Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 June 1896 — A POOR MAN’S GOOD LUCK. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A POOR MAN’S GOOD LUCK.

A Disheartened Prospector Finda a, Bowlder Worth a Million Dollars. A romantic good luck story comes from Spokane, Wash.: Martin Neillj was returning home disheartened from an unsuccessful prospecting tour in the Salmon River district and sat down on the bank of the Columbia River to eat his dinner. As he did so he noticed a huge bowlder half burled in the sand in a dry portion of the river not fas

from where he sat Wheu he v.as through with his repast he shouldered his pick and sauntered over toward the huge bowlder. He struck bis pick into it several times and dislodged a piece of the decomposed rock. Great was his surprise when upon picking up the fragment he saw traces of gold and copper. Chipping a few more pieces he carried them to the nearest town and had them examined by assayera, who found that they would average SSO worth of gold and copper to the ton. Neilly has established a claim and Is now holding off for a syndteate offer. The bowlder is estimated to weigh 20,000 tons, and its value is considered to be a million dollars. In speaking of the discovery Neilly says: “It was some time before I fully realized what a fortune I had discovered, but when it dawned upon mo that at last I was a rich man I am afraid I made such demonstrations as would justify anyone who might have seen me in believing that I had lest my senses. For several years I have been ‘grubstaked’ in prospecting these mountains without success, and many is the time I have gone hungry for the want of the price to get something to eat, and can you blame me for going nearly crazy when I realized that I was no longer poor?”

neilly’s bowlder.