The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-08-12


could find the place again. but the tramp
can If you will believe him. He says he
found it by accident just as his food gave
out. He has piece of chocolate-colored
rock with tiny specks of gold in it to
prove his words Now. if the listeners
would nit him out for sixty days he could
go there and stake everything in sight
I heard that story told in a hotel in
Magdalena. n. M, one day. There were
half dozen listeners, including a COM
mercial traveller. When the tramp pro-
duced his chocolate colored ore with gold
nuggets visible on opposite sides, the com
mercial traveller asked to see IL. After
some hesitation, the tramp let him take
1t. 1t certainly was heavy enough and it
looked quite like half rotten breccia with
gold showing on two sides. but the COM
mercial man dropped it accidentally and
it struck on a nail that projected an eight
of an inch above the floor. The shock
broke the specimen, and then 1t was seen
to be piece of broken brass around which
the tramp had cemented some chocolate
colored earth.
The tramp then explained that he had
exhibited the Specimen" for joke on the
tenderfoot present, but a citizen told me
the fellow had worked" one man al
ready for a grub stake.
IT'S the Land of the Mirage.
That tenderfeet should be caught by the
mine camp tramps is matter of course
but the surprising fact is that the idle
guild should be steadily supported by the
old time residents of these camps-the
merchants and sober citizens. II costs,
say 500. to stake prospector If four
men divide the risk it is only twenty-five
each, and that is like betting a nickel
against hundred on a horse race or the
turn of a card The sober citizen will
try vt once for luck. who knows but
what a new camp like Creede may grow
out of similar venture, as Creole grew
out of a similar venture? If the fellow
is telling the truth, and his story GER
tainly is plausible, why, then" SO
says the mine camp capitalist and what
he thinks about following his why,
then" is of the wondrous Joy of life when
the shipments of ore from this to-be-lo-
Gated mine yield a thousand dollars a
day.
For II is the region of the mirage.
When the Alaskan developments first
reused the country, the tramp prospec-
tors found their occupation badly hurt.
Some got grub stakes for an Alaskan
trip, remarka BILE as that may seem, but
the speculative capitalists In so many
cases Joined the rush for the North that
stranded. The business men who did not
leave the home camps had far less money
to risk on ventures The number of men
who were found picking for food among
the refuse of the mine camp restaurants
was never so large.
But the tramp prospector's genius has
risen superior to this, as 1t has always
risen superior to every i'll. He knows
there is but one remedy for the stagna-
tAA lru rfaI m
camps, and that remedy is new strike
He is now going to the mine camp capt.
talists and Is saying that this is the very
time TO venture. II is in the nature OF the
capitalist-especially the desert capitalist
to listen. More ingenious still, the tramp
prospector has been known to announce
his woundrous discoveries through the
newspa pers. When he has tried to beguile
the speculative capitalists In vain, this
tramp. in these last days, announces
through the press that he has made dis
covery of wondrous riches. Through the
mine Camp news gatherers he is even able
TO reach the papers OF the whole country.
Only a day or two ago the days New
York papers contained a paragraph tele-
Qraphed from Arizona announcing a strike
"of what is reputed to be very rich white
collaborating quartz" 1t admits that the
ground has been prospected for many
years, ana nedNS Sute WIZ "'aNV uii Ous "
ID" when the railroad was graded. mo
one suspected the presence Of the precious
metals /" OF course but "a whole four feet
deem has been made and a sample assay
shows $4,000 worth iof gold to the ton"
II is possible, Of course. that this dis
match is founded on fact. There may
have been a strike Of one assaying $3.50
or s23 a ton, in place where "the ground
has been prospected for many years" but
the oar-marks OF the tramp prospector
are In the dispatch. The ore In their
claims either Yields thousands OF dollars
- low grade ore lying where II can be
vorked al cost not TO exceed $3.50 per
ton. -.
There are other tramps OF the desert
broken down specimens OF humanity
who are beggars only. They can te found