February 14, 1962 (10 pages)

nea puma: : Published Every Wednesday By NEVADA COUNTY NUGGET, INC, 132 Main St., Nevada City, Calif, Alfred E. Heller.. ..... >». «Publisher R, Dean Thompson. ..... Editor-Manager Second class postage paid at Nevada City, Calif. Adjudicated a legal newspaper of general circulation by the Nevada County Superior Court, June 3, 1960 Decree No, 12,406 NEVADA COUNTY NUGGET BYWAYS SIERRA ee BY DEAN THOMPSON APPRECIATED..The national Elks Club organization appreciates the work it takes by secretaries of the local lodges, Evidence is the letter opener sent by national to Babe Childers forhis secretarial chores in previous years, +++ t+ + NOT EVEN TIRED, ..When photographer Wyckoff of Prentiss Portraits caught FranZLucien with Herman Clebanoff at the recent concert, he assumed, the elder cellist was retired, Hardly, Lucien still teaches, and still ae ives has his young cichiuiels He also still is teacher for the Union Hill orchestra, If photographerBob meant that the well liked music teacher had retired from playing symGood Program, phony orchestras around the U.S., then his words were true, Mr, and Mrs, Lucien both teach music at their B al anced Budget home off Murchie Road in Nevada City, +++ + 4+ REOPENS..The second floor of the Union Building in Nevada City, without an occupant for three years, got a cleaning up over the weekend as accountant and auditor E,O, Schugrén prepared tooccupy the front two offices, He's open for business there this week, having moved from an office he was sharing with attorney Albert Johnson, Subscription Rates: One year, $4.00; Two years, $6.00 Three years, $8.00 Printed by Berliner & Mc Ginnis, Nevada City. "RECORD BUDGET, " "Biggest Yet, " say the headlines on the news from Sacramento. What else could be expected? The 1700-a-day growth of the population of California, soon to be first in the Union, guarantees that each succeeding State budget will be a record one. That the 1962-63 budget will require no new taxes to support it is a welcome consequence of growth that yiel ds new revenues as it requires new services. The above succinct statement appeared as an editorial in last Wednesday's San Francisco Chronicle. It might be added, as Governor Brown noted in his budget message before the legislature, thatthe proposed 1962-63 budget is the fourth consecutive balanced budget of the Brown administration, and the third requiring no new taxes. Perhaps more important than these statistics is the Governor's assertion that the $2.8 billion budget is designed to "meet both the needs of the present and the challenges of the future." The proposal of placing a $100 million bond issue on the November ballot, to finance acquisition of lands such as those at Malakoff Diggings-N orth Bloomfield, for beaches and parks, has already received strong supportin all parts of the state. We cite it as an example ofa responsible progressive program within the framework of a balanced budget. ++ + +4 WELL DONE, ..We missed it, and we are sorry, The S.F, State College a capella choir sang Thursday to a good sized crowd at Nevada Union High School, and we've been told their renditions were top notch, . .Following, as they did by five days, the Clebanoff Strings, the a capella choir became the second concert group within a week to perform in the Grass Valley area, ++ ttt DIAMOND HOAX,,,.The National Auto Club come up with information frequently on the past in California. ., They recently told the story of the great diamond hoax, and we've been holding jr 'ti] space made it possible to pass on, ; It began one day in 1871 when Philip Arnold and John Slack strode into William Ralston's San Francisco bank and emptied a dusty poke of diamonds on the amazed banker's desk, One of the most influential men in San Francisco at that time, Ralston got together with some other financiers of the day and tentatively offered Arnold and Slack $100,000 for a small interest in the new diamond field the men claimed to have discovered, While Ralston and his friend checked the background of the two miners and found them to be apparently respectable men, Arnold proposed to cut short and dillydallying on the paying of the $100, 000 by going out to the field and bringing back a couple of million dollars in diamonds as collateral, With raised eyebrows, the financiers agreed to this scheme and the miners set out, Some weeks later they returned to civilization, apparently weary and bedraggled, to explain that a raft they had been using to cross a swollen stream hadcapsized and left them with just one small bag of diamonds, Ralston promply sent the small bag to Tiffany's in New York for appraisal and Tiffany's told him the diamonds were worth about $150,000, That did it, the boom was on, The financiers offered Arnold and Slack $600, 000 for a 75 per.cent interest in the diamond field, formed the San Francisco and New York Mining and Commercial Company, and started selling stock, Still wary about handing over the money, Ralston sent experts outwith the miners to their newly discovered field, Led there blindfolded, the experts soon were picking up diamonds, sapphires, and rubies all over the place, When they returned with that fine news, even Baron Rothschild bought stock in the new company, and Ralston turned over the$600, 000 to Arnold who, with Slack promptly disappeared, : The boom, however, didn't last too long. Soon Clarence King, United States Geologist of the day, examined the field and informed all interested parties that it had merely been planted with low-grade diamonds, some of even partially cut and polished, Arnold was tracked to Kentucky, and offered to settle out of court. Shortly after, he was shot to death in a brawl, Slack, who had never had any of the money in hand anyway, dropped out of the picture and was never heard of again, All That Glitters Is Not Gold Contributed by CHARLES WINFIELD MEGGS Grass Valley J08— L THOUGHT YOU TOLD ME. THIS WAS GOLD "I've labored long and hard for bread, For honor and for riches, But on my corns too long you've tred, You fine-haired S--p-----. i Please do not be offended by these lines, They are an important clue in the development of this story, They have been printed many times before in California news. papers, in stories of this area and were posted for public view all over the Northern Mines andthe Mother Lode, The stagecoach driver of California's early days drove like Jehu ( the record proves it), scorned the yawning abysses so close tohis rolling wheels, swore like a trooper, and brought the stage in ontime, Now and then he drank too much, Swaggering was his speciality. Sometimes he died in line of duty, always he risked death a dozen times a week, In short he was a very devil of a fellow. But even a devil of a fellow may quail when a doubledbarreled shotgun is presented at his breast. When that weapon is in the steady hands of a robber masked in a flour sack pierced with eyeholes, the greatest rakehell ribbon-twister of them all may be forgiven if he does what he is told, Between 1875 and 1883, twenty-eight California stagedrivers altogether saw that masked man and knew him for the most famous bandit California had ever boasted, All twenty -eight halted their sweating horses as they were bid and listened for the four words in which this bandit invariably announced his reason for stopping the stage. “T hrow down the box!" he used to say, in a voice his victims unanimously declared to be both resonant and deep. Most of the drivers threw down the box, The twenty-eighth couldnot comply. This time Wells, Fargo Express Company had decided that perhaps the treasure would have a better chance if it were bolted to the One day when Frank Reader was six years old a man walked into the sawmill, Strange, thought owner Jim Reader thatthe man had come in on foot, He asked for a job, Jim Reader gave this kindly man with a deep v.oice and victorian manner a job on the green chain, For four years, every spring he would take his job, then One of the several vehicles to the past on the Frank ReadefRanch, off the highway on the road to North San Juan, This buggy was manufactured by Studebaker who stayed in business by switching to gas buggies. iii ag stage floor, It hadn't. The bandit got it just the same. But the job took him two minutes too many, On the road to North San Juan, nearthe top of the grade after you drive overthe Yuba, is a ranch not much changed from a hundred years ago. In this past century it has never changed ownership, A friendly dog greets you. Cows and beef cattle munch their cuds in the warm February sun, Rhode Island Red hens scratch for worms on the freedom of the gentle slopes neath the, pines and oaks, An ancient barn is full of the hoof-beats of yesterday's horse, horse and buggy and freight wagon history, Lacy cobwebs hang to the hand hewn barn beams, There is a delightful smell (to an historian) of the long since dried and pulverized aromatic horse manure,” On wooden studs onthe old barn wall hang the leather collars, the buggy harness and the collar pads, the horse sweat dried into theleather, Here too, are the doubletrees; the singletrees, the bridles, saddles and buggy tongues. Under the roof (well protected and kept up by the owner of the buggies and wagons Fred the grandson) are the wheeled horse drawn vehicles ‘of yesterday, On the property is a freight wagon manufactured by Christenson Bros, of NC Plaza. There is a buggy made by Studebaker of Placerville who now makes the gasoline driven Lark, On this peaceful Nevada County land long ago James Harrison Reader built a sawmill, Here were milled the mine timbers for the tunnels, and the flume timbers for the Milton Co, and the Malakoff Hydraulic Mine, And here on August 30, 1870 92 years ago cgme this summer was born Frank Reader, now himself one of Nevada County 's most respected native born pioneers, Under the roof of that ancient barn, seated in this buggy, Frank Reader told me his story: leave, thencome back inthe fall alwayson foot, This man, that Frank Reader so vividly remembers was the most wanted man in all California stage robbery history the notorious bandit Black Bart. Only years later did the Readers learn of his identity and that he was the Black Bart who wrote the verse that began this story. ie The story ofthe bandit Black Bart, his days in Nevada County, stages that were robbed, and of the boy turned man, still living, Frank Reader, continues here next week, “Throw the box down," spoke Black Bart,

nea puma: : Published Every Wednesday By NEVADA COUNTY NUGGET, INC, 132 Main St., Nevada City, Calif, Alfred E. Heller... ......... >». «Publisher R, Dean Thompson. ......... Editor-Manager Second class postage paid at Nevada City, Calif. Adjudicated a legal newspaper of general circulation by the Nevada County Superior Court, June 3, 1960 Decree No, 12,406 NEVADA COUNTY NUGGET BYWAYS SIERRA ee BY DEAN THOMPSON APPRECIATED....The national Elks Club organization appreciates the work it takes by secretaries of the local lodges, Evidence is the letter opener sent by national to Babe Childers forhis secretarial chores in previous years, +++ t+ + NOT EVEN TIRED, ....When photographer Wyckoff of Prentiss Portraits caught FranZLucien with Herman Clebanoff at the recent concert, he assumed, the elder cellist was retired, Hardly, Lucien still teaches, and still ae ives has his young cichiuiels He also still is teacher for the Union Hill orchestra, If photographerBob meant that the well liked music teacher had retired from playing symGood Program, phony orchestras around the U.S., then his words were true, Mr, and Mrs, Lucien both teach music at their B al anced Budget home off Murchie Road in Nevada City, +++ + 4+ REOPENS....The second floor of the Union Building in Nevada City, without an occupant for three years, got a cleaning up over the weekend as accountant and auditor E,O, Schugrén prepared tooccupy the front two offices, He's open for business there this week, having moved from an office he was sharing with attorney Albert Johnson, Subscription Rates: One year, $4.00; Two years, $6.00 Three years, $8.00 Printed by Berliner & Mc Ginnis, Nevada City. "RECORD BUDGET, " "Biggest Yet, " say the headlines on the news from Sacramento. What else could be expected? The 1700-a-day growth of the population of California, soon to be first in the Union, guarantees that each succeeding State budget will be a record one. That the 1962-63 budget will require no new taxes to support it is a welcome consequence of growth that yiel ds new revenues as it requires new services. The above succinct statement appeared as an editorial in last Wednesday's San Francisco Chronicle. It might be added, as Governor Brown noted in his budget message before the legislature, thatthe proposed 1962-63 budget is the fourth consecutive balanced budget of the Brown administration, and the third requiring no new taxes. Perhaps more important than these statistics is the Governor's assertion that the $2.8 billion budget is designed to "meet both the needs of the present and the challenges of the future." The proposal of placing a $100 million bond issue on the November ballot, to finance acquisition of lands such as those at Malakoff Diggings-N orth Bloomfield, for beaches and parks, has already received strong supportin all parts of the state. We cite it as an example ofa responsible progressive program within the framework of a balanced budget. ++ + +4 WELL DONE, ....We missed it, and we are sorry, The S.F, State College a capella choir sang Thursday to a good sized crowd at Nevada Union High School, and we've been told their renditions were top notch, . .Following, as they did by five days, the Clebanoff Strings, the a capella choir became the second concert group within a week to perform in the Grass Valley area, ++ ttt DIAMOND HOAX,,,.The National Auto Club come up with information frequently on the past in California. ., They recently told the story of the great diamond hoax, and we've been holding jr 'ti] space made it possible to pass on, ; It began one day in 1871 when Philip Arnold and John Slack strode into William Ralston's San Francisco bank and emptied a dusty poke of diamonds on the amazed banker's desk, One of the most influential men in San Francisco at that time, Ralston got together with some other financiers of the day and tentatively offered Arnold and Slack $100,000 for a small interest in the new diamond field the men claimed to have discovered, While Ralston and his friend checked the background of the two miners and found them to be apparently respectable men, Arnold proposed to cut short and dillydallying on the paying of the $100, 000 by going out to the field and bringing back a couple of million dollars in diamonds as collateral, With raised eyebrows, the financiers agreed to this scheme and the miners set out, Some weeks later they returned to civilization, apparently weary and bedraggled, to explain that a raft they had been using to cross a swollen stream hadcapsized and left them with just one small bag of diamonds, Ralston promply sent the small bag to Tiffany's in New York for appraisal and Tiffany's told him the diamonds were worth about $150,000, That did it, the boom was on, The financiers offered Arnold and Slack $600, 000 for a 75 per.cent interest in the diamond field, formed the San Francisco and New York Mining and Commercial Company, and started selling stock, Still wary about handing over the money, Ralston sent experts outwith the miners to their newly discovered field, Led there blindfolded, the experts soon were picking up diamonds, sapphires, and rubies all over the place,

When they returned with that fine news, even Baron Rothschild bought stock in the new company, and Ralston turned over the$600, 000 to Arnold who, with Slack promptly disappeared, : The boom, however, didn't last too long. Soon Clarence King, United States Geologist of the day, examined the field and informed all interested parties that it had merely been planted with low-grade diamonds, some of even partially cut and polished, Arnold was tracked to Kentucky, and offered to settle out of court. Shortly after, he was shot to death in a brawl, Slack, who had never had any of the money in hand anyway, dropped out of the picture and was never heard of again, All That Glitters Is Not Gold Contributed by CHARLES WINFIELD MEGGS Grass Valley J08— L THOUGHT YOU TOLD ME. THIS WAS GOLD "I've labored long and hard for bread, For honor and for riches, But on my corns too long you've tred, You fine-haired S--p-----. i Please do not be offended by these lines, They are an important clue in the development of this story, They have been printed many times before in California news. papers, in stories of this area and were posted for public view all over the Northern Mines andthe Mother Lode, The stagecoach driver of California's early days drove like Jehu ( the record proves it), scorned the yawning abysses so close tohis rolling wheels, swore like a trooper, and brought the stage in ontime, Now and then he drank too much, Swaggering was his speciality. Sometimes he died in line of duty, always he risked death a dozen times a week, In short he was a very devil of a fellow. But even a devil of a fellow may quail when a doubledbarreled shotgun is presented at his breast. When that weapon is in the steady hands of a robber masked in a flour sack pierced with eyeholes, the greatest rakehell ribbon-twister of them all may be forgiven if he does what he is told, Between 1875 and 1883, twenty-eight California stagedrivers altogether saw that masked man and knew him for the most famous bandit California had ever boasted, All twenty -eight halted their sweating horses as they were bid and listened for the four words in which this bandit invariably announced his reason for stopping the stage. “T hrow down the box!" he used to say, in a voice his victims unanimously declared to be both resonant and deep. Most of the drivers threw down the box, The twenty-eighth couldnot comply. This time Wells, Fargo Express Company had decided that perhaps the treasure would have a better chance if it were bolted to the One day when Frank Reader was six years old a man walked into the sawmill, Strange, thought owner Jim Reader thatthe man had come in on foot, He asked for a job, Jim Reader gave this kindly man with a deep v.oice and victorian manner a job on the green chain, For four years, every spring he would take his job, then One of the several vehicles to the past on the Frank ReadefRanch, off the highway on the road to North San Juan, This buggy was manufactured by Studebaker who stayed in business by switching to gas buggies. iii ag stage floor, It hadn't. The bandit got it just the same. But the job took him two minutes too many, On the road to North San Juan, nearthe top of the grade after you drive overthe Yuba, is a ranch not much changed from a hundred years ago. In this past century it has never changed ownership, A friendly dog greets you. Cows and beef cattle munch their cuds in the warm February sun, Rhode Island Red hens scratch for worms on the freedom of the gentle slopes neath the, pines and oaks, An ancient barn is full of the hoof-beats of yesterday's horse, horse and buggy and freight wagon history, Lacy cobwebs hang to the hand hewn barn beams, There is a delightful smell (to an historian) of the long since dried and pulverized aromatic horse manure,” On wooden studs onthe old barn wall hang the leather collars, the buggy harness and the collar pads, the horse sweat dried into theleather, Here too, are the doubletrees; the singletrees, the bridles, saddles and buggy tongues. Under the roof (well protected and kept up by the owner of the buggies and wagons Fred the grandson) are the wheeled horse drawn vehicles ‘of yesterday, On the property is a freight wagon manufactured by Christenson Bros, of NC Plaza. There is a buggy made by Studebaker of Placerville who now makes the gasoline driven Lark, On this peaceful Nevada County land long ago James Harrison Reader built a sawmill, Here were milled the mine timbers for the tunnels, and the flume timbers for the Milton Co, and the Malakoff Hydraulic Mine, And here on August 30, 1870 92 years ago cgme this summer was born Frank Reader, now himself one of Nevada County 's most respected native born pioneers, Under the roof of that ancient barn, seated in this buggy, Frank Reader told me his story: leave, thencome back inthe fall alwayson foot, This man, that Frank Reader so vividly remembers was the most wanted man in all California stage robbery history the notorious bandit Black Bart. Only years later did the Readers learn of his identity and that he was the Black Bart who wrote the verse that began this story. ie The story ofthe bandit Black Bart, his days in Nevada County, stages that were robbed, and of the boy turned man, still living, Frank Reader, continues here next week, “Throw the box down," spoke Black Bart,