Speaker 1: This is section forty nine of The Gilded Age. This
Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Gilded Age,
Speaker 1: A Tale of to Day by Mark Twain and Seedy Warner,
Speaker 1: Chapter forty nine. We've struck it. This was the announcement
Speaker 1: at the tent door that woke Philip out of a
Speaker 1: sound sleep at dead of night and shook all the
Speaker 1: sleepiness out of him in a trice, What where is
Speaker 1: it when coal? Let me see what quality is it?
Speaker 1: Were some of the rapid questions that Philip poured out
Speaker 1: as he hurriedly dressed. Harry, wake up, my boy, the
Speaker 1: coal train is coming. Struck it, eh, let's see. The
Speaker 1: foreman put down his lantern and handed Philip a black lump.
Speaker 1: There was no mistake about it. It was the hard,
Speaker 1: shining anthracite, and its freshly fractured surface glistened in the
Speaker 1: light like polished steel. Diamond never shone with such luster
Speaker 1: in the eyes of Philip. Harry was exuberant, but Philip's
Speaker 1: natural caution found expression in his next remark. Now, Roberts,
Speaker 1: you are sure about this? What sure that it's coal? Oh? No,
Speaker 1: sure that it's the main vein? Well, yes, we took
Speaker 1: it to be that, did you from the first. I
Speaker 1: can't say we did it first, No, No, we didn't.
Speaker 1: Most of the indications were there, but not all of them,
Speaker 1: not all of them. So we thought we'd prospect a bit. Well,
Speaker 1: it was tolerable, thick, and looked as if it might
Speaker 1: be the vein. Looked as if it ought to be
Speaker 1: the vein. Then we went down on it a little.
Speaker 1: Looked better all the time. When did you strike it?
Speaker 1: About ten o'clock and you've been prospecting about four hours? Yes,
Speaker 1: been sinking on it something over four hours. I'm afraid
Speaker 1: you couldn't go down very far in four hours, could you. Oh? Yes,
Speaker 1: it's a good deal. Broke up nothing but picking and
Speaker 1: gatting stuff. Well it does look encouraging, sure enough, But
Speaker 1: then the lacking indications. I'd rather we had them, mister Sterling.
Speaker 1: But I've seen more than one good permanent mind struck
Speaker 1: without them in my time. Well that is encouraging too. Yes,
Speaker 1: there was the Union, the Alabama, and the Black Mohawk,
Speaker 1: all good sound minds, you know, all just exactly like
Speaker 1: this one. When we first struck them, Well, I begin
Speaker 1: to feel a good deal more easy, I guess we've
Speaker 1: really got it. I remember hearing them tell about the
Speaker 1: black mohawk. I'm free to say that I believe it,
Speaker 1: and the men all think so too. They are all
Speaker 1: old hands at this business. Come, Harry, let's go up
Speaker 1: and look at it, just for the comfort of it,
Speaker 1: said Philip. They came back in the course of an hour,
Speaker 1: satisfied and happy. There was no more sleep for them
Speaker 1: that night. They lit their pipes, put a specimen of
Speaker 1: the coal on the table, and made it a kind
Speaker 1: of loadstone of thought and conversation. Of course, said Harry,
Speaker 1: there will have to be a branch track built and
Speaker 1: a switch back up the hill. Yes, there will be
Speaker 1: no trouble about getting the money for that. Now we
Speaker 1: could sell out tomorrow for a handsome sum. That sort
Speaker 1: of coal doesn't go begging within a mile of a railroad.
Speaker 1: I wonder if mister Bolton would rather sell out or
Speaker 1: work it. Oh, work it, says Harry. Probably the whole
Speaker 1: mountainous coal, now you've got to it. Possibly it might
Speaker 1: not be much of a vein after all, suggested Philip.
Speaker 1: Possibly it is. I'll bet it's forty feet thick. I
Speaker 1: told you I knew the sort of thing as soon
Speaker 1: as I put my eyes on it. Philip's next thought
Speaker 1: was to write to his friends and announce their good
Speaker 1: fortune to mister Bolton. He wrote a short business letter
Speaker 1: as calm as he could make it. They had found
Speaker 1: coal of excellent quality, but they could not yet tell
Speaker 1: with absolute certainty what the vein was. The prospecting was
Speaker 1: still going on. Philip also wrote to Ruth, but though
Speaker 1: this letter may have glowed, it was not with the
Speaker 1: heat of burning anthracite. He needed no artificial heat to
Speaker 1: warm his pen and kindle his ardor when he sat
Speaker 1: down to write to Ruth. But it must be confessed
Speaker 1: that the words never flowed so easily before, and he
Speaker 1: ran on for an hour, disporting in all the extravagance
Speaker 1: of his imagination. When Rue thread it, she doubted if
Speaker 1: the fellow had not gone out of his senses, And
Speaker 1: it was not until she reached the PostScript that she
Speaker 1: discovered the cause of the exhilaration. P S. We have
Speaker 1: found coal. The news couldn't have come to mister Bolton
Speaker 1: in a better time. He had never been so sorely pressed.
Speaker 1: A dozen schemes which he had in hand, any one
Speaker 1: of which might turn up a fortune all languished, and
Speaker 1: each needed just a little more money to save that
Speaker 1: which had been invested. He hadn't a piece of real
Speaker 1: estate that was not covered with mortgages, even to the
Speaker 1: wild tract which Philip was experimenting on, and which had
Speaker 1: no marketable value above the encumbrance on it. He had
Speaker 1: come home that day early, unusually dejected. I am afraid,
Speaker 1: he said to his wife, that we shall have to
Speaker 1: give up our house. I don't care for myself, but
Speaker 1: for THEE and the children. That will be the least
Speaker 1: of misfortunes, said Missus Bolton cheerfully. If THEE can clear
Speaker 1: thyself from debt and anxiety, which is wearing THEE out,
Speaker 1: we can live anywhere. THEE knows. We were never happier
Speaker 1: than when we were in a much humbler home. The
Speaker 1: truth is, Margaret, that affair of Biggler and Small's has
Speaker 1: come on me just when I couldn't stand another ounce.
Speaker 1: They have made another failure of it. I might have
Speaker 1: known they would, And the sharpers or fools I don't
Speaker 1: know which have contrived to involve me for three times
Speaker 1: as much as the first obligation. The security is in
Speaker 1: my hands, but it is good for nothing to me.
Speaker 1: I have not the money to do anything with the contract.
Speaker 1: Ruth heard this dismal news without great surprise. She had
Speaker 1: long felt that they were living on a volcano that
Speaker 1: might go into active operation at any hour. Inheriting from
Speaker 1: her father an active brain and the courage to undertake
Speaker 1: new things, she had little of his sanguine temperament, which
Speaker 1: blinds one to difficulties and possible failures. She had little
Speaker 1: confidence in the many schemes which had been about to
Speaker 1: lift her father out of all his embarrassments and into
Speaker 1: great wealth ever since she was a child. As she
Speaker 1: grew older, she rather wondered that they were as prosperous
Speaker 1: as they seemed to be, and that they did not
Speaker 1: all go to smash amid so many brilliant projects. She
Speaker 1: was nothing but a woman and did not know how
Speaker 1: much of the business prosperity of the world is only
Speaker 1: a bubble of credit and speculation, one scheme helping to
Speaker 1: float another which is no better than it, and the
Speaker 1: whole liable to come to naught and confusion as soon
Speaker 1: as the busy brain that conceived them ceases its power
Speaker 1: to devise, or when some accident produces a sudden panic.
Speaker 1: Perhaps I shall be the stay of the family. Yet,
Speaker 1: said Ruth, with an approach to gaiety. When we move
Speaker 1: into a little house in town, will THEE let me
Speaker 1: put a little sign on the door, Doctor Ruth Bolton,
Speaker 1: Missus doctor Longstreet. THEE knows has a great income. Who
Speaker 1: will pay for the sign? Ruth asked mister Bolton. A
Speaker 1: servant entered with the afternoon mail from the office. Mister
Speaker 1: Bolton took his letters listlessly, dreading to open them. He
Speaker 1: knew well what they contained. New difficulties, more urgent demands
Speaker 1: for money. Oh, here is one from Philip, poor fellow.
Speaker 1: I shall feel his disappointment as much as my own
Speaker 1: bad luck. It is hard to bear when one is young.
Speaker 1: He opened the letter and read. As he read, his
Speaker 1: face lightened, and he fetched such a sigh of relief
Speaker 1: that Missus Bolton and Ruth both exclaimed. Read that he cried,
Speaker 1: Philip has found coal. The world was changed in a moment.
Speaker 1: One little sentence had done it. There was no more trouble.
Speaker 1: Philip had found coal. That meant relief, that meant fortune.
Speaker 1: A great weight was taken off, and the spirits of
Speaker 1: the whole household rose magically good money, beautiful demon of money,
Speaker 1: what an enchanter thou art. Ruth felt that she was
Speaker 1: of less consequence in the household now that Philip found coal,
Speaker 1: and perhaps she was not sorry to feel so. Mister
Speaker 1: Bolton was ten years younger. The next morning he went
Speaker 1: into the city and showed his letter on change. It
Speaker 1: was the sort of news his friends were quite willing
Speaker 1: to listen to. They took a new interest in him.
Speaker 1: If it was confirmed, Bolton would come right up again,
Speaker 1: there would be no difficulty about his getting all the
Speaker 1: money he wanted. The money market did not seem to
Speaker 1: be half so tight as it was the day before.
Speaker 1: Mister Bolton spent a very pleasant day in his office
Speaker 1: and went home, revolving some new plans and the execution
Speaker 1: of some projects he had long been prevented from entering
Speaker 1: upon by the lack of money. The day had been
Speaker 1: spent by Philip in no less excitement. By daylight, with
Speaker 1: Philip's letters to the mail, word had gone down to
Speaker 1: Ilium that coal had been found, and very early a
Speaker 1: crowd of eager spectators had come up to see for themselves.
Speaker 1: The prospecting continued day and night for upwards of a week,
Speaker 1: and during the first four or five days the indications
Speaker 1: grew more and more promising, and the telegrams and letters
Speaker 1: kept mister Bolton duly posted. But at last a change
Speaker 1: came and the promises began to fail with alarming rapidity.
Speaker 1: In the end, it was demonstrated, without the possibility of
Speaker 1: a doubt, that the great find was nothing but a
Speaker 1: worthless seem. Philip was cast down, all the more so
Speaker 1: because he had been so foolish as to send the
Speaker 1: news to Philadelphia before he knew what he was writing about,
Speaker 1: and now he must contradict it. It turns out to
Speaker 1: be only a mere seem, he wrote, but we look
Speaker 1: upon it as an indication of better Further in alas,
Speaker 1: mister Bolton's affairs could not wait for indications. The future
Speaker 1: might have a great deal in store, but the present
Speaker 1: was black and hopeless. It was doubtful if any sacrifice
Speaker 1: could save him from ruin. Yet sacrifice he must make,
Speaker 1: and that instantly, in the hope of saving something from
Speaker 1: the wreck of his fortune, his lovely country home must
Speaker 1: go that would bring the most ready money, the house
Speaker 1: that he had built with loving thought for each one
Speaker 1: of his family. As he planned its luxurious apartments, and
Speaker 1: adorned it the grounds that he had laid out with
Speaker 1: so much delight in following the tastes of his wife,
Speaker 1: with whom the country. The cultivation of rare trees and flowers,
Speaker 1: the care of garden and lawn, and conservatories were a passion.
Speaker 1: Almost this house, which he had hoped his children would
Speaker 1: enjoy long after he had done with it, must go.
Speaker 1: The family bore the sacrifice better than he did, they declared.
Speaker 1: In fact, women are such hypocrites that they quite enjoyed
Speaker 1: the city. It was in August, after living so long
Speaker 1: in the country, that it was a thousand times more
Speaker 1: convenient in every respect. Missus Bolton said it was a
Speaker 1: relief from the worry of a large establishment, and Ruth
Speaker 1: reminded her father that she should have had to come
Speaker 1: to town anyway before long. Mister Bolton was relieve exactly
Speaker 1: as a water logged ship is lightened by throwing overboard
Speaker 1: the most valuable portion of the cargo. But the leak
Speaker 1: was not stopped. Indeed, his credit was injured instead of
Speaker 1: helped by the prudent step he had taken. It was
Speaker 1: regarded as a sure evidence of his embarrassment, and it
Speaker 1: was much more difficult for him to obtain help than
Speaker 1: if he had. Instead of retrenching launched into some new speculation,
Speaker 1: Philip was greatly troubled and exaggerated his own share in
Speaker 1: the bringing about of the calamity. You must not look
Speaker 1: at it, so mister Bolton wrote him. You have neither
Speaker 1: helped nor hindered, but you know you may help by
Speaker 1: and by It would have all happened just so if
Speaker 1: we had never begun to dig that hole that is
Speaker 1: only a drop work away. I still have hoped that
Speaker 1: something will occur to relieve me. At any rate. We
Speaker 1: must not give up the mine so long as we
Speaker 1: have any show Alas the relief did not come, new
Speaker 1: misfortunes came. Instead. When the extent of the Biggler's swindle
Speaker 1: was disclosed, there was no more hope that mister Bolton
Speaker 1: could extricate himself, and he had, as an honest man,
Speaker 1: no resource except to surrender all his property for the
Speaker 1: benefit of his creditors. The autumn came and found Philip
Speaker 1: working with diminished force, but still with hope. He had
Speaker 1: again and again been encouraged by good indications, but he
Speaker 1: had again and again been disappointed. He could not go
Speaker 1: on much longer, and almost everybody except himself had thought
Speaker 1: it was useless to go on as long as he
Speaker 1: had been doing. When the news came of mister Bolton's failure,
Speaker 1: of course, the work stopped, the men were discharged, the
Speaker 1: tools were housed, the hopeful noise of pickman and driver ceased,
Speaker 1: and the mining camp had that desolate and mournful aspect
Speaker 1: which all was hovers over a frustrated enterprise. Philip sat
Speaker 1: down amid the ruins and almost wished he were buried
Speaker 1: in them. How distant Ruth was now from him, him
Speaker 1: now when she might need him most. How changed was
Speaker 1: all the Philadelphia world, which had hitherto stood for the
Speaker 1: exemplification of happiness and prosperity. He still had faith that
Speaker 1: there was coal in that mountain. He made a picture
Speaker 1: of himself living there, a hermit in a shanty by
Speaker 1: the tunnel, digging away with solitary pick and wheelbarrow, day
Speaker 1: after day and year after year, until he grew gray
Speaker 1: and aged, and was known in all that region as
Speaker 1: the old man of the Mountain. Perhaps someday, he felt
Speaker 1: it must be so, some day he should strike coal.
Speaker 1: But what if he did, who would be alive to
Speaker 1: care for it? Then? What would he care for it? Then? No,
Speaker 1: a man wants riches in his youth when the world
Speaker 1: is fresh to him. He wondered why Providence could not
Speaker 1: have reversed the usual process and let the majority of
Speaker 1: men begin with wealth and gradually spend it and die
Speaker 1: poor when they no longer needed it. Harry went back
Speaker 1: to the city. It was evident that his services were
Speaker 1: no longer needed. Indeed, he had letters from his uncle
Speaker 1: which he did not read, to Philip desiring him to
Speaker 1: go to San Francisco to look after some government contracts
Speaker 1: in the harbor. There, Philip had to look about him
Speaker 1: for something to do. He was like Adam. The world
Speaker 1: was all before him. Where to choose? He made before
Speaker 1: he went elsewhere, a somewhat painful visit to Philadelphia, painful
Speaker 1: but yet not without its sweetnesses. The family had never
Speaker 1: shown him so much affection before. They all seemed to
Speaker 1: think his disappointment of more importance than their own misfortune.
Speaker 1: And there was that in Ruth's manner, in what she
Speaker 1: gave him and what she withheld, that would have made
Speaker 1: a hero of a very much less promising character than
Speaker 1: Philip Sterling. Among the assets of the Bolton property, the
Speaker 1: Ilium Tract was sold, and Philip bought it in at
Speaker 1: the vendue for a song, for no one cared to
Speaker 1: even undertake the mortgage on it except himself. He went
Speaker 1: away the owner of it, and he had ample time
Speaker 1: before he reached home in November to calculate how much
Speaker 1: poorer he was by possessing it. End of Chapter forty nine.