New-York tribune., 1901-01-19
THE PASSING THRONG.

''one of the most successful gold bricks ever
sold to Eastern tenderfeet' by the West" said NJ.
H. O'Bryan. of Butte. Mont, at |
PLANNING the Fifth Avenue Hotel yesterday. |
TO INITIATE Sure Thing Cassidy worked off
TENDER at Wallace, Idaho, in the earlier
FEET" days of the Coeur d'Alene. 1t had
been a hard winter in that cOun-
try. Every one was hard uT. and it had showed
and showed and showed until the country was
feet deep under the feecy mass Sure Thing was
hard up as the rest of us and we were all
rustling for grub. At this juncture word arrived
at Wallace that party Of Eastern capitalists
pose of investing therein. Great was the rejoicing
when the arrived but in it all there was the
that rested on the country might discourage the
claims to the best advantage The whole camp
was in great state of excitement. as every man
jack there had a scheme or claim with which he
t3naiy hoped to separate the tenderfeet from
deadly mass of SNOW did not prevent. of US all
sure Thing was & the only one Mise enough to take
compel the snow to further his designs Amid the
Sure Thing said little, but he doing lot of
thinking. and the event showed that that thinking
got together all the money could beg. borrow or
steal and nd with it he purchased two dozen stove
pipesE These he took 10 some waste land about
a half mile beyond the eastern limits of the town
regular intervals thirty or forty feet apart. No
one noticed what Sure Thing was doing in the
His stovepipes planted, he just sat down and
waited"
'In due time" continued Mr.. OBryan the ten
derfeet' arrived at Wallace and there were great
dongs Finally day, after the
HARD excitement had begun TO die down
LUCK STORY and had become used TO having
WITH A BUSI- them among us Sure Thing got
NESS END. hold of the mavericks He escorted
them to that hillside, pointed out
those regularly planted stovepipes, and then he
poured piteous tale of into their sympathetic
ears. 1t was sure-enough hard luck story, and
to the effect that under each and every one of
those stove pipes snug miners cottage which
Sure Thing had just succeeded in completing
when the blizzard came along and covered them
with snow and made it impossible to rent them.
Now the banks were pressing him notes
they held and threatened to grab the cottages if
he didn't pay up. He wanted to do the banks
and would therefore sell cheap the Fasteners
whole Inquiry developing that high rents prevailed
In Wallace they eagerly took Sure Things twenty
TOUR stovepipes off his hands each at the price of
completely built cottage. We stood in with each
other In those days. and every one gave the ten
Ger1eet an awful steer when they made inquiries
straightawsv depsrted fnS CaIiforn9 tra19ey
him Did you ever hear of the Chinook wind? 1t
away Japan. and under its influence will dis
appear more rapidly than even did Sure Thing
after he had secured that good Eastern money
A Chinook wind will melt four or five feet Of snow
IN night. and when that particular Chinook wind
completely bare. Then did those guileiess tender
feet eagerly sally forth to their newly acquired
cottages only to discover that they had literally
purchased pig in a poke There lay the bleak
hillsdes. and scattered about it were twenty-four
stoVeplpes. There was nothing else and slowly the
truth dawned on them. But poor fellows! what
could they do? There one left in Wallace
Tor them TO take 1t out Of And Sure Thing had
some time previously silently folded his tent and
stolen away to parts unknown After uselessly
ssHort to get even those poor lambs without their
Is Jrue, IN pocket but oh how much richer in ex-