Show THE prospector AND HIS BURRO if these heavy rains and floods of late said the prospector to his burro have hemmed us in to such an extent that I 1 am beginning to fear that my supply of provisions will run short before I 1 can get to the nearest settlement for more and it begins to look as if I 1 will have to go on short rations for awhile unless I 1 can join you in the act and eat grass this is all very nice for you as everything green is springing up all around us but with me it is different and I 1 begin to wish that I 1 had bad the fine grubstake with me that an old prospector fleeced an idaho business man out of a few years ago never heard of this occurrence did you well it was the slickest slackest slick est things I 1 have run ran across during my twenty five years experience in the mining camps of the west and shows that the con game is not confined to ahe wildcatter wild catter and the bogus stock dealer by any means As it has begun raining raining in again I 1 will tell you the story about five years ago I 1 was in halley hailey and hung out at the office of an old friend of mine for two or three days I 1 had noticed an old prospector who was hanging around the street and he always had with him two sacks which I 1 took to be filled with ore one day he came up to my friends office and said 1 I am a stranger here and do not know who to apply to for assistance I 1 am a prospector pr os and have spent the most of my life in the lead fields of missouri I 1 have been prospecting in the mountains about a days travel from hailey and think I 1 have found something good but I 1 am a poor man and am entirely out of money and provisions I 1 have two sacks of ore here taken from my claims one is galena from a two foot ledge which I 1 know is good the other is soft stuff and there is a mammoth vein of it but I 1 do not believe that it is worth much if you will furnish me with a grub stake and 50 in cash I 1 will deed you a half interest in what I 1 have found and we will work it together my friend was much interested anthe in the prospectors story and believed it implicitly for the old man was mild looking and the very personification of honesty and for fear that he would close with some other Haile if permitted to leave the office closed the deal with him on the spot the deed was made out the only contingency being that the ore when tested must show satisfactory values value my friend then took the two sacks of ore to the assayer and said Test this carbonate ore first and the galena afterwards and rush the assays essays out as quickly as you can in the afternoon he called on the assayer and asked for the assay on the carbonate ore the galena can wait he said 1 I have them both out said the assayer but here is the certificate on the lead carbonates this sample went 40 per cent lead and ounces in silvers silver to the ton the galena shows 45 per cent lead and 60 ounces silver that very afternoon my friend furnished the prospector provisions and supplies to the value of and said to him now you start out with your burros this evening leaving in the opposite direction from your rich discoveries camp for the highl in the valley and in the morning start for your mine ani and I 1 will join you at a point two miles from the place where you leave the canyon in the morning my friend left right bright and early he was gone all that day and far into the next but he never found the prospector and he has not heard from him to this day and he never will 1 I lantto want to tell you old long ears this is about the slickest slackest slick est con game that I 1 ever saw played it beats the salted mine all to pieces and is almost as good a money getter as the practice of incorporating a company on hot air with not a foot of ground to back it up speaking of such methods of milking the public I 1 see by the searchlight of searchlight nevada that a company el claiming diming to own ground in that camp is selling stock in the east at a cent a share when the facts are that the company is not known in searchlight and does not own an acre of mineral ground there this is one way to get rich quick but it is hard on the camp in which the property of such a mythical company is alleged to be located and also on the suckers who answer the lurid page advertisements of these fake mining companies it is hard to get at these shar pers but once in awhile the government nails them to the cross and the scales drop from the eyes of the stock buyers who are guaranteed dividends inside of six months in this connection I 1 would like to allude to the fact that a nevada senator is accused of practicing much the same sort of a pro gramme on the gullible eastern public so you see that roguery is not confined to the ranks of the comparatively un known for there are many men in public positions whose names are used to promo promote te b fraudulent minin mining 9 enterprises well it is clearing up a little now and a nd between showers I 1 believe I 1 will investigate that promising looking ledge up yonder on the mountain side |