Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1903-03-19
LOST BY A SCRATCH
FORTUNES FAILED THROUGH
THRILLING OCCURRENCES
SOME REMARKABLE CASES
Millions That Went to Other Men Be.
cause of Accidents-Spanish Gold
That an Inopportune Hurricane
Hauled Out into Deep Water
Metal Recovered Worth $500.

IF. W. saIzman had been three
minutes quicker he would have Sc
cured a S35,OO0,00O diamond mine in
south Africa.
If it had not been for a bit OF
faulty track Just outside Chicago it
would have been Hayden Bennett who
would have made a fortune by organ
ling the steel corporation and not J j..
Pierpont Morgan.
If Burton Neville's horse had not
foundered in the last mile of a race
for 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 Of a tabled Spanish galleon
at Trinidad
Those were four golden opportuni-
ties which could not wait It was
heartbreaking 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 GriQua,
land when he missed his great oppor-
! tunity. The farm which he was
tempted to buy at first was as dismal
a piece of south African ground as
ever man looked upon, but there was
that in it's appearance which made the
surveyor believe it 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. A suit Of
clothes seemed to be too great price
TO pay for a 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 suit of
| clothes. Finally he decided to go
! back and purchase it. He had been
hearing strange tales Of the finding of
! enormous wealth in diamonds on just
such rocky land, and it was worth a
! try, anyhow.
He made the trip in ali urry, 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 pur-
| chase. Three weeks later it was
learned that the De Beers farm had
proved itself an inexhaustible mine Of
| diamonds.
4 few minutes breakdown caused
the missing Of fortune so large that
| though another man has it now, NJ
! 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 a mat
! ter of minutes that he did not get the
control of that most gigantic Of all
| fortunes.
He was competing with Mr.. Nor
gan and was a little in advance of
him in the negotiations. When the
great project was all but ripe he took
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 Chi
cago brought the special train to a
standstill by derailing it, though with
out any fatality. 1t was half an
hour before the journey could be con
! tinued; the trip into Chicago was
finished by a single engine, which
took the fnancier in the cab. But
MI Morgan, who was already at Chi
cago, made his arrangements by tel
egraph-he never seems to be in
breakdowns Of any Find-and won
the coup. He is said to have at