Daily Honolulu press. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1886, 1886-03-24
IN A MINING CAMP.
HOW, THE TENpERFooT IS sWlNpLED
OUT OF HIS MONEY. -
Receiving Full Equivalent In Experts
once Sailing" . Nine with shot
Gun Making the Tests-An
IA Investors Loss.

49,. rs Investors Loss
Il. L. Conant in Boston Transcript
~ Ofcoufse the first gold taken out In
camp such as Deadwood was In Its early
days is simply washed out from the sand
and gravel of the stream and from the
dirt on its banks. Every miner stakes
out his claim and goes to washing If he
finds "pay dirt all right. He makes
money fast and very likely spends it
faster If he finds himself on claim
which yields nothing. he curses his luck
and-goes to work to sell his claim. A
few dollars worth of dust are sprinkled
over the surface and tenderfoot brought
on TO inspect the claim. A few panfuls
are washed out with good results, and the
bargain struck on the spot
Tenderfoot parts with his money and
receives a full equivalent in experience
But as the camp grows older these
"salted" claims become harder to SELL
The prospective purchaser insists upon
working for day or two before he is
willing to purchase. Then the old head
must find some way TO outwit him A
large nugget chances to be found which
would turn the head of almost any pros
pector He proposes to buy at once No.
The claim is not for sale now. Price in
creased again. Again refused Finally
purchased at such figure that the lucky
seller deems it prudent to retire from the
camp without waiting for coming develop
ments. But little the shrewdest sale /
ever knew of was made by a claim owner
who invested about 5000 in coarse dust
loaded it into q shot gun In small charges
and fired it at short range into bank of
soft earth on his CAIN. Prospectors were
invited to dig into that bank as far as
they chose to go, and within three days
that claim was sold for over SO. 900. Its
but fair to say, however, that compare.
lively few claims were disposed of In this
fashion.
UNLUCKY INVESTORS.
In many cases rock which showed a
good percentage of gold was found.
Then a mill of five. ten twenty or per-
haps sixty stamps costing at least 81 600
a stamp. would be erected few good
runs might follow. and then the end of
the deposit be reached More frequently
the gold would refuse to be captured by
the ordinary process of treatment, and
the en- erprise would be thrown up in
disgust by the unlucky investors A
score of lust such properties lie within a
radius of few miles of Deadwood.
Time will reveal somes process by which
the gold can be extracted cheaply enough
70 make the working of the mines pay
Now they are as value less as though
there was no gold therein.
A favorite method for bleeding the
man who has money to lose has been to
throw worthless rock, or worthless prop
erty in some shape or other upon the
market in the east Sometimes a tender
foot so tender would be found that he
could be persuaded to invest part or all
OF his property in mines which had no
more real existence than l.illiput or Brob-
dingnag. Some, more careful, would in
siituie inquiries. If they found out the
truth they were fortunate c theirs would
send out an agent to look the field over.
Now comes one of the most interesting
of all the processes employed in defraud
ing the eager investor
Ask man who has not been to school
to explain how he would determine the
value of mine. and he will very likely
gay: take samples of the rock from
different places and have them as
over the entire property and you will get
the average value of the rock" All very
we'll as far as it goes Ask a practical
miner the same uestion. and his answer
will be this: "Take a few tons of the
rock to good mill and have it run
through. See what the run returns and
you can gain some idea of the character
of your ore. f" Now most of the agents
sent out by eastern investors may have
had much knowledge upon many sub
jects. but mines were to them books
written in an unknown language If they
could not be cheated, they were bought;
and if they could not he bought, they
were cheated. A few thousand dollars In
ltatr rnfp \
colored report to the eastern party, and
when that would not work. the samples
of ore were in some way freely "salted.
THE PROCESS OF ''sALTING.
Sailing is simple process. being
merely the scattering of sufficient gold
into the samples of ore to make show
ing Of gold bearing rock rich enough as to
abundantly satisfy, but not so rich to
cause suspicion. Then time would take
care of the rest. Cur eastern investor
would see in his mind eye gold mine of
untold value and himself the millionaire
owner Works would go up on property
as innocent of any paying ore as the
granite hills of New England and our
friend would find the vast wealth he had
so confidently forseen coming to him only
In the form of unwelcome experience
A man now prominent in this section of
the territory told me of the following in
cident as illustrating the actual eagerness
displayed by some Of the early explorers
to be gulled and cheated.
In early days. he said, II was in the
livery bnsiness,s and one day a
fat old German came 10 NV
stable and wanted me to drive
him out few miles to see the country
You remember that high hill on the right
before you reach the chicken ranch down
on Gilman's toll road? Well, we got 10
talking about mining claims and how
much money some of the fellows had
made here in Deadwood gulch, and
found he swallowed everything told
him and seemed to think gold was In the
70 ks all around us. Finally thought
d char him little Why said |. do
you see that high hill over there? Well.
sir. / haven't doubt that property is
Just as full of gold as the Home
stake mine He looked kind of queer.
and didn't say anything, but the old chap
actually went and located mineral claim
there within three days and before he left
for his home-he lived in Minnesota some.
where--he put man in charge of that
claim and left him So 900 to sink shaft
with. The funniest part of 1t, too. was
that the man went right to work and
srent the whole of that money honestly
prosl Getting for gold OF course he never
found a grain The old Dutchman didn't
put up any more money. and guess his
$1,000 investment cooled him off little
and taught him lesson about gold hunt
ing
The Spring field Arsenal.