MRS RIKERT'S MILLIONS

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14406, 13 July 1912, Page 7

MRS RIKERT'S MILLIONS

AND HOW SHE MADE THEM

A ROMANTIC STORY

{"Melbourne Age") In tho year 1891 Mrs Anne X.li no Rikert lived in San Francisco an unknown and undistinguished woman, tho wife of a poor business man, who. it ' s said, had never earned more than 1000 dol. a year in his life. To-day s llikert is one of the richest women * n the world. She owns house « n( l landed property valued at upwards of £2.000,000. She is a large stock holder in the Standard Oil CompanyShe has substantial interests in several shipping an dmiriing corporations, ana she is tho exclusive owner of two railroads, one of which serves sevoral important mining centres in the State of, California, and was built out of her own capital. Tho story of her emergence from impoverished obscurity and rise to enormous wealth and power is beyond compare tho most romantic and wonderful chapter in tho entire history of femalo achievement of the last two or three centuries. It is from first to last a story of pluck and luck. Towards the end of tho year 1892 her i husband was stricken with a mortal ! sickness, and at the close of a few weeks lof vain struggle with disease bo died, ■ leaving .Mrs llikerfc faco to faco with destitution. Tho unhappy woman had bnen so tenderly attached to her husband that sho wished to follow him into the tomb, and for a long while sha was prostrated with grief. Tho need, however, to provide for her child, a little girl just turned five years old, ucalled her from indulgence in despair. Her mother instincts triumphed over misery, and sho set about the task of earning a livelihood. Her misfortune was that sho was completely unequipped by any sort of training to engago in tho battle of life as a bread winner. Like so many other women, she had been brought up as a dependent, and, once bereft of her support, sho was stranded and helpless. Sho sought in all directions for employment, but, having no qualifications or special ability to recommend her, sh« failed to discover any post that sho could take without being separated from her child. In sheer desperation, sho determined on an expedient rash and reckless to the very point of lunacy. Sho reached this amazing resolution when tho slender capital left her, after payment of her husband's debts, had dwindled to the meagre sum of £18 10s. It was nothing less than to leave San Francisco with her babo and go into the wilderness in search of a gold mine. To think with Mrs Rikert was to act. Buying a tent nnd a wretchedly insufficient outfit, sho boldly sot out into the Mojavo desert as passenger on a transport team, taking her tiny daughter •with her. After a dreary and inexpressibly rough and tedious journey she reached tho neighbourhood of the great Silver King mine, and pitched her tent near tho well that supplied tho famous Calico Camp with water. At tins moment her whole capital consisted of twenty shillings and ten penco. Mrs Rikert at once commenced prospecting. She was quite ignorant of mining. Every morning she walked out from her tent across tho desert, accompanied by the child, who carried a little toy hammer and who thought the game of tapping at rocks and stones very fine fun. As Mrs Rikert prospected "out" from the mineral belt she immediately became an object of pity and ridicule to all the* camp. The miners good naturedly attempted to teach her tho folly of her proceeding, hut sho proudly refused to be instructed, and she persisted in her course. Sho was soon, however, compelled to do other Work m order to keep tho pot boiling, and for a term she became a sort of intermittent laundress to tho camp. She would do enough washing to purchase a stock of food, and then sho would resume prospecting until the stock was exhausted. Her sufferings at this period were very aento. She tolls us that, "Night after night after my little girl was nsleeo I cried until my pillow was so wet that 1 had to turn.it over; and then I cried until the other side was wet. and 1 hud to put a towel over it. For nearly three months Mrs Rikert dauntlossly persisted with her dual occul pation of washing clothes and prospecting, and then at last fortune smiled upon her. Ono day a sunset, just as .she was aixnit to return to her tent, weary and discouraged from a long day spent in hammering at the rocks of the dosert ridges, her little girl, who was about thirty yards away, suddenly screamed out, "Mammal Mammal Come over hero! I've found a rock exactly like, the stone Mr Pearson had at San Bernardino." Mr Pearson, it should be explained, was n man whom ' Mrs Rikert hod mot at San Bernardino, and who- had shown the child some specimens of silver ore that he had brought from Mexico. Mr« Rikert hurried over to tho little daughter, and examined the rock which, she had found. To her astonishment tlie child was right. Tho stone exactly resembled Mr Pearson's specimens. Mrs Rikert knocked off some of the cropping*, and took abottt 251b weight of .specimens to her tout. After giving the child tea (sho was too excited herself to eat at all) sho walked over to Calico Camp and showed the rock to the miners.-. In fivo minutes she was the centre of an enthusiastic and almost frenzied crowd. Tho miners told her tbat the specimens were worth from 4000 to 5000 dollars to the ton, and thc?v assured her that her fortune was made.

One cannot sufficiently admire the honest conduct of those rough incn. Mrs Rikert was utterly in their power, and they might very easily and without tlio slightest risk, "have robbed her of tho fruits of her discovery. On the contrary they pegged out a largo claim for heron the lino of the outcrop, and co-operatively safeguarded tho claim from intrusion or attack. Mrs Rikert might have had for the asking all the capital needed to develop her discovery ; but sho had an unconquerable aversion to going into debt. She refused all assistance and sot to work to develop her mine by her own efForts. She did this in the quaintest possible way. She possessed six pillow cases. Armed with these she proceeded every morning to her claim and filled the pillow case 3 with picked lumps of ore. She then had the oro so bagged carried over to the Oro Grando battery to be milled and treated. This very tedious process ehe continued steadily for nearly four months. By that timo she had accumulated a bank credit of 40,000 dollars, and she was able to launch out in a bigger way. She now engaged an expert manager, employed several men and began to erect a mill of her own. One might have supposed that this marvellous stroke of fortune would have sufficed to send Mrs Rikert back to civilisation to spend the rcet of her life in peace and comfort, more especially as her mine vory speedily began to produce a splendid revenue. But it was not so. Mrs Rikert could not endure the thought of an inactive life, Biid sho devoted herself to the desert. The prospecting fever had taken hold of her, and from that time forth her happinees consisted in searching and exploring the wilderness. The subsequent jrart of her career is no less astounding than its commencement. To this extraordinary woman tho desert seemed resolved to unfold it«j socretest treasures. Quitting Calico Gamp, she went tq San Bernardino, and. against all advice, sho capriciously began to prospect a country which * had been overrun with male prospectors for half a generation. The result of her foolish •stubbornness was her discovery of the rich Calico silver mines, which she named after the place where fortune had first befriended her. Later still

Mrs Rikert migrated into the wild regions of the Tuslonuie. There sho discovered the Pino Blanco and Oro Miidro mines and several other gold mines of lees importance.

Airs Rikert has given ur> prospecting now, but she is still an extravagantly energetic -woman. Quito recently sho built a railroad through the roughest part of California out of her own capital to connect her various mines with the metropolis. Slio manages all her large mining properties and estates herself. Sho is the sole director of her two railways, and it is stated that she signs every week the wage cheques of the 2000 workmen in her employ. Her daughter is now twenty-five years of age and tho greatest heire&t to a single fortune in the whole civilised world.