The San Francisco call., 1895-11-03
tent, gold and content together, as the ar

NO--'f 0Oi0 anu COuIGIJ GOSCbAClS ao tIO dl
gonauts dug up gold of old.
AT lone [ met q young schoolmaster
from Michigan who goes out at daylight
every Saturday and works his dozen hours
with pick and pan like man. l do not
know that he has put great deal of gold
IN circulation in the six months that he
has spent in Amador, but he has put iron
In his spine, blood in his cheeks and man.
hood IN his heart. And, of course, he will
yet strike mine, and good one, too.
NO, there is nothing at all in the way.
1he placer mines there were in a Spanish
grant, IN court for years; then it was sold
to corporation, and the grant was only
Few years ago confirmed. The corporation
then had the so, 900 acres surveyed in small
holdings, having regard to water, wood
and natural lay of each part, so that man
may have, as a rule, wood and water,
farming land and mining ground on al
most any piece he may prudently select.
This land is for sale at from So to $150 per
acre, on easy terms.
Now, as to the way 1 should do. |
would SIT right down under tree with
my partner and prospect and prospect till
L found the place and the piece of ground
wanted, then buy it. And there should
take up nay everlasting rest" At hard
and heartful work | would dig up gold
and even more precious content, and 1
would plant and l would have pigs, chick
ems, turkeys Ca woman and her little boy
made more than $1,000 clear on turkeys
here in one season lately), and l would
stick to it till 1 had the place paid for to
the last cent. Then 1 should take little
well AarnoH in, OF
up cents entirely, but, by way of diversion,
add to the census.
Now, one final fact about these placer
mines. They were abandoned about
thlrty-three years ago. This was when
men wanted at least S. a day, and when
all things had to be freighted to the mines,
often costing a big figure to begin with,
ana really cost the miners about five times
what they cost to-day. See the difference,
and the chance for the honest Michigan
schoolmaster, or any other man, to strike
paying mine?
Thlrty-three years ago last fall gold was
found In what was then Washington Ter
rltory, and California was emptied into
Oregon, Idaho, Montana, along with the
rest. Amador was simply "to let." Then
came the terrific foods of 1862; bitches
were destroyed, mines leVeled; the old
miners never returned.
So you see how it is. The years have
rolled by; new generation has grown up;
the brave old miners have gone to the
other side. But the gold is there in the
ground where they left off when all things
cost SO much and they went to other
fields. 1t is only the heavy, hydraulic
mining that so much fuss is made about
No one will object to your taking up the
placer mines where the argonauts left off |
thirty three years ago. Believe me, an
old placer miner who knows, when l say
there is money in Amador for all the idle |
men of Oakland and San Francisco; and |
1t must be miserable loater indeed who |
can't get the SIS to reach there on, and the
further like sum as capital. AS for expert |
ence, go to work and dig it out as that |
schoolmaster is doing.
The largeness of nature here, the lift of |
awful-fronted mountains toward heaven, |
the mystery, the magnifcence, the room, |
the color of mountain, cloud and sky, the |
emphasis OF color, of all colors, the savage |
grandeur above and all about you, and |
then the perfect repose at hand, the song
of the crickets in the russet wild oats at |
your feet, the rabbits dancing in the chap |
arral to the tune of the piping quail on the
hill i
And does all this mean nothing? 1t |
means poetry, song, immortal glory to
this great land; for it is of itself poetry,
song, the most sublime ever conceived,
and only waiting for the master hand to
touch the chords of the harp.
Soon or late, down from these glorious
ramparts of nature, shall the minstrel boy
descend to US, singing as he comes, con-
quering the contending world with his
melodious songs of love and of God: ANA
deus. JOAQUIN MILLER.