Mohave County miner., 1899-12-09
Looking Backwards.

a century ago, the Argonauts entered
the "Great American Desert" when
they crossed the Missouri river on
their long journey toward the setting
sun. The country was really desert
without life, save the wild beasts and
still wilder savages that. were mon
archs of all they surveyed. There
we're no Omaha, no Council Bluffs, no
Colorado, no Wyoming, no Idaho nor
Nevada. The long trail from the Mis-
souri, to the Sacramento was unb:oken
by habitation or home, and no sound
heard, save the midnight howl of prowl-
ing wolves and coyotes, and the low
mutterings of little band of religious
fanatics who secluded themselves at
Salt Lake--as they fancied-from the
great outside world.
This was but few years ago, only
fifty, short time as measured by the
phenominally rapidly made history OF
the past few decades, but long time
when held beside the tardy, slowly
passing events of the first half of the
present century. The western hemis-
phere has made brilliant run for its
money during the last half. 1t has
built five transcontinental railroads,
that is; railroads upon which one may
travel from the Pacific to the Atlantic
with but a change or two. 1t has peo
pied a western empire in domain. 1t
has built large, prosperous cities, and
made great desert bloom and blossom
as the rose. 1t has subdued the noun
tains and the wales, the forests and the
plains. 1t has driven the red men into
the arms of the government, and the
wild beasts beyond the outposts of
civilization. 1t has planted homes and
hamlets, villages and towns, cities and
metropoleses and installed centers of
industry where the echoes of the sur
rounding hills and mountains were
awakened by prowling beasts alone.
And what made the changer
Mines, prospectors and miners. The
mines were concealed in the bosom of
the earth, the prospectors found them
and the miners brought their treasures
to light, and these are they who opened
the west, peopled the west and caused
the west to satiate the NAV of avarice
with gold. In word mines we're in
the west, prOspectors hit their high
places and the delivers into the bowels
of the earth did the rest And all this
has been done during the past fifty
fieeting years. To one who feels, rath-
er than sees, the great change which
the past few decades have wrought, it
appears as a dream, not as a reality of
which he is part. He is compelled to
rub his eyes, catch his breath, and run
it all over in his mind to realize he is
in land which has relegated savagery
to the forgotten past, and broadened
the domain of fast-advancing, loftier
and better civilization.
The old-time miner and the present
day miner can each rejoice. While the
one can look backward and note the
changes which have been made since
he blaZed the trails and worn the
paths which now lead to thriving camps
and communities, to towns and cities
and to hives of industry scattered
throughout the west, the other can
look forward to opportunities to better
his condition, denied to those who lin
ger in the worn.out, threadbare haunts
of their ancestors, and dream away in
idleness an existence unenlivened, I'M
cheered by the health-giving, life-giving
ozone of the western lofty, sky-scrap-
ing mountains. The old-timer lives
his life over again and can find pleas
use in the thought that he has led 9TH
ers to the feast he himself missed,
while the partakers, may perchance, be
preparing the way for others to enjoy
a greater. Such is life in the far west.
Western Mining World.