The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1882-10-08
Two Sorts of Miners.

Here is question which Is not unusual,
and we will give little advice in regard to it:
"Do you know of any instrument that will point in
ne direction Of mineral ore or hidden money-god
alverf II will you please send word where
obtain onei -. N. JOHNSTON
"GRxKsvILLE, Texas, September, 1881"
We do not know Of any such instrument.
There is an old tradition that twig of witch
hazel will turn Of itself when brought over O
hidden stream ii water; but the power of dis
covering precious metals we have never heard
ascribed to this shrub.
Since the world began there have al
ways been lot OF fellows bent on some
such quest as Mr.. JOHNSTON Is bent on at
present. Some have wasted their time
and their eye-sight In looking for the phi
losOpher's stone. Some have ruined their
health and blown themselves up by all sorts
Of chemical combinations in the hope OF
changing baser metal into gold. And plenty
Of others, like our correspondent, have been
hunting for exactly the same thing, divin-
ing rod to tell them where to find the precious
metals. All the seekers for such extraord-
nary treasures have been actuated by
the same motive They all wanted to
get rich. Well, we all want to get rich.
ASuU tho oihCiChCO pCbNCcu
these fellows and the majority Of honest,
industrious people Is that the former are
intent on finding some way in which they
can get rich without work. In the belief
that such thing is possible these men
have tugged and toiled to find something
that would suddenly give them an unlimited
control Of money without further effort on
their part. We never heard of any Of them
being successful. None OF them ever found
what they were looking for; and all died
Door. In spite Of inevitable failure, there
are still q few who apparently have given up
the search for the philosophers stone or a
way to turn iron into gold but who still hope
to meet with something that will show them
where undiscovered gold is hidden.
Perhaps all prospective miners are looking
for such q thing more or less hopefully. Well,
We cannot tell any one where to find such an
instrument but We are not at all sure
that such an instrument Is really neces-
sary. There are plenty OF intelligent men In
this country-perhaps 1t would be proper to
call them retrospective miners-who, with
out the aid Of any instrument, can point to
spots where gold and silver and large
sums Of money are hidden; and sorry
they are for the fact Between the prospec-
tive and retrospective miners there is also
this difference: The former are vainly filled
with tho wish to happen upon some contri-
vance that will show them with certainty
some valuable deposit of the precious
metals; and the latter just as vainly
will never cease to wish that they
had possessed such continuance. II
they had been so fortunate as to possess
1t, how they would have avoided those
spots where gold was indicated, or would
have disturbed their surfaces with
ploughshare only, instead OF a pick
axe! Now We must repeat to our cor
respondent that we don't know Of any such
device as he wishes for, and We advise him
not to seek for one II he gets 1t, he had
better throw 1t swsy 0glst tas pls0v E9ps