Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1906-09-21
The Mother Lode Fever.
From the New York Sun.

' don't fail to get inoculated for the
mother lode fever say a man who
has been digging for precious metals
for forty odd years. In my time, in
California, in South Africa and in the
Klondike, l have seen many exper-
fenced miner fall i'll of that disease.
You get out among a big gang of
men, where everybody is struggling to
unearth treasures, and you get in that
frenzy that makes o work with SUI
perhuman strength and endurance. But
If you have heard or read somewhere
that those deposits of precious metals
in the streams and all others that are
located similarly have been washed
down from up there in the hills that
story will echo, in your ears while you
work, and at night it would be the sub
ject of your dreams. Then you've had
the mother lode fever
THAT Is, you'd have ii unless you
were an uncommonly well educated
miner or one endowed with a rare
quantity Of good sense, or one of those
lazy beggars that think it's true that
everything comes to him who'll wait.
I'm many ways the theory of the
mother lode seems plausible. Even the
scientists haven decided for sure that
there's nothing in it. 1t is suggested
that the gold discovered in the streams
as so much Of it was In California and
he hlOilIihc, COIlcS lIoIil Tie IItOull-
tains and was lodged there by convul-
sions OF nature in bygone days. The
theory OF the mother lode is that in
these commissions great quantities of
gold were deposited in the mountain
ranges and that what the average
miner finds is that part that has been
washed down by the water. Sounds
plausible enough, doesn't it?
lone who has set his mind on reach
ing the great fountain head Of the
stream OF gold is thoroughly convinced
that somewhere back in the mountains,
where the mining explorations I'VE not
yet been made, lies the great deposit.
To be sure, he might pick and wash
here in the stream and gather togeth-
er enough to give him a fair COM
petence for life: but why potter about
with the small things when there. just
above. lies wealth that would make Of
him a modern Midas?
Ever hear of Lem'Hollister? | first
met Lem in California, and found him
hot on the trail OF the mother lode
so he thought. Place mining was not
very profitable then-it had been played
out. l didn't know much about the
mother lode theory then, nobody did,
| guess, for it was something new.
Lem had picked VI the theory some
where, and he was sure 1t would pay
him in the end.
LIZ "a " N''r " 1900
He'd work at placer mining for quite
a spell, never saying anything to us.
but always seeming to be thinking a
lot. When he'd gathered up q little
pile he'd sell out his mine, whether ned
worked it out or not, and away led
go up in the mountains, alone. He
seemed to think he could discover the
mother lode without assistance; he
didn't want TO have TO divvy with any
one. OF course he never found Ii. When
his stake was gone he'd come back and
dig in again to make another.
Next time / saw Lem was at Nome.
/ was one of the first ones to go there
from the states, but Lem was there
ahead of me-. We staked claims in the
same locality and Lem worked faith
fully, and did well.
you'll soon have enough laid by to
make you independent l said to him
n day.
Eyes, Tn dom fairly well, consider
in" he said.
You don't think you'll find the
center lode up here, do your l asked.
mot If I keep diggin' away here
he replied, somewhat sourly, l thought.
| wondered then if he still chung to his
crazy idea, but didn't say any more.
A few days later he disappeared. |
felt pretty certain as to where ed
| gone. Il HedTu OllltlS ldlhiIlS VI "
ing the mother lode I'm the Klondike.
zone day several months later l met
HOLSTER il Dawson. His first expedi-
ton had failed; he had returned, made
| another stake and was going out again.
His recent experiences had told on him;
he didn't look fit for another journey
into those unknown regions.
Lem / told him, don't you be a
fool now. You're getting on fairly well
here and you ought to be satisfied.
Fairly WE'LL he sneered.
"'Better than lots of the boys /
argued. What you've got doesn't look
big here, but down in the states 1t will.
You won't nave to work any more If
you live to be $50 If you keep on at
placer and hang onto our findings
It's too slow and too hard he re-
piled. L might as well be working on
the section. I've looked int this moth
err lode matter carefully, and my 9TH
er searches have taught me a lot. I'd
be a fool TO give up now Why. I'm
on the point of finding it. That's
straight
II might as well ave argued with
the wind. He never came back.
II got pretty much Interested In the
! mother lode theory myself, but | never
got the idea into my head that | could
find it. Not /. I'd seen too many of
its victims"
Avoiding Temptation.