Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va) 1886-1890, 1890-03-08
THE CLAIM WAS sALTED.
The Rock at the dine Was Rich, Bat II
Didn't Show n Color,


Didn't Show n Color.
"For ways that are dark and tricks
that are vain" remarked an old Cali
fornia prospector to me the other day,
commend me to the average mining
sharp. These fellows arc to be found
hanging around every mining camp.
They all have rich claims located
somewhere in the hills, and when
tenderfoot puts in an appearance he Is
their particular meat
II was O tenderfoot once myself,
you see, so I know. Shall / tell you
how was taken INF Well, along in
the fall of rs, l think it was, met q
chap in San. Francisco who represent
ed to me that he had rich mine down
in San Bernardino county which he
wished to sell for cash. had few
thousand dollars at the time, and, if
the mans story was true, l saw a good
chance to realize q fortune on small
investment.
"'Of course l must look at the prop
erty myself said l. This was agreed
to, and it was further agreed and I'M
derstood that if the mine was as rep
resented ! was to pay $4,000 cash on
the spot and take possession OF the
property. | knew little about quartz,
and concluded to trust to my own
judgment rather than send an expert
to the grounds.
''The ledge was represented as being
twelve, feet thick, with rich pay
streak some four feet in thickness that
would pay over $40 per ton. The
whole ledge I was told was good for
over $50. l was shown several speci-
mems of rock which l 'panned out
myself, with results that were no less
gratifying than astonishing.
"Well, to make a long story short,
we were soon on the grounds. 1t was
a difficult place to get at, but this was
nothing if the mine was all right On
my arrival ] found two men at work
with an arastra. was shown the re-
suit of n days working, and became
more excited than ever. About the
only work that had been done on the
mine was shaft some sixty feet deep
and q few cross cuts at the fifty foot
level
II saw that the ledge was a wide
one, but somehow l didn't like the
looks of the rock and so expressed my
self. Just prospect some of it and
see,' said one Of the men, which sug-
gcstion l proceeded to follow: After
carefully selecting several pieces OF
rock from different parts Of the vein !
pounded them up in q mortar which l
had brought with mo and then caro-
fully PANIED out the pulp, using
large horn spoon for the purpose.
THE men stood leaning over me
during this operation, apparently as
much interested as l was. Very soon
the color began to show, and when l
had PANIED the stuff down as fine as
could string of gold dust remaining
showed that l had been handling some
very rich rock. l tried this number
of times, with the same result more or
less each time. You will not be sur
priscd then when tell you that 1 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 l
took large sack Of the rock along
with me.
Son arriving at San francisco in
vitcd q number of my friends to i'll
spect my new purchase-at least to
prospect the rock, as had done, and
see for themselves. Just think, said
l, q twelve foot ledge, down sixty
feet OIL it and $40 ton rock and only
IS, 900 forit Why, its worth $3.50, 600
at least
"a friend of mine present, mining
engineer, who had been pounding
away at some of the rock while l was
talking, said at this juncture that he
had seen worse rock than that, but
not much.
What do you meant asked.
'Mean'' said he, why, Just what
I say. Your mine, if all the rock in
it is like this, isn't worth fifty cents.
This staggered me, Of course, but !
thought he must be mistaken, and
prospected some of it myself and
couldn't find color. Soon we were
all pounding away at it, but nary
color could be found. l then had the
rock assayed and was somewhat as
founded at discovering that "a trace
was all the gold the rock contained.
"Wcll, you can just bet l was mad.
l bundled Off for the mine that very
afternoon. When l arrived there the
place was deserted. l tried some of
the same rock Ihad prospected before,
but there was no string of gold dust
this time.
II knew 1 had been swindled, But
howe That is what puzzled me. I was
out 1000 in cash, but don't believe
that this bothered me near as much as
the fact that I had been taken in, and
had no conception of how it was done.
ibid 1 ever find it out2 Oh, yes.
This is the way it was worked. One
of the men who stood overme dropped
a pinch Of gold dust into tho mortar
every time l made prospect.
Knowing this you can see for your
self how easy it was to deceive me as
to the character of the rock. New
York Herald.
Female Indifference