The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1899-06-20

for the district. Chicken Bill" had
claim on Fryer Hill not far from the
spot where the two prospectors To-
Gated the Little Pittsburg, and he had
worked II for six weeks without taking
anything out in exchange for his labor
except tons of improbable soil. One
day he helped himself to some pay
dirt from another and luckier man s
claim aud dropped it in the mud vein
he was working. Then he sent for
Tabor, showed him the dust and Of
tered to sell out for $3.50. Unhesitat-
lugly, the innocent Tabor paid the
price. Chicken Bill went down to
town and bought drinks for himself
for week. At the end of that time
he was looking for some one to blow
him off to a carbolic acid cocktail, for
Tabor had dug five feet deeper than
he had gone and struck gold that had
not been transplanted. Before the
vein was worked out it brought in a
million dollars. That was the way the
Chrysolite Mine was discovered.
People said this was bullhead luck.
and Tabor was n good fellow. but
! didn't know enough to 20 in when il
|
stock companies and come out far
ahead on all of them public opinion
had another opportunity for second
guess.
Among those who thought that Ia
Dor was easy" were Foley and Will
| gus, owners of the Matchless claim,
which showed some color, but not
enough to convince them that it was
really much good. They convinced
| Tabor, however, so successfully that
he gave them SIP, 600 for the prop
erty. 1t was reckoned TO be worth
| perhaps so, 900, as claims were going
then. AS soon as the sale was com
| pleted the former owners went about
! telling everybody how they had Cooled
! good old Tabor" The curious cir
cumstance of a subsequent offer of
So, 600, 600 to Tabor for the Matchless
saddened the remainder of their exist
ences with the knowledge that under
some circumstances honesty is the
best policy by n huge percentage.
Then there was the Maid of Erin mine
which Tabor and Major Dubois
bought for $50, 900; a dead loss. said
Leadville. Two months later they
sold out TO an English syndicate for
ten times that amount; the luckiest
hit ever made, as Leadville put it.
But the syndicate didn't like the looks
OF the claim after they had bought,
and raised such lamentations over the
matter that Tabor said he didn't want
to swindle anybody and he'd take tho
mine back at the same price. There
upon Leadville, which hadn't learned
any better yet, wrung its collective
hands and said that somebody ought
to look up n nice quiet lunatic asylum
for poor Tabor, where he'd be re-
strained from dissipating his fortune
IN such manner. A year OF so later
somebody tried to buy that same re-
jected mine fer 81, 900, 900 and was
! greeted with n cheerful laugh,
Thus far all had prospered with Ia
| Dor to which he had put his hand
| People called him the luckiest man in
! Colorado, and as soon as he got the
! title his luck changed. 1t is n singu-
lar circumstance in a world where evil
deeds are not always visibly punished
that as soon as he deserted the wife
who had been true helpmeet in the
days of his adversely, Tabor's affairs
underwent "A change for the wors @.
He got divorce from her-through
no fault of hers-aud with $500, 600
which he settled upon her as the price
of his release she went to live in Dem
yer and dropped out of his life. His
mOney-S7, 600, 600 approximately
was now scattered all over this con
tinent. Much of it was in Honduras,
much in the Northwest and some on
the Pacific coast. He invested heavily
in Denver property and some Of the
handsomest of the old houses there
were built by him, but all bad passed
from his possession before his death.
Going to Washington, he married
there the young woman for whom no
left his wife. The marriage was made
famous by Eugene Fields Poem of tho
SO, 900 nightgown, which was al
legged to be part of the mine kings
rousseau. From that time he became
the butt of the Western newspaper
paragraphs, a sore trial TO him. Ho
had been in politics and had been
elected Lieutenant Governor Of Colo
RADIO, and had run for United States
Senator, but had been defeated. Sub
sequently he was appointed Senator TO
Eli an unexpired term of one month,
but his public life. was embittered by
the enmity of many men who had
known HIM in Leadville and could not
forgive him for his treatment Of his
wife.
Tabor built opera houses aud ho-
tells, but lost money on them There
is not space here TO tell of the steps
by which he was reduced 10 beggary,
but the end came in 1898, when no
was left with nothing. Then the best
Of the man shone forth again At the
age Of sizty-three he took a pick and
went TO work His second wife stood
by him in his misfortunes as the first
had done, and they lived rs other la
boring people do. For o year he
worked thus, declaring with unbroken
courage that he would dig out an
other fortune for himself and his fam
lily. Then Winfield Scott Stratton.
the Cripple Creek mining king, gave
him S15, 900 TO start life with anew.
/ President Mckinley appointed him
I pOetmaalnr of Dpuvpr aud thnra bo