The Lehi banner. [volume] (Lehi, Utah) 1891-1917, 1898-06-28
"PYRITES SAM"
BY e. e. BOWLES.

until the night he came in with his
pockets full of pyrites OF iron, and. taxi
ing each man aside, privately informed !
him, with many injunctions as to Sc
crecy, that he had discovered and To-
Gated a brass mine. AS q rule, we had
grown very tired of initiating every
tenderfoot that came along into the
mysteries of quartz mining, showing
them the difference between gold-bear-
ing quartz and country rock; between
a true assure and contact vein; between
granite, porphyry, schist, spar, serpen-
tine. quartzite, etc.; of trends, dips.
spurs, angles, etc.; of shafts, tunnels,
Slopes, wines and drifts; of the manip-
how to distinguish the resultant sedi
ment, il gold, from mica, pyrites or sui
phurets; in word, teaching them in
an hour or two all we had learned after
years of toll and privation. We had
reached this stage of the tired feel
ing" when Sam brought in his brass"
specimens, and not man of us would
tell him what it was. ''Uh-huh," we
said, as he carefully exhibited his de-
ceptive-loolsing find. What did we
think of it? Why, it was q great find,
and very high-grade ore-if it was
brass. "If''-why of course it was
brass; look at it; anybody could see
what it was. We admitted that they
could; yes, anybody that knew any
Thing at all. SO we permitted Sam to
work away in ignorance of his claim
for two weeks-until he received re-
turns from the samples sent TO Los
Angeles for assay. Then the Brass
Monkey" us Sam called it, shut down,
and he went to prospecting again.
He was so persistent and industrious
in his determination to strike il rich"
that we finally began to have a fellow
feeling for him and TO appreciate his
pluck; sympathy he did not need. He
was Jolly and good-natured, and did not
drink to excess, and was never known to
turn card for money. In a friendly
game in his tent the suggestion OF
s'draw" at only dollar limit was al.
ways met by the quiet statement that
he never played for money, that he was
raised differently. and, besides, his
money ''came so hard" that he knew he
would be bad loser. He was always
ready with his sympathy when an
Others ledge ''pinched," "petered" OF
s'broke off," and encouraged him all he
could; always had song or q story fol
a bad night, and in the event of sickness
or injury had some simple remedy in
the way of poultice that his mothei
FUSED to use" In fact, he was one o.
those happy-go-lucky, light-heartec
fellows, handy about camp, and frient
to everybody, but one could not ge
rid of the impression that he "didn
have any more sense than the law al
lowed Therefore, it was accepted "a
n matter of course, when q tenderfoo
struck camp one day in the first stage
of desert fever, that Sam should TAX
entire charge of him and dose hin
with wild sage and "squaw" tea ant
concoct appetizing dishes with bacon
beans, rice and -four.
AS "stayer," malarial or chagres fe
yer is not to be compared to desert fe
yer. The latter drags along and hang
on day after day, week after week, and
although the patient may be able +
crawl about, he is weak, debilitated an
nerveless, and don't care a rattle on
of the box" whether he lives or die.
This was the condition of that tender
foot. During the middle of the da
he dragged himself about the cam
in the sun, but the remainder OF TN
time he spent in his bunk in his ten
One night, when most of the boys wer
assembled in the Bedrock" Sam cam
in, and, going up to the bar, dram
alone, contrary to his usual custom
then turned his back on the GROVE
leaned his elbow on the bar and gaze
ont into darkness, at the same tim
twisting his mustache fiercely as
worrying over something.
whats wrong, Sam? Patient dead
some one asked.
"No," said Sam, but he's layin' u
there wishin' he was tell you, part
ners," he continued, turning to tn
crowd, "I've been in hard luck myse
-so've all of us, guess--an' seen OIL
ers in hard luck, but that poor cuss u
there's in the hardest streak of luc
i ever see. He's plum'down to bedroc
an nary color"
That's nothin', Sam; we've all bee
there many time. What's the matte
out of grub"
''NaW he mint out of grub an won