FATHER DE SMET'S SECRET.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 45, 27 February 1885, Page 7

FATHER DE SMET'S SECRET.

Among the gossiping stories related at the cornera yesterday was one in which in the name of Father De Smet figured; This famous missionary to the Indian tribes of the Rocky Mountains was connected with the St. Louis University, and died a few yeara ago, and was buried at the novitiate, near Florissant. He was idolized by the Indians among whom he lived for many years, and was worthy of their devotion. They called him the " Black Gown," on account of the black robe be always wore with them. When he travelled amon«the wild tribes, preaching the Gospel to the untutored savages, they would not allow him to walk, but carried him on their shoufders and. watched over him with the utmost tenderness. One day an Indian hunter showed Father De Smet a handful of small bits of greyish white metal of the size of flattened shot aDd asked him what it was. He had tried to melt it, supposing it to be silver, but the hottest fire made no impression on it. The hunter had shot a mountain sheep on the edge of a declivity, and the animal, falling among some rocks had in its death struggle uncovered these particles of whitish metal.' Fathex De Smet was something of a geologist and metallurgist, and he at once recognised the metal ; s platinum. He well knew that if the knowledge of such a deposit should become known to the while men of the States they would soon overrun the Indian couutry, and the hunting grounds of his beloved children would be taken from them. To prevent this calamity he exacted from the hanter a solemn promise that he would never reveal to a living soul the fact of the discovery, and he himself made a- similar pledge of secrecy. Father De Smet carried the secret to the grave, and it is presumed the Indian discoverer did the same. At any rate the platinum has never been discovered. Father De Smet brought specimens of it to St. Louis, and they are now believed to be in the museum of the university. It is probablo that, the platinum bed is somewhere in the Black Hills, and it will no doubt be found some day and prove a bonanza to some fortunate miner. It has been searched for in varsious localities, and one man, a short time ago. claimed that he had found it. This man was a long-haired, keen-eyed adventurer, who said he had spent the greater portion of his life in the mountains. He applied to one of our well-known citizens, of a speculative turn of mind, and, showing him his specimens, obtained v sum of money and then disappeared It wa3 a regular confidence game and the citizen is not disposed to talk much about it. He related to a friend one day the modus operandi by which he had been taken in. The stranger appeared to bs? an honesi, simple-minded man, totally without means, and willing to make the citizen a partner provided he would furnish the capital to work the mine. It was something like tha silver brick swindle, by which two or three of our prominent citizens were duped several years ago — St. Louis JRepuilican.