The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-23
STUDIED HIS TOEaCN A NUGGET.
Tale of Luck in Extremes in the Austria
liam Gold Fields.


This man had reached the very last
of his resources without finding a speck
of gold, and although men in such eX-
tremity are always kind and helpful to
each other he could not expect any one
to share such discriminating stores
with him. There was nothing for it,
therefore, but to turn back on the NOR
row, while a mouthful of food was still
left, and to retrace his steps as best
he might to the nearest port. He dwelt
with a good deal Of rough pathos on
the despair of that last days fruitless
work, which left him too weak and
exhausted to carry his heavy tools back
to the spot they called camp
So he just flung them down and, as he
said, "staggered' over the two or three
miles of scrub-cOvered desert, guided
by the smoke of the camp fire. Next
morning early, after a great deal of
sleep and very little food, he braced
himself up to go back and fetch his
tools though he carefully explained
that he would not have taken the trou-
| bit to do this if he had not felt that
his pick and barrow were about his
only possessions and might fetch the
price of a meal or two when it came to
the last.
have often wondered since if the i'm
preston of the divine mercy and good
ness which was so strong in that man
mind just then has ever worn Off.
I He dwelt with sef-accusing horror on
how he had rallied at his luck, at rate,
at everything, as he stumbled back that
hot morning over his tracks of the day
before The way seemed twice as long.
for. as he said. his heart was too
heavy to carry" At last he saw his
barrow and pick standing up on the
fiat plain little way off and was wear
lily dragging on toward them When ne
| CT
imbedded in the sand and fell down.
His voice sank to a sort of awestruck
whisper, as if he were almost at con-
fession, as he said: We'll, ma'am, If
you'd believe me, | cursed awful. |
felt as if it was too hard altogether 10
bear. To think that ! should go and
nearly break my toe against the only
stone in the district, and with all those
miles to travel back.
so | lay there like Jobs friend and
cursed God and wanted to die. After Il
bit | felt like a passionate child who
| kicks and breaks the thing Whlch mas
hurt him. and I had to beat that stone
before | could feel quiet. But II was
too firm in the sand for my hands to
get it up, so in my rage l set out quite
briskly with the pick to break that
stone if it took all my strength. 1t was
pretty deep set in the ground, l assure
you ma am, but at last l got II up ana
here it is--solid gold and nearly as big
as a babys head. Now, ma am, l ask
you, did l deserve this?''
He almost banged the rather dirty
looking lump 4 DWn on the table before
me as he spoke and it certainly was a
wonderful sight and a still more Won
derful weight He told me he had
searched about the neighborhood of
that nugget all day. but there was not
The faintest trace of any more gold. SO.
as he had no time to lose on account
of the shortness Of the food and water
supply, he had Just started back to tue
coast, which he reached quite safely,
and came straight down to Perth IN
the first steamer
The principal bank had advanced nj n
$500 on his nugget but it would prop
ably prove t. be worth twice as muca.
| asked him what he was going to Do
and was sorry to hear that he intended
to go back to England at once ana set
up shop or farm-I forget winch
among his own people. OF course II was
not for me to dissuade him, but l felt
it was pity to lose such good sort
of man out of the colony. for he was
not spending his money in champagne
and card-playing, as all the very few
successful gold finders did in those first
days.-Cornhill Magazine.