Show LUCKY BALDWIN AND GEORGE HEARST the foll following in account of how lucky baldwin and george hearst made their fortunes in mining operations is is going the rounds of the he press lucky baldwin made his first big r strike in a most accidental way he was not a miner and know knew nothing about mines said a man from san francisco who keeps tab on the doings of men of millions he kept a livery stable in san francisco and made considerable sid erable money money he always liked horses they were his hobby then just as they have been since when lie he made himself well known through his successes on the turf some mining men owed baldwin several hundred dollars for horses on a livery bill or something and pay him one day he offered baldwin a lot of stock in the theopher ophir mine v aich was near the mines in which flood obrien fair mackay and others were interested ophir stock worth anything only a few cents a share nor were the other mines mines near it worth much then baldwin accepted the stock in payment of the debt and threw it in his safe thinking that he might get something Z out of it some day he had about 2000 50 shares one morning mor niDo k he woke up and found himself a millionaire the comstock mines had gone up and ophir went up with them just because it was close to them the stocks which had cost baldwin a few cents a share were worth hundreds of dollars a share he had bad sense enough to sell out at the proper time george Hearst He arsta 18 first strike was also accidental ci although he was a practical miner he was superintendent of a mine down in arizona where the men who controlled the company simply wanted to keep a lot of men at work for the purpose of selling the stock at a profit they did not think the mine was really worth anything they kept up the bluff as long as as they could but finally the bottom dropped out of the stock and they sent hearst word to stop work and take the men to los angeles to be paid off hearst told the men they were to quit that night and get ready to amandon the mine at once in a spirit of hilarity the men decided to celebrate by putting in just one big blast hearst did not object and they put in a blast calculated to tear things to pieces they set it off just at quitting time and stood back to watch the effect the blast tore out tons of rock and dirt and made the place look like an earthquake had struck it then the men went and got their supper and prepared for an early start over the desert next morning hears 0 was too much of ofa a miner however to leave without ex amin aming g the rock th that at had been torn out by the blast he found what he knew was a very rich vein of ore af after ter collecting a few samples of quartz he walked up to the little camp and joined the rest in preparing for the journey he said nothing about his discovery Themen the men were paid off in los angeles and hearst went on to san francisco where the president of the company paid him about that was due him that night he went into a faro bank and won more next day he called on the president to settle up a few small matters and when asked what he was going 11 to do said he was 1 going east for a while to visit the folks by the way he said 1 I think I 1 might do so something 7 with some of that arizona mine stock in the east cast I 1 wouldn t mind trying anyhow 1 44 the president thought the idea a good one and gave hearst an option on severa several 1 thousand shares hearst want too many he was afraid of creating suspicion then he went to some men whom he knew owned stock in the mine told them the same story that he had told the president and bought outright all the shares he could pay for this put him in just the position he wanted in three days he had the necessary backing 11 and was on his way to the mine with some experts As a result the company was reorganized and the mine was reopened then the stock began to jump and hearst raked off about and still retained a big block of stock all of them even the former president made money but hearst made the most |