Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1910-08-27
THE AFFINITY BUG.

moSt anyOno IulBnt nave kuooecu 1
was no common, ordinary bug, just from
the looks of the critter; no common
bug has big gold colored spots on it
back, and when Jake Simpson for TIL
third time found him perched on e
pet sample of "foat," he saw thershsai
something more about that ,saIa thar
there was to any ordinary bug.
Jake and his partner had been pros
pecting gulch in the Waniche Hills all
summer, trying to find the ledge from
which had come some rich float which
he had found near the spot where be
had built his cabin, but so far beyond
the few specimens of float ore which,
kept on the window sill outside his G.
in he had no luck in his search.
tonight, when be came homo fl 4:
prospecting and went to compare the
rock he had in his pockets with the sam
pie of float, there, for the third time was
that bug sitting on the same specimen.
He had knocked him off of it twice be-
fore, but it seemed like that float seem
ed to attract the bug, and the next
morning he would be perched up again
on the specimen as though he belonged
| there.
Now Jake was naturally of an obser-
want nature, and it occurred to him this
time that there was some reason why
| that hnn ohonlJ oh ooOa That ona IN - ;o,,
lar specimen to sit on, and he fggers il
out that the bug has an affinity for tha,
kind of rock. You see, there had been
an Irishman by the name of DR.. Roth
erstein around the camp during the sum-
mer, who explained that he had an af.
finity for gold, and for a consideration,
would undertake to find gold mines for
anyone who would put up for the find
ing, and before he left camp, convinced
a good many of the boys that he had an
affinity, not only for gold, but for any
kind of currency.
Jake has heard this talk about affini-
ties, and when he saw the bug acting in
this manner, he guessed at once that he
had an affinity for the rock on which he
perched SO persistently, 80 he just was
dead set on seeing whether his affinity
would not lead him to the ledge where
the float came from, if he was once re.
moved from the range of influence OF
the sample.
Jake picks tho bug carefully of of the
rock and carries him for hundred yards
up the gulch and whirls him round and
round his head so as he might lose his
bearings and then sits him on the ground
to see what he would do next The bug
acts kind of dizzy like for spell and
then starts to hike up the draw, as though
he was going somewhere.
Following bug on his travels does
not need so much speed as it does pa
tience, because bug is not going to
break any speed limits, but Jake gets
down on his hands and knees and just
follows that bug with the determination
to see where he was bound for, and he
dassent leave him for fear he might not
be able to find him again. Fortunately
it was bright moonlight night and Jake
was able to keep on the track and during
the night he makes as much as three
hundred yards, keeping straight course
up the draw and climbing the side oi
the hill to the right.
Just about when the day was breaking
the bug quits travelling and settles him
self down as though he had worked his
shift and heard the whistle blow, and
although Jake prods him with match
and blows tobacco smoke on him, he just
refuses to bulge. Jake being himself 9
Union man sees how it is and knows il
is no good to try and get any business
out of him until it is his time to 60 on
shift again, so not knowing what his
hours are, he sits down alongside of him
with the determination to stay there un
til he starts again. When Jake got an
idea into his head he was that sot in hit
ways that he would see it through nc
matter how long it took him.
Just about sundown the bug shakes
first one leg then the other, and off ht
starts again. and Jake after him, and ht
follows him up the hill to where som'
ordinary looking rocks cropped out ant
right there that bug gives sort ofquivel
all over and plants himself down to stay
Jake picks loose rock and busts chunl
off Of the ledge, and there 1t was, SURF
enough, the identical rock his float cam,
from.
"Did Jake make anything out of hi
fnd?" Say, stranger did you never hea
tell of the Affinity Mine. That was it.
w. E. Ii.