican who told him of a deserted
mine some ten miles back from the
river and seven miles north of Hedges.
Luce's interest was aroused, and he
visited that mine, to find there an
abandoned twenty-stamp mill which
had pounded away for many years
and finally shut down. He then
learned the story. The mill was on
leased ground. The lessee had mined
the property on shares and had done
fairly well, although the ore was en-
tirely free milling. One day the vein
''pinched out" The mining man was
sure he had simply lost the lead, and
that 1t was there all right, but the
owners refused to put up Il cent to
help him find It again. and. tired of
living on the desert. he threw up the
whole business and left.
Luce examined the property and
discovered that there was a small
mountain of tailings, the accumula-
tlon of years, piled up behind the mill.
He tested these tailings with cyanide.
Then he measured the pile roughly
and estimated there was over 900
tons of the stun there. That night he
IN In ho % H..
in New York city. offering him 10
cents per ton for the tailings on IL
basis of 100000 tons. The president
read the letter, looked surprised. and
called the directors together. They
read the letter, looked wise. tapped
their foreheads significantly and
laughed to each other.
This poor fellow Luce should be
called Goose" said one.
Deserts proved too much for him
probably gone daft" observed an
other
Not one of them thought those tail
ings were worth anything, and they
had almost entirely forgotten that
old mine out on the Colorado desert.
But they answered the letter, telling
Luce to go ahead
This was in April of last year. On
receipt of the letter Luce Immediately
erected cyanide plant costing him
abOut SlVu OF MS own ana MS friends
| money. Then he hired fifteen Next
cans and indians and began work on
those tailings. The other day some
representatives of the mine company
were returning from San Francisco,
and, passing through the desert,
| thought they would visit the mine.
How are your" said Luce. Glad
to see you. By the way. we might as
well fix up our little account now as
at any time" and so saying he threw
the astonished Gothamites check for
| $4,000. Then he explained that In the
nine months he had been running the
cyanide plant he had cleaned up s45.-
| 900 and that there was plenty of tall
ing in sight to net him 100000 within
| three years.
| Then the New Workers. looked at
| each other, examined Luce's bank
books and certificates OF deposit, got
into their wagon and drove back to
| Hedges.
well, by gum!" said one.
"That beats Dick Croker" observed
| the other. and then they looked at the
sun setting quietly down behind the
desert sand dunes.-San Diego. Cal.
| Sun.