Show THE prospector AND HIS BURRO u 1 I see by the papers said the prospector to his burro that high grading was one of the causes of the recent miners strike at goldfield you want to know what I 1 mean by high grading well I 1 will explain the term does not mean that the men employed by a mining company must attain a high grade of efficiency before they are paid high wages because the poor miner mi ner expects as much pay as does the good one but on the contrary it means that the man who is ahagh a high grader who is receiving good wages whether skillful or not expects daily in working in mines productive of very high grade ore to smuggle out of the mine in his clothes or dinner bucket more in rich ore than his daily pay amounts to such a man is termed a high grader such a man also would consider it a crime to rob a man of five cents and he is strictly honest in his dealings with his grocer his butcher and the coal dealer he does not steal the ore he only takes it surreptitiously from the mine he only appropriates it Is it not his as much as it is the mine owners the high grader earns his wage in the mine the taking of rich ore is only a rake off on the side and he thinks that no ono on should grumble he reflects that it is no crime to steal from the government and that it is a positive credit to hold up a corporation so on every shift he keeps his eye open for sensationally rich rock ore going 10 a pound will help to make his family more comfortable it will give him more money with which to gamble to drink or treat his friends and he can easily store away two or three pounds in his dinner bucket why then should the mine owner kick he will never know his s loss and he will never miss what he really never had perchance as is often the case with goldfield mines the ore thu thil taken goes better than 40 a pound sr so much the better for the high grader and so 80 much more the inducement to work u der ground for 7 a shift when he could get 8 on oil top working the windlass Y lou ou seem to blink a little old fello S at my description of the moral turpitude of the high grader and want to know how he disposes of his acquis acquisitions acquisito iti ons no not t calling them by a harsher name this necessity calls into play another species of the high grader and this is the so called assay office the two work together and in one high grade camp that I 1 once knew of there were forty five assay offices to only eleven of which could the general public go to have an assay made the other thirty four were in league with the hi high gh graders and bought from them their plunder at not more than half its value when these fake assay offices have accumulated a ton or two of exceedingly rich ore it is consigned to some samp ling works or to some smelter making thousands of dollars through the high grader and causing a corresponding loss to the mine owner 1 I am ln informed formed continued the prospector that the real cause of the strike at goldfield was the fact that the mine owners demanded a change room this the miners objected to the wage scale and the hours of working were conceded by the operators but the change room was the bone of contention with the change room in vogue the occupation of the high grader would vanish into thin air he amigh be willing to work ten hours a day at a shift but a change room shades of caeser never such an innovation would be an infringement upon his rights and the soulless mine owner should not rib require quire such humiliation such a relinquishment of his privileges from him 1 I want to tell you old lon long t ears this is a funny world there are gradations of honesty with many it is a sin to steal from an individual but to rob the government or a corporation is to merit a halo of glory and an easy entrance into heaven you claim that it is a distinction without a difference and I 1 believe that you are right but it will require more arguments th than you can advance to convince the high grader that he is not acting within his rights when he fills his bucket or pockets with ore that is half gold when he finishes his shift a and n A seeks the bosom of his family after he has put in eight hours at 7 for the greedy and grasping man whom good fortune has enabled to obtain ownership of such valuable property |