Show he or an h s y will C H ins it is quite a long hike from shoveling gold old nuggets from a gravel bar to silver mining said the prospector to his burro but the quest for silver is almost as attractive and the deposits of this metal when found are generally more lasting and permanent for as you well know or should know by this time gold is the most elusive of all metals here today and faded out tomorrow and as unreliable as the most solemn treaty ever made by the kaiser to be sure silver has its limitations as far as money of ultimate redemption is concerned even if it is the twin of gold but I 1 have noticed that in times of national extremity it always makes good and saves the day when the yellow metal becomes conspicuously scarce and skulks and hides in the strong boxes of the rich and is hoarded by the miser this was the case during the civil war and silver is liable to duplicate this glorious achievement before this great world war is over and even during the reconstruction period after peace is declared the white metal will play a most important part in the worlds finances and believe me I 1 am firmly convinced that silver will be among the top botchers and will be wearing diamonds during the next ten or twenty years and that it will not be long now before producers of this long despised metal will be invited to sit in at the councils of the nations you say that you have never knowingly slighted a silver dollar and that you have long iong admired this unit of circulation for its goodly size and cheerful and beaming countenance te nance and in saying this you have said something for silver is the money of the masses the lowly and the worker such as you and the whole world clamors for it and so I 1 am going out to hunt for silver bearing prospects for I 1 want to be in the swim when the great period of readjust re adjust ment comes some forty years ago continued the prospector when silver stood out before the world unabashed and unafraid when prospectors combed the mountains for deposits of high grade silver ores and when gold properties commanded but little attention at af the hands of mining operators I 1 spent one summer in the tolliver range your grandmother was with me at the time and she was getting rather sore on the job for we had been moving around continuously for more than six weeks in our quest for a rich discovery and had not been able to find anything that went more than ounces in the metal we sought and she was tired and worn out and longed for a long period of retirement to some spot where trees grass and water were abundant and as for me I 1 was just as anxious to fall upon a treasure trove a great big vein that was filled from wall to wall with ore that was fairly bound together by wire silver with the metal so pure that it could be cut with a knife and so we tolled toiled along from day to day somewhat discouraged and getting woefully short of grub until one day we camped at aa an ideal spot clear up on the top of the range of course I 1 had passed up prospects that the mining men of today would flock to in squads and regiments and go fairly wild over but I 1 was looking for the cream and would not be satisfied with a prospect that in this age would be worth a million or more and so I 1 was not at all satisfied and felt pretty grouchy when I 1 pitched my tent under a small pine and made preparations for my evening meal As I 1 was eating t in the twilight and your grandmother W was s finishing the handful of barley I 1 had given her I 1 noticed a big racoon lumbering up the hillside evidently heading for its burrow and as a good coonskin is not to be sneezed at I 1 immediately gave chase the animal was too quick for me however and succeeded in getting to its hole before I 1 was able to get my rifle and take a pot shot at it I 1 was not in a mood to be denied however and getting shovel and pick I 1 was soon engaged in the rather difficult work of getting it out I 1 guess I 1 must have been thus employed for two hours before I 1 succeeded in bagging the animal for it was so dark I 1 could barely see to skin it properly in the morning I 1 revisited the scene of the capture and was somewhat surprised to see the character of the dirt I 1 had thrown out of the bedger hole for it was full of littlee articles of mineral which I 1 knew to be silver and upon further examination I 1 found that the beast had made its nest squarely against a great vein of silver bearing ore which had been covered by surface erosion of course I 1 made several locations at once and when I 1 badger hole for it was full of little particles full of brittle and wire silver that would go up tip to the thousands of ounces to the ton of course I 1 made a permanent camp there and for once your grandmother was satisfied for she had at least two months of retirement ti before I 1 was ready and willing to let the outside world know of my wonderful discovery then I 1 hired a pack train and with a few miners to help me I 1 was able to send several carloads of the rich stuff to the nearest railroad point which was miles away before winter came and I 1 was obliged to close down for the season I 1 had taken out and marketed over in the white metal which was then worth a dollar an ounce and the next year I 1 had banked some before selling out to a san francisco outfit which has worked the mine ever since with enormous profits 1 I want to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector one cannot always tell when dame fortune will smile on him and ever since I 1 have never had an attack of the blues but that I 1 think of the badger hole and what it led me to and this has always cheered me so that I 1 would brace up and make an effort to find another one for they are still to be found and there you are and then some |