GOLD SEEKER'S TRAGIC END

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18089, 13 May 1922, Page 2 (Supplement)

GOLD SEEKER'S TRAGIC END

DIES IN HOUR OF TRIUMPH.

A lifelong search among the rocky heights of the Tyrolese mountains for a lost goldmine, which ended in the tragio death of the discoverer just as success had finally crowned his efforts, is described in a despatch from Innsbruck. Joseph Fliesser, a resident of Salzburg, was told of the. whereabouts of the goldmine by his father, who lay on his deathbed. Fliesser, for 40 years, spurred by the thought of immense wealth, deprived himself of-the luxuries of life in order to make a systematic search. Every crag in the long chain of the Tyroicse mountains became familiar to him, but fate tricked him throughout until last week, when the inhabitants of the small village of Admont, near the Sparafeld range, were startled by the appearance among them of a ragged, unkempt old man crying', "I have found gold." Fliesser was warned of the danger of an ascent at this time of the year, out, jealous of his discovery, and despite his age, he set, -off alone. H 0 was letting himself over the edge of a precipice down to a projecting ledge, where he had located a paying streak of gold, wheu the rope, holding him snapped, and the old man fell 180 feet, breaking his neck. His body now lies guarding the treasure like the dragon in Wagu§r'« "giegided*"