The age-herald., 1898-08-12
LUCKY BALDWIN'S
 FORTUNE GONE
o Go, Fronc,sco Examiner.


 That was when the Comstock boomed ana
 thundreded. Today careless people say he cannot nay his debts if his property were
 sold. Of course, that is nonsense put
 when a man is carrying mortgage of one and a quarter million dollars and inclaehi- | als, the figures look too big for ordinary l comprehension, and when the butcher anu | the baker and the candlestiek maker UT
 their equivalents in the way of small traaes-
 people, come looking for money and ma it scarce, then the greedy gossip is out Tor | blood Baldwin added another little plas- | ter of $2S ,0O0 to the one and quarter mii- | lion dollars that he owes the Hioernian | bank the other day, and he was maue
 within the past year defendant in shoal or l little suits on small accounts. But the Hi-
 bernian knows what it is about and stands l between the old man and trouble.
 l MT Baldwin is 70 years of age. In his
 time he has played many parts, canal boat | man, groceryman, hotel keeper, brick l maker liveryman, theatrical manager, rac- ing man, mining operator farmer, and al-
 ways speculator. He fought Indians on
 the plains in 1855, when he was bringing an
 emigrant train across. and the story of his HeitulOuS lnSul III h NoSOh "fNAA - ''-o woman from a band of whoopng hostiles
 has been often told. It is needless to say that he brought her safely through. He
 has been married four times with breach
 of promise suits on the side.
 Baldwin certainly has been lucky at play,
 but unlucky in love. He has won the pig gest races in the country with horses pred
 by himself, and as mining specuator it is doubtful if he ever had an equal in Call fornia.
 If we conclude that MT. Baldwin has not been lucky in love, neither do we ma things coming his way in other fields or adventure of late. His racing stud has gone all to pieces compared with It's past form in the days of the Emperor or NOT folk and Rel El Santa Anita and other ny ers Of course, Baldwin's fortune is still ample, but he is badly strapped for money.
 The Baldwin hotel and theater cost some $3 O00, 900 to build and equip. The ground alone on which it stands is worth the 1uli amount of the blanket mortgage that COW CTS his property. He has another on Lake Tahoe and another at Oakwood, Los An geles county, besides the princely santa Anita ranch with it's orange and olive groves and big vineyards. He has other property besides, and yet it is doubtfui if the interest on the mortgage does not eat up all or nearly all the income. He told me a year ago, on the Oakland race track, that he would be all right if he could sell a little land, but for two years before that time there had been absolutely no sale icr real estate. He is simply land poor, like many another man who lays him down 10 sleep under the chill shelter of blanket Inc ctr nf seems have pinched out
 It was not so in the brave days when san Francisco looked on the wine when 1t was red. the time of Railston, and little later the Bonanza Kings and Jim Keena and Lucky Baldwin. San Francisco had all | kinds of money then, and Lucky Baldwin more of it than anybody for while. Bald l win made a very thorough study of mines and mining. and when he bought he knew what he was buying. Nor would he allow other men to run a mine in which he was interested. If he could not control the property, he wanted nothing to do with 1t. Of course, he had his share of luck and perhaps little more. It was period of the widest fluctuations in mining stocks, and people said that Baldwin had an al
 most prophetic instinct regarding the course of the market.
 Old San Francisco will tell you that Ophr was in the very heart of the specu- lative whirlpool.
 It was In Ophir that Baldwin made his biggest play. When it was selling at $S he bought every share of 1t he could reach. Indeed, he found he had much that he began to get frightened. There seemed to be such a constant and nexhaustible flow of the stock on the market that he began to think somebody was working off the certificates on printing press, but he did not stop till he had secured the control He at once had tests made of the ore, and it assayed only a trace of silver. He very quickly put in his own superintendent and turned out the old management. It was not long before they struck big ore body, and the mine began paying fat dividends. A sensational episode in the history of Ophir followed when James G. Flood. the bonanza millionaire. tried to oust Baldwin from the control of the mine. He managed to get half the trustees on his side, together with Lissak, the president, who claimed two votes They called a meeting, at which they proposed to appoint another trustee. They were to meet at Il o'clock and Reu- ben Lloyd, who was Baldwins lawyer, told his principal that he could not possibly get out injunction papers In time for service before Ii :15 o'clock.
 "Oh. that's all right" said Baldwin. "Ill go down and get up fight until you can get around" He took George w. Grayson with him, and both had pistols. Baldwin, after entering the board room, ostenta- t1OuSiy locked the QOOr. 1lSSak ODJecteu Baldwin knocked him under the table. There was a beautiful free fight. which
 lasted until a couple of deputy sheriffs came in with their injunction papers. Ophir was still Baldwins, S, but Flood was not yet ready
 to give in, and few days later Superin- tendent Curtis, who was Baldwin's man, was notified by Lissak that he was dis charged Under Baldwin's orders Curtis
 shut down the mine and stopped the ma chinery He barricaded the place and armed his men with Winchesters. Baldwin held the mine until it was compromised In court by the payment to him of two and half million dollars for the control.
 One day the Bank of California failed. Baldwin had two million dollars on de- posit there He was in the east. He tele- graphed to sharon his acquescence in the
 plan to re-establish the bank. sharon and
 Michael Reese worked on the plan for months An effort was made to persuade
 "Lucky'' Baldwin to attach the bank for the two million dollars he had on deposit. but he refused. More than that, he put ta ho