Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1893 — Lost Fortune and Courage. [ARTICLE]

Lost Fortune and Courage.

Some strange things happen in mining camps. The number who have worked and delved ia following a prospect until their money or their patience became exhausted are many. And it not infrequently happens that such parties live to learn that they abandoned their claims when a few more days’ work, or possibly a few more strokes with the pick, would have revealed the lead which they had worked to find. A story was told to us by an old miner a few days ago of an Eastern college professor who came out here in early days and started to prospect on some of the quartz leads around Grass Valley. When he arrived here he had $70,000, and ho bought up quite a number of claims and spent his money freely in prospecting them. He worked with a buoyant heart, confident that hie labor and investments would be remunated. He had a charming wife and four bright children. One thousand after another of his money was sunk into the ground until final.y his last dollar was gone, and from outward appearance he was no nearer getting it back than he was when he started. He became despondent and while laboring under a fit of mental depression be prepared a draught of deadly poison, gave a drink to his wife and to each of his children, and then after waiting long enough to satisfy himself that they were past recovery he partook of the poison and laid him down to die with those he loved. Before their bodies were oold they were found by a man from one of his ipines who had come in to inform him that a large vein of rich rock had just been uncovered. He and his had passed beyond the cares of this world, and had no further use for earthly treasures, but the lead that was struck the day of his death turned out a rich one and yielded gold enough in subsequent years to have made him independently rich.—[Auburn (Cal.) Herald.