Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1898-11-18
AN ABANDO NED MINE.
written Tor This Paper.


lt was offered, for while he had never been
able Is accumulate riches As his brothers
had done he had always made enough to
keep his family until his health gave wax
and the doctors said that If de wished toe
1aye his life he must go west. az
e WAS not until the situation was ex-s
planned 70 Uncle Henry by the doctor that q
. move to the west seemed possible. Our
hind -hearted uncle solved the problem by
suddenly remembering that he had small s
piece Of property out in Colorado that was !,
going TO rock and ruin because there was q
1o one here 10 look after It. Father saw
through the whole scheme at onoe. BE knew
enough Of Uncle Henry's business affairs TO 1
know that If he had any property 70 Colo 8
RADIO it was recent purchase, and one that
had been made for specific purpose, and
that was to offer some excuse for sending
him out there to look after il. But hin
health was in sucL. condition that It was
impossible for him to stay longer where We
were, and equally as impossible to go west
unless lie accepted the kind offer of Uncle
Henry. g. -. -."E@..,.s .E.
Before we left for the new home Uncle
Henry had explained with much minuteness
what be would expect of his new employees,
for he had practically taken the whole fami-
" into bis employ, and to me he had assigned
the care of an abandoned gold mine which
was a part Of his Colorado possessions and
located on the property where we we're to
live.
1.-The. Belle of May may and may not be
valuable" he began in his instructions to
me- "At present it is not much more than Y
a prospe'tor's hole in the ground out of
which some gold was taken and then the /:
vein seemed to run out and it was aban-
doned after stock company had been orr
xanzcd by a crowd Of western mining sharks
and TIE stock sold to eastern people. Near
~ all Of the stock Of this company is now in
my hands, but is still quoted on the market
at a very small price. You can never tell
what may develop from these Abandoned
mines and some day ! am going west to in-{
vestigate this part Of my property and see !.
what ] can do with it. shall bold you re-
sponsible for its care, and if you have time
you might do a bit of prospecting on the
claim yourself ~ ~
| was but a boy of le and to be left in
charge of "a gold mine, even though the mine
was deemed worthless, was almost too much
ot an honor for me to wear gracefully;
Before we left Uncle Henry presented me
with my first months wages of $40 in ad-
vance and handsome new bicycle, saying
as he did so, that he expected great things
tron, me, and that if the mine proved valua-
bic under my direction he would give me an
interest in it in time.
When we reached our Colorado home we
found that it consisted of about hundred
acres of grazing land in the foothills of the
mountain which was fairly well stocked withe
II. f,il -, rk 10 Il
after and was more interested in that part
of Uncle Henry's property that was located
in the mountains q mile back Of the house;
] was somewhat disappointed in my mme,.
o. had begun calling it, when found it:
1t was uothing more than a hole "a the
ground > and after a few days became yery'
uninteresting hole indeed. For the hrst.
week had gone to the mine every day and
with pick and shovel had managed to en-
large the hole little where the rcckshad
been broken by the prospector's blasting,
then my interest began to die, and after
time hardly ever saw the place. =
We had been in our new home some six
months when two gentlemen who claimed to-
be prospecting for minerals stopped at the
house and asked for accommodations for = [
few days which father granted. With the
advent Of real prospector my interest IN
IT, mine Eg2s 2ga;n aroused apd ! asked
They looked over it quite carefully, more
90 than I thought was warranted, but said
rothing about it's being Of value. After
fhev had finished and were ready to start
back 10 The house for dinner, asked them
what they thought Of it, and one OF them
replied; 1..u
such worthless holes az that, it won't pay
you or anyone else to waste time on it." =
After dinner, however, they asked crest
many questions regarding the worthless
hole" as they termed it. I explained to
them that was called the ''Be!le Of May
mine, and that it was owned by stock com
pany of which my uncle, mentioning his
name, onwed most of the stock.
The room they occupied was next to minfs
with d; door opening between, and after we
had all retired / heard the two men agaic4
talking Of the "Bell ofsAfay'' mine.
"That is the richest strike in this part of
Colorado" one of them said. ...a.l
Judging from the piece of quartz you
picked up this morning should say it was, y
replied the other. "1f there is much of that
to be found it will make both of us rich in
no time if we can get the stock, and will
drive into the railroad station TO morrow
morning and telegraph Stacy to buy every
dollar Of it he can get his hands on. ;"
was more than wide awake, was In
tensely excited, as I heard this, and going
cautiously out of the room / went to where
father was sleeping and told him all about it,
and also asked permission to ride to the
telegraph office that night and telegraph
Uncle Henry not to sell the stock. He
finally granted the desired permission, and i
dressed and started for the railroad. Is miles
from home. & 81
OF horses we were not very plentifully sup
piled, there being but two on the place and
both 81 them heavy wagon horses unused to
the saddle, 80 chose my bicycle as a means /
of conveyance in preference to either Of
them. The night was exceedingly dark and
the road, an unfrequented one for most Of
:a4