Show the pro prospector and his burro 1 9 by will C higgins 1 I always make it a rule said the prospector to his burro to give the investor a chance on anything 1 I find that looks good to me if I 1 find a prospect that is lean and hungry looking like that old outlaw jack of yours I 1 do not want to monkey with it neither do I 1 want my friends and acquaintances to put money into it for a failure means a black eye to the mining industry and many a failure might have been prevented but for the greediness of many who are in my line of business but if I 1 discover something that looks good to me I 1 am willing to let others participate in its development its ownership and in the profits if any accrue putting g up my experience my efforts and my title against their capital their influence and their willingness to carry on intelligent and active operation by following this method 1 I am interested in quite a number of developed and producing properties throughout this intermountain region some of which are now paying me regular dividends when I 1 was younger in the game continued the prospector 1 I was just like so many of the tenderfeet tender feet one finds in the hills and who let on as if they knew 1 it t all if I 1 was fortunate enough to find a likely looking prospect I 1 immediately imagined I 1 was a millionaire I 1 was too poor to do much in the way of deve development loument lop ment and if a possible buyer happened along and wanted to become interested in my locations I 1 would put a price of at least a quarter of a million on the property with a demand that a cash payment of or be made before I 1 would eve even n let him stick a pick in the ground of course the man with the dough refused my proposition much to my surprise for I 1 was confident that the prospect if properly developed would produce millions but I 1 could not carry on an active campaign of exploitation and so my prospects would remain idle year after year excepting for the annual assessment work required and were of no value to me in fact they required ful an outlay in meeting the requirements of the law that I 1 was hardly prepared to meet and finally when I 1 became lax in performing my annual assessments they were jumped by others who strange to sey refused reasonable offers for them just justas as I 1 in my foolishness had refused before them about this time however i met up with an old hermit in the hills this poor fool had made his locations many years before he had promising property but had refused all offers of assistance because he wanted a million in cash for his holdings more than once men of means had offered to put up as a working capital for a third interest in the property to be used in development with the promise of digging up more for the purpose of equipment providing development should prove the existence of extensive and valuable ore bodies and during the period of development the old man was to have employment on a salary of per month but the poor misguided claim owner wanted a fortune all in a bunch wanted a mine price for a mere prospect and as a 0 result he has been living from hand to mouth for the past twenty years and has no more of an income than a horned toad with a nest in the roots of a joshua cactus well I 1 happened at his shack in the hills after I 1 had failed to find a buyer for my prospects and his absolute poverty and hopeless condition both shocked me and opened my eyes and from that day I 1 determined to pursue a more liberal and broader policy for I 1 quailed at the idea of becoming in my old age a replica of the old hermit you say that the idea of being a hermit with a cabin near a mountain stream with a quiet and well behaved little meadow below is mighty appealing to you this preference of yours however does not look good to me none whatever for I 1 have greatly changed my methods since stopping over night with the old hermit and to such an extent that whenever I 1 find a good looking ledge out in the hills no matter how rich it is even if the rock is nearly half gold or runs thousands of ounces in silver I 1 am willing to give up half of it to the man who will bind himself to put up sufficient money for its development operation and equipment this may sound loco to you but ever since I 1 adopted this policy I 1 have always had plenty of the long green in my inside pocket and if I 1 send my aff affinity anity a burich bunch of american beauties I 1 do not feel my heart going down into my hightop high top boots on account of the heavy expense 1 I want to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector you might as well try to derive nourishment from the hide of a gila monster as to hoodwink a capitalist into paying a mine price for a mere prospect I 1 have tried it and I 1 know now however if I 1 make a good discovery I 1 am willing to split with him and even then I 1 consider he is generous in taking the chances he does I 1 have ceased to ask for money down nowadays now a days and have come to consider my partners as royal good fellows and there you are and then some |