The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-11-29
PLUCK OR. LUCK.
The Former is Good But the Latter
Averages Up the Best.

The Former is Good But the Latter
Averages Up the Best.
In an article in Casters Magazine,
Mr.. T. A. Richard discredits the be-
lief that luck has anything to do with
the finding of valuable mineral deposits.
He repeats the stale chestnuts about
pluck, energy, determination etc, as
if such qualities were alone RESPONSE
Bile for the success or non-success of
the prospector. The fact is says the
Western Mining World thousands of
prOspectorS have been exercising all
these commemorate virtues with great
vigor for the past % or so years, with
out encountering a bonanza, while men
of less heroic mould-tenderfeet per-
haps-have actually stumbled into pos
session of large wealth without know
ing the first principles of the mining
business If pluck, energy, determine
ton, observation, and all the other
splendid attributes to which Mr. Rick
ard alludes, were guarantees of success
man couldn't shoot at a prairie
chicken in Montana without hitting a
millionaire.
The man who, early in his career as a
prospector, finds promising lode and
stays with it until he realizes a fortune
is not entitled to half the credit due the
ments. still searches for the elusive
bonanza until from grizzly old age he
slides into the lean and slippered pant
aloon.' In the nature of things the
element we call luck, for want of a bet
ter designation, enters into the mining
business insofar as the discovery of
bonanza lodes is concerned. Every
year the conclusions" of experts are
upset by the discovery of ore under
the beautiful and wonderfully symmet-
rical facts in geology are ripped up the
back like an old coat on a cadaver In
the absence of positive knowledge as to
external evidences the experienced
prospector may waste his energies
hunting for a pigmy in a land of giants,
While the tenderfoot follows his uned-
ucated nose into the very ark of the
covenant to lave in the sweet incense
of unalloyed success.
Prospectors who attain wealth
through fortunate discovery often lay
the fattering JUNCTION to their souls
that success came alone through their
own transcendent abilities. Perhaps
Mr.. Richard secured his data as to luck
from some of these fellows. It is a
known fact that many of the best
mines in the world were discovered
through lucky accidents. Montana is
ripe IN experiences OF this Kind, and
expects to harvest a few more before
mining becomes such an exact science
that the prospector will hunt for the
precious metals with pick in one hand
and the autobiography of some mining
expert in the other. 1t is hardly fair
to the army of men who have spent
their lives in searching for bonanzas.
and applying every known rule laid
down by experts in the prosecution of
their work, to say that the key to sue
cess rests in pluck energy and deter
mination. A man may be gifted with
the wisdom of a Solomon and the en-
ergy of a steam engine, with the pluck
of a bulldog on a cows ear, yet never
strike it rich however promising the
surface Indications Bonanzas that are
close enough to the surface to be within
the reach of poor men are few and far
between. When found by the wayfar-
ing prospector it is apt to be the result
of providence, luck fate, destiny or
something else that has very remote
connection with pluck energy and de-
termination, as usually applied and IN