St. Landry democrat., 1885-01-03
MINING sHARPs.
Western Story Tellers That Assayers Have
to Deal with-TwO Big Liars.

Some big liars come to on assayer's
Office once in while," downtown
assayer said incidentally in talk about
mining property, '.but think the two
biggest liars I have ever seen came into
my Office last summer, not together,
thank goodness. for if they had I would
have kicked them out for supposing
that / might be an eternal fool. In
stead, / listened to each, and then gave
him piece of my mind. The first was
about forty-fve years Of age, sharp
featured, long-haired, and with the APP
pearance of Western miner. He care
lessly unwrapped newspaper from a
lump of silver ore, and asked in bust
ness-like way to have it assayed. |
picked up the lump and said of-hand:
There $ no need of having that as
sayed. It's seventy-fve per cent. silver
at first glance. And it was. 1t was
about as rich specimen as [ had seen
in some time. 1t was worth at least
$4,000 a ton.
=. But L want 1t assayed,' he said.
I've got drift Of ore like that six feet
wide, and / want to sell it. | don't
want to lie about it, and | want to
know just what it is worth.
That's my business, and, of course,
] knocked off piece of the lump.
charged him more than / would any
body else, because / knew he intended
to sWindle somebody. ground the
- ,Er, nd IN q
tie. Then took little and assayed
it. It turned out Just what | thought
it would. As usual / made record OF
the assay, and waited for the man to
return.
"About four days after the assay four
or five respectable old gentlemen came
into the office together, and one of them
unwrapped a piece of ore and said:
win you please assay this for us? We
are thinking of buying silver mine,
and this is some of the ore. What do
you think it is worth?'
II looked at it closely and discovered
that it was from the lump my Western
man had brought in.
. Excuse me, but have assayed this
ore within five days, j said.
.s'Y-e-e-s, the spokesman of the
party said, hesitatingly. We under
stand that it has been assayed, but we
thought it would be safer to have it
assaYed for us particularly. How much
did you make it out to be WORTH
/" 'TWelve or fifteen thousand dollars
a ton. said, not wishing to be too
particular at first. III see
while Twas looking over my record
book / noticed the gentlemen looking
knowingly at one another.
- 1t was $4,000, | remarked, turn
ing toward them. 1t didn't startle them
o bit.
!. That's pretty rich, isn't it2'
!" Decidedly SO. Where's the minep'
asked.
In Colorado. We have a drift
there six feet wide.
'Colorado!' exclaimed. That ore
never has seen Colorado. That's from
some Mexican mine.
II knew what / was talking about
when / said that, because can pick out
Colorado ore from two thousand speci-
mems. | can pick out ore from the
,Comstock lode anywhere you put it.
After getting q few more particulars
about the man who wanted to sell the
mine, / said Gentlemen, I don't
want to have you taken in by anybody,
and especially by one of those West
ern mining sharps. Instead of taking
my word for this assay, 60 to somebody
else, and I've no doubt you'll find many
who will be as honest with you as / in
tend to be, and have your ore assayed.
Take some of this dust with you and see
If it be like your ore.
But we can buy this mine for only
S50,000,' the first speaker said.
IF you can find mine where the
ore is all like that, said, I'll find
men who will give you $50, 100000 for
it. That isn't true specimen, and,
besides, it isn't from Colorado. It's d
rich find from some old mine in Mex
leo.
They looked rather glum and went
out. / really pitied them. The next
day the Western man came in to see
me. / gave it to him hot. Look here,
/ said, we have just about enough of
such fellows as you around here. When
YOU come on here to sell a mine, don't
try to palm off Mexican ore for Colo
RADIO ore. Take my advice, and don't
show that lump to any miner, because
he'll know it in a minute. Now skip.
81 have never seen the old gem
tlemen since. I guess they found
somebody who told them the truth as
did.
1.-THE other chap was short, dumpy
fellow He wanted to have everything
very secret. He had piece of ore that
/ knew was Mexican, and it was long
time before could get anything out of
him. At length he said: Pm COM
1nercial traveller, and while [ was in