Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1904-06-11

ana IL sort o hurts my feelings. While
| don't owe this town cent, l can't
keep away from Frisco" when I've
got the price. There's nothing doing
here, though, for me. must say it's
the hardest place in which to work up a
good, square mining deal l was ever in.
Oh, yes, there's plenty of money-oodle
of it-but precious little of it can be
had to work a prospecting mine. Eve
rybody in the mine business hereabouts
wants a developed mine-and they want
it cheap. Why, if had such mine as
nearly all you Californians are asking
for, l wouldn't sell it for any price
Developing a mine means to sink shafts
run drifts and block out ore. This
means that somebody has first to spend
money and take chance of losing it in
searching for the ore, which must be
found before it is blocked out. And yet
so many talk about legitimate mining
Legitimate mining 1t makes me tt
red to hear the words.
'Never has quartz mine been open
ed up, in any part of the world, which
did not require chance to be taken
that the openings made would be in ore
and continue to be pay rock in sinking,
driving or raising. The men or compa-
MES who work their properties, make
no false reports and pay their bills, are
doing legitimate mining, whether they
have ore in sight or not. Legitimate
mining implies the taking of legitimate
mining risks as well, and yet people
talk as though it meant sure thing in
money making, which is not good sense,
for you can't apply that term to any
kind of ordinary business. Mining re-
cords fewer failures, though, when once
Anybody, even a correspondence
school graduate, can pass on the value
of and, after fashion, work devel-
oped mine, with ore bodies all blocked
out, and get some pay from it. But
somebody had to pay for the explora-
tive work, and if risk had not been
run, unless someone had courage to
back his Judgment the developed mine
would not be there, ready to turn out
its visible wealth.
'Men so tinid that they must be
coaxed into investing their money by
the assurance that they can not lose are
not the ones to help along the mining
industry. No; they are not the same
IN other states. Colorado people will
Jump at chance that some of you Cal
fornians couldn't be dragged into with
yoke of bulls.
eff it wasn't so 1 wouldn't be here
now with a wad of greenbacks in nv
inside pocket. Sold a claim there, I'D,
above timber line-10, 800 feet elevation;
lad to pack my ore on burros down a
narrow trail four miles to fiat car;
hen hundreds of miles by railroad haul
o smelter; snow up to your necktie
light months in the year. Why, some
# you California mother lode miners
be coaxed into looking at it
lot even with first-class passage in an
lir ship. If Colorado miners and CAPT
alists had California advantages of
,nown but undeveloped mines, its ac-
and climate, enabling them
o do work the year round in the open
If, as can be done in most situations;
where you are now mining, the gold
nd silver production of California would
e hundred millions per year in
hort time. Why don't they come here
nd show us the trick? They're too
to their own business
nd developing their own state, as Cal
Fornians might be doing. That's one
eason.
eyes, California mining propositions
re occasionally presented to Colorado
hen, but it seems so dead easy a thing
D them that they can't help thinking
here must be a catch in it. They have ,
cad about the courage and progressive
pirit Of the California pioneer, and it
not easy to believe that such chances ;
saHy exist.
mo, don't mistake me. I'm not say ,
lg word against California miners: c
isre are some of the best in the world
this state, even if they are, as a rule. I
trifie to easy-going, ard lack ginger, +
hen compared with residents of colder t