Arizona republican., 1898-09-10


 Dut he who labors as did Harvey Neil at this time, unstintedly giving the best that is in him to honest effort, though seemingly but to poor ends, seldom fails in achieving gain far beyond the insig- nificant wage that slips through his purse; and while he, writhing in the rude onvironment, fancied himself rouehening and coarsening day by day, sinking down to the spiritual level of his always physical superior, the igno- rant emigrant laborer by whose side he toiled, the man in him was but devel- horizon had broadened; he had grown stronger in mind as we'll as in body, when finally promotion came and he be- gan the upward climb of which each ad- vancing step seemed more favored of fortune than the last. X chance en- counter with one of the assayers of the establishment, to whom he happened to be of some trifing service, brought him into congenial companionship and a friendliness of great use to him in material ways. He had taught himself stenography to beguile the monotony of his time of sheep-herding, and now, through the assayer's influence, he was given q position in the office; while through further favor of his friend, whom he was always glad to help in work after hours, he was enabled to study assaying, for which an enthus- iasm for chemistry in his college days h. k1Ho% I<~f the year was out he found himself reg 1 ularly engaged in that pursuit, which was not only more congenial than office work. but afforded better wages.
 And now for another year Neil had TO thought of coMplaining, though his fortunes had come to a standstill. A system rigid as that prevailing in the army regulated advance to the higher offices in the business, in which rarely anything but death served as cause of removal; and beyond the point the young man had now attained promotion was necessarily slow. After the hard times he had known, however, the com parative affiuence of his present lot was at first profoundly satisfying, and he asked no more; but there came day | when the restless ambition of youth awoke again. insistent, impelling. The
 daily round of unvarying duty grew ' wearsome in view of the fact that he could look ahead to no definite advance; he longed for wider field, for the stirl- | ulus of nearer possibilities; and, as i though fate had caught the unuttered l prayer. it was about this time that ne went upon the vacation trip over tn. l Old Silver trail and stumbled upon the discovery of free gold.
 Naturally, he lost no time in begin ming work upon his mine, with the sanguine faith of inexperience, count ing upon immediate flow of wealth; and Windy Gulch, long since arrived at settled conviction that the ground here i abouts was all utterly barren, in the throcs of changing its mind was reused 10 such pitch of excitement that the hills about came to be staked out with claims and riddled with prospect-holes until it was all like an unkempt pot ters' field; while the papers made so much of the unexpected strike that Col Randolph Meredith, reading the account of it in New York. was moved to wire his agent at Crodelphia to attend at once to the long overdue assessment work on the Grubstake claim just over the hill from the enewly-discovered Mas cot, a property long docketed in the coloners mind along with certain othe: possessions significantly known to him. self as yellow dogs"
 But in mining, perhaps more gen orally than in any other pursuit, it is the unexpected that happens. A few feet below the surface the Mascot vein, erstwhile so fair in promise, abruptly "pinched out" scarce showing even a trace of mineral, while old miners looking on declared that the ore would Fever come in again, however deep Neil might sink Ifs shaft. His discovery was simply !" a pocket" nothing more; and with heads wisely wagging and many an assured II told you so," Windy Gulch veered round to its first opinion of the ground, leaving Neil to his work alone. The ''tenderfoot" confidence with
 which he stuck by the claim came to be regarded as rather good joke as time went on; but, prone most of all to ai- mire that quality in man known in it's own vernacular as sand the young man was held in growing respect, the camp as a unit declaring that he de- served ito play in better luck" than was ever likely to be his share up there by the old trail.
 To Neil it seemed simply inevitable that he should go on with the work, al- though, with finances presently down to bedrock" in the mining phrase, he i struggled against heavy odds He had so far profited by lessons of diversity, however, that he was fertile in contriv- ance; and when the last slice of bacon had gone into the frying-pan and the last stick of giant powder had plowed up the Mascot shaft to no end but to increase its depth, in no wise dis heartened, he betoo!z himself to one of ihe neighboring mines, there to ham mer drill for day wages until sutti cient fund had been accumulated to re-