St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-01

side OF the moon. But Hank had cheek and
an oily tongue, that's how he got Tim Foley
to grub STAKE him. Hank told me afterwards
that he expected to go into the hills and stay
as long as the provender held out Well
gentlemen, Hank Morgan Numbered into the
mountains, not knowing where he was going,
and not caring a blank either. When over in
the Gunnison foothills, he stumbled on
hole where some one had been at work before.
AS that was as good place to stop as any,
he cleaned out the hole, went down little
deeper, not more'n foot, and by the jumping
lingo! he struck it! He came back, located
his claim, and sold out within a month for
S500,000, Will any man have the brazen au-
dacity to tell me that was the result of fore
thought or brains? No, gentlemen it was
pure, unadulterated luck and Hank Morgan
himself, when he got to wearing gold cable
for watch chain and driving pair of the
fastest horses in the mountains, was man
enough to acknowledge it,
Having had no experience in prospecting,
1 asked what the nodMs operandi was, and
this information was volunteered:
Every spring hundreds of prospectors
along the Rockies and Sierras plunge into
the wilderness to search for gold or silver
The well-to-do, that is the men who can pur-
chase their own outfit, lay in supplies for
few months, and have a mule or a horse to
carry their camping and prospecting outfit,
consisting of bag of -four, some bacon,
coffee and sugar. A pick, spade and pan are
fastened to the pack, and the prospector
usually carries a Ratchet at his belt and a
rife on his shoulder. A majority of the
prospectors are 'sgrub-staked,' that is, some
merchant or man with means furnishes them
with supplies, the conditions being that in
the event of success the "angel,'' to use
theatrical term, divides with them. These
men keep clear of the beaten trails, and they
know more in the aggregate about the geog-
raphy of the North American continent than
all the engineer outfits combined. All suffer;
many of them die; more of them, and often
the best and the brightest, persistently fail;
and the few, through dumb luck, strike it
rich. But it is much like a blind man shoot
ing at a target after he has been told the
direction. The chances are he will miss, but
if he makes bulls eye only a fool would
attribute it to his craftsmanship.
"They say" said another, "that about
every ten years there is a business panic in
the East but I've been out here leetle over
thirty year. and know for a fact that every
ten years there is mining craze-some new
outcrop or diggings have been discovered,
and there is rush and a boom. In 40 the
world was running to California. In SO the
the country was crazy over Pixies Peak. In
$50 the silver discoveries Of Virginia City
were making millionaires by the score. In
'79 there came the Leadville rush, and it was
dandy. In '99 the Coeur de Alene country
was opened up, and so it goes. But while
chance, and the management of them is too
often swindle and gamble, where it is fol-
lowed honestly and persistently as busi-
ness enterprise, it is sure to pay in the end.
Why, right here in Denver there are more
men worth S500,0 600 than in any city in the
country except New York and Philadelphia,
and nine-tenths of them made their money
out of mining. And, let me say, the wealth
is by no means all discovered yet; we have
only skinned the surface
Others at once became reminiscent. and
without exception all were disciples of the
doctrine of luck.
''Why," continued another, 'sthere was old
Cruise. He went to Montana when it was
bowling wilderness in 63, with scalp-seeking
Sioux on every hand. For twenty years he
plodded and starved, and lived the life of a
hermit in shadowy gulch near where Butte
City now stands. Why, he got SO poor that
he couldn't get credit for sack of -four,