The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1917-06-05
Dead Man S
Luck
By DONALD CHAMBERLIN

! When was young man praeticed
mining engineering. l was sent out
! to report on some property with n view
to forming a company to develop 1t
and found that it was an extension of
a mine called Dead Mans Luck. This
| name was so singular and so sugges-
tive that asked a miner who was an
old fnhabitant of the region what 1t
| meant.
Didn't you ever hear the yarn about
| Dead Mans Luck?' he asked "Well,
I'll tell you. 1t was when this yere
country was mighty new. The Dead
Mans Luck mine was the first gold
that was discovered about here, and
there's never been such payin' dirt
| found here since. What's more, the
deeper the company went down the
richer the vein.
'There was Teller named Simmonds
come here-Andy Simmonds, prospec-
tor. Just why he prospected in this
location l don't know, for at that time
there hadn't any gold been found here,
though thered been purity good wash
In up the crick. Andy reasoned that
where there was washin' there was
liable to be somepin better, and he
put in his pick most anywhere.
People are like cattle-let one fell
Ter start Off anywhere and the rest
will follow. When they saw Andy
diggin' they thought there must be
some show for gold, and they began to
dig themselves. Some of 'em found
gold In quantities that they thought
would pay, and about that time there |
was plenty of people ready to form a |
company on any hole in the ground |
that any prospector had to sell. Com
panies sprang up like mushrooms, |
but none Of 'em made good. The GER
tiflcates of stock was floatin' about |
like Confederate money in wartimes
l remember had 1900 shares Of the
Happy Family and couldn't buy a meal !
Of vittles with 1t.
"But some O. the shares was worth |
something. suppose If there had been
a stock exchange In the region the pub
lie would have gambled for the shares
that way; but, SEEM there wasn't, lot
o men used to git together In the Al
hambra saloon and play poker for fun
candy Simmonds, who had started
the whole thing, was the wust rundown
Teller In the lot. He was a gambler
In diggtn', and when the diggin' was
over and the stock O the dead compa-
MES was the only thing left to gamble |
with he played that for all it was
worth. The shares Of all the mines |
knd ~ fhn
board, for they was all considered
equally worthless. And they played |
with certificates instead Of chips.
"As was tellin' you about Andy |
Simmonds, he got terribly run down.
He had a wife and a couple O. kids,
and since he couldn't give 'em any
thing to wear or to eat they was In a
mighty bad fix. But there's no tellin'
If they was in a worse fix than Andy
himself, for it's mighty hard on man
to see his family sufferin' and not be
able to do anything for 'em.
But In one thing Andy laid over
everybody He had the most marvellous
luck at poker. They said at one time
If the certificates of mimi stocks he
had won was worth their face he'd |
be worth millions. But what was the |
use o. ownin' lot O. paper that you
couldn't buy anything with2 If he
could have got calico dress for his
wife or put somethin' in the stummicks
o. his children with 'em there'd a. been
some comfort in it. But he couldn't
have bought pair O. shoestrings with
the whole three or four millions of /
stock.
candy was usually ahead in the
game and there was one time when he
happened to get lot O. shares In one
defunct company into his hands. He
wasn't lookin' very well. Some said he
was worryin' because his wife and chill
dren were hungry and hadn't decent
clothes to cover 'em. The truth is
Andy was starvin' himself. Why he
stuck to gamblin' for worthless shares
nobody knew, but he must have had
some kind O. hope about something or
other or he wouldn't have done it.
"Well, as 1 was startin' In to tell
you, there was one night when the
boys was playin' poker for dead min
ing shares, when Andy was rakin' in
shares without loolzin' at 'em, and
oncet when there was a big lot on the
table somebody called, and the hands,
all except Andy's, was turned over on
the table, Andy was sittin' with his
head down on his chist, lookin' played
out. His hat was down on his face, so
they couldn't see it. When he failed
to turn over his cards some one did 1t
for him, and it was a winner.
Somebody lifted Andys hat. Every
man at the table staHted His face
was as white as chalk, and his eyes
was glazed and starin'.
'sFhat was the last game of poker
played in these parts for mimi shares
Simmonds' winnin's was turned over
to his wilder, and it was said she tried
to sell the lot for money enough to get
back home. But nobody wanted 'em.
Somebody had bought up some
shares of one Of the mines called the
Lone Pine from tree CROWN near it.
One day 1t got out that these parties
had struck bonanza. They was try
in to buy up the shares, but couldn't
find who owned 'em. Andy Simmonds'
widder heard of the strike and looked
over the certificates her husband had
won when he was a-dyin'. She found
she owned the biggest half of Lone
Pine stock.
"Of course she wouldn't sell now for
any price The company was reorgan-
lied under the name of Dead Mans
Luck And what do We think? Andy's
1arter is now the Princess GobterlolL"
How kaffirs Smoke.
The natives of South Africa are In