Show the prospector and an d his burro J nearly every morning said the prospector to his burro you make it necessary for me to spend an hour or more in looking you up for you are almost human in the tendency you have to leave your nice little grassy patch below our spring and hike off over the mountain to that little strip of green in owl canyon although your own little meadow is the best to be found within a hundred miles which shows that to a burro as well as to his the two legged biped distance lends enchantment to the view 1 I see continued the prospector that you are a little peeved over my reference to your wandering and want to know what I 1 think of the rank and file of mining men and prospectors who will leave a good mining camp and finely mineralized erali zed section for some new discovery miles away which may not contain a nosebag full of ore when the same energy and money expended might open up a bonanza proposition at home and the only answer I 1 can give is that human nature and burro nature are pretty much the same being brewed in the same pot for it is true that a burro is never entirely contented with his feeding ground while a man will leave a 1000 jackpot blocked out in ills hia mine workings to scamper after a new find in some wild and isolated country and all because each is seel seeking cing variety which is generally forthcoming in carload lots for both the burro being disappointed in the quality and fat making contents of his newfound new found diet and the prospector in ill the smallness and barrenness of the new find still both are satisfied in a measure for they have demonstrated the true worth of the coveted grazing ground and the possibilities of the newly discovered camp but had you remained at home and had the m miner iner coddled up to ills his jackpot like a kitten to a ho hot t brick the two of you would have been wind jamming around for a month or two bewailing a lost opportunity u of striking it rich and such is life allee same burro allee same prospector you are inclined to believe that I 1 am somewhat of a hermit in the position I 1 taken in this matter and that I 1 am giving you this line of conversation because I 1 love to hear the sound of my own voice forgetting how many times a day you run up and down the scale in the effort to ascend to high C while you also hint that it would bp ba a good thing for the country if I 1 would send my conversation by freight to some outside point and have it educated A suggestion that in my opinion shows that a burro can become as degraded and debased in his ideas as some of the rough necks who hang around the bucket of blood saloon down in the canyon yonder but this has n nothing todo to do with my opinion of those who will stampede to a new find on any and every occasion none whatever and to show you that the pot of gold at the end ok of the rainbow can often be found right at home I 1 will relate an a n experience of mine over in hardscrabble gulch a number of years ago this was a flourishing gold camp theore the ore being free milling while several of its mines had made profits of more than a million each for their owners the district was an old one and prospecting had almost entirely ceased within its it environments for it was believed and had been for many years that all of the ledges in the camp had been found As a matter of fact there was no enthusiasm there and a yellow le legged ged expert had not graced the camp with his presence i for more than five years As was customary with the day shift off the miners were down at the joint at the fork of the canyon some were bucking the ilie tiger some were watching the wheel go round and some were caressing the kitty I 1 had dropped in to see one of the boys and the piano professor was just finishing a grand spread eagle effort when an old time prospector slipped into the room and beckoned ills his partner to come outside A little later one of the other men went out As quietly as possible the faro dealer closed his game and lie he too was missing a few minutes after then it became noticeable that the roulette wheel had ceased to buzz that no one was interested in the crap game and that the barkeeper bar keeper keepe r ha had d hun hung 1 up ills his apron and had sneaked out of the back door I 1 was growing in astonishment all the time like dried apples in a rainstorm and was so mystified that the saloon became entirely deserted before I 1 had gumption ta lon enough to realize that something was wao on going out I 1 went down to the store it was closed and dark I 1 followed my teet feet up to the postoffice post office nothing doing for it too was desolate and deserted and at the company headquarters no one could bo be found but the chinese cook then it dawned upon me that a stampede was on oil and I 1 made a quick like hike to the livery stable and corral to find that every hoof had been taken and that the stable boy was on the last mount an old and foundered bellmare bell mare illare that had not been used for years from him I 1 learned that the new discovery was over in the soda biscuit range 1 I twenty five miles from our camp being afoot 1 I could not well follow and so I 1 rushed down to my shack to get my burro he had hobbles on oil and was sound asleep I 1 supposed I 1 frightened him with my rush and hurry for he balked like an auto with its spark plug out when I 1 slipped the hackamore on him and would not bud budge bude t e an inch I 1 pulled him aloia along 1 I for a block or more his protesting feet making the ground look like a ploughed sloughed hed field but I 1 could not 0 get et him to travel so after an hour or two of this hilarious entertainment ment I 1 gave up and went to bed in the morning I 1 got up and was as much alone a aa the man in good genteel society who eats with his knife for the camp was entirely deserted after eating I 1 breakfast I 1 went out to where I 1 had left my burro he was still there and greeted me with a merry he haw thinking I 1 lie he would get his urual portion of barley for his morning feed for he had the gall all of an undertaker at a charity funeral I 1 was in no mood to comply with his desire however and moped along with my eyes on the ground brooding over the fact of my being left in the stampede to the new camp As I 1 walked over the ground over which I 1 had hauled my obstinate burro I 1 noticed a piece of broken quartz it was freshly broken too and picking it up I 1 was surprised to find that it Z glittered with gold getting my P pick ick I 1 dug where I 1 had found the quartz and only two inches under the surface I 1 uncovered a two foot body of oreth ore that atwould would assay about to the ton in the yellow metal and after a little work I 1 traced the vein for over a thousand feet and it was on vacant 0 ground too ground that for years had been considered barren and valueless by night I 1 had a group of three c claims located and staked and by this time the first of the stam peders began to trail in tired weary and disgusted and swearing like mule skinners from them I 1 learned that the new find was nothing more than a small stringer that would not pan more than 5 to the ton when I 1 told them of my find however they went wild again and made locations on extensions until the whole country bristled with stakes and monuments fi within six months I 1 had made a fortune out of my find and from that day to this have always been backward in coming forward when a new discovery is announced 1 I want to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector if you have a good thing at home you had better stay with it for there is no telling what you may find out in the great unknown and there you are and then some |