Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Neb.) 1900-1930, 1900-10-11
q CASE OF BITTER BITTEN.
The renderfoot Bought n ''Saited''
Mine, isut IA asaee kziin -Rfcll.

Mine, fsut h Aaa4e zziHI -E1icH.
when l was mining in the Gunn-
son country, Lack IN .ne 'oU s. SAID
F! one CT tie group of the eges.efn men,
F., taking ser Old dimes III the holeI lob
BY, "a liCsle spIndie-iegged Philadei-
| l.iIan named McArIhur, struck camp,
loohIng IT good opening Tor inves--
| ment IN mines. tLIs sort Of d
| yealning could always be accom-
Inodateu on the frontier, ad as Near
thur was by long odds tie greenest
| JeIderioCt that ever came over Tie
range, he was generally regarded as
les IeiInaLe prey. AT Lh;DL time the
| camp buliy was a fellow named Jacll
| Slater, who owned a big prospect hoIe
called Big Casino, and II Was entirely
worthless. AS soon Us he heard that
McArtnur waneed to buy mine he
made preparations TO unload on him.
line little PhiIadelphian was such an
out-and-out greenhorn that Slater
didn't take the trouble to do any
scientific 'salting.' He simply dumped
barrowful of rich ore into the shaft,
stamped it down and invited the stran-
ger to take look at the property and
help himself to samples. McArthur
went down the shaft, peered around
through his spectacles and came up
with his pockets full of ore that had
been put there for his special benefit.
As soon as he got the assayer's re-
port he bought the mine for $1,000
cash.
Everybody knew the poor fellow
had been outrageously swindled," ,"
continued the western man, land the
affair was laughed over in the saloons
and the gambling houses as the big
gest joke of the season. Meanwhile
Macarthur hired a couple of laborers,
went to work seriously at the bottom
Of the shaft and next day the camp was
electrified by the report that he had
really struck it rich. 1t seemed that
after sinking about a foot deeper, he
slruck rich yellow vein the
presence of which nobody ever sus-
pected The news reached Slater
tvarn he was playing faro, and he
rn3:.ly fell off his chair. Then he
U. . beeline for his Big Casino and
?. the bottom of, the shaft he
found what seemed to be a magnificent
outcroppng of decomposed quartz.
full of free gold. As soon us he had
laid eyes on it and realized that he
had actually been fool enough to SAL
bonanza, he began to scheme to get
the property into his hands again. He
told Macarthur that a former partner
had turned up and was going to test
the validity of the sale in court, so
purely as matter of justice, he Of
fered TO return the purchase money
with $500 bonus if the Philadelphian
would deed the mine back. The hptle
man didn't seem to realize what big
thing he Lad struck and got nervous
at the taik about contests. TO make
long story short, he finally accept
ed the proposition, put the money in
his inside pocket. signed the neces-
sary paperS and left town on the next
stage ieerPh by the entire porulatiOn.
Next day when Slater made the pain
ful discovery that the ledge of decom-
posed Quart was itself fake and
that the mine had been salted in a
highly artistic fashion. None of rs
ever saw Macarthur again. but it was
tolerabIy clear that he discovered the
deception Immediately after rurchas-
ing and then set about deliberately
to turn the tables on the man that
feeced him. The spindle-legged gen
tIeman frmo Philadelphia was not as
green as he looked"