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Show HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF! "United States Mint is- robbed of 30,000 Counting of tho gold belonging to the government at San Francisco results in tho discovery that One- sack was filled with iron washers. Newspaper News-paper headlines. If it wasn't for ono thing I could give tbe authorities a tip as to the possible culprit in the case. And thereby hangs a tale. t Ut When tho United States government, in tll'0 winter of 1873-i finally told mo it would try arid maintain its army without further service, rom me, and I walked out of Fort Bidwoll, up in tho northeast corner of California, another discharged discharg-ed soldier whoso name may bo Bowon wonLalong with mo on tho road to Reno. I had a littlo over a hundred dollars in good rod gold and pale silver, and carriod it in a buckskin "pokp" as wo journoyod side by side through the awful wastes of stato-line desert. And Bowon 'didriTfiave any money at all. Any way, ho so reported his exchequer at tho closo of business on the day wo hit tho trail. A"nd ho only faced tho tramp to Reno because, loss fortunate than mysolf, he didn't havo an honorable discharge1.' But why ho quit "bobtailod"' would make aholHdr fctory We got a lift for tho last fifty miles' of tho journey, for tho founder of the 'fbVtimos -qf ! California's borax king was taking- his samples to San Francisco, wfth a view- of organizing" the original company; and he let us ride for a cash considerationJ-in the back seat of his very comfortable com-fortable buckboard . Bowbn and! slept at Reno the Saturday night of our arrival, and I remember walking about the streets, and stopping to hear the blessed music of a piano in somebody's home. Sunday I rested while Bbwcn took a walk up the rail-4 rail-4 road track. Sunday night wo slept together, and , 'Monday morning when-1 awoke, my partner was Igono. I had a two-dollar bill the only paper money. I am convinced, there was in Reno at t the time. But no one wanted it. Finally I bought some stamps at the post office, wh re oven greenbacks green-backs were good, and wrote a louter to my In-' In-' diana home, getting sixty cents in change. j And at noon I discovered that the gold and silver coins had boon taken from my buckskin pouch, and iron washers from the railroad track j had been substituted. J I have never seen Bowen from that day to . this. But I don't think it was he who made the transfer of base for precious metal at the San ' Francisco mint, because Bowen is dead. He died about twenty years ago. Ho had learned telegraphy, tele-graphy, and landed" at Dejning, N. M., in the flourishing stages of a typhoid fever case. The i telegraphers thoro nursed him through to convalescence, con-valescence, giving up one of their beds to him and paying all physician and druggist bills, doing do-ing most of the nursing themselves. And then ho got up one day and walked east out of town with the clothes of one benefactor, the watch of ' a second, and the two-months' pay of a third. .He lay down beside the track about ten miles cast of Doming, burrowed his face in tho sand at tho base of a sagebrush, and died. And the men ho had robbed gave him a decent burial. As for me, when I found but sixty cents between myself and poverty, I walked to Virginia Vir-ginia City, and took cases on tho old Enterprise. And I still think that my translation of Judge Goodwin's editorials from tho things ho wrote to tho things they ought to bo, laid tho foundation for his fame and fortune as a journalist. |