The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1906-09-20
The Mother Lode Fever.
From the Naw York Sim,

.'If you are going 10 hunt for gold
don't fail to get inoculated for the
mother lode ever says a ma who
has been digging for precious metals
C~alifornia,ain South Africa and in the
Klondike, I have seen many exper-S
fenced miners fall illsof that disease.
You get out among q big gang of
men, where everybody is struggling to-
lunearth treasures, and you get in that
frenzy that makes you work with SUI
perhuInan strength and endurance But
if YOU have heard orEread somewhere
that those deposits Of precious metals
lin.tha Observation-Disclosures are
located similarly AVE been washed
down from up there In the hills that
story will echo, In youi. ear while you
work. and at nightIt would be the sub
the mother lode fever.
That Is, you'd have 1t unless you
were al unconlmonly well educated
miner or one endowed with a rare
quantity of good sense, or n 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't decided for sure that
there's nothing IN it. It is suggested
that the gold discovered in the streams
as SO much of 1t was in California and
Il1C IAlOil0lhSs 4SOAAACS Lie lllOull-s
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 We're 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?
"One who has set his mind on reach
Ing the greet fountain head Of the
stream Of gold is thoroughly convinced
that somewhere back in the mountains,
where the mining explorations have not
yet been made, lies the great deposit.
To be sure, he might pick Inc wash
here in the stream and gather togetn-f
er enough to give him q 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 heal Of Lem .Hollister? I first
met Lem in California, n found him.
hot on the trail of the mother lode
so he thought. Placer mining vas not
very profitable then-it had been played
mother lode theory then; nobody did,
l guess for 1t was something new.
Lem had picked UP the theory some-
where, and he was sure it would pay
him in the end.
H was a secretive cuss, Lem was.
1 IlG sWOIh d pldhSl li.lAllil6 Ao1s4uitC
q spell, never saying anything to US,
but always seeming to be thinking a
lot. When he'd gathered up O little
pile he'd sell out his mine, whether he'd
worked 1t 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 n
one. OF course he never found it. When
4 1,t 81 ctn1yaH SIyo g M Ehn'I rny1n hack and
dig in again to make another.
Next time I 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 staaed claims in the
same locality and Lem worked faith
fully, and did well.
"'Youll soop have enough laid by TO
make you independent I said to him
one day.
eyes, Tn dom fairly well, consider
in',' he said.
"tYou don't think you'll find the
center lod up here, do you? asked.
"'Not if I keep diggin' away here,
he replied, somewhat sourly, l thought
I 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 he'd
gone. I'd heard others talking of find
ing the mother lode in the KlondiSe.
zone day several mOlllS laLeI 1 llel
Hollister in 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 I told him, don't you be q
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 it will
You won't nave to work any more II
you live to be $50 if you keep on al
placer and hang onto your findings
cts too slow and too hard he re-
piled. I might as well be working or
the section. I've looked into this moth
er lode matter carefully, and my 9TH
er searches have taught me q lot. 10
be a fool to give up now. Why, Tn
on the point of finding it. That's
straight
II might as we'll have argued witt
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 hat 1 could
find it. Not I. I'd seen too many OF
it's victims"
Avoiding Temptation.
Slopay-"Lets go up this side street; ]
-