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Bar Patterns
war material of the day. This could be promptly dumped
into the hold of a chartered "tramp" and headed wher–
ever trouble was brewing.
Every gold rush was followed sooner or later by an
influx of rough-looking men wearing wide brimmed hats
-and more than once, cowhide boots-and the air
would resound with tales of "big strikes" and of "pros–
pects" that promised big, and whose performances later
made a big hole in many a speculative bank account.
Cripple Creek, for example; Alaska, Tonopah-all paid
tribute to Boldt's Bar. And those miners wanted the
most expensive drinks. Charhpagnewas theirfirstthought.
Opportunities offered by the assemblage of so many
men who were making easy money in mining, or in
"The Street", were too pregnant to be resisted by cer–
tain purveyors of luxuries. At least one noted dealer in
uncut precious stones always drifted in to scan those
whose actions or talk indicated they had been lucky in
the market, and he usually did a thriving business be–
cause, in those times, men who had made money on
"flyers" were apt to have their lighter m9ments. That
crafty psychologist derived considerable profit from per–
suading such that one way to celebrate the-ir good for–
tune was to select a costly trinket for the lady in the
uptown flat. And invariably in the gathering were to
be discovered a full half-dozen gentlemen whose spe–
cialty in trade was either high-priced art or antiques.
To their activities amid those inspirational scenes one
who used to know most of the local art merchants and
many of the imported ones has often dated the rise of
the passion for art-collecting which became so wide-
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