"GOLD MARRIES GOLD"
Alfonso Harris was content to leave his friends to continue their
journey, as they were willing that he should return to the Netherlands,
or to Amsterdam, where lived the beautiful woman who had won his heart.
Christine de Ruyter cordially welcomed Alfonso back to study art as he
expressed it to her on the first evening after his arrival. Alfonso was
much in Christine's society, at art exhibits, in carriage drives, and on
pleasure boat excursions down the bay. Weeks went by before he could
summon courage enough to ask Christine's hand in marriage.
In the game of hearts Alfonso thought himself an able combatant. He had
studied Christine in action and in repose, in society, and when alone
under his protection at Scheveningen, and at home, and he prided himself
that he knew at least one woman thoroughly. She loved art, flowers,
music, and fine dress, and was very ambitious. The latter trait was
doubtless inbred from her distinguished naval relatives.
Christine had many acquaintances among the best families of Holland. Her
beauty, coupled with the fact that she was an heiress, made her the
object of much attention from artists and members of clubs, but possibly
her love, or affection for art, might have sprung from the desire to gain
more knowledge of how to make herself attractive in dress, manner, and
conversation. Christine was not offensively vain, but she was
passionately fond of admiration. Alfonso had never dreamed that Christine
was not genuine at heart. She appeared to him to make much of her
American acquaintance, introducing him to her many friends, young ladies
as well as young gentlemen, and always seemed to prefer his company to
others.
She manifested even tenderness for him, expressed her strong liking for
America, and Alfonso believed that Christine was truly fond of him. No
arguments or persuasions could have convinced him otherwise. The contrary
wishes of his own family, the eloquence of a Webster, winds from the
poles, all combined, could not have cooled his ardor. Alfonso had firmly
resolved to wed Christine, come what would.
He had often dreamed of her smiles, her pretty blue eyes, and her fleecy
hair floating in the breezes of the Zuider Zee. He had also dreamed of a
brilliant wedding in Holland, of a large reception at Harrisville, and
had even heard the plaudits of his fellow artists in New York, as they
lauded his master piece "Admiral De Ruyter's Great Naval Victory."
Fortified with these proofs of Christine's devotion, he sought the
company of his blond sweetheart on a balcony that overlooked the moon-lit
harbor of Amsterdam.
Here Alfonso offered his hand and heart--to a coquette--who rejected him.
He was astonished, almost stunned. Recovering from his dazed condition,
she again chilled his heart by the utterance, "You have not learned in
this practical world of ours that gold marries gold; that society plays
for equivalents. You once admitted to me that your father wanted you at
the head of his large business, and disapproved of your choice of a
profession. As an artist you seek fame. How can you divide it with me? In
asking my hand you seek to divide my gold, thus securing both fame and
gold. Alfonso we have enjoyed each other's company as friends."
"Yes, Christine, though you have been cruel we can separate as friends.
Sometime I may be able to match gold with gold. Till then, adieu."
Saying this Alfonso left the De Ruyter mansion all the more resolved,
however, to win Christine. For a moment her deceptive heart rebuked her
as she watched Alfonso's departure. In the papers of the following
evening an announcement frightened Christine. The head lines read: "Mr.
Alfonso Harris, a young American artist, drowned this morning in the
harbor."
Later the police brought to the De Ruyter home detailed news. Christine
gave instructions to use every possible effort to recover Alfonso's body,
and at once sent her servant with a telegram for Colonel Reuben Harris,
Grand Hotel, Paris, the only address she knew.
The next day, with her mother, she accompanied the police to Alfonso's
room, where she gathered up several of her love letters. A new suit of
clothes hung in the closet, a package of returned laundry lay on the
table, also pen, ink and paper. Evidently Alfonso expected to return soon
to the hotel. His clothes, watch, and money had been found in the boat
that drifted ashore.
Christine concluded that Alfonso had gone for a boat-ride and swim, as
was his custom; very likely this time to free his mind, if possible, from
recent trouble, and was seized with cramp and drowned before aid could
reach him. Vigorous search in the harbor and along the shore instituted
by the police department and the American consul failed to locate his
body or to furnish further facts to Christine as to the cause of the
accident.
* * * * *
Alfonso Harris meant all he said to Christine in his last words,
"Sometime I may be able to match gold with gold." He might be blind in
love matters, but his mind after a storm always righted itself. That
night when Alfonso reached his hotel, he planned to leave the impression
on Christine's mind that he was dead. To make the deception complete,
his trunk and all effects in his room were left as found by Christine.
Even his watch, pocket book and clothes were left behind in the little
pleasure boat, while he donned an extra suit. A Norwegian captain, who
was about leaving Amsterdam with a cargo for Canada, agreed for fifty
dollars to pick up Alfonso down the harbor and to land him in Quebec.
Fine family, beauty, and gold were powerful incentives to effort to an
ambitious young man like Alfonso, and he was resolved, incognito, to
explore the Great West in search of riches, and once found, he would lay
all at Christine's feet, and again claim her hand.
Jans Jansen, the Norwegian captain, was a jolly good ship-master, and the
fair weather voyage across the Atlantic proved enjoyable. Alfonso always
took his meals with the captain. Jans Jansen's wife and children lived in
Christiania, and his constant talk was that he hoped some day to get rich
and quit the sea. Alfonso made a warm friend of Captain Jansen, who
pledged secrecy as to his escape from Amsterdam.
The captain was robust and his big flowing red beard, blue eyes, and
bravery made him a worthy successor of the ancient vikings of the
Norseland. Jans Jansen enjoyed his pipe, and with his good stories whiled
away many an hour for Alfonso, so that when the ship, under full sail,
entered the Strait of Belle Isle and sailed across the Gulf towards the
River St. Lawrence, both the captain and young Harris regretted that
their sea-voyage was so soon to close.
The entrance of the St. Lawrence River is so broad that the navies of the
world abreast might enter the river undiscovered from either bank. Two
hundred miles up the river, Trinity House, an association of over three
hundred pilots, put aboard a pilot, and at noon next day Captain Jansen
docked his vessel at Quebec.
This old French city is located on a high promontory on the left bank
of the St. Lawrence. Its citadel, one of the strongest fortresses in
America, commands a varied and picturesque beauty. Alfonso walked up to
the obelisk, which stands in one of the squares of the Upper Town, in
joint memory of the brave generals Wolfe and Montgomery.
Next morning he was off on the Canadian Pacific Railway for Duluth, the
zenith city. Thence the journey west was through. Dakota in sight of
occasional tepees, where the brave Sioux patiently waits his call to join
the buffalo in the happy hunting grounds. Alfonso did not agree with the
popular sentiment, "The best Indian is a dead Indian," for the Sioux
seemed to him to belong to a noble race of red men.
Alfonso's enthusiasm for mining was greatly quickened by a fellow
traveler, who was the owner of a large block of stock in the famous
Homestake Mining Co. of Lead City, Black Hills, So. Dakota. This company
possesses one of the largest gold mines and mills in the world. The ore
bodies show a working face from two to four hundred feet in width, and
sink to a seemingly inexhaustible depth. The Homestake has produced over
$25,000,000 in bullion, and has divided over six millions in dividends to
stockholders.
Three days' journey brought young Harris to Montana, an inland empire
state, which lies on both sides of the Rocky Mountains. The Pacific
Express was laden with a motley crowd of men and women in search of fame
and fortune. Alfonso soon caught their enthusiasm, and visions of castles
with gilded domes floated in his imagination.
It was 1:35 P.M. when No. 1, the Pacific Express, pulled into thrifty
Helena, capital of Montana, a commercial metropolis metamorphosed from
a rude mining camp of twenty-five years ago.
The electric cars carried Alfonso to the Hotel Helena on Grand St.,
which he thought quite as good as any in his own city. Here he was
fortunate in meeting Mr. Davidson, a gentleman of large experience
as owner, organizer, and locator of some of the best gold and silver
properties in Montana and adjoining states. Irrigating canals and
water-rights were a special branch of Mr. Davidson's business. He never
failed to make the round of the leading hotels after the arrival of the
Overland. In this way he met Alfonso Harris. Davidson knew when to tell a
good story, and when to be serious. He took Alfonso to the Club, located
in elegant quarters, and the secretary gave him a complimentary visitor's
card. Davidson quickly discerned that Harris needed a week's rest, and so
took him on the motor line two miles out to the Hotel Broadwater and
Natatorium. No wonder the citizens of Helena take pride in their fine
health resort, the Helena Hot Springs.
Mr. Davidson introduced Alfonso to Colonel Broadwater, who extended the
hospitalities of his hotel on which he had expended a fortune. The
verandas were long and wide, the park was dotted with fountains, and the
interior of the hotel was luxurious in all its furnishings. The mammoth
plunge bath was the largest in the world under a single cover. Curative
mineral waters, steaming hot, flowed in abundantly from the grotto. In
the natatorium fun-loving men and women slid down the toboggan planks, or
jumped from the spring boards, while spectators in the gallery enjoyed
the aquatic sports. Elegantly appointed bathrooms in the hotel offered at
one's pleasure the double spray plunge, vapor, and needle baths.
Alfonso was not prepared to find in the mountains elegance surpassing
what he had seen abroad. Here he luxuriated for a week, and recovered his
health, which had been somewhat impaired by the unfortunate experiences
in Amsterdam, and the long journey from Holland.
Davidson visited Harris every day. At first he only sought to entertain
and awaken enthusiasm. He recited the familiar story of the Last Chance
Gulch, how in 1864, four half-starved and disheartened miners, on their
homeward journey from a prospecting tour among the gulches of the
Blackfoot country in search of the precious dust, had settled down to
work their last chance to make a stake, and had found gold in abundance.
Davidson said, "Here, where to-day runs the main street of Helena, was the
'Last Chance Gulch,' and the output of its placers was not less than
fifteen millions. From 300 feet square, where now stands the Montana
Central Railway depot, two miners took out over $330,000." Davidson told
of the great successes at the "Jay Gould," and "Big Ox Mine," and, that
in five years the output of the Drum Lummon Mine was six millions.
All this pleased young Harris, and whetted his appetite for mining
investments. Finally, as a result of several trips to examine prospects
and mines, Alfonso bought two prospects one hundred miles west of Helena
at a place called Granite.
At Drummond west of Helena, a line branches south of the Northern Pacific
to Rumsey. From Rumsey, Alfonso rode four miles to Granite, which was
located high up among huge granite boulders. Here, for a year he isolated
himself and labored hard for silver that was to be exchanged into gold
and laid at the feet of Christine. His mines had been named "Hidden
Treasure" and "Monte Christo." Possibly these mystical names influenced
Alfonso to make the purchase, and no doubt they often renewed his
courage.
The United States patents for his two lode mining claims finally came,
and were examined by legal experts, who pronounced them perfect. In the
purchase of the properties and in the development work, Alfonso and his
two associates expended $50,000. On the showing, which the development
made, together with the Annual Report of the adjacent Granite Mountain
Mining Company, young Harris hoped to form a syndicate and profitably
work his mines.
The facts in the report which Alfonso emphasized, were that the Granite
Mining Co. had paid dividends as follows:
Twelve dividends ending
July 31st, 1889 $1,900,000
Total of fifty-five dividends,
an aggregate of, $6,700,000
In eight years these mines
had produced and sold
of pure silver 10,989,858 ozs.
Of pure gold 6,521 ozs.
Realizing a gross sum $10,988,800
Total gross expenditures $ 4,092,512
Alfonso felt free to use the facts of the Granite Reports, as his
property was supposed to be a continuation of the same lode or metallic
vein. His syndicate was finally organized, and with the money thus made
available, all possible work was done for the next twelve months, on
shaft, levels, cross-cuts, drifts, winzes, and raises. For two long years
he pursued underground promising indications of wealth, which like the
will-with-the-wisp evaded him, until every prospect of silver and gold in
the "Hidden Treasure," and "Monte Christo" disappeared, and the mines
were abandoned.