Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1908-08-21
Easy MONEY.
copyright. 1901

the east In which he was employed
nude a cut in salaries that James
Halpin went west. During the next
six years he was cowboy. miner. pros
pector and teamster. AS a ~prospector
be made a miserable failure of 1t. In
the other vacations he put in honest
work for his money. Among his ac-
~qunntances he was spoken of as an
honest man and was often trusted.
There We're men who sneered at his
principles. For instance. when he dis
covered the $1,000 nugget In the dump
at the Golden Lion mine and turned
1t in to the company as its property he
was sneered and laughed at on all
sides. The company did not even hand
him out a cigar for his probity.
Then there was the cast of the train
holdup. The robbers got the express
all right, together with a big lot Of
registered mail, but In their hurry they
abandoned a mail bag and dropped two
or three packages. Halpin found them
uluOnS liz lONho anu odSGUt ucu. 4AtI0
was over $4,000 in all. The express
company started out to reward him.
but finally ended up by notifying him
that be ought to be glad that he had
not been arrested as n of the sus-
poets. Uncle Sam received his mail
bag and said nothing and did nothing.
As a %prospector Halpin discovered
the Double Cross mine and told a
friend of 1t in confidence. The friend
FASTENED to the land Office and located
the mine in his own name and within
two months had sold 1t for a quarter
of a million dollars. He was a man
without sand" and Halpin could have
gone to him with a gun and at least
made him divide, but he did nothing
of the kind. 1t thus came about that
the men who knew Halpin had two
saying to fit his case. One was "As
honest as Jim Halpin" and the other
las big a fool as Jim Halpin." He
was simply trying to be a square man.
1t was In his blood, and 1t took a long
time to convince him that all the rest
of mankind was on the make and that
he would get the worst of the deal
every time. He had to be reduced to
rags and hunger before he would be-
lieve 1t.
One day Jim Halpin woke up. He
had travelled over a good part of three
western states and was familiar with
the better portions. He got the loan
of a suit of clothes and a few dollars
In cash and brought up in the town in
which a certain member of congress
was living. They had a talk. They
consulted maps. They made a bar
gain. MHp wasn't to be fooled
again and the JxFyNsfAor a~gresments
vas ironclad. The congressman would
have left loopholes by which be could
later on swindle the man who had
come to him as they had planned to
swindle Uncle Sam, but he had to aban-
don this part of the programme. When
all was ready Halpin set forth to To-
cate lands. They were fertile valleys,
timbered lands. coal lands and hills
filed with iron and coal. They were
entered under different names as home
steads, desert lands, soldiers lands and
other trickery, and In n year they
had gobbled up more than q million
dollars worth. Then Halpin sold his
share for a hundred thousand dollars
rather than wait longer. He also had
other plans he wanted to carry out.
and he needed the money to do so.
Jim Halpin with a hundred thousand
dollars to his credit in the bank was
no longer sneered at. He had be-
come a man to take of the hat to.
They dropped "the honest as Jim
Halpin." They knew that he had made
his money by sharp practice, but they
thought all the more of him for it.
The man who can make a fortune and
just escape the law in doing 1t receives
more praise than an honest man who
tolls a lifetime to get $4,000 together
The "Jim" now became Judge or
Colonel" when men addressed him.
In locating the lands Halpin had not
played square with the congressman.
He had left out certain Goa fields. He
now located them for himself. He was
even generous enough to pay the gov
eminent $3.50 al acre for land worth
perhaps a hundred thousand per acre,
and thus he had nothing to hide. The
coal lands were in the mountains and
the towns and cities on the plains. To
carry out his plans the two must be
cOnnectpd hv railroads Mr. HaInin
went to three different legislatures. A
few members could be made to see
what a great thing it would be II this
and that town could secure coal at the
price of buffalo chips, and they were
ready to grant a charter. A number OF
others saw 1t only after they had been
paid from $500 to $1,000 apiece, Land
grants were obtained with the charters
By selling half the acreage the roads