CHASING JACK RABBITS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 346, 27 February 1889, Page 6

CHASING JACK RABBITS.

How Gilker and Wilson Stumbled Upon a Fortune. 1 Far going: back'there (to the Ccenr d'Alene Mountains) to look after a mine I found six years ago,' said a stranger at the railway station. ' It's in the Coeur d'A,lene Mountains, 'bout seven ty-fi\e mile's from the railroad. My name's Wilson, and my pai fcner, wbo&e name is Gilker — lie's a Pennsylvania Dutchman — is up oh ere now, and he's just wiote me that he's had a chance to sell it at our price ' ' How much is that, Mr Wilson ?' 1 Two hundred thousand/ was the careless answer, and as the reporter was trying to catch his breath Mr "Wilson continued : ' Well, now, I tell you that's been a pietty lucky strike for us two fellers. In the summer of '82 Gilker and I was working in the Anaconda smelter, at Bubte City, in Montana. We were making regular wages and doina tolerably well. But one day Gilker says to me, ' Let's go up to the Cccur d'Alene, Bill.' I told him we'd better stay where we was, but I though ft about it a good deal, just the same. So long 'bout the first of August I says to Gilker, 'I'll go with you and we'll try our luck.' We started, and every train we met this side of Thompson's Falls was crowded full of fellers who'd been prospectin' in the Coeur d'Alene all summer, and every one of 'em was broke. They all told us 'twant no use to go thar, an' I was feelin' pretty blue an' van ted to go back, but Gilker &ays • Let's go on anyway, we've got our ticket.' So we went on an' it cost us 'bout all we had to {jet our prospectin' outfit packed in. We tramped over the hills for nigh two weeks an' our grub was gettin' low. I told Gilker when the grub give out I was going to strike for home. But it didn't give out, for one day we found a 'pocket,' a regular lump of gold, an' we followed it up till we struck the vein.' ' Is that the property your partner says he can sell for $200,000 f ' Yes. But I didn't tell you how we came to strike it. One day me and Gilker was smoking after eatin' what we called supper an' talkin' 'bout the country, when all i f a sudden a jack-rabbift run past us. He'd got hurt somehow and was limpin' along, and Gilker started for him. He never caught the jack, but he did fall down in a gully that was all g rowed up with mountain sage as tall as your head, and in kickin' \ around down thar a-tryin to git out he loosened some of the rock, and thar was gold under every stone. He yelled to me to ccne thar, and we lit a candle, 'twas most dark there, and got up two or three good chunks. We carried em to our tent an' pounded them out, an' I knew by the time we got too tired to work out any more of ib that we had gob something rich in sight. Next mornin' we Mas down thar in that gully by daylight, an' from that day to this we've just been gettin' rich.' ' What are you doing dow n in this part of the country, Mr Wilson ?' 'My folks live over here in Alabama, near Selma, an' I've been down thar 'bout two weeks gettin' 'quainted. I hadn't been thar in twelve year before, an' now I'm goin' to Montana, sell out, an' come back to this part of the country to live.' And Mr Wilson, half-owner of a $200,000 dollar mine, with a pleasant smile and a grip that Sullivan would admire, shook hands and said good-day. There is a fortune in chasing jack-rabbits — if they run the right way. — ' Atlanta Constitution.'

The Rev. D. T. Taylor says that if t\e United States drink bill for a year were in silver dollars, placed one on top of another, they would reach the dizzy height of 1,600 miles.