Gilpin observer., 1907-04-25
SAD AWAKENING
THoUGHTLEss SON WILL RE-
TURN TO VACANT HOME.
MOTHER IN PAUPER's GRAVE
He Brings Back a Fortune, But No
Welcome From Mother viii
Greet Him.

Pueblo, Colo.-Ten years ago Abner
Greenwich, lad of seventeen, disap-
peared mysteriously from his home in
Pueblo. His mother, a widow, believed
he had been murdered.
The police of Pueblo and other cities
searched for him but without finding a
clew which would lead to the eXplana-
tion of the mystery, and in year the
disappearance of Abner Greenwich
was forgotten, for the haunting face
of the mother was seen no longer at
the police station, seeking news of her
boy. She had died of grief.
Now comes the temperance of Alb
ner Greenwich, who, in a letter writ
ten from Peru to boyhood friend.
John McGovern, says he is returning
with a fortune of s1,000,0O0 cleaned
from the pestilential swamps of Peru
and the sands of its fever-ridden rivers.
Il am coming home" he says, with
million to make my mothers last
days happy" not knowing that all the
millions in the world could not have
atoned for one hour of the agony
which his mother spent in her lonely
search for her son.
"She shall have everything that
money can buy, but want my arrival
to be surprise to her." Little does
| Greenwich know that he will be un-
able with all his wealth to ever buy
stone to mark his mothers last rest
ing place, for she sleeps with the un-
known dead, and that in all the world
there is no person who Will feel
a mothers Joy at the return Of wan
dering son.
OF all these things Abner Green
witch knows nothing. 1t is enough for
him now that he has $1,000,00O. and
that when as boy reading forbidden
tales of adventure, he told John Nc
Govern that some day he would disap-
pear and not return until he had ST.
000,0 900, he had meant what he said.
According to the story of Green
witch, he has paid dearly for his wealth.
The fever Of the tropics has turned his
hair gray and his face is wrinkled like
that of an old man. Il am afraid, he
says, ito see a looking glass. once
saw my face in pool near my camp,
and its appearance frightened me, but
l guess mother will know me, any.
how"
Greenwich says that firing OF
school and poorly paid work, he car
ried out his expressed detet-
mination to disappear and not return
until he had S1,000,000.
With the carelessness and cruelty or
boyhood, he never once thought of the
sorrow he would cause his mother, but,
meeting a young college graduate from
Chicago, he stealthily left Pueblo, and,
reaching New Orleans, sailed with his
companion on a ship bound for Peru.
For the first three years they suffered
all the privations of hunger, thirst and
fever, and found themselves further
handicapped by their ignorance of the
native language. Then, becoming IA
miliar with the country and its Gus
toms, they plunged into the wilderness
and engaged in the rubber business.
Until my arrival at Lima a month
ago." he says. for seven years l had
seen no white face, save that OF my
partner.
Now my last dollar Of the million
has been made. My partner has like
amount, and a month hence we will be
in Colorado, when / shall endeavor 10
make amends to mother for my con-
duct in leaving as / did"