Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-02-10

into congenial companionship and
| friendliness of great use to him in
material ways. He had taught himself
stenography to beguile the monotony of
his time of strengthening, and now,
| through the assayer's influence, he was
given a 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
had so well prepared him that before
the year was out he found himself reg
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
no 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
VI Ills 4Ob
was at first profoundly satisfying, and
he asked no more; but there came a day
when the restless ambition of youth
awoke again, insiStent, impelling. The
daily round of unvarying duty grew
| wearisome in view of the fact that he
could look ahead to no definite advances
| he longed for a wider field, for the slim
illus of nearer possibilities; and, as
| though fate had caught the unuttered
| prayer, it was about this time that
;Ie went upon the vacation trip over the
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 al
settled conviction that the ground here
abouts was all utterly barren, in the
throes of changing it's mind was reused
20 such pitch of excitement that the
hills about came to be staked out with
claims and riddIed with prospect-holes
until it was all like an unl1empt pot
ters' field; while the papers made sc
much of the unexpected strike that Col
Randolph Meredith, reading the account
of it in New York. was moved to wire
his agent at Orodelphia to attend at
once to the long overdue assessment
work on the Grubstale claim just over
the hill from the newly-discovered Mas
cot, a property long docketed in the
colonel's mind along with certain other
possessions significantly known to him
self as yellow dogs"
But in mining. perhaps more gen.
orally than in any other pursuit, ii
IL the unexpected that happens. \ few
feet below the surface the Mascot vein,
erstwhile so fair in promise, abruptly
"pinched out" scarce showing even
trace of mineral, while old miners
looking on declared that the ore would
never come in again, however deep Neil
might sink his shaft. His discovery was
simply a pocket" nothing more; and
with heads wisely wagging and many
an assured 81 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 a good joke as time
went on; but, prone most of all to adj
mire that quality in man known in its
own vernacular as sand" the young
man was held in growing respect, the
camp as a unit declaring that he de-
served 'to 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
struggled against heavy odds. He had
so far profited by lessons of adversely,
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 betook himself to one OF
the neighboring mines, there to ham,
mer drill for day wages until suffi
cient fund had been accumulated to re-
new the work upon his own claim. Sc
for many months he alternated be- |
tween the rough lot of the common |
miner and what seemed the even harder |
experiences of the mine-owrer, until |
the numbing touch of despair had slow |
" settled upon his heart and he went on |
duly with the work, more from force |
of habit than from any living hope in |
the outcome. And then, as though fate |
had tried his mettle far enough, he ran |
into free gold in such marvellous masses |
as had never been known before in all |
the region round.
Windy Gulch, altogether forgetting |
its previous spirit of prophecy, turned
with renewed enthusiasm to its aban-
doned claims, while Col. Meredith was
50 far impressed by the published re-
ports that now he came himself to in
spect his GrUbstake holding, thinking !
good to clear q somewhat clOuded title
by relocating the claim, changing
little the trend of the side lines, which
brought to more acute angle it's cross
ing with the Mascot vein. With The
coloneTs evident endorsement, the
camp having large respect for th>t gen
tleman's Judgment, however it might
regard his business methods, conf
dcnce grew apace; hardly q prospect
hole so poor that it did not forthwith
advance to fabulous value in its owners
eyes, while everybody looked to see
Windy Gulch enjoy an immediate boom.
Put now the autocracy Of organized
labor was moved to bring confusion &c
the building hopes of the camp and in
woke new trouble upon poor Neil.
ITo BE Continued