Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1877 — Extraordinary Wood Fortune of a Poverty-Stricken Miner. [ARTICLE]

Extraordinary Wood Fortune of a Pov-erty-Stricken Miner.

The richest 3trike made in this country for many years, and as rich perhaps as was ever made, we here have the pleasure of recording. A. 0. Bell, commonly called Pike Bell, who, with his family, has resided for many years on Bald Hill, a few miles north of Auburn, as many know, is a dauntless prospector. Though occasionally making a strike of some considerable importance in the past, he has managed, like moot modern prospectors, to keep poor. Last winter in particular he was in very straightened circumstances, and having no money and tne merchants refusing to credit him, he offered his only horse, worth about SSO, for $lO, that he might buy bread for his children, apd failing in his efforts to sacrifice his horse, he pawned the ring off his wife’s finger to obtain the necessaries of life. Day by day he continued his searches for the glittering treasure, and whether the passing day had revealed a color or not his spirits were always jubilant, apparently kept up i.y the hope that seemed never to desert him of doing better on the morrow. At last the lucky day came. It was about three weeks, ago, when hunting around over the hills he struck his pick into a little mound which resembled somewhat in appearance an ant hill, and to his delight lie unearthed some pieces ot decomposed quartz, attached to which were some colors of gold. Encouraged at this prospect he began to sink on. his new lead, and was rewarded by finding more hr less gold at every stage of descent. Last Saturday he had reached a depth ot about thirty feet, and had taken out in sinking that far rock estimated to be worth about $1,500. The rock beingextremely rotten, or wbai is called by quartz miners decomposed, he had with little effort pounded out in a mortar enough to pay expenses as he progressed. He bad hired men to assist biin in working thimine, and on last Monday morning they went to work as usual. The gouge, as w.wou'd call it, as it is too rotleu to be properly called a ledge, was discovered by noon to have become suddenly richer. In the afternoon chunks ot almost pure gold were taken out, and the decomposed

stuff that filled the interstices between the rocks was so rich in gold that Pike began to wash it out with a pan. From three pansfull washed Monday afternoon he obtained gold estimated to be worth between $4,000 and $5,000. That evening he came into town, and giving ns a hint of what he had got, invited ns to go out and see it. On Tuesday afternoon, in company with Sheriff McCormick, we visited the intoe. We found Bell with a pan of gold In his hands worth from one ’thousand to fifteen hundred dollars,which he assuied us all came from one pan of dirt. “But,” said he, “if you don’t believe it, I will wash another pan and show you.” We told him to wash. The pan whs sunt down in the shaft and soon returned filled with a mass of rnnddy, rocky stuff that sparkled all over with pieces of gold. This was washed out and fonnd to contain fully os much of the precious metal, if not more, than the one he had just finished panning when we arrived. It was really tthe greatest sight, we ever saw, and McCormick, who had mined in California in its palmiest days, says it knocked the spots off anything he ever saw except on one particular occasion. Bell having convinced us of the richness of his mine, took us to his house to show us the proceeds of his previous days’ panning, that we might he convinced of what he had told us. The sight was one more easily imagined than realized. As we looked upon the pans of gold before us we thought of Aladdin and )iis magic lamp, and wondered whether the story had not been suggested by some such reality as was before us. On Wednesday evening Mr. Bell (it is “Mr.” now, since he has lots of gold—it was Pike before,) was in town again, and he informed us what we saw was nothing; that he had taken out SIO,OOO in three pans that day; that he had taken out, all told, up to that time, between $30,000 and $35,000, and that he had an offer and was about to sell for $20,000. When asked his notion for selling, he said he would get away with about $50,000, and that was money enough for him. To be sure it is a good stake, and when we consider that it was made in three days, it must be confessed that the chances for making a sudden fortune in California are not ail gone.—Placer (Cal.) Herald.

—Thoughtlessness is one of the great sins of the present generation. Numerous instances could be cited where men of weight have fallen upon a good sidewalk, and yet never gave a thought to the pavement, that perhaps was seriously injured. Not so with Robert Brown, a colored waiter at the Hotel Bates, Indianapolis. He was passing the third-story balcony of the hotel, on his way to his room, the other night, and accidentally fell over the railing to the pavement below, a distance of thirty-five feet. Strange to say, although stunned for a moment, he was Dot seriously hurt, and was heard to say, as he walked off: “ I’ll have that pavement fixed in the morning.” Such regard for the rights of others is highly commendable. —Now the summer nights are bringing, Where the fragant vine* are clinging, Tunefnl glee clubs, shrilly singing, Tra, la, la, la, Tra, la, la! While the mule, with ears uprising, Listens to the sounds surprising, And in accents agonizing Echoes, "Hee haw! haw, haw, haw!” —Burlington Hawk-Eye. —The stylish little girl wears a Japanese straw hat with flat crown and narrow brim.