Show the pro prospector 4 ector and his burro by will C higgins tile the day is not far distant said the prospector to his burro when the burro will be such a scarce specimen of its branch of the quadruped family that it will only be seen in ill remote sections of the globe in zoological gardens gar denst shows and private parks for the world is becoming so advanced that in all human probability prospecting will be carried on by means of aeroplanes aero planes and flying machines before another generation rolls by and where will the burro be then well lie he will not be much in evidence in his old haunts for the prospectors of twenty or thirty years hence if not equipped with biplanes and zeppelins zeppelina Zepp elins will be going around leading automa tums acting as beasts of burden which will be actuated by casolene ga solene motors or electric storage batteries and which will stand without hitching and which will vill never stray far from camp no matter how cold the weather or how green the range looks over in the next canyon and as for the prospector himself lie he will probably be riding a motorcycle or scaling a steep cliff on a caterpillar cater piller flatboat and such contrive anes ancs are no fit companions for a self re specking spec ting burro why if you will believe me the last time I 1 was in grass valley I 1 saw a man with a lawn mower that was equipped with a casolene ga solene motor and he was getting up a great sweat in trying to keep up with it and more than that the last time I 1 was in huckleberry canyon I 1 came across an old friend of mine who was working an and he had the thing running by merely attaching a small casolene ga solene ingine engine and letting it go while lie he attended to other details of his milling this is a strange old world continued the prospector and many of tile the improvements we see in this day and age were in a way foreseen if not actually realized by y men of ideas many years ago for instance the motor driven is but the outgrowth of a little scheme devised by all a old mining man twenty years ago this is man had a little gold mine out in the tushar range that lie he had worked for years ile he much of a hustler but lie he had drains bra ins and an inventive turn of mind he had been treating his ore for a long time with an all whose motive power was a rather ancient burro and it took the most of his time during the milling period in keeping the animal in action As soon as he would leave for a few minutes to get more ore for tile the plant the beast would stop for a rest and a snooze so that lie he had to be on oil the job all of the time or there would be no amalgam to clean up at the end of the run this gradually became very irksome to tile the small and so lie he began to devise means and methods to keep the burro going and finally solved the problem the next time therefore that lie he made a milling lie he tied a nosebag half full of barley on the tie sweep in front of the burro and the old fellow was so anxious to get at his favorite feed that lie he kept up a hoot foot gait all during the morning shift trying to catch up with it As a consequence more ore was pulverized than ever before in so short a time and the mine owner was able while his burro was so industriously engaged to work in the mine and get out ore enough for the next mill run and as a consequence everything was as comfortable and pleasant as a merry go round for the burro was having the pleasure of anticipation and the mining man that of realization the whole scheme worked out perfectly and the idea as I 1 have already hinted at was but the forerunner fore runner of the motor ed the trolley car and the automobile 1 I want to tell you old long ears concluded tile prospector it behoves behaves tile the burro to make tile the most of his opportunities if lie he wishes to leave behind him a revered and lio honored nored memory for tile the day is coming when like the liard hard rock miner there will be no further use for him for the flying machine will relegate the one to the shady side of while the jackhammer jack jackl hamer iamer will make the old time hammer and drill operator as obsolete as an old bootjack boot jack of half a century ago mining is not what it was during my early youth but believe me with all of the new inventions being made with the changes in milling and metallurgical practice now employed and with the casolene ga solene engine perfected to tile the utmost it is now a pleasure to carry on oil mining operations that years ago were painful and wearisome to tile the extreme and there you are and then some |