Show THE prospector AND HIS BURRO a 1 I want to tell you said the prospector to his burro it seems to me as if I 1 had made a big find in this glory hole that I 1 have been digging in during the past ten days and it looks to me like ready money it is now six months since we started out on this prospecting expedition we have taken in many of the new camps and have invaded the solitude of some of the old districts which produced their millions a quarter of a century ago but this new discovery has a good look to me even if you did rather sneer at it when we first stumbled onto it a short time ago when we were making for the water hole in the arr orya just behind the big bluff yonder the fact that I 1 found free milling quartz cropping three feet above ground which sparkled with gold when broken did not have nearly the eff effect act on you as did the finding of a nice patch of grass in the swale behind the bluffs but this bit of pasture reconciled you to stopping here for awhile and while you have been growing fat with a pauch on you Y ou like an alderman I 1 have been digging away and now have in sight a proposition that will appeal to any mining man no I 1 am not going to work it none whatever I 1 am not like a burro for I 1 can absorb a little knowledge now and then and I 1 have been taught by bitter experience that the time to sell is when you have a good surface showing something that will appeal to the pushing hustling investor anticipations of wealth to be gained by the development of a prospect no longer have place in my thoughts or dreams and hereafter I 1 will leave that branch of the mining industry to the tenderfoot listen to me old long ears I 1 am going to sell and sell at the first opportunity I 1 am going to sell for or even if there is every reason to believe that there are millions in my locations I 1 am going to realize and realize quickly and will let the other fellow take some chance he has the money to carry on extensive development I 1 have not it will take him from two to five years to prove the real value of this prospect and ai ad he is willing willin g to put his money 0 on n the green and give the wheel a turn I 1 may not live five years and am in no position to sit around the table of fortune waiting for the dealer to turn up the right card and there you are you look troubled for you want me to fool around here for a year or more until you have exhausted the water hole and eaten all of the grass but your wires are crossed your trolley 1 is s off and a few weeks from now will see us hitting the trail again you want to know why I 1 have decided to part with such a splendid prospect well I 1 will tell you when I 1 was younger than I 1 am now and felt more sure of myself when I 1 thought an old prospector was an old fool and a burro an outcast in the animal creation and filling no place in the universe as a creature of utility beauty or musical ability I 1 found a prospect far superior to this so timid was I 1 that I 1 looked with suspicion upon every man that invaded my district for months I 1 kept the news of my discovery to myself I 1 was afraid that I 1 would lose it if anyone knew of its existence for months I 1 worked in its development and by the end of a year was hard lip for grub and the storekeeper store keeper who accidentally discovered my secret offered to grubstake me for an interest in my property did I 1 accept his kind off offer er not on your whiskers I 1 was angry with him and with all of the people in the canyon for it seemed to me that they were always prying around to find out what I 1 had As it was one day while I 1 was down by the river catching drift wood a field man for some big investor came along and unknown to me made an examination of my prospect A few weeks after he visited me in my camp offered me for my claims I 1 received the offer with disdain he then raised his bid to and finally to 20 but I 1 would sell for nothing less than and even at this price he must pay me the money down in gold at the camp he then offered me down and shares of stock of the company to be formed by the buyers for the development of the property again I 1 refused for a year after I 1 worked all alone As I 1 gained depth with development the ore bodies became w wider ider but of lower grade and it soon after became apparent that I 1 could not alone and unassisted make a producing and paying mine of my prospect then then I 1 began to realize my mistake and looked around for help dut but other fields had attracted the vestor investor the promoter the excitement over my discovery had died out months before and the merchant had made a fortune by staking a prospector who was no better than I 1 was but who had more good horse sense I 1 had reached the end of my rope the dealer had emptied the case and I 1 was dead broke so I 1 abandoned my prospect which a year later was relocated located re financed by a strong company and it is now a regular producing and dividend paying mine it is up to me now old mountain canary to make hay while the sun shines I 1 find that I 1 have not been cut out for a millionaire lio and that a good little stake of twenty or thirty thousand is good enough for me I 1 have flown the coop as far as holding a prospect for half a million is concerned I 1 have had my need ins and am even willing to concede that there is something lovable and companionable about a burro and that your voice sometimes sounds very sweet to me for I 1 have learned many lessons since first I 1 started out on the trails of the mountains and canyons and one of them is to let the other fellow have your prospect for the price of a prospect and not to scare the investor into info a hasty flight down the canyon by asking a mine price for a ten foot hole in the ground |