Arizona republican., 1899-04-21
THE ~GUNsIGHT ON THE GILY."
KicEapoo Bill Recalls the Old Mine
 With Sadness.


 the Albuquerque Democrat, was
 party of cow-punchers and grub-stak-
 CTS listening to William Hopkins
 otherwise known as "Kickapoo BilF
 tell his yarns about the famous Gun
 sight mine on the Gily.' This story
 &he men had heard again and again
 but 'Kickapoo Bill was of such an in
 ventive turn of mind, that, without g
 moments hesita tion, he could insert
 new scenes, characters. and situations
 thus making I,he stcr--- decidedly ac-
 cersable of repetition Again he in
 varhbly forgot the figure he last quot
 ed as the ''Gun-Sight last output, so
 that With each telling of the story the
 number increased by several thousand | dollars When he had first told the story, the mine had an output of $l0,- 900 year, and was sold for $50.000. with the last edition of the fnle the mine produced annually S40,000 worth of copper and was sold for$175,0 900. This evening the boys were anxious
 to hear if the mine was still on the in crease, SC with a wink and smile to
 the rest of the crowd, one Of them
 mentioned "Gun-Sight" and "Gily river," and "Kickapoo BilT' was turn ed up.
 well, you see it was like this" 7" said he, skipping his hand on his fore head and killing a mosquito that had unsconciousiy buzzed there, 'It was
 n the spring Cf '69; I was working down on the 'Gily' in a Ht-le grr'o- stake store, when one afternoon Cheery Downs i've called him 'Cheery
 because he was everlas tin sittin' round and war the only one in camp that had a real cheer); well, he come in the store and asksd me to-lend him ten dollars In them days everybody loaned every body else money and never thought noth.n' abou. t, so 1 handed over ten dollars. Purity soon he ccne back again and borrowed an other ten. This kept on until in six weeks let him have about $500. How somever I wasn't a bit afraid for everybody was honest in them days. One day 'Cheery' comes in the stc-e and says: Hop, I'm clear busted; hain't got a cent and don't know how I'm going to pay you back. Here's a deed to half my interest in the Gun Sigbt:' maybe we'll str:keit rich yet. and then you'll have your dough- didn't bank on the 'Gun-Sight' bit and told him I didn't want any inter est in it, and that he would get money enough some day to pay me. But 'Cheery' wouldn't listen to ,- and went and sent the deed up to Tucson to b9 recorded. Pur+v soon it come back and then I knew I had to take it. Well, to make long story short. in six weeks we struck a pocket of pure copper ore as big as that table. We took out $50,0O0 worth of it in one month. and soon it was reported that we'd struck the richest copper mine in the west. Some big guns from New York who harpened to be out in .Ari- zOna at the time, cone down and wanted to buy it. Course we wouldn't Se1f under any condi5 ons. but they hadn't been gone two days till the pocket run out. smack clean. We ran drifts all around it. but couldn't see a trace of copper We was all Eurty blue and cussin' our luck, when 'Cheery' spoke up: Look here, fellows, what do you say to putin the copper there (pointing to large bin of ore that had been taken out the past month"; back in the mine and cliim we freighted it to Baltimore; then tel egraph the New Workers that we've recons.dered their offer. We al join ed in wish 'Cheery' ard gc,s roarin' drunk that night over his pertness. Well, when the big guns arrived, we was rushin' oDs buckets of rich cop Fer ore as fast IS we could They asked us if we'd take $25O,O for it and said I guess we would, bein' as we was all down w:th chills and fever half the time and wanted to get out of the place. Well, they jumped at the pEt9npa and bTpo days 1c.l fbou oaUp us our checks on the Farmers and Eank in Los Angeles. 1 Cheery' was so ticIled at the prospect of havin' all the whisky he wanted to drink that he went Over to the Palace g. -'3on and stood a the bar, drinkin' glass after glass, until he dropped dead-dead as CT dCcr nail-right on the floor. Hank Jones got over his Jag in about two weeks so that I was the only sober one of us, but that's neither here nor there.
 Well. six months I3ter I was 9jttin' in the Palace one day when Hank come runnin' in all out of breath and holdin' a paper in his hands, Bill, shouted he, we're the d-est woebe- | gotten miners ever born; read that, pointing to a prominent headline in the Times. It began this way: Rich S,l ke in .he 'Gun-Sight mine; twelve foot vein struck at 200 fOcS leve- 6O fec. btOw the big find of last year; over one million dollars worth of cop per ore taken oU1 already etc. Some i body kick me- I yelled. Hank was just waitin' fur this, and immediately stared to obey When he got through [ treated trm 70 the same operation and did it so well that they called me Kickapoo Ell ever since"
 Well, MT Hopkins" 1 yantCred to remark. what did you do with your share of tha; s25OOO0 you get for the Gun-Sight?' y
 Young man, that's neither hsre nor .here," answered "Bill' as he smashed a mosquito on the end of his nose and ever to the P0JmillO.