| Show the prospector and his burro whenever I 1 see a man with long finger nails said the prospector to his burro it makes me think of the olden days in scamp stamp milling practice when mine managers were rather adverse to the employment of a millman who wore his nails long I 1 know that you think that long finger nails are a sign of gentility and good breeding and so they are but the nails should never be too ion long even in the very best of society and when you see a man with nails sticking out of the ends of his digits for half an inch or more you may set it down that h b is a fop and that probably he parts his hair in the middle also and there is a possibility that he signs his name J lovely Good looker or something of the sort and this class of individuals I 1 am free to say often have empty spots in their craniums where brains ought to be and it is well to steer as shy of them as the mine managers used to do of fillmen wearing long finger nails 1 I see that you seem mystified concerning what I 1 say about fillmen wearing long finger nails and that you think they have as much right to follow this style of adornment as dudes poets and people of fashion and perhaps he has when he is off duty but he should cut them close when engaged in cleaning the plates of the mill of amalgam for if he does not the resulting retort may be shy in value say from ten to fifteen plunks and this to the pecuniary benefit of the millman and yet he might not be held legally responsible for theft perpetrated none whatever 1 I know continued the prospector that you sometimes febel rather chesty over boquete thrown to the mild and trusty burro and imagine that you are an animal of considerable consequence and so you are in some ways but when it comes to a knowle knowledge dge of some of the methods employed in the west in the early days of mining you do not stand knee high to a duck and there you are but going back to the long fingers of the millman I 1 will tell you for your benefit that these nails were not A wo worn rn for ornamental purposes purposes but that they were employed in securing gold from the plates when when a clean cleanup up w was a in progress i and this by the simple means of scraping the fingers along the plates and getting all of the gold possible between the nails of course as you might mi ag ht imagine the millman was a man who was exceedingly careful of his toilet and when he went off shift he was sure to manicure his nails with painful care this was right and proper but the observing man would have noticed that he took pains that the cleanings gleanings clean ings from his finger nails were not thrown out into info the slop jar on the contrary they were rd religiously saved and when an ounce ounie or more of the debris had been secured the accumulation mu lation went secretly to the melting pot the retort showing a goodly sized button of the yellow metal in course of time you will see even if you are rather slow when it comes to jigging your intellect these gold gid buttons would help very materially in swelling a mans bank account 1 I want to tell you old long ears bars the prospector went on to say long finger nails in a stamp mill beats bucking the tiger or playing your four bit pieces on the roulette wheel the tiger may swallow all of your earnings or the ball fall onto the wrong number in the wheel but long finger nails beat four aces or a bobtail bob tail flush for once the gold is lodged firmly beneath the nails returns are as sure as if the owner of these ornaments had government bonds and had only to repair to the privacy of his cabin to cut off the coupons you want to know if the long finger nail practice is popular po in these days and I 1 know you will keep a lookout hee rafter for gentry gentry of this character but you will notice natice but few for bior times are now more modernized erni zed and the new methods of holding up a mine owner or a mining company are more far reaching and include many practices with which you are not familiar while the emoluments are frequently larger the same principle or lack of principle is involved however and the new methods are no improvement over the old ones none whatever |
