The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-09-13


with him to the Cliff House, accom-
panied him to the theater, and for two
days and nights abandoned all other
engagements to entertain him. On the
morning of the third day, the old miner
called at the bank to bid Johnny"
goodbye Before you CO." said
| Mackay, Il have a little business with
you. You remember that claim that
we had and worked together at Crise-
ly's bar? After you went on that wild
goose chase to Fraser river. I sold that
claim for six hundred dollars. I could
not get any trace of you, so when L
went to Washoe the next spring, L put
your half of the money in Gould and
Curry. 1t stayed there all these years
until yesterday, when I closed it out.
1t amounts, dividends and all, to TWEEN
ty-two thousand six hundred and four
dollars and sixty cents. Here is a
check for the money"
I'm glad you didn't forget the four
dollars and sixty cents, Johnny" said
the old miner, tearing the check up and
throwing the pieces into the waste bas-
ket You're a fine bookkeeper, john
my, but you're also the biggest liar in
the State of California. I know all
about that claim, for l went back there
after you left, and worked it month.
I couldn't make grub money out of it
and I gave it to some Cinnamon for a
vegetable garden, you never sold it and
you are giving me this gift because you
want to give me a lot of money. Sure
I don't want your money, Johnny, it
| he CT Of Tho cynn6 time
my old partner has given me. My place
as foreman at Biggs cattle ranch is
kept open for me and I'm going back to
, it, so goodbye, Johnny, and God bless
you for dropping all the dudes for two
days to take a run with the old man"
Hold on a minute" said Mackay, eff
you won't let me do something for you
maybe you will do something for me.
have loaned lot of money to the
Eureka Cattle Company. and they have
mismanaged things and cannot paw,
and I have got to take the ranch in.
Now I want you to go uo there and
appraise the property for me. and II
, I take it you must act as manager,
. and I'll pay you going wages, and not
a cent more and if you don't run things
properly II fire YOU "Oh that's bust
ness said the old man, that I'll do"
The next fall the manager of the Eu-
reka Cattle Company ranch wrote to
his old friend, 81 have kept up all ex-
penses so far, from the sale of steers
and the cattle have increased nearly
, one-third but I need a lot of cash to
pay taxes and put in more pipe, and
beef on the hoof has gone down. I
: think it not best to sell any more at
going prices, and maybe you had better
send me the money needed" BY return
mail the manager received a letter
from Mackay saying: 'I am not lend
: ing money to old idiots who tear up
checks. Pay your own taxes, If you
haven't the cash, borrow it from the
bank You had better look at the rec
ords and find who owns your old
ranch"
And the old man found that Mackay
/ had decided him the ranch months be-
, fore-consideration, the friendship and
regard of John w. Mackay.
AAA
Mackay was an early riser, a hard
worker and although exceedingly hos
pitable was himself abstemious, and
could seldom be induced to play cards
for money, and then for only nominal
stakes. The only game that seemed
} to attract him was the "graSshoDper
races" with which the mining suDerin-
tendents on the Comstock beguiled a
, portion of the noon hour while waiting
I for luncheon at the Savage Company
hoisting house. Boys caught grasShop-
, pers and sold them to the players ut
, twenty-five to fifty cents each. Each
, player paid a fixed stake ranging from
one dollar to twenty dollars into the
pool, and the man whose hopper made
the longest jump, captured the pool.
, Upon the day before Christmas 1t was
!. agreed to celebrate that holiday with a
: pool, the stakes in which were to be
one hundred dollars for each player.
The terms were splay or pay" and at
the instance of German professor who
Twas a superintendent of leading mine,
each man was allowed to use any
means that he might devise to stimu-
late his grasshopper The professor
was so full of his scheme to scientif1cal-
ly capture the thousand dollar pool
for there were ten entries-that he
communicated it to a young assaver,
who was not a grasshopper plunger.
The professor had experimental and
ascertained that grasshopper touch
ed by feather dipped in a weak
/ solution of aqua ammonia, would jump
for his life. The young man also ex-
ipeTl1feBleu anu DIS Il result he Ilileu Il
bottle of the same size and appearance
t with cyanide of potassium and man.
aged to substitute it for the other in
the professors laboratory. The next
day when the professor, after much
boasting about his scientific attain
/ ments, dipped a feather in the sub
, stituted bottle and touched his insect
, with it, the grasshopper rolled over as
dead as salt mackerel amid the roars
of the crowd. Mackay's hopper won
, | the big pool, and two widows, whose
husbands had been killed in the Yellow
Jacket mine, received gift of five hun
, dred dollars each, from an unknown
source.
AAA
, Mackay's wit was quick and occa-
! sionally scathing. After an absence of
: several years in Arizona, I visited San
Francisco. In the Palace Hotel Court
Mackay accosted me, saying jestingly,
Now that you have got rich in Ari-
, IONA (alas, this was not true) 1 sup
pose that you won't speak to your old
friends any more" 1 replied-humor-
ing his jest-''Well, John, we Million
l a Tres can hardly he civil To moor ma n