Amador ledger., 1904-05-20
A PRINCE OF PRODIGALS
FORMER HOsTLER BECOMES A
CALIFORNIA MILLIONAIRE
And Spends Vast Sums in 0pen-hearted
Manner Loyal to Old Friends and
Generous to Anyone Who
Struck His Fancy.
Saturday Globe Utica, N Y, Feb. 10. 1904 ]

STRUCK HIS Fancy.
Saturday Globe Utica, N. Y, Feb. 10, 1904. ]
One of the most prodiga, of million
aires who ever surprised a section OF
the country by the liberality of his
spendings was James M. Dunn, who
recently died in Paris Dunn was the
son of a laborer and was born at James
town, N. Y. AS a boy he worked as
a hustler ard then drifted westward,
working in various menial capacities
in Cleveland, St. Louis and Kansas
City. Twenty years ago he reached
the gold mining camps of Calaveras
and Nevada counties, Cal. For IL
years he lived the life of desert pros
pector-as hard life as any American
citizen knows nowadays. During few
months in each year he would work in
the bowels of a Calaveras county mine.
while he saved every dime possible
toward another season of prospecting
among the Cocopah mountains, or the
desolate country in the region of Death
Valley, or across the MOjave Desert.
At length he located the golden ledge
of the Big Jennie mine in Amador
county and soon became millionaire
several times over. He had an income
at times as high as $4,000 month
from the property. With the beginning
of the development of his gold discov-
cries at what is now known as the min
ing camp of Dunnville, Dunn announced
that his work was over. "HencefOrth. "
he said, "I'll have a gay time and when
I'm dead I'll be tenderly remembe bered
by some people, anyhow"
SPENDS MONEY LIKE WATER
He held to thisIpolicy. When he had
bought house for his aged mother
near Golden Gate Park, in San Fran
cisco, and had settled a certain share
of the Big Jennie dividends upon her.
he went abroad seeking pleasure. He
gave $1,000 to sickly old printer who
had been friendly to him in his days of
poverty. He sent 81, 800 at Christmas
1897, to the widow of a printer in New
York who had given him home for a
few weeks years before, and he sent
$500 to pay S75 bill contracted in
Brooklyn years previously.
Two years ago he took fancy to a
mixed drink that Los Angeles bar
tender concocted. He was going to
visit the City OF Mexico, and he ask ed
the bartender to mix several quart bot
ties of the drink for him to take along
on his trip. When the bartender re-
piled that the stuff wouldn't stand bot
tling longer than few hours, Dunn in
sisted that the bartender and his wife
should go along on the tour at his ex-
pense. The trio were gone two months,
and all the bartender had to do was to
mix drinks for Dunn.
At another time when Dunn was get
ting shaved in Los Angeles he remark :
ed that he was about to go to New
York on a pleasure trip.
"What wouldn't | give to 90 like
that, with never care on my mlndr"
said the barber.
Ever been to New York;" asked
Dunn.
mo, and probably never shall go. i"
"Well. now, I'm looking around for
another fellow to fill out our party"
said Dunn, ''and you come right along
this afternoon. I've got three other
men who have never been east, and
we'll all haye q big time together.
What's more, it won't cost you a cent
all the time you're gone from the shop. :"
That pleasure trip cost Dunn $4,000,
and he always said that it was the best
time of his life. He had a tender spot
in his heart for street urchins, because
he had been one himself. He never
went to San Francisco or to any other
eastern city without attracting atten-
tion by the showers OF money he scat
tered among the street children about
the hotels whore he stopped. Once he
tossed $500 in silver coin out of a Sec
Ond story window of the Palace Hotel
in San Francisco. He used to leave $40
gold pieces among the rumpled clothes
on his bed, and when the coin was re-
turned to him by an honest chamber
maid he would give it back with one or
two moro of the same value.
LOYAL TO HIS OLD FRIENDS.
He was visiting the jail in Portland
Ore, a year ago when he saw confined
there man whQml he once knew as a
brother prospectop in Arizona. The
man was awaiting trial for forgery
Dunn hired lawyer to defend the
prisoner and at an expense of hundreds
of dollars got the man acquitted.
Last summep. while fshipg at Santa
Catalina Island, he conceived a fancy
for Mexican boatman who took him
out fishing, and one day he surprised
the poor fellow by the gift of a 50, 800
house.
A class of girls in a private seminary
at San Francisco permitted him to se-
lect the class motto for them, and when
the graduating exercises were over he
hired Pullman car and sent the whole
class with two teachers as chaperons
on 30-day tour of the Pacific coast
and to the Yellowstone Park.
He once heard young woman sing