It is our chosen unit of power and success, the measure of
civilization and human attainment. Hence it has always been the
object of human desire. The Golden Fleece very probably was the
sheepskin bottom of an old-time sluice-box, in a day when they
used wool, instead of blankets, below the rocker troughs. In the
vast ruined civilization of Southeast Africa unknown men once
mined probably $400,000,000 worth of gold. There are mines
profitably operated in Greece to-day which the Phoenicians opened
1,200 B. C. Sixteen hundred years later the Romans owned all the
mines in Europe. Hannibal once paid his warriors in gold coin of
Carthage. Egypt was settled by the Semitic races 2,500 B. C.,
because of the gold that was found there. A thousand years later
Job knew about gold, and five hundred years later still, King
Solomon showed what an abundance of wives and what a reputation
for wisdom a man can get when he has unlimited gold mines back of
him. Columbus found America when he was searching for the wealth
of Ormus and of Ind. Cortez and Pizarro toiled and slew in the
hope of finding the Madre d'Oro. The great discoveries of the
world have been made by men in search of gold.
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