The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-10-06
Prospecting tor Mines.

| While the number of fuen who becom
confirmed, habitual, professional pros
pectors is but small, few of the man,
who once yield to the fascination of tn
the pursuit ever rid themselves entirel,
of a yearning to indulge in the promised
delights with which both memory ant
expectation tempt their weakness. Brin,
me to the man who has once beena pros
pector, though in long years gone by, ani
who, perhaps, sacrificedhi all-hishope.
in every direction-on the altar of a four
foot stone monument, with notice
thereon of his having located such anG
such claim, and even while his mouth
contains the wordsdenouncing himself a.
fool and an idiot for wasting his sub
stance on dream, 1 shall with no greater
charm than this piece of stone that
hold in my hand bring fire into hiseyes
and ring into his voice that will prove
the old Adam and the new to b. one
and the same man, unregenerate and IN.
changeable in heart. Bring to me such q
man-bring even him who has "made
his pile" and has become q fat and in
different owner of hotels and theaters;
fetch them both here to this tent, leave
them to the mercies of this camp to-
night, and doubt not that tomorrow will
see plethoric success and lean failure
nosing around the hole in yonder hill,
peering through magnifying glasses, talk
ing of dips and strikes, walls and gangues,
shafts and drifts, as if there were but one
matter that was not vanity in the wide
world, and thatmatter prospecting. Very
likely we shall have old Bullion as well
as old Barren Quartz down in the hole,
the one holding a drill and the other
swinging hammer, just to show how
they used to do it.
There are men who prospect by proxy,
giving "grub stakes to needy members
of the craft of prospectors and sharing in
the results Of discoveries. Such men
know none of the real pleasures of the &C.
cupation. Even if the hunt prove for
tunate one, and the quarry be the latest
of bucks, those men can but gorge them
selves from the saddle or hauneh and
have left untasted the more delicious
favor of the long persistent pursuit, the
careful following of the trail, the exulta-
ton as the game comes in sight, the time
of nervous doubts whether, after all, the
true game be there and not q mere
shadow, and the supreme final moment
when the hunter stands victor over the
object Of his chase, victorious through
his own craftsmanship and endurance.
The men who do the actual work and
feelthe sensible roughnesses ofprospectors'
lives derive the keenest enjoyment from
the calling-from the unrestraint of
camp life, the contact with nature in
some of its most curious and occasionally
most beautiful moods, from the entranc-
ing uncertainty and the spice of adven-
ture that goes with an open airmountain
existence. The pleasures of the sports
man, the man of science, the Spectator,
the poet, the inventor, the traveller, and
of him who eXerts his muscle and nerve
in some agreeable industry are all
borne in upon the prospector according
to his capacity for the reception Of
such enjoyments. Of course, not one in
hundred of the men who try their
hands at prospecting ever think of these
things, but none the less, rather. the
more, do they feel them.
1t is a strange motley procession that
year after year comes up from the east
ward to the mountains to increase the
number of present and past prospectors.
Representatives of nearly every indus
trial walk in life are to be found in the
ranks; some who have failed in the vo-
cation of their choice or to which cir
cumstances ordered them, and who hope
by one lucky stroke to retrieve their for
tunes; Others, restless spirits, with a
craving for adventure and excitement;
others with sweet, blind belief that the
roads in the West are paved with gold
and silver, to be had by anybody who
will take the trouble of picking it up. /
once came across two Baltimore boys
almost men in years-who were provided
with about forty of the small sacks in
which smoking tobacco is retailed, the
sacks being present from some friendly
Baltimorean tObacconist, and intended to
hold the gold dust which the lads were
to accumulate-out of the irrigation
bitches of Denver, 1 suppose. 1 remem-
Der now that one of those young men
had also very minute and useless pistol,
and when I asked him why he brought
that thing with him he answered that he
had expected to fight Indians. And
there are staid, solid-appearing farmers
from the Missouri River and far east of
that stream, who approach the noun
tains with an impregnable belief that all
they have to do is sink hole on the first
hill which they may encounter in order
to uncover vein of pure precious metal.
The presumption of people such as these,
who could not tell limestone from granite
or a piece of Philadelphia brick from
either, is simply superb. Then there is.
the man with a "divining rod" who be-
lieves in Observation-Disclosures it may
be-and who processes to be guided by
the movements of his whalebones at
tached to metallic tube. The number
of persons who think it possible that
there may, after all, be something in the
divining rods power is far from inconsid-
cradle, although not many are willing to
own as much openly and frankly. En-
dividuals, who in coming to a mining
country had no intention of engaging in
the disturbance of the earth's hidden
riches, who indeed had vowed that they
would not be tempted from the surer
paths of progress, are likely to be found
before long as thoroughly seized of the
E.. II ~