Mohave County miner., 1900-09-15
Kinds of Miners.

have studied in mining school and
nothing more; men who never saw the
inside of u mining school but have
grown up and been engaged in the ac-
tual work of mining for many years;
and men who have learned good deal
in mining school and have subse-
quent practical experience in actual
mining work. Each has his place, and,
in way, each one can do good work,
but 1t will probably be agreed with by
majority of miners that the third
named-the man who unites the
knowledge gained from the experience
OF others given in books with that
from his own experience gathered in
actual works., pro bably, of the most
benefit to himself and those with
whom he is associated. In these sun
set months of the century it Is in or
der to discuss this subject, very i'm
portant one, on which a great deal has
already been we'll said
The young mining engineer, "fresh"
from school, Is credited with knowing
agood deal, with ability to obtain the
best results with the least expenditure
of money, time aud labor under given
conditions, and is supposed to have
knowledge of how work should be
done to insure such results. A young
man of Intelligence and trained in
competent schools would doubtless be
able to do good work under some con-
ditions. But, of many varieties of
him, the mau whose knowledge is con-
fined to what he has learned by the
hard knocks of experience; the man
who has learned about the work by
actually doing il, is ofttimes the far
more useful member. The man who
got his mining education about the
"a grain here and grain there-and
who have been doing practical mining
all his life, has in many ways a super
iorIty, the chief trouble with him be-
ing that occasionally he thinks that
he knows 1t all, though this phase of
self sufficiency is sometimes observed
in the miuing school graduate.
Success in this class of work offers
many shining prizes. Indeed, the
close of this century finds the science
of mining offering as much induce
meut as any other occupation, as it is
becoming matter of large undertak-
ings, where much is involved, aud,
where, as ia nearly everything else,
mind rules matter; the manual labor
being relegated more aud more to ma
chimes, and the man in charge expect
ed to be sufficiently up in the theory
aud practice to m axe him a man of
affairs, capable of successfully hand
ling large schemes. This man will
probably be oftenest found among
those who are we'll grounded in mining
education and who have had the ex-
perience that can only be acqIired by
actual work; that is, the man who com
bines practice with what is commonly
called theory will be the best man.
knowledge gained In the mining school
is developed into it's fullest value by
practical work, though without such
primary education he is likely to lose
considerable valuable time. His ex-
perience will forbid that he err in at
tempting that which Is only apparently
possible; it should forbid that he un-
dertake to put into force rules of text
books without the modification which
almost every practical piece of work
enforces upon them; 1t will also give
him the ability to seize the opportuni.
ties often presented in practical work
and to make the best of the situation.
It'll to this combination; to the ex
istence of men who have combined the
faculties attained by years of hard la.
Dor in the doing of work as well as
the knowledge Of text books, that
much of the great progress in scienti-
fic mining Is due.
The time Is about past when the
miner who "does, not go much on sci.
ence" has the floor. Time was when
the scientist or the geologist was a
sort Of good joke, to be gently joshed
by the men who we're doing the work
and who in kindly superior manner
declined to take him seriously. This
was the time when the choice kind OF