Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-04-10

that meant a long journey, and mayhap a long
wait; how long no one could tell. 1t long to
Jake Jew, how much longer would it be for the
men who waited and watched in the noun
tains, that no stranger should Jump the claim
1T was decided that Jew Jake should go to
Chicago, present his credentials, and there try
to raise the necessary funds. Filled with that
enthusiasm born of perfect faith in his propo-
sition, Jew Jake sought out the men he felt sure
| would jump at such chance. But they did
not seem overanx1ous to invest money in any
thing intangible as a good story of great
wealth over which two lone men stood guard. in
some far-off mountain.
AT first he was surprised then disheartened
then utterly discouraged Days heightened
into weeks, and weeks into months, then one
day Jake wrote brief letter, saying, : 1t can't
be donei' What it cost him to write that letter
was told by his after life. He sealed it, bought
a stamp with almost his last penny. and adj
dressed it to the postoffice where the two lone
men would come down for their mail. That
was the last they heard from him.
Twenty years afterward a well dressed man
walked into tumbledown shanty in the out
skirts of the Western metropolis, place where
men bought cheap beer and cheap tobacco and
said he was looking for one Jacob PoPelwinski
and that he was prepared to pay well for any
clue that might lead to his whereabouts. He
supplemented his remarks with the information
that he had advertised for Popelwinski in many
leading papers, and had employed detectives to
aid in the search but thus far could find no
trace of him. He was making personal
search in byplaces, and if he failed in this he
would give it up.
The proprietor of the place had no informa-
ton, and the stranger was turning toward the
door, when a shaggy, unshaven man Shuff1ed
from behind stove that giving out inter-
mittent pufs of smoke, as if indignant that the
dilapidated chimney failed to do its part of the
work. He looked the that he was the
roustabout who carried coal and Shoveled ashes
for his keep.
Who is it you want. stranger? he said
with look of interested inquiry.
II looking for one Jacob Popelwinski
who came to Chicago about 1879
Well. SIR drawled the man. that's my
name
The stranger eyed him critically. That's
| an uncommon name he said. The Jacob
Popelwinski l looking for left the Elk
Mountains IN, twenty years ago. He was known
he was, felt intuitively that he had found his
man. but he waited for evidence.
well, stranger, | reckon l amt the only
poor roamin this range hitched to an
common name: but | think my friend here,
pointing to the little who kept the place,
can tell you that answer to the name of Jew
lake: and as to the Elk-well, if there's any,
thing you want to know about them noun
| tains, jest shoot ahead with yer questions"
1t isn't the mountains, Jake. too know
something of them; more, perhaps than you
do. more than | know of Jacob Popelwinski.
Tell me of yourself. 1t means much to you,
Jake, if you are the man | want
Jew Jake had passed successfully through
the stages of enthusiastic mine owner and pro-
| moter down through the Encouragement pre-
ceding the utter abandonment of hope, till he
had become day laborer, then the roustabout
working for his keep. Still he had closely
guarded his credentials and all the papers with
which he was equipped when he left the boys
and the mine in the long ago. When the days
were weary and life seemed little worth while
he would take out his treasures and go over and
over them. then turn the lock upon them and
again take up the aimless wait.
1T was only the work of a day to establish
his identity beyond question, and it was only
the work of an hour to tell him that he was one
third owner in a rich mine in the Elk Mountains
the same that he had helped to prospect. which
he supposed had been abandoned on receipt of
his brief letter.
The lawyer made a contract with his client
for half of all he might recover from the output
of the mine from the day of the first mill run.
'At first the owners refuted the idea that the
man who had gone East for money, he who
had drawn the long slip, could still have any
claim the property: but the lawyer knew
his ground.
In demanding settlement he showed figures
taken from United States mint records, going
back to the first year of the output. Bullion
to the amount of nearly three million dollars
had been marketed, one-third of which sum
1 H., 1,1o