The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-09-24

subsequent locations are made with
reference to it.
When you remember that miners are
not surveyors and measurements are
made by stepping the ground, and the
side of a mountain is not as level as a
floor, and that courses are run by look
ing at the sun or north star, you will
conclude that accuracy is next to i'm
possible until an actual survey is
made. Jones searched the records be-
fore he located and tied to the older
claim, taking Walkers west line for his
east. He found Walkers northwest
corner stake all right and stepped 1,500
feet in a southwesterly direction-that
being the direction the records showed
the claim to run-but failed to find
the southwest corner stake. So he went
over to the southeast one, which was
still standing, and stepped 600 feet
westward at right angles to the other
line, as nearly as he could guess it, to
where he intercepted the other line. He
called that point Walkers southwest
corner and his northeast and put UP a
monument. You see how easy it is to
make mistake of a few feet and you
viii also see, if you are as bright as
you look, that it wouldn't be difficult
some pleasant evening after Jones had
struck it, in his shaft for Walker
to move his southeast stake a little to
the west and thus float his claim in
that direction
The whole thing depended on that
stake. Walkers was the prior location,
and if the stake hadn't been moved, the
ground was his, and if it had been, it
was mighty hard thing to prove. That
swinging stakes and floating a
claim" is killing business, if you are
caught, or was before courts and law
yers got SO thick, but it is sometimes
done, nevertheless. Jones knew the
law, and, of course, knew the vein went
into his ground through the side line
and that Walker could follow it if he
got the apex, and take all of his ore
He had staked the ground himself,
and been honest and careful about it,
and had spent all his money and two
years of awfully hard work in the shaft.
He was absolutely certain Walker had
fioated his claim and, intended TO steal
the ground, and he didn't propose to let
ii go that way. To go to court meant
big money for lawyers, surveyors and
experts, and he didn't have any money
to throw away. Besides, courts were
slow, and he would be enioined from
taking out ore until the case was de-
cided, and then the chances were about
even it would be decided wrong any
way. The ground was his, He had
located and developed it and wasn't
going to be beat out of it. So the night
after the sarvey he quietly moved his
tent down. near the shaft. went to
town and got Winchesters for himself
and his two miners, pulled UP the sur
veyors' stakes and announced that he
would hold the property. OF course,
he had no business to do that. What
he ought to have done was to file
contest in the land office and contest
Walkers patent, then commence suit
in the district court to determine the
title, and that is just what a claim
jumper or blackmailer would have done
in the hope of being bought off. But
Jones was only a common miner, who
didn't know much about the technical
tiles of the law, but did know there
was virtue in a good gun in a righteous
cause.
John Walker, although older, was by
nature a good deal such a man as
Jones. Absolutely honest and fearless,
he thought he could come nearer guess
ing what was right between man and
man than the courts, and when he had
guessed, didn't need any officer to make
or help him do what ought to be done.
He was as much surprised as any
body when the survey showed his lines
took in some of Ben's ground and his
shaft. He was glad of it, because if
the vein turned and came back into his
ground he wouldn't lose his ore, but he
didn't want Ben's shaft or the ore I'M
der his surface and was going over to
tell him so. when he learned that the
young miner accused him of swinging
lines and proposed to hold the ground
with a gun. That put different face
on the matter. It wouldn't do to let
the hot-headed fool defy the law in
that way; besides, since he was so free
with his accusations. it was no two to
one that he hadn't himself pulled the
stake and located on purpose to make
a conflict and be bought off; then,
again, the affidavit of possession could
not be made and the patent procured
while Jones held the ground. So the
next day he rode over to Ophir to get
Bill Bliss and his brother to go with