The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1913-03-29

IN crowd that continued
Y " = of large proportion
throughout the day.
Toilers from the factories intermin-
gled with men from the Offices, while
society women. stepping from their
limousine cars, edged through the
ranks of the working girls who were
also numerous in that always-chang-
Ing crowd.
The lure of gold drew them there,
rich and poor alike. 1t was the act
ual metal, the real yellow wealth In
It's various forms; quartz that exuded
1t from every pore, the nugget worn
smooth on the rock bed OF a stream.
and the dust. 1t was dramatically
displayed, not from a mirrored surface
as though in a jewelers. cabinet, or
from out the folds Of rich velvet. but
In its native element. lying amid rocks
and sand.
1t was depicted as a desert scene.
weird In every detail. created by the
hand of a master In Typographical
work and staged just within the heavy
plate glass. The sands were nodded
into dunes and mounds across long.
fat plain and led into a mountain
range which formed the background.
And on this miniature desert waste
were strewn equally miniature marks
of the luckless adventurer who had
threaded the waste in search OF
wealth. His bones, with those OF the
pack mules, lay bleached beside the
rusting tires of wagon wheel. tell
ing gruesome tale Of lost hope and
lost life.
And back among the mountain can
yons were manikin men who toiied
at the building of roads. at cutting
away lodges of pure gold. at sinking
shafts and erecting smelters.. 1t was
all real, so real that men and wom-
en- seemed semi-hypnotized. and many
of them succumbed to the honeyed
words of the glib talker who invited
them within the doors OF the place for
further examination Of the newly
discovered bonanza.
He was attired in the stage version
of typical prospector. wearing high
leather boots, corduroy pants buckled
within their tops. red tie and topped
with q wide sombrero. His chief duty
lay in the distribution Of highly IL
luminative literature on the rediscov-
cry Of one of the worlds greatest
mines. the famous Esperanza de
Guanarre of southwestern Arizona
near the border of Mexico. and ex-
tending the invitation to the flies
that were caught In the web of Gu
riosity to come into the parlor of the
spider who peddled mining stock.
All that was necessary to bring this
immense wealth to the mint at San
Francisco was a railroad to the mines.
Money for this was essential. and be-
cause the mine was so wealthy. and
because of desire to give many, in
stead of a few capitalists, the oppor-
tunity OF adding still greater burdens
of dollars to their already large packs,
the general public was given this
opportunity to subscribe for a few
shares.
4
financial bubble, so tremendously con-
Quoted we're all the details, that with
in three weeks the four men who con-
trolled the combine had managed to
clear up something like $4,000 on
stock that sold for 25 cents a share.
Only the fact that they used the mails
led to the sudden termination of op-
erations. The federal authorities
had been making investigation.
and bad found total lack of
property to be one of the chief
reason why the swindlers should not
be taking in gullible public. Three
of the four get-rich-quick artists were
landed behind bars. while fourth.
having had an inkling of what was
coming. managed to get away with
a good portion of the public contribu-
ton.
| Usually the story of the lost mine
Is the bait used to land the fish. There
have been dozens of these properties
and from time to time old tales are
renewed by sudden strike.
Somewhere In the northern portion
Of the Turtle range Of mountains, a
range east and south Of the range
designated as the Old Woman's noun
tain on the Colorado river in Cal
ifornia. lies the Lost Arch, twice 10
Gated and twice lost by the peculiar
work Of Providence
Jim Fish and his partner, a pros
pector who arrived In the days of the
first gold rush to California. were
travelling from Nevada to California in
the year 1888, in an old-fashioned
blackboard behind a team Of stringy
bay horses. They had apparently
filled the barrel Of water from the
Colorado and continued on their slow