The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-26

(cspyrisht, 1928. h unitsa stasss and ersa, Britain. csha. Japan ana ssu,h Amss'ss y S Msftn ~" "'"'' ' y TEX R,ckAnD
 One of the first men to buy drink in our bar and gambling house at Nome on that famous Fourth of July opening was an old fellow with long whiskers.
 "Fin lem up, boy" he ordered, way ing his arm to include everybody in the house.
 Ali drinks were 50 cents a throw, and the ycould take what they liked. whisky, gin, brandy or wine.
 The price didn't bother anybody in those days. The old man slapped his poke--a small bag of gold dust--on the bar and united the string.
 Weigh her up," he directed me, land let's have another one."
 The two rounds came to about fifty dollars. Come to think of it, the pres ent prices don't look so high, at that when I think of those Rondike days
 I weighed the gold--he had close to five pounds-and it came to some. thing like $1 200. We kept a pair of fine scales back of the bar. One ounce was $16 and we had the subdivisions figured out so exact that we could make change in gold dust down to 50 cents easily. s Put the rest of it away for me, boy" the old miner ordered. "I'll get 1t when come back
 But that old man never came back He went into the mountains or ur some creek. We never heard of him again. Very few prospectors ever left a name or an address. Wednesday knew them by sight and that was enough.
 The proprietor of. the saloon and gambling house. you see, was the camp banker. Often I have had as much as $100000 slowed away in my little safe, all in bags of gold, with out. knowing the owners except by sight. They trusted me implicitly. My trust in them was just as strong.
 Profits In Four Years $5O0,000
 That first night, as I have said wound up with our sales showing $93s in gold dust. Our biggest expectations had never gone that high. The re ceipts fell off little the next two days. That year, though, I cleared foi myself $100,OOO. My profits for four years out of the Nome establishment were close to $500, GOO. That wasn't on paper, either. It was all in virgin gold And had started on $35! Tosshow you how strong the play was the first week or two, my orig inal partner sold out at the end of 1C days for $10,000. Why, talk about people being amazed at ths offer oi $100, GOO for a prize fight in New Yori city or Reno--that much could have been guaranteed any time for fight up in Alaska right in our saloon and gaming house on one days notice. And there wouldn't have been any monkey business about 1t, either. It would have been gold--not certified checks
 One afternoon I was knocking about the place, watching the fellows play against the faro bank, when I saw ar old man, with long hair and a shaggy gray beard, speak to the bartender and walk away dejected like. He walked oyer to a bench and sat there with head bowed. I moved over to the bar
 Whats the matter with the old man?" asked. What did he wantT ?
 He's broke and wanted me to give him a drink"
 You turned him down, did you?'
 "Yes, he's already had two and thought maybe he'd get too much"
 l then went over to the old man still dejected and staring blankly al the floor.
 What's the matter, old-timer haven't you got any money?"
 "Nope-flat broke. Lost 1t all last night. reck'n."
 ''No, you're not" I told him. "I've got your gold. You gave it to me .to put in the safe."
 I found his poke and handed it tc him. He had fully thousand dollars worth of gold left in it; had forgot ten all about it.
 He Comes Back Flush
 He was very grateful old man. Il would have been all the same, though if it hadn't been there. He didn' know and would never have kicked.
 In a few minutes he was buying fol l