The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-11
BIG FORTUNES
THAT WERE LOST BY THE
 MEREsT SCRATCH.
Millions That Went to Other Men Because of Accident-Farm for Old Clothes-Race
 for a Gold Mine.

l AOA q 1OAu uAlue. If F. W. Salzman had been three min utes quicker he would have secured a sS5, 600 diamond mine in South Africa. If it had not been for bit of faulty l track just outside Chicago it would have been Haydon Bennett who would have ! made a fortune by organizing the steel corporation and not J. Pierpont Morgan. If Burton Neville's horse had not foun- dered in the last mile of a race for a land registers office he would have won one of the richest California gold mine claims.
 If Arnold Bryand's salvage steamer had started an hour sooner from Rio he would | have been able to secure the treasure or a fabled Spanish galleon at Trinidad. Those were four golden opportunities which could not wait. It was heartbreak- ing for the men who saw untold wealth within their grasp and then saw 1t dis appear just as they were about to clutch it.. It was heartbreaking. 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 0 piece or South African ground as ever man looked upon, but there was that in its appear ance which made the surveyor believe 1t was valuable.
 De Beers. the owner of the farm, was so tired of hopeless and fruitless toll that he offered to sell it for a change of clothing. Salzman looked at it again and refused. suit of clothes seemed to be too great a price to pay Tor heap of rocks in a land where rocks were plenti- full
 He went back to Cape Town, but kept thinking about that farm which he could C.. g,,if nf nln he decided to go back and purchase it. He had been hearing strange tales of the finding of enormous wealth in dia- monds on just such rocky land, and 1t was worth a try, anyhow.
 He made the trek in a hurry, but just as he got to De Beers's 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 purchase Three weeks later It was learned that the De Beers farm had proved itself an inexhaustible mine Of dia- monds.
 A few minutes breakdown caused the missing of fortune so large that, though another man has it now, nobody knows quite how big 1t is. It was missed by Haydon Bennett. He was MT. Morgan s competitor for the formation of the Unit ed States Steel Corporation, and 1t was only a matter of minutes that that he did not get the control of that most gigantic of all fortunes.
 He was competing with MT. Morgan. and was a little in advance of him in the negotiations. When the great prof ect 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 Mir. Morgan may have had up his sleeves. However, a stretch of faulty track out side Chicago brought the special train to a standstill by derailing 1t, though without any fatality. It was half an hour before the journey could be con- tinued; the trip into Chicago was fin- ished by single engine, which took the flnancier in the cab. But MT. Morgan, who was already at Chicago, made his arrangements by telegr9 ph-he never seems to be in breakdowns of any kind and won the coup. He is said to have acknowledged afterward that only his rivals breakdown gave him time.
 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 partially prospected is to be allotted in large claims" those who want to get hold of them have to peg out" their portions and then de- posit their papers at a registers office.
 The result is magnificently exciting race. in which good horses, fine horse manship, and endurance win. Those who peg-out and register first win their claims.
 The best of all these claims-now the big Los Patos" mine-worth over $40O,- GOO a year. was first discovered by Bur value of the claim from a nasty inspec- ton.
 Several others became aware of the value of the place. however, though neither the finder nor anyone else had any idea how rich 1t really was On the appointed day, when thirty claims were to be allotted. over forty riders ap- peared for the forty-mile and back race. Any number could compete for the same claim. after marking it out and the race, as usual, was to the swiftest MT. New ille, who was as fine a horseman as any being an old 'cow puncher," was first on the new grounds, marked his claim and raced back. His horse foundered and came down when only a mile from the registry office on the return journey and though he started to run the rest of the journey, a young Californian named Davis, who had been crowded out" of the other claims, and had remarked Nevilrs came past him on a horse that stlll held out, and registered the claim while his rival was running up in the olstance-less than two minutes too late