Show the pro prospector and his burro by will C higgins it might be possible for you to dance the tango with a little more practice said the prospector to his burro but if you became ever so perfect in the art you could never associate on a par of equality with the better element of Bur roland any more than a roughneck because of his ex vocabulary of profanity can expect to enjoy good standing with the evangelical alliance you say you cannot see any logic in my remarks or what connection there may be between the tango and the nain mining game or how if you took a notion to perform a dance that is graceful if your i thoughts ar are e pure and holy or adopt the slit skirt effect in the makeup make up of your caudle appendage what need there is for your straight laced associates to cut your acquaintance and this feeling on your part plainly shows that you are lacking in the finer distinctions and that coming down to brass tacks it would be difficult for you to draw the line between honest mining and the elaborate schemes of the goldbrick gold brick manipulator it is true continued the prospector that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the two at first glance for the goldbrick gold brick man often has the air and bear ing hig of a sunday school teacher or a bank director in fact he may even look honest but in the long run the difference is easily to be seen and the honest man will be on the job long after the g b man has departed for pastures new and green for the locality where a new lot of suckers is to be found you say that you are getting tired of this long preamble and that if I 1 have a story to tell you wish I 1 would get zi it out of my system as you are anxious to finish the game of solitaire you were engaged in when I 1 began my remarks about the tango so if you will listen without further interruptions I 1 will tell you of iny experience with two men out in the badland district a few years ago these two t men drifted into camp shortly after MY mv arrival one was a quiet plain spoken man a who secured an option on a promising piece pa of property containing an extension of the famous blueberry lode the other wore a flasher on his tie that arrested the attention of every skirt in the canyon and even the burros looked upon him with admiration he H also aa took an option on some claims but they were clear off from the mineralized belt and valuable only for cactus raising and as a habitation for horned toads and chuck a wallows the first man whom we will call smith began systematic work in the development of his property the other man self styled lucky jones performed the greater part of his prospecting at the bar of the bucket of blood saloon he was the great noise in the district and a great hand at faro smith started a tunnel on his vein and succeeded in opening up lip a fine looking body of ore he had many chances to sell his mine but he did not feel justified in letting his friends in on the game until he had fully satisfied himself as to the merit and value of his proposition in time however he took on two partners who were as careful as himself in stating the exact truth regarding the condition of the mine mina which in time became one of the most prominent producers in the district jones on the other hand hardly put a pick into his ground but he was always showing specimens of rich ore which he claimed came from fais tiis property As a matter of fact camp followers became excited regarding the splendid showing in the mine of lucky jones who succeeded in sl uffing it off one day to a bunch of tenderfeet tender feet for a handsome price with a payment of down that night jones jumped the town leaving a lot of unpaid debts behind him and his flasher flashed no more in the bucket of blood or at the faro table and there was a howling in the canyon when it was eventually discovered that the high grade he had been exhibiting as coming from his mine had really been stolen from the mine that smith had made so plausible had jones been in hoodwinking his friends and the tenderfeet tender feet who had paid him good honest money for a group of claims out in the sand hills As f for or smith who never had adyth anything ng in common with jones he is still in the camp arid and is looked upon as being as good and sound as gold plunks with eagles on them his word goes everywhere and the boys are talking of sending him to congress if they can get him out of the tunnel long enough to make a campaign 1 I want to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector it is sometimes difficult to distinguish at first glance between the honest man and the goldbricker gold bricker fiut but keep an eye open and it will not be long before you can see which is the pure quill or which has the tango hop hap out in his makeup make up and there you are and then P some oine yv |