The Prescott daily news., 1910-01-15
kS4IOCVA WE'RE BAD ~

Hill now stands, as far back as in
 1874, but found nothing that looked good to him. Then, in 1883, Charles
 Nichols went in search of whatever the fickle goddess of the mines might see fit to bestow, walked over the spot where is now located the main shaft of the mine that yields one-six- teenth of the worlds annual output of silver. begged a claim and worked it for a few weeks, and then gave up in disgust He was willing to take solemn oath that there was nothing in that part of the country worth digging after.
 Whether Charles Rasp, the bound ary rider, knew of these past failures or not doesn't matter. He took notice that it was a peculiar country that he traversed day after day. Oddlooking outcrops of ''ironstone" were distin- guishable through the growth of salt bush, and malformed hills gave to certain sections an appearance that was almost uncanny. It was years after Broken Hill had grown to be great mining camp when the discovery was made that even the deSpiSed ironstone was a rich sulphide ore, and when men began shipping the scen- cry" quarrying the ore from open cuts. Although Rasp did not suspect that the ironstone was worth anything he did think that so odd looking country must contain something of more value than the desert shrubbery that had grown, withered and grown again for uncalculated ages. He was not geologist, nor mineralogist, nor even a prospector and had not the re- motest idea what that something" might be. However, he made guess that it might be" tin. So he begged a block" (for no one stakes claim" in Australia) and rustled for help to develop his problematical tin mine.
 Rasp must have been a persuasive talker, for he soon succeeded in get ting together a syndicate composed of himself and six others Gall employees of the sheep ranch). That made sev- en members constituting the syndi- cate, each one owning one share. The maximum assessment that could be levied was fixed at ten shillings share per week, or a total of about S35 week available for development work Seven claims, or blocks, were begged" and the legitimate parent of the great Broken Hill Proprietary Mining Company embarked in mine with less working cap ital than would suffice to pay the office rent and postage bill of any really up to-date American mining syndicate trying to float a Nevada prospect showing free gold" or virgin silver from the grass roots"
 Promoters Get "Cold Feet"
 It wasn't long until some of the fu- ture silver kings began to feel the drain of ten shillings every seven days upon their meager salaries. So they were compelled to sell fourteenth and even twenty-eighth, interests in the mine. Sometimes the boys were care less when going to and returning rom the mine, breaking downs the fences and permitting the sheep to stray; and that got them into serious difficult ties with the overseer, who would have regarded that prophet fool had there been one to tell him that the modest hole in the ground in which the boys" were sinking their money meant more for the future or New South Wales than all the sheep in Australia were worth.
 One day boundary rider named Philip Charley, who had purchased interest, went to camp lh great excitement. Look at that. boys," said he; we're in luck at last The "boys" looked at the ore specimen