Bisbee daily review., 1907-10-20
OLD LADY FOOLS
 EXPERTS
She Really Believed Golden
 Dream Mine Was Valuable,
 and So Did Several Smart Mining Men of Country

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 19.-Any one accused of foOling Marshall Field, the Rothschilds and Sir Henry Hefty, the great mine and financial expert, on an Arizona mine deal, might be eX- pected to be slick and imposing.
 But Mrs. Jacques Traves, who is alleged to have played that role, is a little. withered, white-haired, anx- ious-loOking French woman. She knows nothing whatever about mines.
 She was defendant in a sensational mining suit, on trial before Judge Hut. ton in the Superior Court yesterday. The plaintiff was W. H. Afford who shot Attorney Jay Hunter some years ago in self defense.
 Although Afford is a peculiarly keen and sagaCious mine operator, it is claimed by his lawyers that both he and Warren Gillelen, a Los Angeles banker. were misIed by Mrs. Traves. He asked the court to compel her to pay back something over 5000 of his money.
 Afford lost the suit, for the court decided that Mrs. Traves is only "a dreamer-n-ot a swindler.
 For twenty-seven years this woman has cherished the notion that she has 9 mine in Arizona worth coutless mil lions That's an old and common enough dream, but not many persons have been able to get offers of hun dreds of thousands of dollars from men like Marshall Field and the Rothschilds on the strength of the dream.
 From her offended air Of endured insult in the courtroom yesterday, it is apparent that her faith in her idea is unshaken, despite the testimony of mining experts and the remarks of the court.
 Her faith still clings to a faded old yellow paper, wherein some alleged mine expert told her of untold wealth on he own property. His report, " by means of which so many hard headed men of means were set jim gling their millions, is the real mys- tery of the story. Afford claims that this expert" never, in fact, existed.
 Mrs. Traves is the widow of Jacques Traves, who lived in San Francisco years ago. According to the story she told prospective purchasers of her mine, Jacques located it near Yuma in 1872. She asserts that the claim was jumped two years later by no less a parsonage than N. Martin, pres ident of the Hibernia Bank of San Francisco.
 Martin sent some boy engineer, just out of school, to the mine and got such poor results that it was abandoned. Martin died and his widow neglected it. Finally the claim fell again into the hands of Jacques Traves.
 On the witness stand yesterday, Mrs. Traves told a pathetic story of her struggles to keep possession of this mine-which she still thinks is worth an enormous fortune.
 Her husband died soon after regain ing possession of it and she had to go down to Arizona and attend to the development work. One year, all the miners went off on grand drunk and she had to go down in the shaft her self "a delicate little woman-and do the assessment work herself.
 She finally perfected the patent on one of her claims-the MarGuita-and holds two more on annual assessment work.
 In the early nineties, it appears that she went East, and proposed to rich men, like Marshall Field, that they buy the mine She claims Field of. fered her S50O,000 for it, and that A J. Drexel also made her an offer. She says Field recommended her to Prof. F. W. Ihne, the expert" saying he would be likely to make a good report
 lime did. He made such good re port that everything else happened His report is the cherished old vel. lowed piece Of typewriting. He says in the report that he wants to be very conservative, so he will only testify to the mine being able to produce about s16,s32 sheer profits every month for an endless period of years
 The lawyers for Afford were anxious to get Prof. Ihne on the witness stand and ask him what he says about a mine when he feels really enthusias. tic. But Prof Ihne Is no longer to be found.
 A letter from Ihne was produced food to keep the old Frenchwoman' s dream alive. In it, he conservatively advised her to sell the mine. even if she only got paltry s500,000 for it, because in her moneyless condition SC much treasure was like the precious pearl or valuable diamond at the foot of the starving hen of which we read in our childhood.
 That report, with that friendly let ter, seems to have fired the imagina- ton of every shrewd old business man to whom Mrs. Traves confided her pipe dream.
 She testified that the agent whom Marshall Field sent out to buy the mine wanted to give his chief the double cross;" told her to keep the mine herself and marry him.
 Sir Henry Hefty, agent of the Roths. childs, tried to buy 1t, she alleges, U. s. G. Todd of Los Angeles wanted to give her $175,000 for it, she says, on the strength of the report of Prof. Ihne. Former Senator Dorsey, she averred, also nibbled at the bait
 Finally Afford read the report and the letter and was fierce for the mine. At that time, Mrs. Trayes already was fin a lawsuit like this one. and had been mulcted in the sum of $5000 in favor of some FreDchmen who had believed her dream. She went for re- lief to Warren Gillelen, who, she al (Contiuued on Page Tenl