The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1918-01-03
A Mining Story Of
the Early Days,
By ELIAS kILL.lAN
copyright. 1917. Western Newspaper Union.

A party of young people stepped into
che dingy rooms of fortune teller of
IAN Francisco and asked her to tell
eheir fortunes.
I'm tired Of this business" she said,
but i would like to make a little
money for my present needs. i will
tell you the fortune of couple whose
life is more strange than that Of
anyone whose fortune / have ever
told"
All agreed to hear the story, and,
finding whatever seats they were able.
they settled down to listen. The old
woman began:
I'm the early days Of Virginia City
there lived there a teamster with his
wife, a Scotchwoman, who took In
washing and kept a miners boarding
house. Neither of the two had ever
had any education. and neither could
read or write. They were just a
plain teamster and a plain washer
woman.
Zone day some men came to the
teamster and told him they wished to
buy a claim Of few hundred feet on
Gold hill, but they hadn't quite enough
money to pay for It. Had he any
pavings. and would he, II he had, like
10 60 in with them2 The teamster
talked the matter over with his wife,
and after a lcns discussion they
agreed that they might as well put
what they had in the claim since they
NEW Of no way to invest II to get an
interest from 1t. That was a time
khen no one knew what great wealth
mere was In the ground thereabouts
and whatever the couple bought could
be bought for very little money. So
they got ont their stocking and dump
cd the bills and gold and silver and
copper coins on the table, counted II
and took 1t to the men who were 60
ing to buy the claim and paid for their
share In It.
| by and by the owners began to take
gold out Of the mine, and the more
they took out the more, 1t seemed, was
there to take out. Suddenly the team
Bter and his wife found themselves SO
rich that they didn't know what to do
with their money.
"'what's the first thing to do, wifef
asked the teamster.
Give a big blowout she answered.
y $50 they gave big blowout at the
International hotel, asking everybody
they knew and everybody they didn't
know, and told the landlord not to pay
any attention whatever to what any
thing cost.
"Then they went away to Europe to
PEE all the sights there. They enjoyed
the Alps pretty well, for they are
Rome and Florence and Naples they
saw a lot of old buildings not so much
use as an adobe shanty and miles of
paintings of men and women without
any clothes on, and they got tired of
1t. Then they went to Egypt, where
there's nothing but sand and obelisks
and mummies, and to Greece, where
there's a big stone house on a high
hill, with the wind blowing through 1t
They call it the Acropolis, or some
thing like that, but they didn't see any
comfort in 1t, so they went away.
Next they went to Paris and rode
up and down the boulevards and the
Champs Elias and saw shows such
as never was seen In a dance house In
mining town and walked through
miles of pictures, in the galleries ant
past indecent statues. From Paris
they went to London, where they saw
q lot of sights of old piles of stones
and castles hundreds of years old. But
In London they found the first thin
to really amuse them while they wer
gone. That was riding on the busses
They rode all day and some time lat
into the night but they got tired eveI
of this and came home thinking that
after all, there was no place like Ne
vady.
"on the shore of Washoe lake the.
built a big mansion. The site was
beautiful one, with the wall of snow
capped Sierras behind 1t and water Il
front. Money was no object In 1t
building. 1t was built of quarrie
stone and furnished with the costlies
San Francisco could supply. A librar
of books with the name on every vo
ume was one of the furnishings. tn
door handles were silver, the tabl
furnishings the finest to be had q
that place at that time.
'sThe house was big enough for
hundred families, but they didn't hav
even a single chick of their own, s
they adopted little girl they name
Persia. But the child sickened. The
loved her dearly-so dearly that the
would have gladly given all thei
wealth to save her, but the Lor
wouldn't take 1t in exchange, and Pc
sia died, and that left no one In th
big house but themselves.
Next the teamster died and wa
buried under the shadow of tn
-aglerras and after her husbands deaf
everything seemed to 60 again'
the widow. Her fortune was mel
ing away, and she undertook
a.