River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1900-06-28
WHAT THE MINER KNEW.
Knowledge That Enabled ~ Common
Laborer to Gather in "A Small
Fortune.

This little story was told by min
ing man from New Mexico who was
talking, after supper the other night,
about the queer ways fortunes were
made in the west, says the New Or
leans Times Democrat. About a
month ago l read the death notice"
he said, "of a man | used to know
very well. He was formerly a COM
mon mine laborer, and at the time he
died he was worth probably a couple
of hundred thousand dollars. The
way he made his money was peculiar.
While he was still swinging pick at
So. so day, he was employed in a
gang at work on a certain property
in Colorado. The location was ex-
cellent and there were valuable mines
all around it, but they had gone down
several hundred feet and tunneled in
every direction without finding the
vein. One day this man of whom |
speak was at work in one of the side
excavations, known as drift four
when he saw or thought he saw the
indications of rich ore, and put a
small fragment in his pocket for in
spection when he came up. little
later the workmen put a blast in
the side and withdrew to another
tunnel TO get out of the way of the
explosion. When the blast went off
it caved in the whole drift from one
end to the other. 1t would have cost
several thousand dollars to duplicate
4 Il. -
owned the property was already dis
couraged they decided not to do it.
Meanwhile my man quietly went
to an assayer and had a test made OF
his little sample of ore. II ran so
high in gold that it almost took his
breath away, but he said nothing
and went on swinging a pick at $3.50
a day, while the company kept on
growing more and more discouraged
and more and more involved That
continued for nearly two years, and
at last there came a day when the
works were closed down for lack OF
funds. Then our friend went to the
president and asked him what he
would take for 20-year lease. They
agreed on $500 a year, and everybody
thought the miner was crazy. He
had saved little money. and he went
straight to work on drift four. Long
before he got to the ore he was fiat
broke and working on money he had
almost pawned his soul to borrow, but
he struck it a t last, and in two months
he took out 100000 net. Then he
sold his lease fer good round figure
and started in to enjoy life. Poor
fellow! he didn't last very long! \
shady transaction, did you say? Oh!
] don't know All mining is a gamble,
and-in his place, may be-anyhow,
it's hard TO say. BY the way, l was
president of the original company.
Pantheon.
Hawthorne had this to say of the
best preserved monument of ancient
Rome: 'The world has nothing else
like the Pantheon. So grand it is
that the pasteboard statues over the
lofty cornice do not disturb the effect
any more than the tin crowns and
hearts. the dusty artificial flowers.
and all manner of trumpery gewgaws
hanging at the sanity shrines. The
rust and dinginess that have dimmed
the precious marbles on the walls;
the pavement, with its great squares
and rounds of porphyry and granite,
cracked crosswise, and in a hundred
directions. showing how roughly the
troublesome ages have trampled here;
the gray dome above. with its open
ing to the sky. as if heaven were look
ing down into the interior of this
place of worship-all these things
make an impression of solemnity
which ST. Peters itself fails to pro-
duce." The Pantheon was built by
Marcus Agrippa in b. c. 81, and con
secrated as a Christian church by
Pope Boniface ". in A. ID. COS.
Raphael. Annibale Caracci and other
notables are buried beneath the pave
ment. The interior is a rotunda sur
mounted by dome and lighted by
circular opening 2s feet in diameter
in the center Of the dome. The inside
diameter of the rotunda is 142 feet.
Second Chesterfield.
Sir William Harcourt's private let
ters are said to be delightfully."- fresh
and witty productions. The majority
of them go to his eldest son, to whom
he is deyotedly attached, and rumor
declares that they are treasured up
in neatly fastened packets. Unlike
Lord Salisbury who only rarely
writes private letters. Sir William has