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Show ; HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE THE BOSS OF THE U. S. MINT?K Talking About Careers, Here Is a Man Who Started as a "Desert Rat" in Rawhide Boots and Landed in Washington in a High Silk Hat By Joseph S. Jordan FROM a "desert, rat" to Director of the Mint is a wide span; but Ray T. Baker bridged the alkali wastes of Nevada, then scaled the Rockies and landed -with both feet in the coveted and important berth at 'Washington. And who is Ray Baker? Ask t liiiL question out in the battle-: battle-: torn Suite and the answer will be "Who isn't he?" Ask It over in Petrograd and if they're not too busy with a new revolution they'll pause to tell you of a nervy Yankee who wanted to know all about the war at first hand and insisted in slipping out to the eastern front when nobody was looking. look-ing. Ask former convicts in the Carson penitentiary and they will tell you that he is the best warden who was ever at the head of a prison. In London Lon-don and Paris they knew him as a society and mining man; in California, the home of the Bakers, he dabbled in politics and was much sought in society. so-ciety. Alameda County is the birthplace birth-place of California politics, and it was there that Mr. Baker served his novitiate. noviti-ate. Old-time politicians there will' tell you that he never used baby talk that he conversed in Iris cradle In diplomatic language. The country got an insight into California politics last year. Mr. Baker Ray Baker was a real "rah-rah" boy and didn't worry about the future. He was fond of society in his youth and was an eagerly sought partner in the dunce. In appearance he was immaculate im-maculate and his perfect-fitting clothes covered the physique of a young gladiator. He took as naturally to politics as an Irishman. He is Irish. He didn't look for political preferment, prefer-ment, but everybody is. more or less, in politics in Oakland, the fashionable center of Alameda County. They used to scramble for all the Federal and State jobs, and generally landed three-quarters three-quarters of them. Product of the AX est But the love of adventure, inherent in young Baker, listened to the call of the wild. He became restive for the big outdoor life. His father had lived in Virginia City when the Comstock was unearthing its millions, when adventurers ad-venturers from ail ends of the earth deemed it their Mecca, and a man had to be a man among men. Ray was born in Eureka, New, had spent some of his early years there, and when Tono-pah, Tono-pah, about 100 miles south of Virginia City. W3s declared the second Comstock Com-stock the young adventurer took himself him-self thither. A younger brother, Cleveland, had "-." followed the footsteps of his father in Sf0 tie Practice of law, and had located up V A" ? In the mining camp. It wasn't long ; j after the arrival of Ray that Cleveland fc:;;::'-trV"L":- T was elected District Attorney of Nye I- ..jr. -; J County, of which Tonopah is the F -V q county seat. The camp was set in ; J most picturesque environments. There L- I were good men and bad men, good , women and bad and good "bad men'; ' f men who had invested their money in y-' V the mines, miners work ins? for them, fc .-'J gamblers "working" all kinds of peo- t: '.' J pie, lawyers, promoters, doctors, num- p' I berless saloons and two churches. I I Ray Baker wasn't in camp a month before he was p;irt of the picture of V , ' Western life at the frontier. He was on equally friendly footing with the "As warden Baker once hired a special and took all his 'honor charges' to See 'Alias Jimmic Valentine'" came honestly by his political convictions. convic-tions. He inherited them. Oorge "Washington Hak'-r. his father, wan leading coun-l for the Southern Pacific Pa-cific Railroad. ;t nd was esteemed ono of the brainiest of men and the real legal luminary of his time. The South'-! !! Pacific had a code of politics singularly its own. The trusts and ( o: pora' ions hnve learned a lot from sta nflar.ls .ct up by the l;t,ti Col Us r. HuMtintrtAH. The Southern 1 ai-Ill; i." I 1 111 ''It u'iniii" Mil in id I ii of politic;- in?; t tli'-r w-:- just as pood Democrats as Rpnhlio't ns. If they couldn't . -U cl fa nrire Rpubli-chuk Rpubli-chuk to oflic- trVv bHiiv-d in making mak-ing a Dmorrat the fa von U- son. The Southern I'ltf-if;-: ur- 1 1f politics of California. until Hit a in Johnson "busted thni wide open." Then, when they t ried to def' a t. finvrn'T Hiram for United States Senator they made the re-election of President Wilton Wil-ton unanimous. And California a Republican Re-publican Suite! The elder .Mr. Jlaker made money i-,y the bucketful, b'lt he Was of the who''. ("Hj'cd, eri'T'fii;: si oc; of : riy ( ai i-f..in:ari". i-f..in:ari". who fpent It by In b irrel. To ck-i, nf I,m children he gavr the b'h.t of roliepn, wJucuIioT). He plO udrd for fh" future of thn girls, but admofii--lu-d the bo, a Hint tliev immt h. their own llilnking after their ol-Ic ol-Ic e da; H. followed the footsteps of his father in the practice of law, and had located up In the mining camp. It wasn't long after the arrival of Ray that Cleveland was elected District Attorney of Nye County, of which Tonopah is the county seat. The camp was set in most picturesque environments. There were good men and bad men, good women and bad and good "bad men'; men who bad invested their money in the mines, miners working for them, gamblers "working" all kinds of people, peo-ple, lawyers, promoters, doctors, numberless num-berless saloons and two churches. Ray Baker wasn't in camp a month before he was part of the picture of Western life at the frontier. He was on equally friendly footing with the big mine owner and the dance-hall proprietor, and although he bought many a drink he never drank one. He was certainly a unique character In a wild town like that. He was ambitious to discover a mine of his own. He knew that that didn't mean a fortune over night, but he had the bent of backing among bis Influential friends in San Francisco. One afternoon, after the "rush" to rjreenwatcr, where big depoplts of copper cop-per were supposed to exist, Ray Baker, immaculate dresser and drawing-room paragon, left Tonopah as the cliauf-f"ur cliauf-f"ur of twenty burros to break a trail into Ubehebe, which be discovered In Heath Valley. J lo wa s 1 he mo?t pic- of the camp. His big boots were laced over his khakis. Into which was stuck a soft shirt. His tinrribrero was tilted and a flowing red tie, touch of the old lif", or, maybe, cf pnyy gory, fell away from his throat. In I fie (iopper (iountry It took a. man of linn nerve (n attempt at-tempt a trip hk that. He had been In Oe;,lb V;iley by automobile and had locate. J bis giound ;ind said nothing about it. He v.'is going now to ru-cun: the -;! ni ff the roppr-r country, a f trot i h ro" the, derrt into tlm J 'u ncra I I Ui hk". for mini; mii of the. V.,iM. of Ij.mMi Valley. ;tu, 1,,, ).,) to b e;i J; -, new ti :u for I on niil4 of j-anMy w;ite and ragM brush. Ho had no v. u id" and no con i pa nlon ; a vc the burros. Tint Il.ty F'aker v.as came ;md went (iy;a-- v.jtli a. gllll. iiu wasn't . I" '.' : : .!;y ,. .v'- ; Sr.v': V Vii; 1;b; pa ::: v; :;-:r PAX- v-' ' , RAY T. BAKER Director of the U. S. Mint. Vafhington, D. C. Tonopah for several months. Bis reports re-ports began to come in about Ubehebe. Men ivent to the new camp from Tonopah, Tono-pah, Goldfleld and other places. Then special trains began to arrive at Tonopah Tono-pah from Eastern centers, and presently present-ly it became known that associated tvitli the flaring Baker was "Jack" Sauls-bury, Sauls-bury, one of the richest men in that section of Nevada. The special parties were taken to Ubehebe In automobiles. Their experts pronounced the sround worthwhile; the principals bought stock and claims. One day a story found its way Into Tonopah about a murderous Greek running amuck and killing a miner and wounding two others at Ubehebe. Then he had started out with the avowed determination to kill Ray Baker, the mine operator. Into autos poured Sheriffs and posses. Sheriff Jack Owens, a great friend of Ray. went from Tonopah. Days went by and nothing was heard of Ray or the murderer. Ray was not at the mine. Ha was In Death Valley somewhere; so was the Greek. Death Valley was well named. Its streams flowed with the copper content con-tent of the hills, carrying deadly poison poi-son in their waters. Down far below sea level the floor of the valley lies between the Panamint and Funeral Ranges, rising sheer to the sky. The floor was strewn with the bones of prospectors since the rush to Green-water. Green-water. If there be a pool of pure water in there it Is known only to thu few. We, in Tonopah, bclieverf that Ray had shared the fate of many a desert rat, who had lost his way In the Valley of Death, bewildered at fust for want of water, then either drinking of the poisoned pools or becoming be-coming a raving maniac and dying the most horrible of denths from thirst. "Don't worry about the Greek." said Kd Mallcy. Tonopnh's chief of police, "If Ray only knows he's looking for him he'll never get the drop of him." But that was the trouble. "We didn't know whether Ray v.nx aware that tho Greek was trailing him. The writer was then editor of tho Daily Bonnnswi and the pres was kept, open those nU-hts to the lust minute wnltlng for some npws of Baker or the Greek. A po.se had returned to ( !old Held, thirty miles across the desort, and tho telephone told us that they had seen neither man. Then a report came that the Greek had been seen near Silver Peak, far from the reaches of Death Valley, only twenty miles from Tonopah. Tono-pah. One nisht wortl came that a man answering his description was lurking near Tonopah Junction, about twelve miles from the camp. He was evidently evi-dently goin? to get a train and ride out of the country. Chief of Police Ed Malley immediately started for the junction, and we knew that he would either return with a prisoner or tho Goronor would have a case if the Greek were there. Malley was a keen Admirer of Ray Baker and a man who ' knew no fear. lie luid "licked" six men with his bare tlst3 in Cripple Creek. My phone rang in the early hours of the morning. Just before press time. It could he only Kd Malley at the other end. A famlli:ir voice sounded. "That you. Joe?" it said. "I've got a good story for you." Ray Baker! The Greek on his trail? Oh, no; he had heard of the Greek's threat and had turned In his tracks and trailed him. That was tho Irish in him. Two days and two nights he spent in the awful loneliness and gruesome surroundings of Death Valley. Ids hand on his gun. his eye alert for a.mbush behind the rocks or in tho ravines. lie grabbed the Greek as he was about to swing on a freight train, threw 1i!h gun down on him, disatmcd him, then trussed him like a fowl and pitched him into an outhouse out-house until Ed O'Malley arrived. The panic arrived In 1M7 and there was no demand for copper mines, copper cop-per or anything else. Then a boom broke out In Rawhide, where gold waH Just waiting for some one to come and get It. Everybody who could jaise the money went to Rawhide because be-cause there was no place cine to go. Ray waH one of the first to get in and located tho "Windy Point" and "Dead Mule" claims. By and by cart-ern cart-ern people came clamoring for Ills claims. Both had good showings and Ray sold for a neat figure, bade good-by good-by to the picturesque, gold-mad ofimp nnd went to Kuropc. One of the celebrities celeb-rities he met over there was Eliunr Glyn. She was charmed with the tales the handsome young Hercules told of the West, and it goes without saying that his own deeds were clothed In modesty. The hardest thing to do with Ray Baker is to get him to talk of himself. But the author got his promise prom-ise to show her a mining camp when she "came over" in the following year. He showed her Rawhide. But it wasn't the Rawhide that he had left. The gold hadn't "gone down" ana there was very little money in the camp. But Ray came like his namn. one from the sun. to the men who were trying to raise money enough to get home, to get somewhere. He was bringing with the famous author Sam New house, mining magnate of Salt Bake, and a Count or a Prince or something some-thing from rari. It looked like a chance to get some new money in the camp. Xewhouse might take hold or a mine or two might be sold to the Prince. The hoys got busy and here's what happened: Ray gave a dinner in the biggest restaurant that was left In camp. It was a good dinner, some chickens still being found and some wild celery; also good meat, canned salmon for salad, condensed milk for those who wanted it in their coffee. But there wa3 wine, real wine, plenty of wine wine which had been brought In for prospective millionaires who never millioned. The table was decorated with sagebrush and wildrlowers picked from the hills. Mrs. Glyn desired to see a "big" game of poker. We took her across the street to the "club." It was pretty hard to get in. but owing to the prominence promi-nence of Mr. Baker the door was ooned and everybody had to whisper. Two mighty pretty girls with the party started to gigsle. but when they readied the room of mystery they stopped laughing. Six men were around tho green cloth, recklessly but without a word throwing chips Into the pot. In a rack which the visitors had to pass were six forty-fives or automatics. au-tomatics. "What are those for?" whispered Mrs. Glyn. "S s-shl" cautioned Mr. Newhouse, who had been in poker games before. "We make all the men give up their gunH." whispered the attendant. "Thero might be trouble, you know." Br. 'Ch.ojiffcoj: S'jz U-jnly 1'U'V": r.n .'Jic Ua.il Ui LVuLU uJ.lxv"' f Hunting for the Golden Apple of Success Suc-cess All His Life, Baker Now Literally Liter-ally Rolls in Wealth And, Girls, He's a Bachelor, Too "How much are the blues worth?" whispered Mr. Xewhouse. "Fifty dollars," was the low response. re-sponse. "The yellows are a hundred, . the whites a dollar." "U-mm!" Thousands of dollars were won and lost in a few minutes. A player arose, threw down his green shade, put on his coat, pulled a gun out of the rack md went out without a w-ord. Another player came in and took his place. "How much did he lose?" Mrs. Glyn asked sympathetically. "Oh, not more than seven or eight thousand," was the answer. 'Hell take that out of the ground before tomorrow to-morrow night." There wasn't 510 in the crowd. The party went through the Northern North-ern saloon and lost a few scads on roulette. Mr. Xewhouse "bought" for the house. Then the authoress saw her first "rag" in the dance hall in Stingaree Gulch and was escorted through a most wonderful part of the camp. When they got comfortably settled in the Rawhide Hotel shots sounded all over the camp. It was the signal for a Are. It was a faKe fire, two tents behind the hotel. The man who was to ring the big bell forgot for-got his duty In the generous libatione poured by Mr. Baker in the hotel bar. Anyhow, before some one did ring the bell the hose carriage came dashing dash-ing around the corner, hauled by stalwart stal-wart men. The fire was put out In no time and Mr. Newhouse insisted upon treating all the firemen, and Mrs. Glyn must "set 'em up" too. Instantly every man In Rawhide became a fireman. fire-man. While the hotel bar was full a man with grizzled whiskers and deep-set deep-set eyes entered. He had a forty-five in his hand and wanted to know who started that fool fire. He just wanted to KNOW. He had come in from a prospecting trip and had gone to sleep . In one of the tents. When he was aroused he cut his feet with broken Miss Pansy Perkins, daughter of tt then United States Senator from California. Cali-fornia. Senator Perkins was a lifelonj Republican and the Bakers were Democrats. Dem-ocrats. But there's no politics in lova. Cleve won his election and his bride. At the age of twenty-sis he was Attor. ney General of the battle-born State. Had he lived he would have been on ! of Nevada's greatest men. ', Subsequently Ray Baker becam warden of the State Penitentiary at , Carson. He didn't aspire to the hon- ors of office, but he had some peculiar ideas on penology and wanted to try j them out. He was the first warden to , establish the "honor system." H 1 went among the toughest citizens of any penitentiary. It's seldom they hang a man in the Sagebrush State and several "lifers" were among his "V wards. But it didn't take long for them to find who was boss. The man who hunted a murderer through Death Valley wasn't to be trifled with by ordinary or extraordinary criminals. crimi-nals. From Reno to Petrograd He walked amens- them without a weapon and without any fear. He went into the shops and talked with them. He "captured" the toughest of them first and told them what he pro-' posed to do for them. Tlity didn't believe him; but when he allotted them to work outside the walls without a guard they said, "This guy's all right." One roan ran away on a stolen horse. He rode twenty miles and went back-The back-The warden left a prisoner alone in a room where Jewels were lying on the dresser. The prisoner confessed that it was the hardest temptation of his life, but he took, nothing. The warden had .an eye on him all the while. He chartered a special train and took all his wards from the honor road camps thirty miles to Reno to see "Alias Jimmy Valentine." It was the most critical audienc "And now he is Director of the Mint, with a bankroll that would make Croesus turn ovej in his grave"' glass from bottles thrown away from the hotel. Then his eyes fell on Roy Baker, smiling, steady-eyed Ray. and all Ray said was. "Have a drink. Tete," Hnd he put the gun away. A lot more hap. pened, Including a shooting scrape which wasn't down on the "fake" program pro-gram nnd which delighted the distinguished distin-guished authoress still more. It was Kawhlde's wildest night. After Rawhide Mr. Baker did the dolce far niente in Reno. Reno well, Reno is a pretty town, through which flows the romantic Truck to River, and besides "Jack" Saulshury. Ray's former partner, lives there. "Jack" has traveled too. He carat to New Tork and was recommended to the Waldorf-Astoria, but discovered that It wasn't so first-clnss after all. They don't keep condensed milk there. The river Isn't the only romantic thing in Reno. The pretty little town breathes romance. Mr. Baker's name ws prominently linked therewith that of the lady who afterward became Mrs. Qwynne Vnnderbllt. They are still very' close friends. Then Mr. Baker got the fever of polltlci again. His brother "Cleve' was running for Attorney General illn Ray went bck to Tonopah to manage his campaign. Cleve's was a whirl, wind campaign. Ilo made one of his big appeals to tho votcis for his bride to-be. lie told them that winnlnu the ftfcht would win for him the hand of that "Alias Jimmy" ever had. but tnfj all went back in the train, pointing to one another the mistakes that semt crooks make. When It came to the n.t flsht In Nevada for United States Senator Mr. Baker managed Key Plttman's campaign. cam-paign. He went to Washington with Senator Tinman. George T. Mary-of Mary-of Nevada, was appointed Ambassador to Russia. Mr. Baker went with him as confidential secretary and assistant. Mr. Baker saw whither the wind was blowing and plunged on "war babies." Mr. Baker's Judgment was profound. His adventurous spirit found court life In retrograd dull. Ho was too democratic to be continually kowtowing kow-towing to cj.ars and counts and dukes and other prerevolutlonary dlftnlta-rles. dlftnlta-rles. He wanted to go to the front t see what real war was like tnd thev wouldn't let htm. So he wtnt n-how n-how and went acain. despite the opposition op-position of the aforementioned dlf"l-tnries. dlf"l-tnries. He saw something there tht like of which he never saw In tht wild nnd woolly West, and up to then he bad ItntiKlned the frontier some hf- And now Kay Baker, desert rat. mining man. traveler, society n;;1' good "iMid man." political Wmwl'-com Wmwl'-com i favorite, dabbler In war IvtN" and diplomat. I IMrootor of the Mi"1-And, Mi"1-And, Kills, he's n bachelor. hsm!ctw and still In bis thirties, eligible. ,Vrj"'l drink and with bankroll that H''"1'1 make tYocsus turn over In tils s'.v |