Mohave County miner., 1909-08-21
The Prospector and His Burro.

VI nave O1ten placeu my money on the red, and played the jack to win," said the prospector 10 his burro,' but have never yet bought a prospect, or stock in mining company without first visiting the prospect or learning all could about the company and the value of its holdings. When l play the wheel can watch every move of the dealer, and if win or lose, know . have had a fairly good run for my money; but if go it blind on pros- pect or buy stock in any old wildcat that comes athwart the horizon like bob-tail flush, have no more show of making winning, or of even getting my money back, than the old-timer does when he invests his savings in a gold brick.
 No man ever buys house without first looking at it. If it pleases him, he looks up the title and demands an abstract. But this same man will take flyer in prospect and invest great wads of long green in mining stocks when he knows nothing about the prospect and less about the mining stock. It is fact, also, that most men make an inventory of the woman he is about to marry. He wants to know if her teeth are of her own growth, if the fine color she wears is the result of good health or of the paint brush, and if she cooks the gooo meals he enjoys at her home, or if her mother is really the chef; and yet this man will take such long chance in mining operations that a commi ission should be formed to inquire into his sanity.
 ''It is amusing to me-" continued the prospector, "to see how mildly in- nocent some men are when they come to mining investments. They seem like babes in the woods, throw all caution and business-like methods to the winds, and rush into the whirl and excitement of mining just as if they were out for time and about to get a corner on picnic lemonade. In the first place, they know nothing, practi- cally, about mining, and less about the value of prospect other than the fact that a mine is a hole in the ground; and this hole has terrible facinatiOn to them, so much 50 that they begin, at once, to throw good money into it as fast as they can. Most of these fellows would make good pitchers in league team, for they can stand at distance, sometimes several thousand miles, and hit the hole at every throw, and this practice is maintained for weeks, and sometimes, for years, or until the fool-killer happens along or friends and relatives step in and cry foul And yet, all along, these simple folk fondly imagine they are engaged in active and legitimate min ing. They are proud of the fact that they are interested in the mining in- dustry, and that, in time, they may give to the world another wealth pro- ducer; another dividend-p when the facts are that the prospect is ab- solutely worthless, and that, when To- cated, it was never intended that it should be mine.
 ''I want to tell you, Old Long Ears" concluded the prospector, "good in tentions are all right when one knows just what he is doing, but all wrong when ignorance is back of any action connected with mining and the invest ment of money. A man might mine with good intentions in an ash heap, but he will never get profits or divi- dends from such a source; and yet, this same money if expended in the development of a prospect in a miner- alized country, on strong and per- manent vein, would probably make barrel of the yellow boys for the wise investor; and there you are, and then some. ."-Salt Lake Mining Review.