Los Angeles herald., 1906-12-30

down q dimly lighted gorge between
/ stacks Of heavy timber cribs built UP
| to retain the roof. Presently you
| emerge into another level tunnel.
Your guide lifts his candle and traces
! q narrow, triangular vein that some-
| body has gouged out for twenty-five
or thirty feet. You are told what the
stun is worth that filled that vein. 1t
is a stupendous sum.
! You wonder why It doesn't excite
you. But It doesn't. All you see is
/ gouge In a dirty gray rock.
on you go, slipping and stumbling,
your conductor talking the while of
slopes and winges and tellurides and
| things till you come to q foreman who
says that they're going to shoot pretty
soon.
You ask what this is and you find
out it's blasting. Then you remember
about man on whom the roof fell last
week when they fired blast in that
very mine. You discover that you are
very tired. Moreover, you have to see
q man at some place in Goldfield with
in the next half hour.
As you reach the foot Of the shaft
once more and gaze anXiously up the
2s0-foot hole to see If the bucket isn't
coming down you hear half dozen
muffed booms that shake the ground
under your feet and the walls and the
roof above your head, and you try to-
guess how many thousand dollars each
blast meant.
Once on the surface again you find
that your low shoes are full of tiny
fragments of rock. You start to take
them off and empty them. But you
don't do 1t. You reflect that they are
full of money and you craftily resolve
to wait till you get home.
Just outside the shaft is a big heap
of broken stone.
How much gold is there in that pile
of ore?" you ask.
About $250,00O WORTH" says your
guide 1--WE haven't been able to get
cars enough to haul it away"
"Ah!" you say politely. That's al
nuisance"
But 1t doesn't excite you a bit. III
you saw trainload of it on the rail-
road somewhere you'd probably Won
der where the macadam road was 60
ing to be built.
Yet that's the sort of stuff, taken
from that black, damp, smelly hole
you've just left and you're so mighty
glad to be out Of that has already
made at least four millionaires. Prob
ably the most remarkable of them is
George Wingfield, and inasmuch as
America is in all probability going to
hear a good deal of this young man
and his wealth, it may be as well to
tell what manner of person he is.
George wingfeld is today the most
powerful and notable figure at Gold |
field. His present wealth is variously
estimated at from $12,00O000 to $15,-
100000, with infinite possibilities of in
crease.
He has made nearly all of it in the
last eight months. Less than a year
ago he was vainly trying to sell a big
block of Mohawk shares at 15 cents. |
They are worth nearly 200 times that |
today.
One day about eight years ago a |
young man walked into the little bank |
that George s. Nixon, now United
States senator from Nevada, was run
ming in the town of Winnemucca, New |
he threw it on the counter, remarking
to the teller
Say, pardner, I'm broke and I'd like
to get SIS on that ring"
you've got into the wrong shop"
replied the teller. This isn't a pawn |
ship. We don't do that kind of bust
ness"
1t happened that Mr.. Nixon himself
was behind the counter. Something
in the young mans manner took his
fancy
Turning to the teller he instructed
him to give the penniess one the $75
he asked and charge it to his account
Moreover he declined to take the ring
'How do you know I'll ever pay
you?" said Wingfeld, for it was he.
Senator Nixon smiled.
''Oh, guess I'll take the chance"
he said.
They say in Goldfeld that George
Wingfield never forgets a friend or
forgives an injury. Certain it is that
his liking for Nixon began at that time
and when he made his big strike in
the Mohawk the senator was the first |
man he let in on it.
Today the firm of Nixon e. Wing |
field controls not only the Mohawk, |
but also the $5O,OOO,OOO merger of that
and four other Goldfield mines. They
are in addition the most powerful fac |
tors in all the Nevada mining fields.
Wingfeld is only 30. The son of a |
Nevada cattleman, he has in his few
years seen a good deal of the seamy
side OF life. He has herded sheep, |
ridden cattle ranges, prospected and
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