Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-09-25
THE MOTHER LODE FEVER.

Miners Who've Spent Their Lives
Seeking the Great Source of Gold.
"If you are going to hunt for gold,
don't fail to get inoculated for the
mother lode fever" says a man who
has been digging for precious metals
for forty odd years. I'm my time, in
California, in South Africa and in the
Klondike, I have seen many expert
enced miners fall i'll Of that disease.
"You get out among big gang of
men where everybody is struggling to
unearth treasures and you get in that
frenzy that makes you work with su-
perhuman strength and endurance.
But If you have heard or read some
where 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 1t would
be the subject Of your dreams. Then
you'd have the mother lode fever
THAT Is, you'd have 1t 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.
"In many ways the theory Of the
mother lode seems plausible. Even
ha Cfo ho
that there's nothing in 1t. 1t Is sug-
gested that the gold discovered in the
streams as so much Of 1t was in Cali.
fornia and the Klondike, comes from
the mountains and was lodged there
by convulsions Of nature In bygone
days. The theory of the mother lode
Is that in those convulsions 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 1t?
Zone who has set his mind On
reaching the great fountain head Of
the stream of gold is thoroughly con-
vinced that somewhere back In the
mountains, where the mountain ex-
plorations have not yet been made,
lies the Great Deposit. To be sure, he
might pick and wash here in the
stream and gather together enough to
give him a fair competence 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. Placer mining
was not very profitable then-it had
been played out. / didn't know much
about the mother lode theory then;
nobody did, guess, for 1t was some-
thing new. Lem had picked up the
theory somewhere, and he was sure
it would pay him in the end.
HE was a secretive cuss, Lem was.
He'd work at placer mining for quite
spell, never saying anything to us,
but always seeming to be thinking a
lot. When he'd gathered up a little
pile he'd sell out his mine, whether
he'd worked 1t or not, and away he'd
20 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 IT..
When his stake was gone he'd come
back again and dig in again to make
another.
Next time l saw Lem was at Nome.
1 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
faithfully, and did well.
"'Youll soon have enough laid by
to make you independent I said to
him one day.
eyes, I'm doin' fairly well, consid-
erin',' he said.
"'You don't think you'll find the
"'Not IL 1 keep diggin' away here,
he replied, somewhat sourly, I
thought. I wondered then If he still
clung to his crazy idea, but didn't say
any more. A few days later he dis
appeared. 1 felt pretty certain as to
where he'd gone. I'd heard other
talking Of finding the mother lode in
the Klondike.
lone day several months later 1
met Hollister In Dawson. His first
expedition had failed: he had re-
turned, made another stake and was
going out again. His recent expert
ence had told on him; he didn't look
fit for another journey into those un-
known regions.
Lem I told him, don't you be a
fool now. You're getting on fairly
we'll here and you ought to be satis-
fed
"'Fairly well!' he sneered.
Better than lots of the boys I
argued. What you've got doesn't
look big here, but down in the states
1t will. You won't have to work any
more If you live to be $50 II you keep
on a placer and hang onto your find
ings.'
Its too slow and too hard he
replied. I might as well be working
on the section. I've looked into this
mother lode matter carefully and my
other 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 have argued with the
wind. He never came back.
Il got pretty much interested in
the mother lode theory myself, but 1
never got the idea into my head that
1 could find It, Not l. I'd seen too
many of its victims"