our with
impatience. Before the party arrived, all the windows were darkened with
sheets and blankets, refreshments were prepared, and they dropped in one
at a time to avoid notice. The bag was opened and its contents displayed
upon the table. It was a pure white and brilliant metal, about the
weight of silver, and with the assistance of the refreshments we had
convinced ourselves before daylight that it was all pure silver.

I took a chunk of it about the size of an orange, and, with one of the
miners, went down to the Mexican mill, to have it assayed. The assayer
took it, looked it over, and asked if we wanted it assayed for iron. My
companion immediately answered, "I'll bet you a thousand dollars there's
no iron in it." The assayer replied: "We don't bet on such things, but I
will soon tell you all about it," and, after putting it to the test, he
reported: "Magnetic iron, ninety-five per cent; no trace of gold or
silver."

We let the world's tail go, put our own between our legs, and went home,
two of the worst disappointed men in all Nevada, and that was the last
of my mining efforts.

A UNIQUE POLITICAL CAREER.

Gen. James Shields had a most extraordinary career. I remember no man in
the history of our country who equals him in the diversity and extent of
his public services and office-holding. He was a general in the Mexican
War, and for a long time enjoyed the unique reputation of being the only
man who was ever shot through the lungs and survived. This, however, was
not true. Many others, no doubt, underwent the same experience, and I
remember a young Chippewa Indian who, while on a war party into the
Sioux country, was wounded in exactly the same manner, and lived to a
good old age as a very robust savage.

When the general returned from the Mexican War to Illinois, he was
exceedingly popular. He was made commissioner of the general land office
of the United States and judge of the supreme court of the State of
Illinois, and was subsequently elected to the senate of the United
States; but when he was about to take his seat he ran up against the
snag that is found in section 3 of article I of the constitution of the
United States, which provides that a senator must have been a citizen of
the United States for nine years before election, and it appeared that
the general fell short of the requisite period. The consequence was that
he was rejected, and he had to return to his state. But the citizens of