The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-15
The celebration was on, and Shorty Mcintyre was alone with his thoughts.

The celebration lasted for two days
 The morning after election the regular operator had recovered sufficiently to transcribe messages announcing McKin- 1ey's victory. Those who were sober enough to understand them didn't be- lieve them. After several warnings of
 what would happen to him If he didn't quit trying to fool people" the operator
 desisted and joined in the general jub-
 ilation Not until the arrival of the
 Denver papers on the second day did that
 camp awake to a realization of the out
 come of the election. and then there was
 not sufficient energy left to vent even
 indignation upon Shorty" much less to
 take revenge. On the third day the
 volunteer operator was more popular than
 ever, for all admitted he had given them
 the time of their lives.
 These incidents are equally modern in
 point of time. although less characteris-
 tic of early day mining camp wit and
 humor.
 The directors of a mining company
 with headquarters in New York, upon
 whose property a shoot of milling ore
 was discovered. decided to build large
 and expensive mill against the protest
 of the superintendent When the mill
 was completed the ore shoot had come to
 an end A new superintendent was
 employed ana explOTHtlOn WOih SoOu uiS-
 closed another body of mineral. An
 xious to make a record and also to re-
 vive the early enthusis e,r1 of the direc-
 tors, the new superint ident selected a
 soap-boxful of the choicest samples and
 sent them to New York by express.
 The day after the samples arrived in
 New York he received the following tel egram: Start the mill at once.''
 rr1.x tn Q ht1
 a small pocket" and that very morn-
 ing 1t had completely played out. Ex-
 plantations by telegraph were out of the question The new superintendent was in a quandary. He was noted, how- ever. for readiness in an emergency. His native talent did not desert him. He suddenly got bright idea' ana hurrying down to the telegraph oHlce dispatched this reply: Send back the mine and I will start the mill.
 In the experience of another superin- tendent the ready retorts came from the Eastern end The board of directors was composed of New Englanders. schooled in the hard economy proverbial of that section They required The sup erintendent to send all acquisitions for suuplies to the Eastern office. On the first reo,,isition was an item of '1e boxes of candles" In due course of time he received two boxes of candles. He gave the directors the beneht or the doubt. and assumed that they had ms read the other requisiton or that the l first figure was indistinct. lie ihhe' diatelv forwarded another requisltlon T l P boxes of candles, and due tiihe re | cevod two boxes. Then he knew - reousition purposely had been cut down | and he proceeded to infornl .he M ooar 1 that he had no relish for practicai Johes, In the language which only man ol | complete independence and supreme con tempt for conventionalities can command he demanded to know what thev h,eant and, further, how they expecteu nm to run a mine without candles.
 The answer was ingenious anu unii'' l passioned: l., .s a time"
 An equally thrifty and economical man aging director in the East IS responS' ble for a companion story l., The superintendent of the Inine' m driving a tunnel, struck body or ore the vein was vertical and hao s .s,n, dip. To develop it and get reauy .p m,'', the ore 1t Was necessary to put oown winze; that is to say, to sink 'na' in this instance an incline. Elated over the discovery. no le,I sraphed the board that he nao struc' rich shipping ore and received the ia