The copper era., 1902-06-26
OLD PROSPECTOR
Has q Grievance or TWo-Big
Prospects in MayfOwer.,
MAYF1owER. Arizona. June Il. 100.

10 iHt copper Ira.
| see in your issue Of May 2gtf
] where some one says that Arizona
'u'l OF mines and that any experience,
prospector who knows straight ND car
90 out aud find valuable mine withi
, a few months. Then he goes on to sa,
that the prospector should conhne him
self to selling prospects not - go int
til he gets money enough. want t.
the business right. Now Ehow long
It would take a prospector to get hold
OF money enough to go into busines,
like he says by selling valuable mine;
as prospects. He may have ever such
IA rich mine and have an expert tc
come to look a it and he will say "Oh
this is water formation, or this has
been burnt up,' or there has been
sometime, an uphcavel some where that
has thrown it where it is, >" etc. bat Just
| before he goes To leave he Will ask the
prospector how much he wants for his
| prospect. When tho prospector knows
that nc has good thing and will say
that he will not take less than 50 and
50, the expert throws up both hands
and falls fiat Of his back and will say.
my God, what did you hit me with"
/ When he will say why, man, you've
! only got prospect. You haven't got
mine" when he knows right then
that the property is worth thousands
| OF dollars but will only offer the pros
pector enough money to get out OF the
country on provided he takes tie
| ticket.
| Now, my experience has been that
when company takes hold of any
proposition Of that kind that they
come very near knowing what they
are doing. Why don't they send their
| experts out prospecting and find their
prospect. then let the prospector do
the work for them to make Il mine out
OF it, for he would only locate what was
good. Then it wouldn't take much
work and but little money to show up
rich mine. but the prO-pectOr never
finds anything only pros poets. A
ledge 30 feet wide that runs from / to
20 per cent. copper right from the
jump is only prospect when if some
company owned it, it would be big
paving mine.
Now don't understand me to say that
if I had proposition that | thought
would be WORTH millions to some com
pauy that l would expect TO get mil
lions out of it, but | DO think that il |
did have such that | ought to get up
into the thousands for it, What good
would 4 few hundred dollars do Il man
by the time he got his little debts
paid and fixed up to go out again? He
wouldn't have Il cent and by the time
he found another prospect he would be
in Just aS bad fix as before, so L argue
that if you've got good thing stay
with il or else get something for it.
Look at Hinkicy & IIOrselman known
Us Bill X Ned. who about year and a
half ago sold their prospect for SO 600:
was paid 81 900 cash. balance in three
years. They took the $1,000 cash.
took Il pleasure trip 10 the northern
states. bad a fine time after being in
the west prospecting for the last twen-
ty years, and after having all the bat
terny life they wanted, they returned
back to their old stamping ground and
took cna-gr of the prospects they sold,
a. the parties to whom they sold failed
to make the payment and have turucd
every thing over to them and now they
are better fixed than ever, as they
have stone house, Il large dwelling
with every thing ready for hOusckcep-
ing, about 400 cords of good cedar
wood and Il ten-stamp mill to boot.
Now if | could make Il deal of that
kind | would be all right. They have
very fine ore in their mine. This com
pany could have probably shown up
lots of rich ore if :hey had spent all
this money in developing these mines
rather than building houses, mills
etc. They must have spent over $40,
eco before they ever struck Il lick in
the mines, so you see this kind of peo-
pie are more OF Il draw back to the
country and is just where the poor old
prespectOr gets the worst OF it, for il
he finds Il mine, such mining men a.
these will say that it is no good, that
the country is no good, nothing here
all water formation or else its been
shot to h. but they will ask you
your price aud when you tell them
they viii say "Oh, my, you must be full
OF prunes, "'when the poor old pros
pcctor hasn't had prunes, or any
other kind OF fruit, for may be twelve
months. Nothing but jack rabbit
hard tack and black coffee and a very
small piece of Arizona chicken, (sow
belly - this is considered high living
in this country, and unless the county
raises the bounty on wolf scalpS and
pays for them when they are presented
TO the board, the jack rabbit business
viii ldii llJIlc snort ana the present
game law prohibits a propectOr from
killing deer, mes got to leave them
alone 80 that these gun club men can
go oC: and kill them. We are not al
lowed TO kill mess of quail, so the
poor old prOepector has got to confine
himself TO jack rabbit aud fat bacon If
he has any meat at all.
| saw some time back where some
one had written some poetry in regard
to-cld man Phillips aud the cayote.
Now some people might think this
only Joke but there's more truth
than poetry about it, for | am particu-
larly acquainted with the circum-
stance to which this little piece of
poetry aliuaed 10 aud its nothing but
this, that old man Phillips as some
call him, his boy and the boys cousin
were out trapping and killing wolves
for their scalps, as the county offers
Sl.00 for each scalp. They succeeded
in getting about dozen and as they
wanted some spending money for
Christmas which Is natural for boys
about that time. They took the scalps
to Duncan, made affidavit before a
notary that they killed them in Gra-
ham county, Territory of Arizona,
which the two affidavits cost them
fifty cents each and forty-siX cents in
stamps to send them to Solomonville
and when the honorable board met
they considered the matter over and