Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1903-08-08
The Miner and the Prospector.

tors. We are aware that they are com
monty classed together, as it Is known
that both of them delve in the earth in
quest Of mineral, yet the difference be-
tween them is so great that they should
not be considered as being engaged in
the same avocation. We have known
men who had worked in mines all their
lives, and were expert hammer men and
blasters, and yet knew nothing or next
to nothing of the art of prospecting.
The regular miner for the most part
works in the deep mines and his field OF
operation is in the shaft, the stope and
the drift. He knows how to drill hole
and to shoot it, how to break rock, shovel
it in buckets or cars and send it to the
surface. If he becomes proficient in this
work he is regarded as good miner and
commands good wages. The prospector
becomes equally expert in the handling
of the pick and shovel, drill and pow
der, but these accomplishments form
but small part of what he must learn
to become a good prospector. A good
prospector is to a considerable degree a
scientist, for the greater and better part
of his work comes strictly within the
domain Of science. He must be geol-
ogist and mineralogist, and to be fully
equipped for the business he must be
able to assay his ore and if required he
should be able to analize it as well. And
even having mastered these accomplish
ments has still much more to learn. He
must be able to tell at glance the char
acter of rock which is liable to carry a
certain kind of metal, and he must like
wise be familiar with natures methods
of vein structure, and the process she
employs in healing her wounds and re-
pairing her broken parts. There are
many departments in the broad science
of mining, and to the prospector is given
the most difficult task to fulfill. We are
aware that seven tenths of those who
follow the business of prospecting have
as a general thing but slight smatter.
ing of the accomplishments we have
enumerated, and they should be aware
that they have but a slight knowledge OF
the business they are engaged in. We
have met prospectors who are always
ready to declare that book knowledge is
no good and that it is no help to a man
in prospecting, but in this they make a
fearful mistake. On the other hand we
have met with some young fellows, fresh
from a school of mines, who had been
taught the common rudiments of assay.
ing, and had acquired an tnkiing o!
chemistry, who thought they knew about
all that was to be known. They are
ever ready to declare that the man who
climbs hills and digs holes in the ground
in quest of mineral, and has not acquired
the information which the schools and
the books convey is an ignorant boor
and is unprepared for the business he
has undertaken. In truth both are
wrong, and both are sadly in need of the
knowledge which is possessed by the
other, and then great deal more. Even
the prospector who decries the knowl-
edge obtained from books does not seem
to realize how much he is indebted to
the books for what little he does know
For instance when he discovers vein OF
mineral and scrutinizes ii carefully with
his glass and you ask him what he has
found, he answers, have struck chlor-
ide, or oxide, or carbonate as the case
may lie. Now we would inquire of him
how do you know what you have got in
your vein. Where did you learn the
names you use? Why, he says, l once
had partner who was an old professor
and he told me the names of these diff.
ferent kinds of ore, and l remembered
it. Very good, the professor obtained
that knowledge from the books and you
got it from him second handed. 1t is all
right. 1t matters not from what source
you obtain your knowledge so long as
you learn only the truth, but as Josh
Billings once said Gin book ''it is bet.
ter not to know so much than to know
so much that is not So"
Don't despise the books, for they con.
tain the garnered knowledge of thous'
ands of men for thousands of years, and
what is the knowledge you have acquir.
ed in few short years while working
alone untaught, compared with the &C.
cumulated knowledge of the ages which
have been preserved to us by the print.
ers art. Let us not be afraid of learning
too much Learn all you can from the
books and then make that knowledge
your own, by applying it practically in
learned till then. Proceeding In this
way it is possible that you may discover
something new, something that is not
laid down in the books. 1t is not prob.
able, but it is possible, and if you should
it is your duty to give that knowledge tc
the world, and the only way to do that
is to have it printed in book. The
question of knowledge is not alone the
question of experience, it's more ques
ton of capacity of brain, and he who is
gifted with the necessary faculties which
fit him for a prospector will seek ths
books and every other source Of kno wi
edge in his line, and he will excel in
that department, and it is a rule that We
always take pleasure in the work ir
which we excel.
The decision of our state commission
to erect a corn palace at st. Louis Word''
fair meets with general approval through
out the state, says the Sioux Valley
News. The limited appropriation fol
the building will prevent extravaganza
in the size of the building if artistic
effects are secured. That the palac'
will he eleoant and a credit To our state