Show rt the he pr prospector s pr ep t 0 r anahis and his burro some mining men I 1 know of said the prospector to his burro are more ornamental in a barroom than they are out in the mines I 1 know you think a barroom is the nicest and most cheerful place you have ever seen and that a roulette wheel is a most wonderful invention that a poker game is just the thing for kindred spirits to engage in and that a bobtail flush is a species of jackrabbit jack rabbit or mule deer but this shows that you were raised in the sage brush and that your judgment is as badly warped as is the opinion of a who is opposed to government forest reserves A man to be successful in mining must understand his business f from roin A to Z he must know about different formations sedimentary deposits infiltration contacts and fissures and above all he must know that the percentage going to the dealer will absorb all of his cash and then some in the long run and if he is sincere he will not look upon the red or place his money on the green but will devote all of his attention his energies and talents in the development of the mine in his charge even then if he is ignorant in matters pertaining to the mining and milling industry a large bale of fine cut sorrow will be delivered to his employers marked collect it is a common belief among the rank and file of tenderfeet tender feet continued the prospector that any man can make a success in in mining even as you think you would make a showy fifth avenue carriage horse if you were only given the chance and in this respect you show a lack of gray matter equal to that of a michigan banker I 1 heard of a few days ago but because of this casual remark do not get swell headed none whatever for do what you can you will never be anything but a burro just as a shovel miner will be a shovel miner as long as he lives but to ray my story this banker I 1 speak of had purchased a piece of mining property ill a district not far from here for several months he put up his good money for its ts operation without receiving any encouraging cou raging returns in other words the dealer raked in his chips and started the wheel again and again the banker then sent his consulting engineer to ascertain where the trouble lay the engineer reported that the property was possessed of merit but that the management was bad and more interested in seven come eleven than he was in taking out ore for shipment well then said the 1 banker I have a son who is a first rate business man he is a good banker and is sober and honest I 1 will put him in charge of the mine that is just the thing said the engineer now I 1 have a brother who is a graduate of the university of utah who is a good geologist a fine assayer and a splendid chemist and who has had several years experience in mine management he is industrious dust rious temperate and reliable now I 1 would suggest that you put him in your bank in your sons place but said the banker your brother knows nothing about banking and your son knows nothing about mining replied the engineer 1 I want to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector every man to his business and every burro to his pack I 1 am pretty good at prospecting but I 1 would make a sorry figure as a professor of greek or as general passenger agent of the salt lake route if I 1 undertook either of these lines I 1 would fall down hard as hard as you do when you undertake to prove your equality to a standard bred horse the banker might make a success in financial affairs but he is sure to make a failure if he undertakes the management of a mine you want the moral well the moral is that it is because so many men who know nothing about mining butt into the game that there are so many idle mines and mills in this section and there you are and then some |