The Goldfield news. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1904-1911, 1905-09-15

sublime
From every class and cnme and time.
As a shatterer of preconceived ideas
of social status-and sometimes of for
tune-the mining camp is without a
peer. More than one family genealog-
zeal tree has been shorn of a tender
branch by the rude hand of some bois-
ferrous vandal, and money has some
times been known to turn up missing
in a hole in the ground. Every man
enters Goldfeld on an equal footing
and on himself alone depends his sue
cess or failure. Millionaire and miner,
professional man and artisan, all occu-
ply the same social plane, and the trail
leading to the heights is open to them
all. Some read the "blazing" Alright;
others interpret it wrongly; but the
guide posts abound ON every hand, and
the tenderfoot-if he be of the right
sort-as often takes the right turning
as does the g%rizzled prospector who
has for years been following the gilt
tering but elusive golden ball of finan-
cial prosperity. Chances in the fasci-
mating race are even for everybody,
but the race is fast and the cutters
lspon drop ont of the running. These
pikers are Immediately transformed in
to knockers, and leaving the camp on
their uppers seek to assuage the bitter
ness of defeat by Safeguarding the
district. There is no room for such
here, and the one spark of genuine
mentality they exhibit during their
brief ~sojourn is when they board a
train, hasten home and warm their
cold feet al the family freside. For
the real man, the fellow who meets
fortunes frown with a smile, and
though down is never out, the oppor-
t~unities to turn seeming defeat into
success are many and a grub stake is
always his for the asking.
Always ola, yet ever new, the scenes
in a brand new mining camp hold the
attention alike of tenderfoot and of
a half hundred former Ell Dorados.
An ~indefinable attraction attaches to a
mining camp and to the followers of
such excitements it appeals with the
same tenacity as does the odor of
poppy to the dope iend, or the scent
of tan bark to the circus habitue. 1t
is an insidious disease and once the
fever of it gets in the bones it cannot
be eradicated, even though the victim
pass years in fancied security by the
home Preside. The reading of a stray
dispatch published in the columns of
the country newspaper, or a vagrant
thought which comes scurrying out of
the dim vista Of the past are sufficient
to renew its virulence, and once it
reaches its height there is no panacea
save joining in the rush and following
the trail, no matter how all but mac
cessible its objective point. Often the
trail is blazed by the bones of those
who could not stand the pace, but
nothing daunted the survivors press
fortunes reckoning finger. There are
about ten thousand here in Goldfeld
who have hardened to the call and they
form a composite picture well worth
more than a fleeting glance. Tender
foot, gambler, clergyman, legitimate
promoter, mining shark, sure thing man,
~panderer, courtesan, each have their
place in the passing show and are fol-
lowing out their destinies in accord
ance with the great world plan out
lined for humanity.
There are tenderfeet and tenderfeet
in this camp; the former are easily
recognizable; the latter are difficult
to distinguish from the ordinary run
of mankind. AS a general proposition
the former wear putties, although they
never ride a horse, and have their
sleeves rolled up well above the elbows
and their shirt faring open at the neck
in exaggerated imitation of the miner,
although they never swung a single
jack. The average inhabitant is good
natured, however, and views the lido
syncrasies of the species with charity,
although he is sometimes wont to pre-
dict their early death from pneumonia
as the result of exposing such a re-
markable expanse of cuticle to the
mercy of the elements. After all they
are a harmless, good natured tribe and
the camp without them would lose