The silver messenger., 1908-10-06
CAN . COR N
AND LUCK
Tale Of an Arizona Silver Lode.


shouted a page, threading his way
among the tables in the cafe of an up.
town hotel the other evening.
well, even If he has missed corn.
he makes more fuss about it than nv
old friend Cand Corn did when he
lost his" remarked an Arizona min.
ing man to his companion. IT'S a
unique story, and as true as I'm sitting
here and that we're going to have an
other bottle" he continued.
"Cand Corn's real name was The
ophilus Peterson, or something like
that. Because he was so tall and scrag-
gly, and looked so much like the breed
! of cactus we call the Arizona candle
we called him at first 'Cand' for short.
It was not until recent years that he
| became known from the Pecos to the
Colorado by his full name, Cand Corn,
that sticks to him yet, though believe
he is touring Europe In his motor car
this summer.
when l first saw Cand was rest
ing at Brent's trading post, which isn't
down on any map, but which looks big.
ger than New York as it sticks up in
desert. Cand was a typical south
western prospector, luckless and full
of hope. He left his tired burro brows-
ing on the bunch grass by the road
side, and after inviting Brent and me
to have a drink got down to business.
Say, Brent he remarked, let me
have pair of shoes-biggest you've
got
Brent looked doubtfully at his feet.
Must have somethin',' went on
Cand. I've been prospectin' for four
months, an you can see for yourself
my foot mits is plumb gone. If you
can't fix me out I'll have to send to
Albuquerque. That's the cuss of
havin the biggest feet in the terri
tory
The largest pair of shoes in the
store were palpably too small, but
Cand squeezed them on. He had to-
His feet were pretty badly cut up al
ready by the sharp stones and cactus.
"Cand laid up at Brent's that night,
and as we were both bound the same
way, we hit the trail together at dawn
next morning. We had to go into camp
early that evening on Cand's account.
His burning, aching feet refused to
move any further. When he got his
shoes off he seemed to taste for a few
minutes the delights Of heaven, but
soon his feet began to burn again, and
kept 1t up all night. In the morning
he did some artistic scroll saving with
a jackknife before trying to put on his
shoes, and provided an outlook on the
smiling world for the toes that hurt
him worst. Thenceforth his agony
was not quite so acute.
BY the time we got to Hillsboro
Cand had the choicest assortment of
corns that ever grew on any mans
feet but after few days rest all but
one disappeared.
One day he hobbled over to Nose
Sibley's blacksmith's shop.
Say, Nose, let me have hammer
and cold chisel for while, will you?
I've got little repairin' to do
Sure answered Nose. Help your
self to anythin' in the shop
"Cand took big sledge and a cold
chisel and went over to big bowlder
near the blacksmith's shop. Then he
kicked off the sheepskin slipper he
mad been wearing, and deliberately
chlseled off his toe OF course, he
ought to have died of blood poisoning
or something of that kind but he
didn't
Next morning before breakfast he
clded to bury the toe, and started die:
ging its grave. He felt so sore against
1t that he planned to dig hole at least
SIX feet deep, put the toe at the bot
tom, NIL the hole with earth and rocks
ana roll the biggest boulder available
on the top of it all.
He had dug down about three feet
when he struck solid rock. He scraped
the loose earth and small stones out.
thlnklng 1t was only small bowlder
that he could get rid of in some man.
ner' Then he had a fit of the true
miners ecstasy, for that rock was
and veined with native silver
until 1t looked like a jewelers. show
window.
And that's the story of the Canned
Corn Mine and the Little Toe Lode in
the mining camp of Corncob. OF course
you've heard of the enormous wealth
OF this property Here's a little
sketch map of it, which also shows the
claims have staked out all around it.
m offering just few shares to close
Lriends OF mine, simply for develop
lifetime
Did Cand bury that toe? Not
much! He had it set in silver and
wore ,~ 1t as a watch charm for a while.
Inc last time saw him he said he'd
given it to his wife"
Nan,ae oF ELAN.