The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-10-03
PLAYED IN BIG LUCK
Two CASES WHERE CHEEK AN
CHANCE WON GOOD STAKES.
The Stories Were Told by the Ne:
Who Pronted by the Transactior
to u Listener Who Was Grlni.
ekeptical as to the Facts,

The Stories Were Told by the Ne:
Who Frosted by the TRANSACTION
to u L,stener Who Was Grlmi.
skeptical as to the Facts.
Three men who have seen ups an
downs. but are now In the land Of VI,
were chatting in the corridor Of the 81
Charles.
"Did you ever have big piece of Dur;
luck when you really needed 1t bad? sal
one, who is at present high railroad Off
cinl. II did once and never again.
happened in Denver in 1882. | wa
broke. / had just come out of the hos
pital after long tusse with pneumonia
and ! was unable to do manual labor
which was the only thing l could find.
10 tell the truth, was desperate. On,
afternoon, when things were at thei
worst, was sitting in the old Charpio
hotel and overheard two men talking very
secretly7nbout big strike In some mine.
i ! inferred from their conversation that it
| was somewhere in the San Juan district.
but they didn't mention the exact loca,
ton or the name Of the property. When
they went out, ! noticed a tiny piece OF
ore lying on one Of the chairs, where II
had evidently been dropped while they
were examining some specimens. 1t was
brown quartz. literally full of gold. 1t
was ore that made fellows heart jump
just to look at 1t. and while was turn
ing it between my fingers it all of a sud
den flashed into my mind that 1t must
have come from the Lady Alice. They
had taken such stuff from it once, but
the vein had 'pinched out and the prop
erty was supposed to be n. Z. Its stock
had dropped to nothing. ~
'Of course it was only n guess con.
tinued the speaker, 'and there were sew
eral hundred chances that it wasn't the
Alice at all. did some quick thinking
There was banker up town who owned
a lot of Alice stock, and in two minutes
was on my way to his office.
. Look here says ! when finally got
into his den, i have information worth
lot of money to you. What is it worth
to me|
Not cent down. says he promptly,
but 10 per cent if get it,
Il handed him the piece Of ore. 1t
was about as big as the end of my thumb.
They've struck that in the Lady Alice
says |.
death and yelled for n clerk. Run after
Smith" he bawled, and bring him back
with that stock
Smith. it turned out, was his messen
GER and he was then on his way to de-
liver bundle of Alice stock for ,whicA
the banker had just been offered coup
of hundred dollars. lie had thought 1t
good trade until he saw my ore. Smith
came back, and the banker tried his best
TO pump me, but l wouldn't tell him any
more. If he had known was only guess
Ing, he would have kicked me out, but
the fates We're with me. The next day .
the news of the discovery got to the pub y
c 1t was the Alice, sure enough, and Y
the stock went scoOtiug skyward. Mean
while the fellows in on the secret had
bought up all they could. My banker
scoopel in big pot Of money and got
$1,000 for my share. | suppose l ought
to have had three times as much, but it
was such godsend didn't kick. That
was the one case of downright bull luck
in my whole career"
81 made something out Of nothing once
myself" said another Of the trio after a
little pause. Il cant say the affair did
Inc much credit, but as a general thing
fellows conscience begins to stretch
when his coin begins to shrink. Anyhow
the facts are these: drifted into eastern
Ohio good many years ago and landed
in little town near the state line Just at
the time the great oil boom began to de-
velop. l was hard up and didn't know
what to do, but luckily ! had good
clothes. A few days after l arrived
piece Of property on which oil had been
found was put up at auction by order Of
the court. Things had been fixed among
the spectators to let certain chap from
Wheeling bid 1t In, and 1t was generally
understood that the sale would be a, cut
and dried affair.
II strolled over to the auction room
with the night clerk of the hotel, and by
mere chance we sat directly behind the
man from Wheeling While we were
waiting ! remarked, merely in jest, that
l thought I'd buy the property, and, to
my surprise the clerk took it in dead ear
nest. He knew nothing about, my real
circumstances and supposed, no doubt,
that | was some oil sharp in cog.
How high are you going? he asked
in a low tone.
"'Oh, guess III follow her as high rs
$4,000" l replied airily. AT that the
Wheeling man nearly Tell off his seat.
Then he jumped up and beckoned me in.
to a corner.
"'Who do you represent? he asked
"'That's my business l replied pretty
stif]y.
"'Well, excuse me- says he but
thought might make it to your interest
to keep out. We are going to get 1t any
how. and there's no use in you running
UP the price on us for nothing. What'l
you take to keep your mouth shut for
five minutes|
ga thousand dollars minute says I.
| had my heart in my mouth at the time,
and il had opened it very wide 1t would
have dropped out. The Wheeling man
pulled out big roll of money and skim
ned off five 1000 bills. had hardly
grabbed them when the auction began,
and inside the specified time my benefac.
Tor had the oil lot for IS. 900 and costs of
$1,000 in all. 1t was good
trade for him, and be was so ticklei he
asked me to split bottle of wine. I
guess that was about the luckiest hit Of
my life"
The third man had evidently been in
tending to tell story himself, but he
changed his mind when the last yarn
reached its conclusion. Il don't think
I'll enter this historical tournament" he
said grimly. Il might be led into some
slight unconscious cxaggeration. You fel-
lows would be mighty valuable members