The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-08-23

covered by two Germans who could
scarcely speak English, They had been
running truck gardens for the mining
camps in CalaVeras county and knew
Just the simplest facts about gold and
silver mining. They were Herman
Becker and Laurence Trimmer. In jan
uary, 1865, Becker and Trimmer found
that some money could be made by
gathering oak wood for fuel in the
mountains of Calaveras county. They
set out expecting to make possibly
thirty or forty dollars each by a
months work. They lived in an aban-
doned miners cabin. Snow was on the
ground two feet deep all about One
| day they built a great bonfire Of brush,
which melted the snow and left an area
| of hot earth. Becker got al haunch OF
deer meat and prepared to bake it in
the hot soil. He dug two feet down
and came upon bed or rock. With the
prospectors instinct he broke off a bit
of the rock and examined it. The venl-
son was buried and roasted.
Then Becker, by the light of his cabin
candle, examined the bit of rock more
closely He saw it was what miners
call live rock, full of gold An assayer
at Placervile reported that it ran six
| hundred dollars to the ton. Becker and
Trimmer marked off five mining claims
| close to where the cabin stood 1t was
several months before they told the
particulars of their find. They were Sc
| cretly gathering information in the
| meantime concerning the dip, angle,
| length and breadth Of their newly dis
covered ledge. This mine, the Trojan.
made both Becker and Trimmer rich in
year, but they sold for seventy thou
sand dollars What was afterward worth
to the Boston stockholders thirty thou
sand dollars month
Several very rich Colorado mining
camps were found by the greenest of
greenhorn miners and by curious phas-
es of luck. For instance, there was the
strike by Henry M. Dawson two years
ago. forty miles from Canon City.
Dawson and his brother had been far
mers in Kansas and had been driven
away by drought and chinch bugs.
They thought mining would be.a good
vocation for them Henry Dawson
sank shaft for copper, and the veteran
miners laughed quietly at his fool en-
deavors. He found nothing Of value at
ter going down about forty feet and
abandoned the hole ~hntil last month,
when he started to tunnel some distance
below it. The prospect looked bright
er and he decided to put up cabin.
While eXcavating the side Of the hill TO
make room for it young Dawson
Clipped off a bit Of rock full of free
gold. Following up his find, Dawson
discovered an unusually large and rich
vein, from which samples were taken.
One piece of ore assayed S4,324 and an
other gave the enormous value of S16,-
41S to the ton. The stampede of gold
miners to Dawson, Col, soon set in.
Former Mayor Doyle, millionaire of
Victor, Col. is an illustration of how
fitfully fortune sometimes smiles in the
realm of gold mining. James w. Doyle,
who had learned the carpenter trade,
but did not follow it, was driving a
hack in Manitou when the Cripple Creek
excitement began in 1891, In Colorado
Springs there was a young plumber
named Jimmy Burns The two were ac-
quainted and together they went to
Cripple Creek to try their luck. Neith-
er knew anything about mining. Bat
tie Mountain, near Victor, was then
covered with location stakes. There
was a piece of land comprising about
one-sixth of an acre that had no owner
because it was considered worthless.
Doyle and Burns took up this land In
the belief that something was better
than nothing. They sent for John Har
nan, who was employed at driving a
street scraper in dorado Springs, to
come and help them dig their claim.
Harnan's mining experience consisted
of what he had learned as a child in
picking slate from the screens of Penn
sylvania coal mines. For months the
trio put in hard work sinking a shaft
with not sign of pay ore. Their ac
quaintances sought to discourage them,
but they persisted and were rewarded
by striking vein that made them mill
lionaires.-New York Sun.