New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-09-21
BECAME 4 SILVER KING.
HOW "BOsS" SHEPHERD ACQUIRED A
GREAT FORTUNE IN MENlCo-HiS
MINES AND MOUNTAIN HOME.

Fen, cbantars in 1.-THE Count of Monte Crfsto'
contain more thrilling narrative thah can 9e
found in the actual adventures ana eAploi'9 w
Alexander r. Shepherd, known IN WASHINGTON GA
ces as Boss" Shepherd. who died III MS lat @"a9
Mexican home week or more ago rIleiiue VI ',''
former Governor of the District of Columbia VINO
visited him at his hacieHia. or pahtatioii' al
Batopilas Mexico now repeating the S'oi eS
his vast wealth. estimated at between %ioVO0'o
and s20O900e0 and telling of the Verltapie ci'S
bur+ within the plantations walls; the forts
bospftal dwelling houses for employees; ho'ei iof
guests; the great ore mills. where the sllNer eu'i'
from his mines crushed and rehned' the siea'
aqueduct whose waters brought from the houl-
tains miles away. drove the machinery or the pow
erful crushers. and. most wonderful OF an, rhe
naIace where the Bonanza King himself lived,
surrounded by all comforts and luxurles Oh me-
It was twenty-three years ago that BOSS ohep-
herd went to Mexico. IAN exile some called hlm'
10 seek fortune in its mines. A revolution had
lust subsidized, leaving in its wake ruin desolation
and financial hysteria. 1t time ripe for a
strong and firm hand. such as that OF the eN-
Governor of the District of Columbia HIS friends
said that. despite the assertions that ne mad peeh
a Second Boss Tweed in bis connection with
the Improvement of the national capital, he was,
when deposed from Office and power, a compare
lively poor man. Shepherd looked around him III
Mexico for opportunity. and he found one
He bought an abandoned mine at Batopilas for
81 zoe 600. The money had been raised by COM
Then the struggle began.
AS the Mine King said after success had at
last crowned his efforts:
The engineer reported the mines exceedingly
valuable. After buying the property from the
Wells Fargo Express Company people took $780,
go for q working capital But before work had
gone far I found the engineer had deceived
He estimated there 100000 of silver in the
pillars of the mine The pillars Melted just $50
Il had then all kinds of makeshifts to
keep the work going. TO quiet the Impotence of
the increasing number of creditors, and to
reassure the ockholders and still be able to turn
out something But by dint of a tremendous
amount of digging. by means of improvements.
and after winning the good will of any number OF
suspicious Mexican officials who did not relish
American mining their silver. have in the la st
seventeen years taken out S105O0000 worth of
metal And there &c much more down there yet
After the full tide Of success had come, Shepherd
was, indeed, monarch in the eyes of his 1000
Mexican employees, as all powerful and respondent
a Montezuma- His plantation BatopiIas was
225 miles from chihuahua. the nearest railroad
I4aw1ess bands wandered throughout the surround
ing country. Accordingly, the plantation was forth
fed with heavy. thick walls, towers. port
holes for rifles and cannon. within an arsenal
was built and stocked with ammunition and arms
A small army was carefully trained as an escort