Show the prospector and his burro 1 I received notice from a bank today said the prospector to his burro informing me me that the mine rat mining company had deposited 2500 to my credit being my share of the dividend just declared by the company and it makes me feel good to know that I 1 have an investment in this proposition which beats government bonds and which is a better layout lay out than any scheme a get rich quick man might devise for I 1 have every assurance that the mine rat company will be paying big dividends for many years to come you say you cannot make out what the bank has to do in the matter but I 1 see that you have reference to a faro bank in which you seem to take a great deal of interest you have never yet been able to distinguish the ratio of value between the red white and blue chips your idea of the game being that the man with the most sand in his craw and quick on the draw has the right to gather in all of the chips and cash on the table fable but none whatever for I 1 have nothing to do with the faro table the faro bank or the roulette wheel it is another kind of a bank I 1 refer to a bank where you can draw out what you put in and where the dealer never stacks the deck or hasa surplus ace up his sleeve some men prefer the faro bank but if your intelligence was on a par with the agility of your heels at times you would readily see that if the man who has a penchant for faro would only trust the other kind of a bank I 1 have been speaking of it would not be long before he had a drawing account which he would be steadily adding to for he would be spending more of his time out in the hills and less in handing over to the faro dealer the few dollars he is able to corral by polishing off the head of a drill in a mine or in pushing a car to the oro ore bin or waste dump 1 I see continued the prospector that you are still worried over the difference between the red white and blue chips and want to know how you can get thoroughly posted in this matter this is a bright idea for you and would be commendable it if the right kind of dope would be of any benefit to you if the chips were same some kind of a mineral I 1 would suggest that you have an assay made of them if this were to be done I 1 think the fire test would show 95 per cent comeback come back for the dealer and 5 per cent of expectation for the player and this reminds me that my first association with the mine rate mine was because of the fact that I 1 was the first to determine the real value of its ore deposits you seem to be taking a little interest in what I 1 am saying and as we have finished supper and you are inclined to be sociable I 1 will tell you how I 1 came to be drawing dividends from this property some years ago when you and I 1 were camping up near the divide of the rabbit trail range I 1 ran across a mine which had been worked for years in a desultory manner but which had never shipped a pound of ore two men were at work on the property but these were somewhat discouraged it is no use ta kling said one of them to me the vein is a strong one a true fissure but we never find any ore of value there is lot of this blue talc looking substance more than five feet of which is showing in the face of the tunnel I 1 have panned it time and time again but cannot get a color and we are getting a big dump of it if we do not strike gold bearing quartz soon the company will close the mine down did you ever assay it I 1 asked assay nothing he replied if we did so we would get nothing but 80 per cent of chloride of assessment ses and 20 per cent disappointment why that stuff is as barren of values as your burro is of any knowledge of the solar system I 1 was not satisfied with his conclusions clu however and as the talc was very heavy I 1 took samples from all over the dump and went to las vegas to have it assayed As I 1 half expected the hungry looking stuff was really lousy with gold and assayed over to the ton on an average I 1 said nothing but took the next train for salt lake where I 1 succeeded in getting shares of the stock of the company at a bargain counter figure for the shareholders had become discouraged and were in expectation of another assessment I 1 then approached the officers of the company and requested the job of superintendent in of the mine at a ridiculously low salary the management hesitated but when I 1 declared my willingness to take my wages out of the first carload shipment of ore I 1 was given the job although I 1 was required to sign an ironclad statement releasing the company from all obligation in case the shipment was never made when I 1 went out to the mine and was duly installed the old superintendent thought I 1 must be a hop fiend when w hen I 1 ordered the men to begin sacking the contents of the dump the men even laughed at m me e and wanted to know if I 1 had encased from provo but I 1 kept my own cou counsel ansel and also paid the cost of hauling and shipping out of my own pocket I 1 sent in five carloads the first trip and went in to see it sampled and sold the company laughed at me and called me a fool when I 1 reported at the office but when the returns were received from the sampler and when the bids from the ore buyers were in the directors nearly went crazy themselves for the lean looking stuff actually netted over to the car the stock of the corporation which had been a drug on the market at two and three cents a share advanced rapidly and the last quotations I 1 have seen show that it is now active at 5 and better for years the company has been paying regular dividends and will be good as a profit maker for many years to come the great difficulty with mining men man and prospectors continued the prospector is that they have determined in their minds the kind kina and character of ore their properties shall produce and if they do not find what they expect everything goes over the dump as being valueless they do not assay the different kinds of rock the talc the clay the conglomerate or the country rock and very often as a consequence they throw over the dump thousands upon thousands of tons of material that in reality is richer in the precious metals than if the native gold was sticking out in nuggets than if covered with wire silver 1 I want to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector no one need expect to find all mineral bearing ores dressed up in sunday go to meeting clothes patent leather shoes with a clean shave and haircut for it is often the dirty repulsive looking mine product that is the clear quill and which will go the highest in gold and silver to the ton and if I 1 ever catch a mining man working for me who fails to 10 give due attention to every change in formation occurring in the mine I 1 will kick him off the dump and clear into the next county and there you are and then some |