The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-07-24
MILLIONS IN THE
 ROCKY MOUNTAINS
Chat With Thomas F. Walsh, the Mining King, and the Secrets of
 His Extraordinary Success.

at the bottom is the same kind of a man that he is, and that he should be treated as such.
 .-he .sacnSsfs of Millionaire.
 .aTell me something about yourself as A laborer. Mir Walsh. I understand you have done considerable work with your handsT
 "Yes, I have" replied the mining mill lionaire. My success. such as it is, has come from hard work allied to my natural ability in discovering and test ing the precious metals. 1 have been engaged fin this occupation for many years and have travelled all over the Rocky Mountain region again and again, exploring mining properties, and now and then investing in them" How did you start Iaining?" I asked T have always been more or less in terested in geology, and as 1 look back over my life 1t seems to me as though my fate was early cast in this direc- tion. My father was a farmer in Tip perary County, Ireland. I was born there about fifty-three years ago, and was educated in the common schools
 1t was the custom to send the teach CTS to Dublin every year or so for a | course of normal training; and once | remember our teacher brought back a chunk of granite. The country about us was all limestone. and this granite was great curiosity. With that be- gan my first study in stones and per- haps my first step toward mining. Shortly after that my father ap- prenticed me to millwright, and thereby put me up another step all though at the time 1t was thought was making a descent in the social scale. You see. the farmer in Ireland an nriI clerk or tradesman. Had I remained on the farm might have come to the United States, but it would have been as farmer, without any mechanical knowledge and I should be no bet ter off today, perhaps, than thousands of poor Irish farmers in different parts of the United States By making me a millwright I was forced to learn all about building mills and hanging mill stones. knowledge which became very valuable to me when had to construct works for operating mines worked with the millwright employer for four years and then crossed the Atlantic. ;"
 ShinGiing Houses In Massachusetts.
 How did you happen to come here?"
 'The time was just after the close of the civil war" said MT. Walsh. Ire land had many men in the Union army, ana the WnOle country was little more than a county of the United States. I had brothers in the army and we read the newspaper reports of the battles I got the American fever at a very early age and at 19 crossed the At- 1antic to Massachusetts My first work was as a carpenter, and much of 1t was shingling houses. This was new to me. as we have no shingling in Ire land. usually slate and other materials for roofing. It was easy to learn how ever. and I had no trouble. I stayed there two years working for s3. 50 or s4 day That seemed lot of money to me then"
 How did you come to leave Massa- chusetts?'
 Tt was through one of my brothers who had been in the Union army He went to Colorado at the close of the war. and wrote me to come out there as builder and contractor. I did very well at that, and built more or less after I began to dabhle in mines. One of nv most successful buildings was a big hotel at Leadvi1le, Col. I