Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1896-12-24
LUCK IN MINING.
Two Blasts That Showed q Miner Where
He Made HIS Mistake.

He Made HIS Mistake.
''One man cannot see as far into the
| ground as another" said John Pritch-
ard, CO Aspen. the other day, ~and there
! isn't a little bit of truth in the saying
that he can when applied to mining op-
| erations. Thousands of instances
might be brought forward to prove my
position, and learned the lesson very
| early in my mining career. The Tom
| Boy story is an illustration of this.
Everybody thought J. Ernest Waters
was wild to spend so much money on
it, and yet it is to-day being negotiated
for 81, 100000, after paying more than
| $780, 900 in dividends in less than two
years.
Il was down in the San Juan country
in 1881, and had claim over on Sultan
mountain, which I called the Jessie.
It was a promising crevice, and
worked at it faithfully until had ex-
pended nearly $500, mainly for grub
and powder, living alone in my cabin
and frequently working Is hours day.
Then I sent home and father sent me
$500 more, which used up. BY that
time I had been at work nearly two
years, and had driven my tunnel in
about 200 feet, every inch of it with my
own hands. Then I became discour-
aged. as 7 knew father had a mortgage
on the old place and couldn't afford to
help me any more. got credit for 500
and kept at work, driving the tunnel 50
feet further. and [ felt that [ was
at the end of my rope.
zone day as I was gathering up my
tools to quit, a nicely dressed man
sauntered up to the tunnel and began
to look around. He asked to see the
tunnel, which was mostly in solid rock
without timbering. and after he had
closely examined both walls, asked me
if I wanted to sell. I feigned indiffer-
ence, and after calculating $50 feet of
tunneling at $40 a foot, answered thai
I might sell if I got my price. Well,
what's your price?' he asked. Twenty
five hundred dollars I replied, with my
heart in my mouth. Come down to
town and get your money was the an
swer, and that night I slept with $4,000
under my pillow, in clean sheets for the
first time in two years. Next morning
the purchaser asked me to help him put
in a couple of shots, and of course
agreed. When we got to she tunnel
he examined the wall and selected n
point about 100 feet from the mouth.
Lets drill couple of holes here he
said. The minute ne laid hold of the
sledge saw he was a miner. and in a
short time we had two beautiful holes
in the rock. When the shots went off
I could hardly restrain myself from
rushing into the tunnel at once, and
when the smoke cleared away was the
first on the spot. And there lay body
of ore exposed which was afterwards
found to be three feet thick, and ran
ever 500 to the ton. I had left the
vein, and the superior knowledge OF
my purchaser had enabled him to de-
tect the point of departure.
81 stayed around there Il week, by
which time he had taken out enough
ore to pay for the cost of the mine, and
then I went home and paid off the
mortgage on the farm. and I've got the
farm yet, though I am still mining.
More than $4,000 was taken out of that
hole. and then the vein was lost and has
never been found since."-Denver Re-
publican.