The Clifton clarion., 1888-03-28
Tl.e True Eight.

For some unGccOuntable reason the idea generally prevails that mining, as 6 business, is necessa- rily speculative and uncertain; that there is noreliable basls upon
 which correct management may be employed to bring profitable results. It is true that the his
 tory of mining presents many losses, failures and questionable operations; but why these should
 be pressed continually to the front and occupy the foreground to 8 larger extent and more prom, inently than the same results pro portionably frequent in other lines of business, is question difficult to decide in the light of justice
 and reason.
 It has been stated that 8 very small per cent of the men en- gazing in merchandising are able successfully to conduct their busi- ness, much less to secure 8 con- potency or retire with a fortune.
 It is true that now and then one like \. T. Stewart can be pointed out as an exception to the univer- sal rule v-!,ielr ee4sdea,re a multi tpde to sink unncted and un- honored in the general whirlpool of toll, struggle and failure. While there may be few shin ing lights, here and there, gliding the rugged pathway, the various professions are crowded with q struggling and starving multitude whose energy is born of despair and the necessity of sustaining existence.
 The trades as a whole present an army of toilers battling against want and competition and the sea of poverty which threatens to oyerwhelm them. Among these agriculture has always been deemed the most independent and satisfactory; yet upon it's real basis what Is the true condition presented upon investigation in this direction; what practically is shown beneath the waving fields of golden grain, the cattle on thousand hills, the peace and quiet of q farmers home? Less apparent but none the less tangi- ble, IS the shadow cast by the burden of debt, the vampire of mortgage, the octopus of interest whose unsuitable demands sap the energy, the life and manhood Of the million of toilers whose labor but perpetuates an unenviable OK istence. The truth of these facts cannot be gainsaid, though the hideousness Of the reality Is hid den by the romance of the color ing Of the surroundings, touched by 8 ray of hope. This Is the case to a large extent wlth every busi- ness in which men engage in their battle for position, honor or com petence with @ single exception, apparently, of the avocation wherein men seek to gather from the bosom to the earth the coa- densed harvest of the ages-the treasures of gold, silver and other precious and useful products of the mineral kingdom.
 Comparisons iu some cases may be odious, but 1t is doubtless true that the Comstock mines alone can show more mlllionaires than the history of the whole country can give of merchant princes Or men who have achieved spbstan- tial prominence in other directions, and the mining industry of every locality, wherever time has been given for its proper establishment, can show its hundreds who have 8 competency.
 While the tide of it's indestructi- ble wealth vitalizes every avenue of our activity, is the life blood of every industry and the basis of national strength and perman- ence, mining, in popular concep- ton, seems to be compelled to ap- pear clothed in the unattractlve robes of its misfortunes, while it's