Memorabilia 



quantities at London and Paris dur- 

 ing the preceding winter, presumably 

 by the originators of the swindle. 

 The practical result of Mr. King's 

 disclosure of the facts in this case 

 was one of inestimable value, possi- 

 bly more in money than the whole 

 cost of the entire exploration of the 

 Fortieth Parallel Expedition. Had 

 the fraud remained undisclosed till 

 the following spring, large sums of 

 money would have been wasted in 

 the costly purchase of worthless prop- 

 erty and in fruitless prospecting, not 

 only by capitalists, but by thousands 

 of disappointed and ruined fortune- 

 seekers. 



The leading and most active, even 

 though wholly innocent, promoter of 

 the diamond-mining enterprise, by no 

 means necessarily a participant in the 

 original swindle, or cognizant of the 

 fraud until disclosed by King, was 

 an old and very well-known Cali- 

 400 



