Daily Yellowstone journal., 1890-03-14
THE CLAIM WAS SALTED.
The Rock Mt h I'm Was Rich. But II
Didn't show q Color.

The Rock Mt the Mine Was Rich, But IL
Didn't show . Color.
"For ways that are Clark and tricks
that are vain" remarked an old Cali
fornia p~rUspcctOr to me the other day,
commend Ine To the AVERAGE mining
sharp. These fellows are 10 be found
hanging around every mining camp.
They all have rich claims located
somewhere in the hills, and when u
tenderfoot puts in an appearance he is
their particular meat.
Il was a tcndcrfoot once myself,
you see, so | know. Shall tell you
how | was taken inG Well, along in
the fall Of "a, | think il was, | met a
chap in san Francisco who represent
ed To me that lac had rich mine down
in San Bcrnardino county which he
wished TO sell for cash. | had n few
thousand dollars ut the time, and, if
the mans story was true, | saw "A good
chance 10 realize a fortune on "A small
investment.
"'Ol course l must look at the prop
erty myself. said /. This was agreed
TO, and it was further agreed and I'M
derstood that if the mine was rs rep
resented l was to pay $1,000 cash on
the spot and take possession of the
property. / knewa little about quartz,
and concluded To trust to my own
Judgment rather than send an expert
to the grounds.
1.-THE ledge was represented as being
twelve feet thick, with a rich pay
streak some four feet in thickness that
would pay over $40 per ton. The
whole ledge / was told was good for
over $50. / was shown several speci-
mems of rock which l 'panned out
myself. with results that were no less
gratifying than astonishing.
well, to make q long story short,
we were soon GA the grounds. ID was
adifllcult place 10 get at, but this was
nothing if the mine was all right. On
my arrival found two men ut work
with an araStra. ! was shown the re-
suit Of a days working, and became
more excited than ever. About the
only work that had been done on the
mine was a shaft some sixty feet deep
and a few cross cuts at the fifty foot
level.
Il saw that the ledge was a wide
one, but somehow / didn't like the
looks of the rock and SO expressed my
self. just prospect some of 1t and
see,' said one of the men, which sug-
gestion | proceeded TO follow. After
carefully selecting several pieces Of
rock from different parts of the vein i
pounded them up in a mortar which l
had brought with me and then care
fully panned out the pulp. using a
large horn spoon for the purpose.
the men stood leaning over me
during this operation, apparently as
much interested as / was. Very soon
the color began to show. and when /
had panned the stuff down as fine as
Icould astring of gold dust remaining
showed that ! had been handling some
very rich rock. l tried this a number
of times, with the same result more or
less each time. You will not be sur
prised then when l tell you that ! took
possession Of the property and paid for
it then and there.
"a ten stamp mill could be started
at once.I concluded. and Immediately
started for San Francisco TO make the
necessary arrangements. OF course !
took a large sack Of the rock along
with me.
ION arriving at San Francisco / in
vited a number of my friends to in
spect my new purchase-at least TO
prospect the rock, as l had done, and
see for themselves. Just think, said
/, "a twelve foot ledge, down sixty
feet on it and $40 a ton rock and only
$1,000 for it. Why, its worth s250,0Oo
ut least
"A friend Of mine present, IA mining
engineer, who had been pounding
away at some of the rock while | was
talking, said at this %juncture that he
had seen worse rock than that, but
not much.
What do you mcanF asked.
'Mcani said he, why, just what
| say. Your mine, If all the rock m
il is likethis, isn't worth fifty cents
This staggered me, of course, but ]
thought he must be mistaken, and
p~rospected some Of it myself and
couldn't find a color. Soon we were
all pounding away at il, but nary a
color could be found. then had the
rock assayed and was somewhat as
founded at discovering that IA unce'
was all the gold the rock contained.
We'll. you can just bet | was mad.
/ bundled off for the mine that very
afternoon. When | arrived there the
place was deserted. ! tried some of
the same rock had prospected before,
but there was no string of gold dust
this time.
II knew / had been swindled. But
howi That is what puzzled me. was
out $1,000 in cash, but ldon't believe
that this bothered me near as much as
the fact that had been taken in, and
had no conception Of how il was done.
did | ever find it outi Oh, yes.
This is the way it was worked. One
Of the men who stood ovcrme dropped
a pinch of gold dust into the mortar
every time / made a a prospect.
knowing this you can sec for your
self how easy it was 10 deceive me as
TO the character of the rock. New
York Herald.