Show the prospector L and his B burro urro 4 it is often very diff difficult for an investor to secure a good mine said the prospector to his burro as it is difficult to pick out a really first class burro from a bunch of these long eared animals for there are good and bad burros just the same as there are mines both good and bad with me however it is easy to pick out a good burro for I 1 am a good judge of the merit and value of a rocky mountain canary and have only to inspect the herd in order to make my selection and this is how I 1 got you but if I 1 had placed my order for a jack with a burro expert the chances are that I 1 would have experienced difficulty in securing even a third rate animal A man to be successful in mining must know a mine when he sees it it if he would succeed in the business and there is no reason why he should not have several bonanzas on his string in his mining knowledge he has the better of the capitalist who wants good mining property but who has to trust to his expert in order to secure what he is looking for for it is often the case that the capitalist although he has the long green in his hip pocket is seldom ever permitted to disburse the same in the purchase of a genuine wealth producer notwithstanding the fact that his experts have harried the country over for years in their search for a really good mine now you must not think from what I 1 have said that there are not any good mining properties in the country which can be easily acquired for there are many the trouble with the capitalist being that his experts were of the wrong brand although they were probably thoroughly competent and able to pass judgment on a good or a poor property and hereby hangs a tale or tail which ever you may choose to take it 1 I see that you are interested continued the prospector and will therefore tell you of two brands of experts which stand in the way of the capitalist when he is in the field for a 32 karat gold mine you are evidently under the impression that ahat I 1 am alluding to carrots of which you are very fond but none whatever and I 1 have no time now to explain to you the intrinsic value of a karat when applied to diamonds or gold but you can well believe that a 32 karat gold mine is a stem winder and then some but harking back to the two brands of mining experts who hardly ever report favorably on a mining proposition the most prominent and most heartbreaking heart breaking one is the man who will never make a good report for fear that possibly the mine if purchased might not turn out to be a boni bonanza inza in which event his reputation would be fractured tarnished or injured and so he would rather turn down everything good bad and indifferent er than to take tahe the chance with his reputation and be it said tonopah To goldfield seven troughs and other bonanza mines have been turned down by this same breed of guys and their backers therefore lost the opportunity of their lives the other brand which wo we will call the barnacle is generally on the payroll of some prominent mining investor and his main and chief effort is to stay there and he generally does although his employer hardly ever has a chance to invest his bank roll in a good mining proposition 1 I can see by the way your lips are working and by the gentle flapping of your ears that you are interested in the barnacle and so will tell you of a little experience of my own with a man of means who wanted to buy a mine at that time I 1 had a dandy prospect which was a yard wide and warranted not to rip ravel or run down at the heel and I 1 went to the capitalist in question hoping to sell it to him he received me well and was much interested in my story and I 1 thought r would cinch him there but he balked and wanted to refer me to his expert nut not on your life I 1 said and when he wanted my reason I 1 argued with him somewhat after this fashion if I 1 go out with any expert I 1 want to go with a disinterested te person and he will pass fairly on the merits of my property but if I 1 go with your expert he will turn it down for Y he finds you a mine his steady job with you is ended and his occupation will be gone his name will disappear from your payroll and his bellyband belly band will liang hang loose around his waist if you want a good proposition take mine or leave it just as you please but do not go through the old and threadbare farce of sending your own expert out to report on it the man got wise for once and sent another man with me this expert knew that this was a onetime one time job lie he liked my mine and upon his report it was sold and the capitalist has since made a million or more in the transaction I 1 1 I want to tell you old long ears bars continued the prospector you must get out of the rut if you want to succeed red tape looks fine when seen at a distance but you cannot find gold by rooting around in the rear end of a saloon and a man will not do his work well if he is in danger of losing his job if he completes it too soon A reau tation is a good thing to have but to prosper it must be given a chance to get out and roughhouse rough house around with the boys once in a while it will mould if bottled up for too long and it il is better to give it an opportunity port unity to spread out a trifle once in awhile than to allow it to get rusty and moth eaten for fear that a slight error in judgment might injure its crust or dippell its pink bloom I 1 am a tough customer to deal with as you well know but I 1 can get along with almost every class excepting the expert with a reputation to lose and the expert or barnacle who fears that when he finds a mine he will weaken his hold on the pocketbook of his employer and there you are with more to follow |