Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-05-15
Daggett and Indio, he may be seen.

The desert, while forbidding. ha!
valuable mines, and 1t Is the grub
staker's roaming ground, and alonl
its pathways you may see his bone.
bleaching in the sun or his grave
marked by a rude cross. The desert
has many phases. Now 1t is sand
again alkali, again wide stretches Of
sandy pillows, or you may find it g
waving field Of flowers. or again g
mound of gravel. But there are al.
ways mountains in sight, as this sec.
ton Of the desert Is always fiat, 6
sandy waste surrounded by noun.
tains. bare, barren. rocky. heat blast.
ed, yet invested with all the splen.
dor Of color the mind can imagine.
i've struck 1t rich dozen times
said the desert prospector, "but It's
mighty uncertain business. Jest take
my last run.
"I found what I thought was 9
paying property down in the range
below here. and had 1t assayed and
in all kinds Of tests 1t ran over 9
thousand dollars to the ton. was
millionaire right there.
I've a friend back East who has
staked me many a time and who
knows where to put his money.
wired him to come, and he did and
advised me to. go back to New York
with him and pick out my lot on
Fifth avenue, because, BILL he said
you will strictly be living there next
week
well. didn't go. staid by and
bossed the job. We took up land all
around It, got the machinery up, and
my baoker, he let all his friends in
on the ground floor while he and
had the majority.
You bet l was on Easy street, and
for a year was strictly in 1t. Why
didn't sell I'll be dogged If know; but
it's fact was too grasping. They all
wanted my stock. I could have sold out
for nearly million, but wanted all
the millions could get, and one morn
ing the boss in the lead called to me
and said
"'Bill, is your stock for sale?'
mo says /.
"'Kin you sell?'. says he.
"T reckon l says. 'Why?'
""Cause she's going dry; she's pc
tering OUT says he.
IT'S fact, she was. We could have
unloaded, my friend in New York and
me, but we weren't doing business that
way. We bought back all the stock we
could, and she petered out complete.
1T was big, rich pocket, and when
we got to the end there weren't gold
enough to fill tooth. That's the kind
of stun that makes a man take to
drink the kind Of drink that climbs
trees and digs holes-gopher whisky.
But If a mans a good grub stalker
he don't let anything like that worry
him long, and was soon off again.
struck a mine not far from Temescal
and took about $4,000 out Of it. I told
the people I had the tin and trust
bought 1t; what they got don't know.
''Then got on to coal mine;
found that in a queer way. I'd been
hunting quail and chased a kiote into
a hole, and followed her in. When
got inside 1 saw the shale was black
and when got through with the kiote
I lighted piece and 1t burnt like wood.
You know coal in California Is just
as good as gold mine. l worked at
that for six months and ran that kiote
hole in $50 feet, following along seam
that grew wider and wider. My back
er-Lord! What a patience that man
has!-sent me rails and car which /
ran in, and / was heaping up the coal
to make a big show when he came with
a new lot of friends. Then my pick
struck something hard. think 1t must
have been granite; anyway, the coal
seam stopped so short you'd have
thought 1t had hit stone wall.
"The trouble is," said the grub stalk
er, getting up and throwing his blanket
roll over his shoulder, there are so
many crooks in the business that they
queer 1t for all hands. They salt mines
and sell to suckers.
why, not six months ago a chap
came to me and asked II / wanted to
go into a scheme with him. His lay
was to put four or five hundred dollars
into rich tailings from the Cripple
Creek country and get some sucker
down and sell out. He had a plan for
blowing the side of rock full Of gold,
and what he wasn't up to was a eau
ton. But that don't pay" and the
miner started down the road out onto
the pathless desert.
He's queer guy" remarked by
stander who had been listening.
You'd think he was a tramp, but he's
grub stalker all right and he's got
over $4,000 in the banks. He's grub
stalking for the love Of it."-Los An
geles, Cal, Letter.
How MARTINIQUE Recovered
When on q May morning four years
ago an expedition which had been hur-
ried to the scene of st. Pierre disaster
brought the ruins into view, there was
so much Of utter desolation, such drifts
Of scoria and volcanic ash over all the