The Phoenix herald., 1880-12-10
The Poor 1Ean's SEiII.


 anything in praise ofthe burro, yct
 the burro. as any miner knows, is s
 most useful little animal in his
 place. He will not cut the dash that
 q trotter will but he will live ou less,
 do more work, cost less and be more
 patient under advcrsiiy. He will not | go so fast as tr. tier; but put him
 on mountain trail with pack, and he will kill half dozen of the fran i cicr breed. Butspeople do not often praise him much. Probably because we are used to him. The telegraph informs us of all the movements of Maud s. or St. Julien. and lrow they beat time, etc. We never recollect having seen anything or any telegram about burro, He is, apparently, beneath the notice ot the telegraph. But the country could get along very much better without Maud S., St. Julian and others of their kind, than it could without the burfo.
 In the same way you do not often hear anyone say much about arastras. We hear a good deal about 10-stamp mills, and 50-stamp mills, and 80 stamp mills. They form subjects for great many telegrams, and they have cost more than Maud s. dozen times over, in many Cases Yet for the miner, the working miner, Tn q gold country, they never have done as much as the si imple old arastra. We are so used to these that We are apt to ignore their merits Half the lime we do not use them when we can; looking upon them as primi- tive implements.
 And yet the arastra, with all its great rudeness, is worthy of praise. It is the poor mans mill. \ mule is cheaper than an engine; his grub costs less than coal, and club or black snake is equal to any engir ger, at the same time costi ng less. You run your own mill and pay no money out to mill companies. What gold comes out of the rock you get and you do not have to divide on il as some mills make you do without your knowledge, With free gold an arastra will beat the best mill ever built, in results. Amalgamation is more satisfactorily accomplished in an arastra than in the finest quartz mill. You do not break down and have to wait for casting" and you never have to build big house to cover in yo'lr machinery.
 You build your own mill in the first place; get out the rock; hew the timber, and set the whole up. When you run it you are your own engineer, foreman, amalgamator, feeder and superintendent. You boss the job 1 yourself You can stand at one side and break the rock, and keep the mule going by throwing pieces at him.. Il anything goes wrong, a single whoa" stops all ihe machinery i'm and quicker han any en- gineer and throttle ever stopped quartz mil. If you go away few minutes there is no danger of any thing blowing mp or going wrong, for the mule will stop and the whole outfit remain quiet awaiting your return.
 You have no insurance to pay. There is no great loss on equipment if the ledge peters on you. You are independent of custom mills, an1 know what is really in your rock. You haven't any very big water bills to pay
 Any miner of common intelligence can le trn to run arastra easily enough. There is not much of any scIence about it, but good deal of common sense.
 II miners in camps where the ore will admit of it, would gd to work with their own arastras instead of waiting for capital or for mills, we would have more prosperous camps and more well-fixed mincrs.-Mining and Scientific Press.