Mohave County miner., 1899-10-28
Theory VS.. Practice In Mining.

Practical miners are not alone in the
business of mining. Many men who
never held or struck drill, or shovel
ed a ton of dirt in sluice box, and
who can't tell stull from stope will
speak very learnedly about mines and
mining and frequently throw out
shingle with the legend, "mine expert"
lettered upon it. Several years ago
these "experts" could be found in
nearly every little mining camp in the
northwest. They are not so plentiful
these latter days. Men who invest in
mines are more particular in selecting
their mine managers than they were
in the early mining days. They have
learned by dearly bought experience,
that "book learning" while all right
enough as an equipment, does not
fully prepare man to assume respon-
sible positions in mine management.
He must or should have practical
knowledge of mining to acquire the
full measure of success in his calling
1t is not generally known that the
first copper mining in California was
done over third of a century ago. A
San Jose company bought what was
thought to be very encouraging cop
per prospect in Ell Dorado county. A
steam hoist and buildings we're erected
over the property, an expert was en-
ployed and work begun. A three or
four inch lead of copper ore was fol-
lowed down through the hardest kind
of granite for something like 300 feet,
and then the whole proposition was
abandoned. The lead wouldn't widen
or get richer, though the "expert" pre-
dicted. at every bucketfull of rock
hoisted, that few feet more would
show up wide rich lead of copper ore
that would make millionaires of the
stockholders. He "proved" his asser-
tions by his books, talked learnedly
about this and that rock indicated, ex-
pressed an additional candle box of
ore to San Francisco, and wrote to the
stockholders for "little more money
and, at the same time, assured them
that few more shots would uncover
untold wealth. In the meantime the
eight-inch pump was kept running and
SO did the owners money.
A practical miner would not have
sunk foot on the knife-blade seam.
But the book learned expert professei
to know all about the mysteries of the
earth's bowels, but was finally called
from the worthless "lead" by the dis
gusted company after he had sunk
tens of thousands of dollars in sinking
u DO-foot shaft. And that is not the
only instance where theory was knock.
ed out by hard facts. 1t is true that
fortunes have been made by investors
in mines, who never swung pick or
trod level, but they employed prac.
tical men not theorists, to manage the
underground part of the business.
If the whole truth we're known il
would transpire that the great bulk of
the mining failures is directly charge.
able to ignorance-to the failure of
theories to answer expectations raised.
Any theory based upon the working of
mine or group of mines, may prove
baseless when applied to a different
formation. Mother earth was not built
upon any given plan or rule. She is
full of freaks, and theories never take
freaks into consideration. The prac
tical miner meets and surmounts them
and goes about his business until he
finds something else unusual to tax his
resources. The theorist may build a
theory from what he saw, but it dies
"a bornin" for he never finds condi-
ton to fit it, Practical miners know
when they meet changed conditions of
the earth in shafts or in levels, but
they can't say whether they will make
or break by pursuing the change. A
theory is often followed to financial