The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-08
LUCK IN MINING.
Two Blasts That Showed Miser
Where He Made His Mistake.
From the Denver Republican.

where He Made His Mistake.
From the Denver Republican.
"One man cannot see as far into the
ground as another" said John Pritchard
of Aspen yesterday, land there isn't a
little bit of truth in the saying that he
can when applied to mining operations
Thousands of instances might be brought
forward to prove my position, and
learned the lessen very early in my min
ing career. The Tom Boy story is an il
lustration of this. Everybody thought j.
Ernest Waters was wild to spend so
much money on it, aud yet it is to-day
being negotiated for S2,5OO,OO after pay
ing more than $4,000 in dividends in less
than two years.
Il was down in the San Juan country
in 1881, and had a claim over on Sultan
mountain, which l called the Jessie. 1t
was a promising crevice, and l worked at
it faithfully until l had expended nearly
$500. mainly for grub and powder, living
alone in my cabin and frequently working
fifteen hours day. Then l sent home
and father sent me $500 more which
used up. By that time l had been at work
nearly two years and had driven my tun-
mel in about 200 feet, every inch of it with
my own hands. Then I became discour-
aged as I knew father had a mortgage
on the old place and couldn't afford to
help me any more. 1 got credit for $100
and kept at work, driving the tunnel 80
feet further, and then felt that 1 was at
the end of my rope.
zone day as 1 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 WANTED to sell. feign-
ed Indifference and after calculating $50
feet of tunneling at $40 a foot, answered
that 1 might sell if got my price. Well,
what's your price?' he asked. Twenty
five hundred dollars l replied, with my
heart in my mouth. Come down to town
and get your money, was the answer, and
that night l slept with $500 under my pill
low, 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 the tunnel he examined the wall and
selected a point about 100 feet from the
mouth. Let's drill couple of holes here,
he said. The minute he laid hold of the
seldge 1 saw he was miner, and in a
short time we had two beautiful holes in
the rock. When the shots went off 1 could
hardly restrain myself from rushing into
the tunnel at once, and when the smoke
cleared away 1 was the first on the spot
And there lay body of ore exposed which
was afterwards found to be three feet
thick, and ran over S1O0 to the ton 1 had
left the vein, and the superior knowledge
of my purchaser had enabled him to de-
tect the point of departure.
~ stayed around there week, by which
time he had taken out enough to pay for
the cost of the mine. and then l went home
and paid off the mortgage on the farm, and
i've got the farm yet, though 1 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"