Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-08-11
How the Discoveries at Cape Nome
Affected Them.
4 STUDYH OF "A CURIOUS CLASS
Many Small Prospectors With
Devious Ways Belong to It.
THE LAND OF THE MIRAGE
Written for The Evening Star.

While the majority of the people in the
Rocky mountain mine camps are reading
with steadily growing regret about the
enormous wealth of the Cape Nome gold
diggngs the mine camp tramps flock to.the
saloons. and. with unconcealed interest and
delight, search each new issue of the news
papers for confirmation Of the earlier dis
patches from the north.
A right interesting condition Of affairs
mas been developed in the home mine camps
by the Alaska finds. With public thought
centered In the Arctic zone, the home camp
promoters and spectators have found their
sales of properties" growing lighter and
lighter. The transportation men, who were
wont to race from range to range in order
10 De the first to establish stage and freight
lines to newly made camps, have been
obliged to put their stock out to pasture.
lust gathers over stocks of hardware and
groceries. The footghtS are turned out IN
the mine camp theater and the mine camp
soubrette smokes cigarettes in solitude.
me click of the ball in the roulette wheel
Is heard but family, If at all. Since Alaska
was doomed, the Witwatersrand of the Mo.
JaVe desert is forgotten in the east, and
even such famous camps as Creole and
Cripple Creek are doomed there more
than are the coal mine towns of Pennsyl-
vania.
Nevertheless though hard hit when the
Alaskan news first came, the mine camp
trampS have risen superior to the Situa-
ton. When and where they first developed
has never been recorded and cannot now be
learned. but what they and how they
fourish-especiay how they fiourish-is
something known to every observant per-
son who has lived in a mine camp in recent
years.
How These Gentry Live.
When Nat. c. Creole struck his pick into
the Colorado mountain side and discovered
the mine he cd be NpSaS-fba
mine that, with other properties in the
neighborhood, made him rich and famous,
he was known among the mining men of
the Rocky mountains a grub-stake pros
pector. Three capitalists of Denver had
dubbed together to supply him with a pros
pectors outtit-burros. food, tools, &c.-and
had sent him searching for surface indi-
cation, Groupings, true assure veins -
in short, for paying mine. 1t was Il right
good speculation for these capitalists.
little later in the same year a number OF
drug clerks in Colorado City dubbed to-
gether and sent prospector like Creede-a
man with d grub stakc-to explore the then
unknown region of Cripple Creek. Their
man found what has since become famous
as the Pharmacist mine-famous because
there was paying ore from the grass roots
down.
The stories of these strikes ran over the
whole mining region of the nation as
drop of oil spreads over wind-swept waters.
For every man who made money out of the
work of these two prospectors it is likely
that thousand We're inspired to try the
same method. And there is no form OF
speculation more common in the mining
region today than that of stalking u
proSpector.
AS matter of fact. WHERE a man like
Creole Is employed-an honest man who
has trained himself for the work by long
study and eXperience-the speculation is
sure to succeed in the long run. And it is
in this interesting state of affairs that the
mine camp tramp has originated. Among
all the sights in new mine camp the host
of prospectors with small outfits IS most
likely to astonish the tourist and tender
foot. The wonder Is where these prospec-
tors all come from and how they all got
there. They swarm in the streets and they
scattered over the gulches and noun
tain sides. Every one of them has staked
out at least one claim, and many of them
have staked claims in numbers, but still
wandering about to stake more. Here and
there u few are sinking shafts.
Learned in Their Lore.
If the tourist stops to talk with any Of
them he finds them learned in the lore Of
the camp and of other camps. If the ac-
quaintance be pushed land the tenderfoot
is never rebuffcd by them), they are found
living in ali sorts of queer homes-dugouts
in the hillside. brush -and-log shacks, tents
anything to give shelter.
BY following them still further their
workings '-shaftS-may be examined and
II is here if at all the tourist must learn the
real character of his new friends. In the
first place, the locations will be found most
rema rkable. | have seen claims staked out
on the slide rock near the foot of a noun
tain-the mass of debris tina had been thrown
down by avalanches and lesser powers
of snow and rain. There was no guessing
how far away was the solid rock of the
mountain side-the rock in place" But in
each case the prospector had found a piece
Of ore (or at least he said he had at the