The Portland daily press., 1900-05-24
THE BITER BITTEN.
A Tenaerfset Gets Even with q nam
whe HAD swinaied Hina.

when was mining In the Gunnison
country, hack In the eighties" said one
of group Of Western men, talking over
old times In the hotel lobby, "a little
spindle-legged Philadelphian named Nc
Arthur struck camp, looking for good
opening for investment" says the New
Orleans Times Democrat. "A gentleman
with that kind OF yearning could Away
be accommodated ON the frontier, and, as
Macarthur was by long odds the greenest
tenderfoot that ever came over the range,
he was generally regarded as legitimate
prey. At that time the camp bully was
a fellow named Jack Slater, who owned
a worthless prospect hole called the Big
Casino, and. as soon as he heard that
Macarthur wanted to buy mine, he made
preparations to unload on him. The little
Philadelphian was such an out -and-o
greenhorn that Slater didn't take the
trouble to do any scientific 'saltlng.' He
simply dumped barrowful of rich ore
into the shaft, stamped 1t down, and In
vitei the stranger to take look at the
property and help himself to samples.
Macarthur went down the shaft peered
around through his spectacles, and came
up with his pockets full of the ore that
had been put there for his special benefit
As soon as he got the assayer's report he
bought the mine for 5000 cash.
Everybody knew the poor fellow had
been outrageously swindled," continue
the Western man, and the affair was
laughed over in the saloons and the
4. n txkEaa fNf
the season. Meanwhile Macarthur hired
n couple Of laborers, went TO work serio US
ly at the bottom of the shaft, and next
day the camp was electrified by the re
port that he had really struck II rich.
1t seemed that, after sinking about foot
deeper, he uncovered "a line ore body, the
presence of which nobody had ever sus-
pected The news reached Slater when
he was playing faro, and he nearly fell
off his chair. Then he made a beel1ne
for the Big Casino, and at the bottom OF
the shaft he found what seemed TO be
n magnificent outcropping OF decomposed
quartz full of free gold As soon a. he
laid eyes on II and realized that he had
actually been fool enough to salt bon
ANA he began to scheme to get the
property into his clutches again. He told
Macarthur that IA former partner had
turned up and was going to contest the
validity of the sale in court. 50 purely
rs ntdttt-F VI JdStiStf NV oA.e.rNs ~ y
turn the purchase money with 500 bonus
If the Philadelphian would deed the
mine back The little man didn't seem
TO realize what big thing he had struck
and got nervous at the talk about con-
tests To make long story short, he
finally accepted the proposition, put the
money in his inside pocket, signed the
necessary papers and left town ON the
next stage, jeered by the entire popula-
ton. Next day Slater made the painful
discovery that the ledge of decomposed
quartz was itself fake and that the
mine had been salted in "a highly artistic
fashion. None of us ever saw Macarthur
again, but Ii was tolerabfy clear that he
had discovered the original swindle inn
mediately after purchasing and then set
about deliberately tn turn the tables ON
the man who fieeced him. The spindle
legged gentleman from Philadelphia
wasn't as green as he looked"