Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-04-10
A COLORADO PIONEER.
His Experience AS a Professional
Prospector.
1t "Makcs Him Tired" to Hear Tender.
feet-2'alk About the Business-A
Letter That a Young Man in
y the East Wrote Him.

ANS ~ NS AauCA1CSs IuC
rap on the door last evening wheu, i
response to 4 correspondingly vigorou
"come in," Il stalwart. pleasant-facs,
man, clad in q slickenside canvas sui,
entered with %resounding step, sugges
tive of robust health and hob-nailee
boots, and in ringing tones Inquired:
Are you the mining sharp of thi!
here papcr?"
Yes; tako a scat and tell MS al
about it."
''Iell you all about what?"
"Why, your big strike, of course;
how many thousands of dollars it russs
and you only want a capitalist with a
few hundred dollars and lots of orrs,
to make it the biggest bonanza in Colo
RADIO"
"Now, hold on, pard, you're dead of
the trail this shift; 1only want to show
you a letter."
"Oh, that's it; your pard has struck
it, and you want to sell IN interest to
go and join him and stake Off the whole
country"
"No, you're on the wrong lead again.
- w SSU u lSoCSl " d lCItcIlOOL VINO
wants to come out here and prospect
for mines"
"Well why don't you let him come
as OF the grand army Of prospec-
tors who swarm through the gulches
and climb the rugged peaks Of our
mountain ranges?:"
.'1ou.ve caught on. that's the float.
follow it up and you'll hit the vein
cropping I right through ths-surface."
''Tenderfeet make the best kind OF
prospectors, don't they?"
'Pard. now you're on the pay streak
to a dead moral certainty, and I'll DO
the assessment work for you free gratis
for nothin' it you'll put it III the paper
in good shape. so that J. Il send it TO
my darn fool friend back in the
States
ss.All right, fire away, and make it
short
..Ncll, this chap writes that times
is dull back thar and they are cuttin'
wages down-he's a clerk in a dry
goods store-and SO he says he'll quit.
come out here, find q rich mine and go
back thar and sell it,"
:.Vhats wrong about that? Amt
he as liable to lind a good mine as my
,body?A
..Now you're gittin' right down to
bedrock business. Its all wrong, both
in theory ard in practice. Nobody
finds a mine. 1t takes money, and
lots OF it, to change the best kind of
a good prospect into a paying mine"
"Oh, your friend don't mean a mine
he means q prospect"
..P'raps he does, but it takes money
to prospect, and he's in luck if he has
money enough to pay his fare to Den
Yer"
He's got more money than that or
he would not think OF coming SO far to
astrange country and an equally strange
business.
"Now, there's whar you're fooled.
Lots Of fellers come out here every
blessed season. KNOWN nothin' about
minin' OF prospcctin', and land with
out scads enough to buy CRIB tor a
burro."
II thought burros foraged aud didn't
require feeding"
"'Ihat's SO, but they don't grow with
pack-saddles on and clinch ropes and
sacks hangin' to 'em. A Teller cam
mine with his fingers and live on noun
tin emery and trout in streams ter
miles or more from whar he's got tc
look for prospects if he wants to tnc
any"
"All good mining ground is not nee
essaTily high UP on the mountains ane
there certa My are good placer dig
gings yet to be found along the stream'
and in the gulches Of the State
go easy, pard; thar's some truth
but lots of foolishness. in what you say
The biggest part Of the gold, silver
copper and lead mined in this countr.,
come off the mountains, not out OF nice
smooth, level places. What soft snap
were lying around loose like have al
ready been corraled by fellcrs who
through years of actual experience
learned t'ieir value; and now, as a rule
new ground means new ground, an.
that's on the mountains, and in ouc-o1
the-way Places
But that don't prevent tenderfee
from discovering thern"
"GueGs you never saw tendertee
p%rospectin'.