Show FEE NEWWORLD MIDAS i VV S Stratton of Cripple Creek in This City HE TALKS OF HIS WEALTH WITH A GREAT DEAL OF MODESTY MOD-ESTY AND RETICENCE Considers It a Gift From Something or SomebodyHow He Located the Independence Mine Which S Has Now 820000000 Worth of Ore in Sight and He Considers the Portland Group a Better Property Prop-erty Than the Independence W S Stratton or Cripple Creek Midas Mi-das of the new world has come with his golden touch to the city of Zion Almost his first act in Utah was the dropping of a gold piece last evening into the hat of a wandering minstrel at the Knutsford where the Colorado mining king will tarry for several days Freely give and ye shall freely receive is the aphorism that guides Mr Strattons life Everything he has touched for the last four years has melted into gold those upon whom his j il I figure They saw a man with white j I hair and mustache thinned out by the toil of nearly 155 years and a spare I frame clad in a short jacket and baggy trousers A soft white felt hat with generous brim drawn down over I I very alert blue eyes That a W S Stratton the man of sudden wealth the story of whose rise in two years from a carpenter to the greatest mining min-ing magnate of this hemisphere has gone around the world I SHUNS NOTORIETY Mr Stratton made it obvious that he I did not court notoriety The mans modesty is overpowering i staggers I one when brought into direct contact For three hours following his arrival in the city by the 310 train he tried to avoid a Herald representative A friend who accompanies the millionaire explained that Mr Stratton was constantly con-stantly bored until his life was ac I tually a burden This was one of the very reasons which had induced him I to temporarily desert his home in Colorado Colo-rado Springs for a trip of diversion through the south ending practically at the big fight in Carson for Mr Stratton was an ardent observer of the recent gladatorial contest When approached upon the subject of an interview wherein Crfpple Creek was used a the subject Strattons diffidence came to the front You should have seen a man who has just left me said he That person per-son knows more about Cripple Creek I and its mines than I could ever hope to tell you Catching the smile of incredulity in-credulity he continued hastily Oh I see you want to get me to I talk because I happen to be just a little bit of a mere notorious character ter Well come over here to a quiet corner Drawing his that down over his keen eyes and adjusting his cigar in the corner of his lips Stratton said I that Cripple Creek was there to stay i I It had every element of permanence and allthat he had in the world was right there FAITH IN CRIPPLE CREEK I dont know how I could show anymore any-more faith in the place Last year it produced between 9000000 and 10 000000 I predict that i will go be tween 10000000 and 12000000 this year It has probably 15 dividend pay ing mines I do not call a mine a pay i property until it makes a revenue for its owners over and above every expense ex-pense There are probably 100 properties proper-ties in that camp that pay their current cur-rent expenses Coming down to the more interesting part of the conversation Mr Stratton I chose to say something about the wonderful won-derful Independence mine out of which i his own fortune has been made I The Independence property is not the greatest property in the camp although al-though it has produced now over 2000 000 Its nntnut lacf voar woe 8ftn nnn The expense monthly of operation vvi possibly 20000 I am also interested heavily in the Portland group adjoining adjoin-ing the Independence I costs 25 000 each month to operate that property prop-erty and it produces 70000 Its orig inal oyners who are still interested are Jim Burns and John Harnahan They were poor men in 1891 Harnahan used to work for me as a miner forays for-ays wages and Burns did odd jobs in Colorado Springs In the same year I had nothing to boast of I was in I fact as poor as a church mouse and knew no more about mining than that I flower pot For the past 25 years I have resided at Colorado Springs working at the trade of carpenter and I amassed at intervals enough cash to repeatedly try my luck in mining ventures ven-tures at different points in Colorado I always came back to the Springs bit Pi2 Iit4 Cvi < F V MILLIONAIRE STBATTON Prom a Sketch by Haines J I finger has rested have realized their dreams of avarice yet the meaning of that word is not known to Stratton I This modern man of millions is modest to the degree of supreme indifference I have always thought of my few I worldly goods as a gift from some thing or somebody was the palpably humble excuse he had to offer for him self in an interview with The Herald lat night I was not of my wisdom I was lucky No sir my operations have not been extended outside of Cripple Creek Every dollar in my name is in the mining of that camp I feel as though I owed to the spot where my fortune was made that some faith be shown in its permanence People came and people passed in the corridor Thats Stratton they whispered Who Not the mining millionaire I and oblivious to the comment Stratton Strat-ton stood in the rotunda a man of j 1 insignificant stature and dressed so plainly that the curious doubted and I looked around for some more opulent I broke and started again at the bottom On one of these occasions I remember distinctly that I walked home from Silverton a distance of over 400 miles I used to get mightily discouraged The multimillionaire was beginning to get reminiscent over his cigar and seemed to be pleased that he had found a willing auditor 1 RANDOM SHOTS The Cripple Creek excitement opened up l packed my prospecting kit into the new gold fields and staked out some claims at random Development Develop-ment only made me cynical for there no apparent values I awoke on the morning of July 4 1891 with an intuition intu-ition a premonition or something of that sort Let me explain Right in front of my cabin there extended a jagged reef of rock I looked like granite and was covered scantily with moss earth and scrub trees I had frequently remarked to my companion compan-ion that it looked like a lead but had despised it because others whom I knew to be much more experienced prospectors than myself had chipped and picked at that unlovely reef and snorted at the rock But on that Fourth of July morning I awoke with a voice in mx earnot as bad as that of course but it was virtually so Something j i I Some-thing told me to locate that reef I i i put up my shingle and dislodged some i 1 of the rock I was taken to Colorado Springs In a few days the assay wa = i returned to me I ran 380 in gold to the ton I was elated and later took some samples myself to the Springs t They ran 1120 and several of them I 1 My temperature went down a i good many degrees I thought Well I this claim or nothing and begari i blasting out the reef That reef was i the start of the Independence mine I took my greatest values from the ledge i as it protruded from the surface of the i surrounding country rock I I INESTIMABLE MILLIONS I I We are now 900 feet in depth and I have over four miles of drifting I can 1 II not estimate how many minions are insight j in-sight I have received many offers for the property I can be sold at any I I moment on the sending of a telegram to the London Exploration company I which corporation has purchased the Anaconda copper mines at Butte I through Hamilton Smith Their offer I I to me for the Independence was 3000 000 They admitted to me that on the i showing I could take 20000000 from I the property yet I consider the Portland I Port-land group a better outlook than was I the Independence at any time in its i history That group is stocked for 3 j 000000 but it passed through some j I wretched drawbacks which depreciated the value of the stock I sold 100000 I shares of the Portland in New York for 200000 making it on this basis a I 6000000 property I The story that on the fifth anniversary anniver-sary of the Independence last year I started to break the recoil raising 1 000000 from the mine on that day is emphatically not true and Mr Strat tons eyes snapped No mine in the world could accomplish any such feat I dont remember how much we took out Julv 4 1896 We had been before that time producing regularly over 30 000 each month and thought that very fair No sir I have practically nom no-m < ey invested in the real estate of th camp Let me see I believe 1 am correct in saying that I have put 800 000 back In Cripple Creek mines which I now hold and which I am confident will double the investment FROM SOMETHING OR SOMEBODY Is there no desire on your Dart to place your money in other holdings None I look at the way I have been favored peculiarly perhaps I consider it all to have been a gift from something some-thing or somebody and as long as I continue to make i out of the earth T feel I am wronging no one cheating no I person on percentages and interests It i I has been placed there by the Almighty and i has been given to me I believe in circulating it a much as possible I where it will do no harm I figure on parting with the mine in this way Suppose I do hold the property I is I admitted that there may be an income of S20000000 from it Very well suppose I sup-pose I extracted so much of the values I before getting ready to sell that the outlook would not warrant more than 25000 as a purchase price Why a man could get along very comfortably on 25000 if he had nothing else I want to add this for Cripple Creek I was not developed with foreign or eastern capital but almost paid for its own development from the outset There is very little foreign capital in the camp That is the best argument to offset the stories about its instabil ity I have put 75000 worth of surface improvements on the Independence with this verv idea before me Mr Strattons visit to Utah has no special meaning He has not come here to invest but is simply passing through from the coast on the way back to his home He stopped in Carson Car-son on route and witnessed the first prize fight within his recollection recolecton Fitzsimmons had the contest in his grasp at everv moment of the light was the comment of Mr Stratton When I saw Corbett mount the platform plat-form I said to my friend Mr House That man is not in it hes too shaky in the legs Why he trembled like a leaf an i that little dance in his corner I gave his condition away so far a I was concerned I proved to me that I he was suffering from some form of muscular hysteria His blows were never forceful except in two or three instances when he got a clear swing but they had no effect on Fitz I got very much excited over the affair but was glad that I had attended I shall remain in your city for several days I |