PERSEVERENCE
Tommy Cruse was an Irish immigrant who migrated to New York and worked there for several years in the grinding jobs offered to Irish immigrants. Seven years later, he got gold fever and headed west with the army of fortune seekers that characterized the middle of the last century. He landed in Helena, Montana, in 1867. Helena, which later became the state capital, was one of the richest and last large gold fields in the west. In fact, it was called “Last Chance Gulch.” It is said that almost every house and store in Helena in the 1850’s was paid for by the gold uncovered in digging the foundation. But by the time that Tommy Cruse got there, the gold was gone and Helena had settled down to a sedate, well-mannered western town. But Tommy Cruse did not give up, every spring for nine consecutive years he headed out into the hills looking for gold. He became something of a joke around Helena;…
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