The Savannah morning news., 1903-06-23
FORTUNES LOST BY SECONDS.
Minute, and Another Lost the
Steel Trust Plum.

Steel Trust Plum.
From the Chicago Tribune.
If F. w. Salzman had been three
minutes quicker he would have secured
$35, 900 diamond mine in South
Africa If it had not been for bit
of faulty track just outside Chicago it
would have been Hayden Bennett who
would have made fortune by organ
izing the steel corporation, and not j.
Pierpont Morgan If Burton Neville's
horse had not foundered in the last
mile of a race for land registers Of
Ace he would have won one of the rich
est California gold mine claims. If Ar
mold BrYand's salvage steamer had
sta ted an hour sooner from Rio he
would have been able to secure the
treasure of a tabled Spanish galleon
at Trinidad. Those were four golden
opportunities which could not wait. 1t
was heart breaking for the men who
saw untold wealth within their grasp
and then saw it disappear just as they
were about to clutch it. 1t was heart
breaking but there was nothing to do
but philosophize.
Salzman was surveying in Griqualand
when he missed his great opportunity.
The farm which he was tempted to buy
at first sight was as dismal piece OF
South African ground as ever man
looked upon, but there was that in Its
appearance which made the surveyor
believe il was valuable. De Beers, the
owner of the farm, was 50 tired of
hopeless and fruitless toll that he OF
fered to sell it for a change of cloth
ing Salzman looked at it again and
refused. A suit of clothes seemed to
be too great a price to pay for heap
of rocks in a land where rocks were
plentiful. He went back to Cape Town,
but kept thinking about that farm
which he could have bought for a suit
of clothes. Finally he decided to go
back and buy. it. He had been hear
ing strange tales of the finding of
enormous wealth in diamonds on just
such rocky land, and it was worth
try, anyhow. He made the trek in
hurry, but just as he got to De Beers
gate a stranger drove UP ahead of him
and entered. When Salzman entered
the house he found that the man who
had arrived three minutes before him
had Just completed the deal for the
sale Three weeks later it was learned
that the De Beers farm had proved
itself an inexhaustib1e mine of dia-
monds.
A few minutes breakdown caused
Ine nlSSlHS OF q IOIIuIlS SO idl &c bAicits
though another man has it now, no.
body knows quite how big it is. 1t
was missed by Hayden Bennett. He
was Mr.. Morgan's competitor for the
formation of the United States Steel
Corporation, and it was only by
matter of minutes that he did not get
the control of that most gigantic of
all fortunes. He was competing with
Mr.. Morgan and was a little in adj
vance of him in the negotiations.
When the great project was all but
ripe he took a special train from San
Francisco for New York. and came
near creating a record. There is not
much doubt that he would have
brought off the big stroke and gained
the mastery. though nobody knows
what Mr.. Morgan may have had up his
sleeve. However, a stretch of faulty
track outside Chicago brought the
special train to a standstill by de-
railing it. though without any fatality.
1t was half an hour before the jour-
ney could be continued; the trip into
Chicago was finished by a single en-
CINE, which took the financier in the
cab. But Mr.. Morgan. who. was al
ready at Chicago, made his arrange
ments by telegraph-he never seems
to be in breakdowns of any kind-and
won the coup. He is said to have
acknowledged afterward that only his
One of the biggest fortunes missed
and by minutes-almost seconds-only.
was in the great race for the new
concessions in California. When new
and valuable land which has been par
TALLY prospected is to be allotted in
large claims, those who want to
get hold of them have to peg out"
their portions, and then deposit their
papers at a registers office. The re-
suit is a magnificently exciting race.
I'm which good horses, fine horseman-
ship and endurance win. Those who
peg-out and register first win their
claims Tho host IF all these claims
now the big Los Patos" mine-worth
over 100000 q Y gar. was first discov-
cred by Barton Neville who got an
linking of the value of the claim from
hasty inspeC ton. Several others be-
came aware of the value of the place.
however. though neither the finder nor
any one else had any hope how rich
IL really was. On the appointed day.
when thirty claims were to be allotted.
over forty riders appeared for the
4O-mile and back race. Any number
could compete for the same claim
after marking II out, and the
race. as usual, was 20 the swiftest
Mr. Neville who was as fine a horse
man as any. being an old COW punch
err Was first on the new grounds.
marked his claim and raced back His
horse foundered. and came down when
only mile from the registry Office
on the return Journey and. though he
started 20 run the rest Of the Journey
young Californian named Davis, who
had been crowded OUT Of the other
Claims. and remarked Nevilie's came
past him on n horse that still held out.
ana registered the claim while his
iiyRi Nas running up IN the distance
less than two minutes too late
The Onis real chance o. fortune
among az the sunken Treasure"
searches ihsi - much h8s been heard
bout Naf missed bv leSs fhan an
hour when ii iag plain in vies prom
irinE ffrainiy mary thousands ~
lf9un1F This Waf che spanish Ral-
lroa sf fFiHiasd, which wee discover.