Being Rich Can Kill You



“There’s gold in California,” I yelled as I ran thou the streets of San Francisco. I had heard rumors that there was gold in California. Before spreading the rumor I went to look for gold dust and put it in a bottle. That would be my proof as to the gold. Everyone needed a shovel or pickax to look for gold, I ingeniously purchased all the shovels pickax and pans in town, then I started to sell them. I was so greedy that I put everything at a very high price.The pans that costed 20 cents at a store before now costed $15 from me.

Even the poorest people were willing to pay that price because they were convinced that they would come home with much more. Unlike me I didn't want to waste time going to California and risk not getting any gold. I had heard that people were already claiming land to look for gold, and they would claim all the gold found in their area. Even if someone else spotted the golden nugget first. Some people even killed Native Americans for their land.

Within the first nine weeks I sold pans, pickax, and shovel I got $36,000. I was the richest person in California. That wasn't enough so I posted the news in the newspaper I led. With the store I opened near sutters fort I was convinced to get more money, since that's where the gold was found. With some of the money I got, I opened a school and united with another newspaper to make the Daily Alta California. After Getting $150,000 a month I opened more stores. All the miners went to my stores, eventually I got enough money to buy lands in San Francisco.

I turned so popular that people wanted to kill me for my money. One pacific afternoon , I had gone to a little town to visit a friend. Everyone looked at me like I was a complete stranger. A strange woman said that I should leave because I didn't belong there. I had rented a little cabin at the center of the town. When I went outside I saw many men with matches, guns or buckets of water. That same night that group of men burned my house. “If you give us gold we will turn off the fire, and if you don’t we will let you die” they all yelled as they each got a bucket of water. After ten minutes they started to turn off the fire and looked inside to see if anything got saved. Luckily , after talking to my friend I gathered all my belongings and left without anyone knowing before sun set.
Once a pair of men kidnapped my wife and asked for money. I gave him the money because i had much more. I couldn't believe I had turned into the richest person in California in just years of doing nothing but selling shovels. I knew some friends who came back with gold so we gambled for it, I ended up making them poor again, after all the time they spent to get gold. I eventually gave them their gold back because they wouldn't talk to me. I even told them the game was meant for them to lose because I had cheated. “I knew you weren't that good at playing poker” said one of my friends.