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Show LUCKY BALDWIN DYING. Famous Horeman and Capitalist Now j at Death's Door. Dispatches from the Pacific coast state that E. J. Baldwin, popularly krown as ' Lucky" Baldwin, is seriously serious-ly ill with pneumonia at his ranch at Saiita Anita, Cal., and his death may be : expected any day. His physician gives no hope 'of his ultimate recovery. HH "chances of recovery are greatly ' lessened by the fact that he ventured .into the vigorous climate of the Klondike' Klon-dike' some time ago to look after. his mining interests, a journey that proved too severe for one of his advanced years. rso man in the United States has had a .more remarkable career than "Lucky' Baldwin. He has been a miner, working with pick and shovel, a hotel keeper, presiding over one of the finest hostelries on the Pacjfic coftPt. a horse breeder, and all-around speculator in stocks, bonds and securities securi-ties generally, and at all times a plunger plung-er on the race tracks, backing his own horses on all occasions upon which they might by any possibility win. In all ' his enterprises he was almost invariably in-variably fortunate: hence his sobriquet of I.iucky." Many men have won fortunes for-tunes by following his lead, and others have lost heavily by doubting the correctness cor-rectness of his judgment. ,J3orn in Ohio, Mr. Baldwin made his way to California tfoon after the discovery dis-covery of gold there. Being familiar with horses, he began life in San Francisco Fran-cisco as a livery-stable keeper. He invested in-vested much of his profits in mining shares, scattering It around so that the failure .of any one enterprise would no'V bankrupt him completely. But he was alrffost invariably successful, and it was not many years before he was reckoned among the well-to-do men of the slope. He invested heavily in San Francisco real estate. He is the owner j of some of the choicest property in I Market street. The site of the Baldwin hotel and theatre belongs to him. The ; building was historic, but was totally j destroyed by fire several years ag?. j six lives being lost at the time. Because certain people and papers of San Fran- cisco antagonized him. he has refused j to erect another building on the prop- ! erty. and it is now surrounded by a j big advertising fence, which is an eye- sore to the most important business j section of the city. j This quality of combativeners has marked Baldwin's , entire career. In 1 the seventies, during a time of great ! financial stress. Flood, president of the famous Bank of California, quarreled with Baldwin, who withdrew a deposit , hi had at the bank of $1,700,000. The 1 sight of truckloads of money being j carted. away from the bank started a j run, and the bank was forced to close I for a day. James G. Fair, also at J sword's points with Baldwin, finally j came - to the rescue and the greatest ; financial institution of the Pacific j coast- was saved from annihilation. I "Mr. Baldwin made his first big . strike. in a most accidental way. He was not a miner and knew nothing : about mines," said-a. man from San Francisco, .who keeps track of the doings, do-ings, of men of millions. "He kept a livery stable in San Francisco and made considerable money. He always liked horses. They were his hobby then, just as they have been since, when he made himself well known through his successes on the turf. "Some mining man owed Baldwin several hundred dollars for horses on a livery bill or something and couldn't pay him. One day he offered Baldwin a lot of stock In the Ophir mine, which was near the mines in which Flood, O'Brien, Fair, Mackay and others oth-ers were interested. Ophir stock wasn't worth . anything only a few cents a share nor were the. other mines near it worth much'then. Baldwin accepted the stock, as payment of the debt and threw it in his safe, thinking that he might get something out of It some day. He had about 2,000 $50 shares. "One morning 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 stock which had cost . Baldwin a few cents a share was' worth . hundreds of dollars a share. He had . sense enough to sell out at the proper time." -B-0- |