The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1909-11-25
THE WEALTH FINDERS.
Many Of Them Have Died in Wretch
ed Poverty.


Recent dispatches from Colorado
Springs carried the announcement OF
the death of Bob Womack, man de-
pendent on charity. Recently, also,
the cable from Melbourne told that
Francis Webster had died in the poor
house at Ballarat, Australia. What
doth it profit a man if he find great
wealth and if the find wreck his life?
Life must have been one continual
tragedy for Bob Womack, as when
doing odd chores around his sisters
boarding house he looked out over
the great Cripple Creek gold fields,
which he had discovered and which
have become the source Of $780,
100000 of the worlds gold. Yet he
sold his life-and the find was his
life-for $500. And as old Francis
Webster sat idly in the Ballarat be-
nevolent asylum he looked over on
that famous south hill out of which
he had lifted boulders Of pure gold
such as the world had never dreamed
Of even in fiction. The "Welcome
Nugget" alone weighed 165 pounds
avoirdupois. .
Both these men had dreamed OF
great valleys of gold, but certainly
their dreams were nothing to COM
pare with the gold they enabled 9TH
ers to find. First they dreamed of gold
and all of the remainder of their
lives they dreamed of what they had
lost. There often is distressing
connecting link between great, sud
den wealth and the poor house. The
death of these two men on opposite
sides of the earth coming so close
together serves to recall the uncer-
tainty of windfall riches.
Three years ago William Deeson
died in an Australian poor house.
His name will always be known in
mining history, for he lifted out OF
mother earth the greatest lump OF
gold that she has ever yielded. 1t
was 210 pounds of gold, so pure that
it "cut like a Cheshire cheese
With the possible exception of the
Witwatersand probably no other
small area has ever produced wealth
equal to that which Comstock lode
has yielded, yet Patrick Mclaughlin
and Peter O'Riley died paupers-Mc-
Laughlin filling a pauper grave, and
O'Riley wearing out his disappointed
life prospecting alone. And Henry
Comstock, beggared, and suffering
from delusion, ended his miserable
life with a bullet.
So the tragedies of lives not nodded
to enjoy or to be cursed with great
wealth might be enumerated almost
without limit. The tragedies have by
no means been limited to precious
metals or to individuals. The find
ing of the land, and the greatest
gold deposit the world has ever
known, lost the Beers their nation;
the child of Schalk Van Niekirk,
that one day happened to carry one OF
the shining pebbles from the Orange
river up to the house, where it was
rolled around as a marble until its
sparkle opened the greatest diamond
fields in the history of the world, is
a poor wanderer on the face Of the
globe today while the find even rob-
bed the Van Niekirds of their hum
BILE home.
The tragedy of the negro shepherd
who found the great Behia diamond
fields is only equalled by the tragedy
Of the convict that discovered gold in
Australia. The former, when he Of
fered for inspection $4,000 of as
pure gems as the world has ever
seen, was arrested and returned to
his master under severe punishment
and suspicion, while the diamonds
were confiscated. But the poor New
South Wales convict that brought in
the small nugget that was the open
sesame to fields that have yielded
$2,500,000,000 of gold, suffered not
only loss Of the nugget, but commit
ment to hard labor and $50 stripes
'laid on" FOR having melted down
the case of a stolen gold watch y
Indianapolis News.