The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-18

tawny blue-eyed man
over Brown. They press into the
crowd, gently at first; then harder,
faster, passionately.
Watch the 400. They are coming to-
gether. Two men press close to the
back of the man who stands back of
Brown and has now lifted the little
man clear of the ground. Behind them,
rapidly forming into a V shaped mass
the whole 400 appears.
1t is the flying wedge.
But such flying wedgei Every man
of the 400 has a sharp-pointed bowie
knife In his sleeve, prepared to prick,
but. not to kill; to persuade, not TO
murder.
Up to this time the crowd has not
realized what is happening. But now
a murmur begins to go up. Men begin
to turn their heads.
Come on, boys" 1t is Browns
voice.
There is a sudden, mighty movement
forward. There is a crunching of bones
and a bowling of curses. Ribs are
broken, men are struck as il by an
earthquake and thrown up and on the
races or their companions. As the cut
water of mighty battleship throws up
a wave in front and to it's sides as it
cuts through the opposing sea, so did
',io human cut-Wdtef throw up wave
of men.
But packed mass of 5000 men is no
easy thing to pass through. With
bowed heads and bodies pressed close
together the flying wedge bucks the
center of the crowd and bucks it with
enormous power.
And as the hour of noon strikes and
the window opens Browns form is
hurled against its Intel and Browns
money is thrown down before the as
tonished Boer.
The flying wedge has won.
But Dom PauPs people disapprove of
such methods. 1t is a Yankee trick.
Nevertheless the law has been complied
with and Brown feels he is victorious
He and his flying wedge fight their way
back and leave the cursing crowd to
scramble for what is left after the
choice location have been taken. They
howl and battle and almost overwhelm
the commissioner until he slams the
window and declares all the proceed
ings illegal and goes away to Pretoria
to advise with the government.
That is the story of the flying wedge
and what it did.
And now comes another chapter.
Feeling that it had in some manner been
outwitted, the Transvaal government
sought to repudiate the leases it had
given Brown under protest, as it were.
sioner in declaring the proceedings lille
gal, rendered back all the money re-
ceived and sought another way of dis
posing of the lands.
Thereupon suit was instituted by
Brown in the high court of the Trans
Vaal, and after interminable delays the
august justices in 1897 were oh igsd to
declare Brown in the right and give
him judgment in the sum of S1,S12 00l
against the republic for the profits that
would have been his had he been al
lowed his land.
The Beers have never made good the
full amount of the Judgment however,
and Brown is still fighting to bring
them to time.
This was but one incident in his ca
reer in South Africa. He was in many
another enterprise and has amassed
great wealth. Mines in Mexico, British
Columbia, South America, Africa,
Alaska and he alone knows where else
are his. He has offices in London the
cape, the City of Mexico. Victoria and
Spokane, and travels extensively. He
has schemes on foot in British Column
bia, the narration of which would read
like a romance, so for the present his
headquarters are Victoria, the capital
city of the province.
And how as to his name. In 1892 he
was. although mining engineer, dab
bling in his other profession, the one
he loves most. He was the proprietor
of a vigorous little paper called the
Barbarian, published at Wardner,
Idaho. This was before fortune came
to him. In the great strikes of that
year he espoused tn cause of the mine
owners and bitterly denounced the acts
of the striking miners. For months he
carried his life in his hands. Finally
his funds gave out and he went to
Spokane. There he and Harold Bolce
a brilliant young newspaper man and
poet established clever weekly called
the Outburst. But it was not a sue
cess financially, the field being too
limited, and he and Boice went off to
South Africa. During his residence in
Spokane Brown was a marked charac-
ter of the place and the name Bar
barian, from the fame of his fighting,
vitriolic little newspaper, became fast
ened upon him.
And perhaps, too, it was necessary
to give him the appellation in order to
distinguish him from two other Spo-
kane characters who bore his own sur
name--Dirty Shirt Brown, the faro
dealer, and Kettle Belly Brown. the
former chief of the Carson City, New.
fire department.
ALL HANDS BUSY.