The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-22
HOW WORTHLESS MINES ARE SALTED The S ShrewdneSS of the Mining
 Shark SUCKERS ARE PLENTIFUL saItlne Was In Its Glory In the Old Days In californla-How the
 Claims Are "Fixed"
 For Sale.


 tricts of the west there has been always good supply of suckers, and the sale of sated mines has been the result. That there is "a sucker born every minute is recognized by the mining shark, and it is probable that in the new mining camps of Nevada the sale of salted pros poets goes merrily on.
 For those to whom the term is new, 1t may be said that "salting" is the process of making a worthless mine, or prospect, appear valuable to the prospective buyer.
 In the early days of the California placer mines, when the gravel was washed in the open and the product was virgin gold, mine salting was in it's glory.
 One of the most successful methods of saltng a placer mine was the broadcast method In carrying out this scheme the owner or his agent comes to the mine in the small hours of the night and sows several thousand dollars worth of gold dust in the gravel he expects to wash the next day The buyer is around every day, seeing things with his own eyes, and when he sees a cleanup of several thou sand dollars every day for week or two he is convinced, and the deal is made. It will take him just two days to ind out that he has been salted, and that the daily cleanup was practically all the gold there is in the claim. In the meantime the former owner has had plenty of time to make a good getaway 10 pastures new.
 The shotgun method of salting placer mine is the favorite method of writers of mining stories It is not in use at present, and it is likely that its use has been greatly overrated However, there was one case in which it was used with good results to all parties concerned.
 Two Englishmen were working placer mine in California They had washed the gravel until they could get no more gold, and were preparing to abandon their claim when they heard of two Chinamen who were looking for a mine. They saw the Chinamen and arranged to go out and look at the mine. They did not have time to return to the mine, so decldeu on novel plan of salting.
 They had killed rattlesnake the even ine before and had thrown it into the cut. They loaded a shotgun with gold dust, and when they went out to the mine one of the Englishmen kept little ahead or the others When he arrived at the cut he let out a warwhoop and fired both bar rels into the snake, filling the gravel with gold dust The scheme worked to per- lection.
 The Chinamen were suspicious and in- sisted on taking their own samples. They fool, samples in several places banned the gravel and were very much pleased with the result They offered the English men s1 500 for it and after little hag- gling the deal was closed
 The Chinamen-went to work the next day and their first months work netted them about $25,0OO Another days work and the Englishmen would have struck 1t!
 But even the sucker becomes wise in lime Buyers now insist on taking their own samples They insist on drilling holes and blasting out the ore and picking thelr samules out of the ore they have mined themselves. But in spite of all these pre- cautions they are often salted.
 Sometimes the face and sides or the drfit are drilled with a very fine drlil, called Il needle drill. The holes thus made are filed with a mixture of quart sand. gold and plaster of paris. When the prospect i've buyer comes along he is allowed to have his own way about sampling the mine, and gets the salted sample.
 Another seductive method which was used in the Cripple Creek district IS the tin can methods In this the sucker drills the holes and takes his own samples from. 
 but. alasl only to be salted. The innocent looking tin can picked up on the dump and used to water the holes while drilling has been generously "doped' with ohlor- idle of gold by the seller.
 One of the crlidest cases of salting was perpetrated by an old negro on two United States senators and a banker. These men had all had mining experience, but they thought the negro too ignorant to salt them.
 One day a negro appeared at the bank and asked to see the owner. He was asked his business, and produced an assay certificates showing an assay of several hundred ounces per ton silver He was ushered into the back room and messenger dispatched to the assay office to verify the certificate. II was found to be correct, so the ne- gro was held while the three capital ists had a consultation. It was de- cided that one of them go out with the negro and sample the prospect
 The negro was held until next day when he went out with the Senator and sampled the mine. The samples as- saved even better than the first ones. The negro wanted $l0,OOO for the mine, but they brought in a lot of gold coin and stacked it up in front of him, and it looked so big that he took 1t. There was sSOOO in gold in the pile.
 He explained afterward that he salted the samples with chloride of silver. 1t was in the hotel at the mining camp. It was late at night and he and the sen ator were the only ones in the office The Senator went out for few minutes, and while he was gone the negro opened the sacks and mixed in the chloride of silver which he had ready in his pocket. When the Senator returned he was asleep in his chair.
 The negro went to Ohio and lived high as long as his money lasted Then he telegraphed to the banker that he was broke and wanted to come back west. The banker showed it to the Senator and asked, shall we send for him?"
 "Yes." answered the Senator. "He'a too smart a nigger to be stopping back | there."
 So he. was brought back and given job as porter, and worked in that ca pacity until his death a few years ago.
 "How is a man to. avoid being salted?" In the first place, there. are only two classes of people that haya any business dealing in mines. They are the men who have training and ex- perience and understand the business and the capitalist who can afford to lose once in a while.
 The way capitalists avoid being salted is to employ a competent min ing engineer, and have him make a thorough examination of the property
 Another way is to get a lease and option on the property. By this means