Show TOO MANY OF THEM there are too many men in the mining game and perhaps in e very other walk of life that cannot stand a little prosperity the selfishness of our commercial age has instilled a dissatisfaction and greed that was seldom manifest in the lives of our forefathers and this same tendency has had a very marked effect on the mining industry A successful mining man recently complained to the writer about these hind sighted individuals and his story is best given in practically his own style and diction once there was an old mossback who had been squatting on about fifty claims for years he was a typical groundhog and the first of the year found him putting up new notices on all the ground he could cover he was never known to do any work or any boosting for the camp but he had them all beat howling calamity and hard times when any one came into the district he would crawl into his shell and sulk or else queer a deal that his neighbor was trying to make he put a price ce on his own property that would freeze anybody but a morgan or a vanderbilt one day a real man called his bluff and offered him his price in cash but do you think old mossback would deliver no sir his price had doubled over night and he exchange his ground for the whole united states finally the camp was a success but because the old geser died and let some one in who wanted to do some actual mining it and this is only one of the instances where the more money man the ground hog the mossback and the butter in make it hard for the legitimate mining man many good properties are tied up and idle because the owner always raises the price one notch above the bid he will never get together with the man who means business and is a most detrimental nuisance to any mining community the groundhog is allowed to live merely because the laws permit him to he can do just enough work to hold his claims and by Te relocation location can keep really good ground year after year the laws on the holding of mineral land are sadly in need of revision the mossback is too far gone to know whether he is alive or not and were he to get in a good live camp he would be run over in a minute but he is satisfied to plod along and let the other fellow do the work he cant see beyond his own shadow but the most pernicious of the lot is the fellow who is always queering que ering a deal or a transaction for some one el else se there are several such in and about salt lake that should be taken to the edge of the sea and pushed in these sneaks seem to take a delight in spoiling the other fellows game even when there is no chance for financial gain for them they would not be tolerated in many western camps where they usually get a request to move on but they operate in the larger mining centers it is truly wonderful what a good reputation the average mining man is able to maintain when such specimens as the above are associated socia ted with the profession |