The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1902-09-10
FORTUNE CAME KNOCKING.
The Prisoners Story Of a Mining Engineer in
Old Montana,


in the field gets more Kicks than hap
pence. yet once or twice in lifetime
fortune comes knocking at his door
as II did mine" remarked the chief,
as he deity extracted live coal from
the campfire lit his pipe and settled
himself back on a heap of pine boughs,
with his back against big log de-
stined as a back log for the all-night
fire later on, while the rest Of the crew
settled themselves in comfortable po-
sitions and prepared to listen.
We had started the captain, which
was rare event, for he was taciturn
man, and had the Indian way of rare
ly speaking, except to give direction
or answer q question. and then in the
briefest manner possible.
Supper was over, the fried fish. bac-
on and bread and coffee had been dis
posed of, and the last man having
spread his blankets, the younger OF us
were having quiet laugh at one or
the chainmen. who declared that he
had the night before gone to the little
stream which ran down the mountain.
n few yards from our camp, for a pail
of water about | o'clock and found
the stream dry, yet at 8 in the morn
ing when we started to get breakfast
II was rushing Own the mountain side
as noisily as 1t had the night before
when he turned in. All the old gags
of why don't you wake up before you
go for water" what brand do you
drink" where did you get it," do
you have those spells often!" etc, had
been sprung when the chief spoke as
above quoted.
He continued: "The way l made my
pile was by aid of just such a stream
as Jim says this one outside is. though
there will be plenty of water in it to-
night judging from the sound of that
storm outside, and a wet day tomor-
row, that will not let us move about
you the story
"It was at the close of 1868, when
most of you youngsters were in short
pants and l had just completed my
survey of the territory of Montana and
was thinking of pulling stakes and
pushing on to wilder and more un
settled country. For | thought it was
getting rather thick when they had
four post Offices in the state, and there
was nearly 60 at that time, besides
there was more than a dozen lawyers
il the territory, and knew that there
was trouble for all the rest of us from
then on. I am here, yet ] know, but
then there are few places now COW
cred by the old Stars and Stripes but
are more thickly populated, and l
fought too long under the flag to
change tn new one. The Indians
we're pretty thick and rather nasty
that fall and, while could generally
get along with them. being called Sill
yer that Runs by them on account OF
the flask of mercury carried at times
for the artificial horizon, some of
which presented the chiefs and medi-
cine men, to be used as prize when
they were very sick. The results con-
vjnced them that was very big medi-
cine myself. and as say, could gem
orally get along with them, but the
safe rule with an Indian is never to
ing grounds, and by the way, the same
rule may apply to most white men. |
had moved in close to Helena and oc-
cupied myself with the small matters
of mining claim lines and locating
mill sites for the miners, making my
headquarters in Sioux Gulch with the
Horton boys, old friends of mine, who
ing in that country was fully as profit
able as mining.
One day | WAS accosted by three
Germans, who had a mine few miles
up the gulch, called the Wild Horse
Nine They we're in great trouble, for
banking on the continued widening Of
the pay streak, they had invested the
best portion of their money in ma
chinery and had almost completed a
tunnel in the side of the mountain, to
tap the mine at point some hundred
feet deeper than the shaft already
sunk, when the mine gave promise
of living up to its name, by suddenly
turning from a vertical vein to one
OF 30 degrees downward and inward,
thus rendering a 400-foot tunnel al
most useless. Sadly they abandoned
the idea of connecting tunnel to tap
the vein and commenced to follow
along the new direction, with the vein
constantly widening and giving prom
Use of richer ore and more abundant
metal day after day, until the chances
seemed to justify the expenditure for
machinery that had just been made
But a few days before they had start
ed up the new steam drills, feeling
very proud, as they contrasted the
rapid strokes of the drill, which both
1ightened their labor and enabled them
to excavate with fully 10 times the
speed Of the old hand drills, when sud.
denly one of the drills struck stream
OF water, which shot into the mine anG
made things lively until they could
get 1t plugged, which was done aftel
few minutes delay.
very soon they struck water agaiI
and again, until at last it seemed as 4
they could not stick a drill hole into