, 1886-02-18
MINING SHARPS.
WESTERN STORY THAT AS
SAVERS HAVE TO DEAL WITH.
a Specimen OF s-irer Ore Worth SIS, ,oOC
per Ton-A E:cxican Specimen From
Colora .o-The Mistake
Swindler Made.
New York Sun-l

New YorI, Sun-l
"Some big liars come into the assayer's
| Office once in a while" a downtown
assayer said incidentally in talk about
mining property. "Lut l think the two
| biggest liars ! have ever seen came into
my of5ce last summer, not together. thank
! goodness, for if they had | would have
| kicked them out for supposing that
might lie an internal fool. Instead |
! listened to each. and then gave him a
| piece of my mind. The first was about
| 50 years of age. sharp featured, long
haired, and with the appearance of a
western miner He carelessly unwrappcd
newspaper from lump Of silver ore.
and asked in a business-like way to have
it assayed | picked up the lump and
said Olf-hand: There's no need of having
that assayed Its 10 per cent silver at
first glance And it was. 1t was about
rs rich specimen as | had seen in some
time. 1t was worth at least $4,000 q
| ton.
But l want it assayed,' he said
| I've got drift of ore like that six feet
wide, and want 10 sell it. don't want
10 lie about it, and | want 10 know just
| what it is worth
About four days after the assay four Or
five respectable old gentlemen came into
the Office together, and one of them un-
wrapped piece of ore, and said: viii
| you please assay this for US? We are
thinking of buying a silver mine and this
is some of the ore. What dc you think it
! is worth?'
Excuse me, but I have assayed this
ore within five days | said.
| Y -e-e-s,' the spokesman OF the party
nulTV n nm nd rInr
| it has been asSaycd, but we thought it
would be safer to have it assayed Tor us
particularly. How much did you make it
! out to be worthY
| Twelve or fifteen thousand dollars q
| ton, said. not wishing to be too particu
lar at first, I'll see'
while was looking over my record
| book | noticed the gentlemen looking
| knowingly at one another.
'ltwas $1S,G00,' | remarked, turning
| toward them. 1t didn't start them bit.
That's pretty rich, isn't it?'
Decidedly So Where's the mine?
asked
in Colorado. We have drift there
six feet wide
Colorado" l exclaimed That ore
never has seen Colorado That's from
some Mexican mine
Il knew what l was talking about when
| / said that, because can pick out Color
| ado ore from 1000 specimens. l can pick
out ore from the Comstock lode anywhere
you put it. After getting few more
| particulars about the man who wanted to
sell the mine, | said: Gentlemen don't
| tally by one Of those western mining
sharps Instead of taking my word for
! this assay, go to somebody else, and I've
| no doubt you'll find many who will be as
| honest with you as i intend 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
! $50. .000,' the first speaker said.
IF you can find mine where the ore
| is ail like that. said. III find mon who
will give you $.5O. .OOO.O GOO for it. That
isn't true specimen, and, LeSides it ism t
| from Colorado. Its a rich find from
| some old mine in Mexico.
! "They looked rather glum and went
| out. / really pitied them The next
| day the western man came in to see me
! j gave it to him hot. Look here said
| we've had just about enough of such fel
| lows as you are around here. When you
come on here to sell mine, don't try to
| palm off Mexican ore for Colorado ore
Take my advice, and don't show that lump
| " Will hlOW II III Il
minute. Now skip
I" | have never seen the old gentlemen
since | guess they found somebody who
tod them the truth as l did
The other chap was short, dumpy
fellow. He wanted 10 have everything
very secret. He had piece of ore that
knew was Mexican, and il was long time
before could get anything out of him.
| At length he said: I'm commercial
traveller, and while | was in Mexico this
summer l struck an old trail over the
mountains that, | thought, would take me
| by short cut 10 where | wanted to go. |
took it, but it was the roughest ground
ever struck About noon | was almost
overcome, and | dropped off my mule
near shady place to catch nap and
rest. My mule, that was wandering
about awoke me after while by nearly
stepping on me. In pulling my blanket
| off the hump that had served
as pillow, l noticed that the
rock sparkIed. 1t struck ME all at once
that it was silver, and / looked around TO
see if there We're any other rocks
| like that | don't know whether you'll
believe it. but short distance off the trail
the ground was covered with them. /
| picked up about twenty pounds and
| packed them ON my mule and started for
| the nearest settlement / didn't say any
thing to anybody in that neighborhood.
and ] didn't dare to have the ore assayed
until / got to II Paso But L inquired
about he price of land, and found / could
buy that piece of ground for about
$4,000. I've come on here to raise that
and then start a mine What do you think
the ore is worth?
Il took the fellow all in and said: Did
you pick this off the ground?
Certainly he reDlied
Was ii in this condition.
OF course, he answered, although he
was beginning to be frightened.
Then you are the biggest liar have
ever seen. l said very decidedly
The fellow WINGED, and | continued:
You don't know anything about ore. and
you don't knew anything about Mexican
land This ore came from some mine
more than twenty feet under ground, and
fore starting mine. You tell your story
well. but you'll have hard work to find
anybody who will give you $4,000 for
Mexican land. Get out
There's great difference. you know.
in the appearance of ore that has lain or
the surface any length of time and that of
ore just dug from underground. The lat
ter is more crysiallizcd, for one particular.
The surface pickings are what we call tbs
results Cf blowout Two drifts, COM
ing together, peak-shaped. are gradually
projected out by the washing away of the
earth. Water gets in the creyices. and,
after while, the peak breaks into pieces
which are scattered over the surface. If
that other chap had surface ore he might
have been believed. except that part about
the land, which was way off.
New Capability.
An advocate of cremation says that this
mode OF disposing of the dead has de-
velopcd new capability-that of having
your ashes returned in several packages
and so be buried in several places.
Well Spent.
iSorristoGn Heraid.l
An exchange says: I'VE spend nearly