Even then it
was hard work, but they kept him befuddled for several days, and
finally, inveigled him into buying No. 29 for $750. When Anderson
sobered up, he wept at his folly, and pleaded to have his money back.
But the men who had duped him were hard-hearted. They laughed at
him, and kicked themselves for not having tapped him for a couple of
hundred more. Nothing remained for Anderson but to work the
worthless ground. This he did, and out of it he took over three-
quarters of a million of dollars.
It was not till Frank Dinsmore, who already had big holdings on Birch
Creek, took a hand, that the old-timers developed faith in the new
diggings. Dinsmore received a letter from a man on the spot, calling
it "the biggest thing in the world," and harnessed his dogs and went
up to investigate. And when he sent a letter back, saying that he
had never seen "anything like it," Circle City for the first time
believed, and at once was precipitated one of the wildest stampedes
the country had ever seen or ever will see.
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