Show the prospector anahis and his burro 11 1 I want to tell you said the prospector to his burro that mining is sometimes like a mirage against which many financial enterprises terp rises have been wrecked and it is often that mining companies whose makeup make up seems to be the strongest t imaginable butt up against the rocks in an imaginary sea and are wrecked to that extent that the salvage would not be worth a two bit piece on a faro table you seem to be interested and want to know what a mirage is and what an imaginary sea looks like well I 1 will tell you A mirage is not a lookingglass looking glass as your feeble mind might conjecture although your surmise is somewhat near the truth for a wonder it is however a reflection and on the desert sands one often sees pictures with startling reality lakes streams forests and oceans upon which ships are sailing this is a reflection of real scenes from the clouds and the actual objects may be hundreds even thou thousands ands of miles away do the reflections stay there you ask none whatever for one may start out to reach them only to find that they recede from him and finally vanish into thin air like a one buck piece when put on the 00 on the roulette wheel an imaginary sea is about the same thing and many mining companies in their operations imagine they are on the highway to success when in reality they are as far removed from success as you are mistaken when you think you have the voice of a mocking bird and think of going on the stage as a prini prima a donna in other words while the good and true about ll a mining company may be the genuine article it Is possible that it is off the trail and that in the end it will bring up against the rock of insolvency instead of a big and healthy looking bank account it has been following a mirage notwithstanding the possible fact that it is the owner of a gilt edged mining proposition which should and could be developed into a bonanza the race is not always to the swift northe battle to the strong continued the prospector although both qualifications are high card combinations when one is engaged in mining pursuits A large head filled with trained gray matter is as good but it cannot act to its full capacity if carried by a frail and emaciated body no you may have a N big J head but I 1 often think it is filled with bran instead of even a thimbleful of brains so 0 o do not let it swell on you because of my remarks about large heads but do not be downcast for I 1 have seen large men with great heads who were as lowdown low down in the intellectual scale as the dumbest burro I 1 ever saw just as I 1 have seen fine looking quartz which was as barren of metallic values as is a jug handle but to my story and I 1 trust you will not interrupt me again with your senseless twaddle A large brainy head on a man with no physical strength or constitution is about as useless as valueless as a company having prominent men on its directorate plenty of money for operation era tion but lacking qualification trained talent good ability and push and enterprise at the mining end of the proposition the company from the lookout of its office sees a mirage in the mountains and imagines it is the proud bird of success perched upon its min mining ing proposition the manag management ement then goes to the club takes a drink buys buye a cigar and proceeds to while away the hours in a t game of aluff at the mine it is different the prospect has all of the earmarks of bf a bonanza but no system no regularity money is freely spent but to no purpose the manager is in the city telling his friends what a great 0 reat mine he has while mine development mine equipment mill building and other essential improvements 4 are left in the hands of incompetents there is no head or tall tail to operations the mine is but poorly opened the mill w will 11 not work successfully even if it had ore to run on and finally the collapse comes for the proposition ion although possessed of really splendid merit is declared to be a failure 1 I want to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector this proposition would could have been a dividend payer sometime ago had some of the brains at the city office been scattered at the mining end of the layout lay out but what the management saw was a mirage instead of a real mining scene the company had the money and backing which should have resulted in success but it trusted too much to others in this respect it was different from a mining enterprise I 1 came across in california not long ago this company is composed of influential fluent ial men it has heavy capital a strong organization and a suite of the hands handsomest oniest offices to be found in los angeles but it is not mining in its office none whatever the president and general manager has his own private and luxuriously furnished office in the city but he is rarely ever theve there on the contrary lie he is nearly always at the mine where he spends weeks at a time he looks after every item of expense he is up and around the daytime and at night he visits every every drift several times aimes a day and knows to a penny the value of the ore coming from every face from every upraise and from every he knows to a gallon what amount of water the pumps are raising and what it costs to pump that gallon what it costs to mine and mill every ton of ore everything at the mine is run upon a broad scale a big scale but every move must bring results must increase the bank account of the company so that the stockholders may be assured of dividends this company believes that its city office must be subordinate to the mine and it sees no mirage when it looks out over the mountains but the real thing and there you are and then some |