White Pine news. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1920-1923, 1923-07-29
BABBLING
IN THE DESERT

l we'll remember my first meeting,
in 1905, with George Graham Rice,
who since that day has cut a figure at
various times in Nevada, but ct the
time and for a few days afterward he
did not make such an impression
upon me as his talents should have
warranted. / had a little shack of
an office in Tonopah. had just gotten
the first linotype in southern Nevada
and had started the first daily there.
There were two rooms to the shack
and I was in the back one working
away at something when the front
door opened and a corpulent, little
fellow with lace boots and a big
voice bounded into the door, and no
more had he done so than he said:
My names Arkell.'
What, not Arkell of Judge and
Frank Leslie's?" I answered as
eyed him and recognized him by the
pcture on the cover of the former
comic paper which was then of much
note.
SOuIt IL WIS It'll WV lilhtu a LCN
minutes, not over five, when calling
me by name he said:
Say, old man, give me a part OF
this paper. Give me a half interest
in it. I'll revolutionize your bust
ness, don't you know? I'll fill it
with stuff from all the little towns
and make a paper OF it for you. You
might charge somebody $4,000 for
a half interest, but there would be
no money in that, don't you know?
Get a man like me. I'm the guy, and
for what l would do you would be
away ahead to make me a present
of a half interest"
That was pretty much OF a talk,
all right, and rather sudden. 1t was
hard to account for. Did he take me
for a darned fool, was he out of his
head, or had he been hosting a few:
l did not know what to think, for /
will admit here that l was awed by
his presence. I had heard of Arkell
as owner of Judge and of e~nlarging
his business by organizing the Arkell
Publishing Company and taking in
Russell B. Harrison, son of Presi-
dent Harrison, as a stakeholder and
part owner. Also of his exploring
expeditions in Alaska, discovering &
lake which was named Lake Arkell,
but l was mystified and could not
make out why a sk%yscraper publisher
from Newspaper Row in New York
should ask for a gift of a half inter
est in the Tonopah Sun.
Well, l stalled for a few minutes,
then he took a new tack and said:
Say, old man, I'm here to buy
mines. DO you know anybody who's
got mines for sale? Plenty O. money.
l represent five millionaires, don't
you know? Any o these mines for
sale; you oughta know, don't YOU
know"
Several times during the day he
came in, each time with the same
spiel. There was no explanation to
the appearance, like an %apparition,
of the millionaire publisher in this
sudden fashion, and through the day
] was mystified, for the name Arkell
in the publishing world was n to
conjure with.
I think It was that evening about
5 that he brought a grinning young
Jew with him. with long hair, Slight
ly wavy, who did little but grin. Ar
kell brought up the subject of giving
him a half interest in the paper, and
that was the first that Rice did any
talking. He told me in q few words
that Arkell was a newspaper wizard
and could do as he claimed ard 7
ought to make him a present of half
the business, for he had built up
other papers in that way.
had been tackled by Soapy
Smiths cappers many a time at
Skagway and various similar ones in
Portland and Seattle, and while I am
no smarter than the average person
I stalled and let that end it.
Not having closed a deal on the
spot, Arkell again said he wanted to
buy mines and ] was sucker enough
to publish a story, With a two-columr
heading, saying they represented
five millionaires and were there to
buy mines.
I knew of nc mines for sale-by
that I meant mines, not prospects. !
supposed they meant the former. To
help them along I escorted then,
down to the Nye County bank build
ing and introduced them 10 s. A
Knapp.
In the same Ioud-voiced fashion
Arkell repeated what he had said to
me a dozen times-that he wanted
TO buy mines and represented so and
30
Mr.. Knapp chuckled. Now that's
a funny thing" he said; you wan,
to buy mines and I have mines to
sell, and we happen to meet like