The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-01-03
SUCCESS WON IN OLD AGE
CRAY HEADS IN THE VEST WHO
CONQUERED FORTUNE.

Brave Struggle and Final Victory of
Former Newark Merchant at the Age of
sixty seven--Repeated Failures That
Did Not Discourage Hugh e. Will lam
Los Angeles, Dec. 1.-THE man in
Boston who committed suicide the other
day, leaving a farewell letter In which
he said that he had lost his fortune and
at his age, fifty years, it was absurd
for any one to think of achieving finan-
cial success from nothing in these days
Of hot competition, ought to have heard
about the men out in this country who
have won new success after they had
become gray-haired grandparents and
had had all their savings Of years
swept away. There are several men In
California who had passed their sixtieth
birthday when financial disaster over
took them and left them without means,
and, nevertheless, We're able to re-estab-f
fish themselves.
Joseph Mason, who died at Coranado,
Cal, last October at the age Of seventy
nine years. was a signal instance of
what determined man may do to
achieve success in the face Of what
nlnety-nine out of one hundred persons
would consider insurmountable obsta-
Giles. In the summer of 1885, when he
was sixy-seven years old, he failed in
the furniture business at Newark, N,
j. He had been i'll for months and his
business had been managed SO badly
that when the sheriff seized the propert
ty Mr., Mason was left with only his
dwelling and it's contents. A few Weeks
later his house was burned, and, the in
surance policy having expired few
days before, he was left with less than
hundred dollars worth of property.
His wife was helpless invalid, he was
supporting several grandchildren, and
he had, besides, q partially invalid
daughter. None of his near relatives
had any means to help him. Mr. Mason
declined number of offers OF charity
from old-time business friends and de-
clared that he would make money
enough for his family's support salne
way. For weeks he tramped about
Newark and Jersey City seeking en-
ployment in furniture stores. His white
liliE tlIQ OIu-ldSIilOUeu ClOlHSS MSIc
against i'm in places who're young men
are employed. No one wanted him. and
Re tried to get cmp oyment at book
keeping. That plan also failed. One
day while he sat waiting to ask a busy
merchant for some sort of work, he
read an article in a New York newspa-
per about the immigration that was set
ting in toward Prescott, Ariz., since the
building Of the Atlantic and Pacific
railroad through that region.
He read the article over again and
abandoned his effort to seek work in
that store, He went straight home to
the two little rooms his family occu-
pied, and said he had decided to go to
Arizona to try his luck, His wife was
too Ill to argue TIE matter and things
were too desperate with the invalid
daughter for her to offer an objection.
When Mr.. Mason told his acquaintance
that he was going to Arizona to make a
fortune he was regarded with suspicion,
as If he was entering an early stage of
insanity When it was seen later that
Mr.. Mason was dead in earnest, and
that he had the utmost faith that he
success in a new country, ne was beg
ged to stop and consider what rash
step he was taking. But, in spite of all
arguments, Mr.. Mason borrowed $3.50
from friend, and putting his family
in the best shape possible for long
winter. started for Prescott, 200 miles
| from home, without knowing what he
would do when he got there.
A good sized volume might be filled
with the extraordinary career of this
courageous, gray-haired man In his eff
| forts to make another fortune for him
| self and family 1t Is quite as pathetic
as a great many chapters in fiction.
He was the only white-haired man in
| Prescott for the first two years, and
| that fact and his ceaseless industry
made him a prominent figure in the
| busting town. The cowboys knew him
as "Old Pop Mason and the miners
as White Top" He got a job as book
keeper for cattle company the sec
| ond day he was in the place, and by
| the most exacting economy he managed
| to save most Of his salary TO send to his
| family in Newark. He had as much en-
| thusiasm for the new country as any Of
4 the young men about him. That made
| him particularly we'll liked. All his
holidays he spent in climbing over the
mountains and studying the gold and
silver veins that were then being opened
in that part of Arizona. He spent his
leisure hours each night in reading
| about assays, mining reports and all
the literature he could find relating to
| the geology of the gold and silver re-
gions. The miners and cowboys became
| fond of the old man, and not only gave
| him a thousand and one tips about min
| ing and the location of unclaimed rich
| ore deposits, but also made him their
| banker and trustee He had at one
| time deposited in his name in a Prescott
bank some $14, 900 belonging to cowboys
| and miners who could not read or write
| and trusted Mr.. Mason. He kept inces-
sanity studying, observing and talking
about mining conditions until, when he
| had been in Prescott two years, he had
| become an authority on many points
| He was appointed by the court man.
ager of a partially abandoned copper
mine in Yavapai county year before
he was seventy years old, and he enter
ed upon the task of turning the enter.
| prise into moneymaker. That was the
| beginning of his march toward big
financial success. He often said in later
years that he had never in all his life