The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-03-18

to be too great price to pay for a heap
of rocks in a land where rocks We're
plentiful.
He went back to Cape Town. but
Kept thinking about that farm which
ne could have bought for a suit OF
cIothes. Finally he decided to 60 back
, and purchase it. He had been hearing
strange tales Of the finding of enor-
nous wealth in diamonds on lust such
rocky land, and 1t was worth a tlv
anyhow.
lie made the trek in a hurry, but lust
as he got to De Beers gate a stranger
drove up ahead of him and entered.
When Salzman entered the house he
round that the man who had arrived
three minutes before him had just COM
pIeted the deal for the purchase Three
weeks later it was learned that the De
beers farm had proved itself an mex
hausuble mine of diamonds
A few minutes breakdown caused the
missing OF fortune so large that
though another man has it now, no
pody knows quite how big it is. 1t was
missed by Hayden Bennett. He was
Mr.. Morgan's competitor for the forna-
ton of the United Steel corporation,
and 1t 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
ana was q little in advance Of him in
the negotiations. When the great
project was all but ripe, he took spe-
c1al train from San Francisco for New
York, and came near creating a rec
ord There is not much doubt that he
could 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
IN fO e.+,. ~Ir-t;I
railing 1t, though without any fatality.
IL was half an hour before the Journey
could be continued; the trip into
chicago, which was finished by a SIN
gle engine, which took the financier
IN the cab. But Mr.. Morgan, who was
already at Chicago, made his arrange
ments by. telegraph-he never seems
to be in breakdOwns of any hnd-and
won the coup He-is said to have ac-
knowledged afteTward that only his
rivals breakdown gave him time.
Several others became aware of the
value OF the place, however, though
entther the finder nor anyone else had
any idea how rich it really was. on
the appointed day, when thirty claims
were to be allotted, over forty riders
appeared 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
Nv 4ANC1I" MI -NeFllleY no was as me
a horSeman as any, being an old Cow
puncher," was first on the new
grounds, marked his claim and came
down when only a mile from the reg
lstry 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
NeYllle's came past him on q horse
that still held out and registered the
claim, while his rival was running up
in the distance-less than two minutes
too late:
The only real chance of a fortune
among all the sunken treasure
searches that so much has been heard
about was missed by less than an hour,
when 1t lay plain in view, promising
certainly many thousands of pounds.
This was the Spanish galleon at Trini
dad, which was discovered by accident
SIX years ago in a sheltered bay of the
island. 1t was lying on the bottom,
partly broken up, in two or three
fathoms of water, and a small case Of
gold pieces and silver ingots was
grappled UP and proved to be worth
about $4,000. The rest of the treasure
was more difficult to get up, and the
nnder, an EngliShman named Bryand.
the owner of the trading brig Barme-
eide, went at once to Rio and fitted out
small steamer with proper apparatus
and diving dresses. This took a couple
Of months, and on the way back to the
spot where the galleon lay the steam
er encountered a terrific storm from
the east northeast-a rare quarter in
the latitude to get a hurricane from.
The vessel nearly foundered, but when
the storm cleared away and the island
was reached it was found that the
sunken wreck had disappeared, all but
few remnants, the hurricane and re-
NJ dol
out into deep water, and 1t was never
found. single case of precious met
ais was recovered, worth about 81 900
Chicago Tribune