Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1909-10-27
THE WEALTH FINDERS.
Many Of Them Have Died in wretchs
ed Poverty, ,Ssss. ,

Many Of Them Have Died in Wretche
ed Poverty, ,4s.ssa
Recent dispatches from Colorado
| Springs carried the announcement of
the death of Bob Womack, a 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 st50,000,-
900 of the worlds gold. Yet he sold
his life-and the find was his life
for $500. And as old Francis Web
/ ster sat idly in the Ballarat benevo-
lent asylum he looked owe 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 Mug
GET alone weighed 165 pounds avoir-
dupois.
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 reminder of their
lives they dreamed of what they had
lost. There often is a 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 cut of
mother earth the greatest lump Of
gold that she has ever yielded. 1t
was 21O pounds of gold SO pure that
it "cut like a Cheshire cheese"
With the possible exception of the
Witwatersrand probably no other
small area has aver produced wealth
equal to that which the Comstock
lode has yielded, yet Patrick Nc
Laughlin and Peter O'Riley died
paupers-McLaughlin filling a pau
per grave, and O'Riley wearing out
his disappointed life prospecting
alone. And Henry Comstock, beg
CARED, and suffering from delusion,
ended his miserable life with a bull
let.
So the tragedies of lives not mold
ed 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 finding Of the land, and the
greatest gold deposit the world has
ever known, lost the Beers their ma
ton; the child Of Schalk Van Me
kirk, that one day happened to carry
one Of the shining pebbles from the
Orange River up to the house, where
1t was rolled around as a marble UNI
TIL its sparkle opened the greatest
diamond fields in the history of the
world. is a poor wanderer on the
face of the globe to-day while the
find even robbed the Van Niekirks Of
their humble home.
The tragedy oftthe negro shepherd
who found the great Bahia diamond
fields is only equalled by the tragedy
of the convict that discovered gold
In Australia. The former, when he
offered fer inspection 100000 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 confscated. But the poor New
South Wales convict that brought in
the small nugget that was the open
sesame to. fields that have yielded
?S2,500,000,G coo 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
indianapolis News.