Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-03-22
SIGNS LOST A GOLD MINE.
One Prospector Who No Longer Be-
lives In Them.

| One Prospector Who No Longer Be-
lives In Them.
Whenever anyone tells me he be-
lieves in signs it's off; I'll quit him
on the spot, and so will you when ]
tell you the deal that l got from a
partner that 1 used to have, says a
writer in the Butte Miner.
1t was about the year 1902 that my
partner Charlie and 1 went out pros
pecting. We proceeded along the
main divide of the Rockies with a
couple Of pack horses and a good
supply of grub and tools.
The first sign that Charlie pointed
out to me was the new moon. The
lower point of it was slightly tilted
and Charlie said that it was a dry
moon. He said the point is up so
that you could hand a powder horn
on it. Now, If the point was down,
so that you could pour water out of
it, then it would be a wet moon, and
we would have wet weather. Well,
we did have dry weather for two
days, and then we had rain for about
two weeks. 1t finally cleared, and
then Charlie got another sign. 1t
was just about bedtime one night
when we heard an owl hoot.
do you know what that is sign
OFF," asked Charlie.
"Of course, l do" said I, 'it's a
sign that there's an owl around"
WELL" he said, 81 see you don't
know anything about signs. That is
a sure sign that we will have dry
weather"
Sure" I replied, didn't we have
dry weather ever since we had the
dry moon, except for the last two
weeks?"
"Oh, well, the point of the moon
wasn't up very well that time, but
the owl hooting is a sure sign Of dry
weather." was my partners re-
joinder
Well, we kept prospecting. Some
times we had dry weather and some
times it rained. The owl didn't seem
to have much Of a line on the wealth
err but Charlie would see signs Of
good or bad weather and signs of
good and bad luck almost every day.
One day we were fishing in a small
lake, and we had more trout than we
could eat, but it was hard to stop
when they were biting good. A wind
took Charles hat sailing out on the
lake, and he started to throw rocks
at it. I told him to get a pole, but
he said that he was throwing the
rocks just the other side of it so that
the waves would work 1t into shore.
He kept throwing until at last he
threw a rock right into the hat, and
it went out of sight. That is the
last we saw Of the hat. To lose your
hat meant a year of bad luck, said
Charlie, who stated further that he
had mind to quit right there and
go back to Butte.
I told him that we had better pack
up tomorrow and go over to another
range of mountains that we could see
from where we were. "All right"
he said, "but 1 wouldn't prospect
around here for anything"
So we pulled the next day. We
went down the mountain, and in
crossing the valley we came on to a
ranch. 1t was just at the mouth Of
a gulch. The rancher had just come
home from the timber with a load
Of poles and was unhitching his team
when we arrived. He told US to turn
our horses into the pasture and stay
all night. That looked good to us,
as we were getting pretty tired of
bacon and beans, so we unpacked our
horses and turned them out in the
pasture, and then we helped the
rancher to unload the poles. Then
we sat down and had a talk with the
rancher, who told US that his name
was Foster and that he and his old
woman had come out from Missouri
the year before.
We'll, he said, I'll go and see If
Lie has got supper ready" We
started to make camp, but Foster
told us that we could make our bed
in the house, as they had an empty
room.
When we came to the house Mrs
Foster asked Charlie where his hat
was. He told her how he had lost It,
It'll give you one" she said, and she
went into another room and returned
with hat which she gave to Charlie
Charlie was tickled with the new hat,
and he had almost forgotten the fall
into the lake.
After supper Mrs. Foster told us
that the hat had belonged to her
brother-in-la and that he had drop
ped dead with it on about two years
before.
Charlie removed the hat at once
and gave it suspicious look.
"Oh," said Mrs. Foster, "the hat is
all right. He didn't have any disease;
he died Of heart failure" But Char
lie never put the hat on again; he al
ways carried it in his hand after that
Foster asked us if we would show
him how to pan for gold, and his wife
told us that she had a dream the
night before that there was gold on
the ranch, and that she believed in
dreams. Charlie asked Foster if he
knew anything about signs.