Show the prospector and his burro it when we camped in this deserted camp last night said the prospector to his burro you could hardly compose yourself lor for sleep because you were so much impressed with the appearance of that fine looking mill on oil the side hill just across the canyon from us and I 1 know you are just aching to get down to that little groen green patch on the flat below the mill near which a clear and ancl sparkling spring is purling forth while you have intimated two or three times that it would be a good thing for me to get a iob as cleanup clean up man mail so that we could stop here for the summer I 1 know it looks good to you and as sure of making us happy and comfortable as if I 1 had my chips on the 00 with the ivory dropping into the right slot but none whatever the mill looks all right and it is all right too but it is out of place and will never turn a wheel in the treatment of the precious metal I 1 know this sounds strange to you and you are wondering how so much money and time came to be expended in the building of such a splendid plant when it is not to be use to some advantage and profit and you are not the only one who gazes upon this monument ment of folly and expresses surprise that the stamps are not dropping and wonder why there is no sign of a tailings pit this is nothing new for the mining regions of the west however and is but a repetition of what has been done time atter after time by men who have more money than brains and more energy than experience this mill continued the prospector was built for a mining proposition a mile up the canyon the mine was owned by an eastern company who acquired it by purchase from a couple of prospectors it was first reported upon by a bank clerk in whom the company had a whole barrel of confidence because lie he had never defaulted or looked cross eyed at a pretty woman the bank clerk was pleased with the property because the soughing of the wind through his whiskers at night lulled him to such sweet sleep and so he declared that the mine was the making of a bonanza and arg ed that the management be placed in the hands of a young man whose fathers grandfather had been very successful in his min ing operations in michigan something like a hundred years ago the young man was engaged and he built that pretty bungalow we saw yesterday snuggled up under the shadow of that overhanging over hanging cliff where the view is so superb the mine was placed in charge of a as superintendent and extensive development was carried on the vein is a large one and is interspersed with stringers the stringers carrying high gold values while the balance of the ledge edge is almost as barren and hungry as a burro that has been tied up in an old corral for two or three days every day or two the superintendent would furnish the manager with samples from the stringers which assayed from 50 to to the ton in his report to the company the manager would state that he had twenty feet of this grade and class of ore oh it was a big thing a fortune running around loose with hardly a brand on it and so the company decided to put in that big milling plant we see over there on the other side of the canyon upon the advice of one of the guggenheims who was a friend of the president of the company a first class and experienced m millman and metallurgist was employed to design and construct the mill which was to treat tons of ore daily samples of the ore were sent east for testing purposes the rock was mas absolutely free milling and with tons exposed and in sight in the big vein the whole proposition was as attractive as a standard oil layout lay out before the government told that it wanted to be shown the mill man was as happy as a burro when it finds a sack of barley and he figured that he was going to make the hit of his life so he worked like a beaver or a burro packing his last load of ore down the mountain for the day and the structure he was a magnificent one as you have already observed at last he said gentlemen the mill is ready bring on your ore well the ore was brought down the canyon over a now new Bl bleichert elchert areial ameial tramway and the mill was warmed up for a preliminary run in the meantime something was doing t at the assay office and to the surprise of the mill builder the heads beads averaged only per ton the mine manager was called upon to explain but all he knew was that lie he had twenty feet of ore that would run at least 50 in gold he had not been to the mine for six months but his as superintendent in had reported that the ore was there the mill builder then went up to the mine he took a mining expert with him and together they sampled the property A days work revealed the fizzle for there was not fifty tons of profitable mill ore in ill sight and this was all in the stringers the balance of the vein having hardly a trace of values of course the mill was never started up tip the millman mill man nian was brok en hearted for lie he had told his friends that he was going to show them the biggest thin thing in the united states and upon his advice they had purchased large blocks of the stock of the company at 5 a share today the stock is not worth a cent a share the whole thing is a failure and the public believes it has been up tip against a bunko game ilaine in which the dealer held several aces up tip his sleeve 1 I want imant to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector building a t mill when you have no ore is like leoun counting ting your chickens before they are hatched one could suppose a burro might be guilty of such blunders but would hardly suspicion that a man inan of brains and who iwho is supposed to reason from cause to effect would make such blunders and there you are and then some |