Alfonso did not agree with the
popular sentiment, "The best Indian is a dead Indian," for the Sioux
seemed to him to belong to a noble race of red men.
Alfonso's enthusiasm for mining was greatly quickened by a fellow
traveler, who was the owner of a large block of stock in the famous
Homestake Mining Co. of Lead City, Black Hills, So. Dakota. This company
possesses one of the largest gold mines and mills in the world. The ore
bodies show a working face from two to four hundred feet in width, and
sink to a seemingly inexhaustible depth. The Homestake has produced over
$25,000,000 in bullion, and has divided over six millions in dividends to
stockholders.
Three days' journey brought young Harris to Montana, an inland empire
state, which lies on both sides of the Rocky Mountains. The Pacific
Express was laden with a motley crowd of men and women in search of fame
and fortune. Alfonso soon caught their enthusiasm, and visions of castles
with gilded domes floated in his imagination.
It was 1:35 P.M. when No. 1, the Pacific Express, pulled into thrifty
Helena, capital of Montana, a commercial metropolis metamorphosed from
a rude mining camp of twenty-five years ago.
The electric cars carried Alfonso to the Hotel Helena on Grand St.
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