some fifty claims on various lodes in the newer gold fields of the Clear
creek region. Some I had pre-empted, and some I had bought in job lots
from miners who were "broke" or were about to leave the mountains. Some
had prospect holes dug in them and some were entirely undeveloped. They
may have been worthless, and they may have contained untold millions.
But I had given up the mining business. Some time after returning to
Chicago I was making a real estate trade, and we were a little slow in
adjusting the difference in values and closing the deal, and finally as
"boot" to make things even I threw in these fifty gold mines. Perhaps
this was a mistake and a squandering of wealth and opportunities. Had I
only kept them, and gotten up some artistic deeds of conveyance, in
gilded letters, what magnificent wedding presents they would have made.
And the supply would have been as exhaustless as that of Queen
Victoria's India shawls. In the long list of high-sounding, useless
presents, the present of a gold mine would have led all the rest.
In summing up the losses and gains of the expedition, I have to charge
on one side two years and four months of time devoted to hard work, with
many privations, and about $500 in cash which I was out of pocket. On
the other side, I had built up a fine constitution, increased in
strength and endurance, gained valuable business experience, learned in
a measure to persevere under difficulties, and to bear with patience and
fortitude the back-sets, reverses and disappointments that so often
beset us, and, finally, had learned enough not to be taken in by the
schemers who are constantly enticing eastern people to invest in gold
and silver mines. Did the enterprise pay?
PRINTED BY R. R. DONNELLEY
AND SONS COMPANY AT THE
LAKESIDE PRESS, CHICAGO, ILL.