The Republican journal., 1899-09-28
Luck Of Bassick, the Prospector.
AnOld Story Re-told, with much Exaggers
tipn,

| sent us for publication. We have before
published the true story of Mr.. Bassick S
career, and believe that much of the &C
count which follows is pure fiction or
gross exaggeration:
! The news which comes from New York
to the Ell ct that a corporation known as
the Bassick Gold Mine Company has been
formed Tor the purpose of working the ia
nous Bassick mines at Rosita, Col, re-
calls the history of one of the most ia
nous properties in Colorado. The his
tory OF the discovery of the Bassick mine
and its discoverer is best told by one who
was and is familiar with all the circum-
stances surrounding the finding and
working of the famous property:
edmund c. Bassick drifted into Gus
ter county, Col, about 1875 or 1876 Orig
inally from the State of Maine, he had
wandered all over the earth. He is said
to have made and lost fortune in Aus
tralia; he Lad whacked bulls across the
plains; had been a butcher, saloon
keeper, sailor, and an all around pros
pector and adventurer.
"Whatever truth there may be in these
accounts, this much is certain: When Bas-
sick struck Rosita, with his wife and lit
little yellow haired girl, he was about as
unpromising type as ever wore a jumper
or pounded burro across a mountain
he had neither friends, money nor hope.
Before the little shanty, still pointed out,
where his wife did the washing for the
camp and the little yellow haired girl
fried the bacon and potted the succulent
bean, the future multi millionaire spent
days smoking his pipe and browsing in
the sun.
I'm this same shanty she who perspred
over the washtub and the little one who
saw life through the mingled odor of
| grease and steaming clothes wore later
silks and laces. When fortune came the
natural instinct for personal adornment
asserted itself. and there, amid the dingy,
sordid surroundings of sooty windows,
| warped board floors, uncertain and i'll
mated furnishings, mother and daughter
wore silks and laces-ate, slept cooked
and washed in them.
AS for Bassick, the sense of to him
unlimited wealth took the form Of sar-
| dines-unlimited, oil-soaked, tin boxt d
sardines The day So, 900 check came
| down from Biackhawk for mere hand
| full of ore sent up for treatment Bassick
was found before Johnson's supply store,
seated on the plank walk, his laws drip
/
| boxes strewn about him, and dozen
other waiting the def thrust Of the horn-
| handled knife.
= Y es, he said, 4 like these things,
and now that | am rich | propose 70 have
all the sardines want, b'goshn
Later the Bassicks learned the luxury
of wealth; they returned to the East, to
! be dined, wined, feted, ioniZed and ter
| rOrized by the monster called Socia ty.
| Still later the yellow haired girl, who
knew onl. the rough but kindly courtesies
Of the mining camp, felt the glamour Of
| princely favors-but that is another story,
as Kipling says.
mot all his days of poverty were spent
| in drowsy idleness. While his wife wash
| ed, Bassick cut wood on the mountains
He prospected some, and over on Tynd all
mountains there are still the outl hes of a
tunnel which he began. But the work
here was intermittent, depending some
what on the courtesy of Johnson, the To-
cal groceryman.
" Nj. Johnson, said Bassck one day,
Il m runnin' that tunnel yet. | guess
+" oh, ye are, are We; and yen need
more grub, drawled johnson. Suppose
We just quit runnin' the tunnel and just
take a turn runnn' yourself out O camp ,
| Anu L SutSS. CtullHucU DdSSlCk
quietly. Tll have to have some more
grub. IN strike it some day. | only
want little -four and bacon
$ Well said johnson, when you
strike it II be glad to see you. I'm not
givin' grub away
" NO ye're not, are ye, said Bassick,
sorely hit, and you'll be gladsto see me
when | strike it, will We? Look here,
johnson. I've had bad luck, but have
had credit with you and others and
L We always made stagger to pay, but by
the Eternal, and his dark eyes flashed,
if l ever do strike it, I'll drive We out of
camp.
"And he kept his word In the full
ness of time, ruined and bankrupt,
Johnson walked out of the camp without
a dollar driven to the wall by the man he
had insulted. For the first use Bassick
made of his wealth was to open NAM
mouth supply store, where goods We're
given away at half their cost to the entire
| district. Greater things afterward shaped
themselves under the hand made strong
| by fortune, but sweeter morsel he never
tasted than the sweet SAVIOR of that day
when johnson hit the road.
"But to the story of the mine. The
| trail over to Tyndall mountain, where the
little tunnel was cutting its hopeless way,
Icl-;