Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-03-11

those who have a small monthly remit
lance from home, just sufficient to en-
able them to play the gentleman in
cheap way in an inferior mining camp.
But most of them must entirely shift
for themselves, and it is these, manly
but not shrewd lot, that we find
''mucking" (shovelling ore) in the
mines, turning their hands to anything.
Some Of them have been at the great
schools of England-Eton, Rugby, Har-
row Marlborough, and some are Oxford
or Cambridge men to boot.
great place to develop character is
this west, if the character to begin with
is strong encS.t to endure the mould
ing. 1t forms character or finishes It,
Not all men take to day labor in the
last extremity to try to win out and
finally make money. Some sink without
struggle, and the art of sinking is
easy in mining camp where there are
no counteracting influences. They be-
worse.
With the advice, eco west, young
man." should be a proviso, "but do not
try a mining camp unless you are en-
tirely self-relant." 4 young man lands
in mining camp, "a thousand miles
from nowhere" He gets work of some
kind, in a store, an office, mine. He
takes a cabin with one or two other
men, and they batch together doing
their own cooking and living in the
hideous mess and disorder of a house
unguided by woman. All day long he
labors, at night he cooks meal and
washes dishes; then he has nothing but
, tossed gray blankets, scattered boots
and miscellaneous untidiness to con-
| template. He feels tired, he Graves dis
10 81 Nj, o1f fov
| it. He goes to the door. The moon
discloses the juts and spurs of barren
! rock nearby, and few implanted board
''shacks." All is monotonous. He looks
/ in the other direction. Here he sees the
main street of the camp, with many
lights The sound of music comes plain
| ly to him. There are dance halls and
| women and songs, gambling, drinking.
! life, stir. distractions; in short, some
thing to do. 1t is easy to go and do
! it, for everything is wide open. An
there is no other form of outside dis
traction in a mining camp One is be-
! tween the devil and the high mountains
1t is not viciousness that makes so
many men go down in the mining
camps, but ennui. A man drinks heav-
lily to break the monotony, or loses all
his money at faro, and there is onl
laughter to greet him the next day.
More to be pitied than the young
men, types of whom have been men,
toned, with pasts more pleasant than
their present.. who have come west to
recoup themselves, are the middle aged
men who do the same. These may once
have filled positions of Importance, or
possessed wealth. yet here they are out
In pioneer hamlets competing with
| boys. And the boys find gray-haired
competitors ridiculous.
l know one man who used TO be a
tea planter in India. He sank his en-
tire fortune in the purchase of a gold
mine in Australia. Subsequently, this
proved to have been "salted"-that is,
gold had been introduced into the rock
artitcially-and ruin followed. He came
to this western mining country and is
trying to float by means of small
proEnS office and news stand combined.
Another case is that of a man once
prominent in Philadelphia. He held
several positions of great trust Spec
ulation bankrupted him. Leaving a
large family behind. he, too, set his
face toward the mining camps. He had
been across the ocean twenty-eigb
times, he knew the money centers of
Europe Intimately, and had a comnre
henslve knowledge of finance ami bank.
ing. He is now bookkeeper to a small
WOOD company at 500 month,
In direct contradiction to those MGR
the men VINO are more than they hav.
oeeh. IheSe are the men come, ter
win the management of the mines
superlntendents, engineers and experts
self-made men, many of them who hav,
been out in the west most Of their lives
Provided they know their business, the,
go on IN a steady progression from cam,
TO camp ana mine to mice, getting
nttle better salary and more men under
them, until they reach one of the hi.
plums of their profession. Gods of men
these, Who make and unmake a minins
camp, who have under their command
several hundreds of m,r.ers and othe
workers, and on whose slightest wore
the community hangs breathe IS, to hea
what changes or additions are propose,
in the working of the mines For tn
: life and prosperity of the mines. TO
the life and prosperity of the mimi,
camp.
The ordinary miners themselves form
an interesting class, particularly tn,
older ones. Get into gathering of then
and listen to their "reminiscences. Her
are men to whom every mining state il
, the union is familiar, and who hay
PAOSpSSSSA
Mexican border to the Canadian. TIL
. talk localizes itself at Phoenix, Ar, an
jumps twelve hundred miles to Dead
wood. S. D., without inteiiupting it
flow.
Il recollect when Butte had one To-
cabin in it, and looked doubtful abou
ever having another" says an old timer
Another prospected in 80 ten miles fror
where Cripple Creek now stands. Som
of them not only know the United State
far and wide, but have prospected an
mined in Mexico, South America, Brit
ish Columbia and Alaska. Every thir
man seems to have been in Dawson City
, Half of them intended going to Sout
, Africa when the Beers are all killed.
Owing possibly to the Trans Siberia
railroad, there is a good deal of discus
sion as to the chances in Siberia. On
, of the most nomadic and restless of me