Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1911-01-19
The Santa Ysobel
Mine
By ANDREW c. EWING
Copyright, 1910, by American Press
Association
By ANDREW c. EWING

Adrian Burge, young New Yorker,
not satisfied with the prospect ahead
of him and craving more independent
life than could be achieved in the east,
determined to &C to the southwest and
grow up with the country. But Burge
soon found that while the country was
growing he was standing still. He
tried clerking for awhile; but, though
he found it easier to obtain a position
there than in the east, the salary was
not much better than that paid at
home, and he could not save any more
money. He concluded that if he
couldn't get better living than in
New York he could at least get more
independent one, so he turned himself
into cowboy.
His employer, recognizing his superior
ity over the common run of cowpunch-
ers, made quite a pet of him till he
found that Adrian was making up to
his daughter Gertrude, then turned
against him. Adrian was discharged.
He did not complain. Indeed, he
thought his discharge the best thing
that could happen to him. What bust
ness had he to be in love? 1t was all
he could do to put bread and butter
into his own mouth without trying to
feed others.
Adrian said goodby to Gertrude Nc
Gregor-it nearly broke both their
hearts to part-and, mounting his horse,
rode away to find some other rancher
who would employ him. The country
he was passing through was old Span
ish territory, whose original occupants
were Aztecs, they giving place to Span
iards or mingling of Aztecs and Span
iards. The Spaniards had come to
America thirsting for the precious
metals and had opened up a great
many gold and silver mines, some of
which had paid largely, but all had
eventually been abandoned, and the
site of many of them had been lost.
Adrian had heard of one of these
mines, the Santa Ysobel, the tradi-
ton said had been worked success
fully till the early part Of the nine
teenth century, when the Indians in
the neighborhood determined to drive
out the whites and commenced a
course of pillage and murder The
mouth of the Santa Ysobel was closed
and concealed so that neither the In
dams nor any one else except the own
ers could find it again. When the In
dian troubles were over, whether those
who had worked the Santa YSObel
mine were dead, whether they had
failed to mark the entrance so that the
subsequent owners could find it, GER
tain it is that for three-quarters of
century it had been lost.
Adrian was riding along, dreaming
of some day securing the papers de-
scribing these lost mines and making
a search for some of them. He was
a visionary fellow, much more attract
ed by will-o the-wisp schemes than
solid drudgery. Like Johnny-Look-in-
the-Air in the nursery tales, he was
building castles when suddenly his
horse went down into a hole. Adrian
succeeding in extricating himself and
by pulling hard on the bride rein in
duced his horse to make an effort to
clear the hole. 1t was successful, and
Adrian was about to mount and ride
on when he became interested to know
what kind of a hole he had fallen into.
1t looked to him as if the earth over
a subsurface cavity had fallen away
and thus formed the hole. But what
kind Of a cavity? The idea of lost
mine occurred to him. The only mine
Of which he had ever seen a descrip
ton was the Santa Ysobel, and he re-
membered that this description located
it under an orchard of ounce trees.
There were few old trees near by,
and upon examination they proved to
be ounce.
Adrian resolved to investigate the
hole.
Riding to a ranch, he borrowed pick
and shovel and, returning to the hole,
dug deeper. 1t was not long before
he found himself. sure enough, in the
tunnel of mine. At one end of the
tunnel was a pile of silver ore. A
number of tools lay about, and Adrian
saw at once from their make that
they were very old.
One day a wagon drawn by four
mules drove up to the McGregor ranch
and young man well dressed and
with a prosperous air alighted and
went to the house. Gertrude saw him
coming, and, although at first she
doubted her perceptive faculties. she
soon saw that the conner was Burge.
She opened the door for him. They
stood looking for a moment at each
other, then flew into each others arms.
That evening Adrian made a formal
application for Gertrudes hand from
her father. He told him how he had
stumbled on, or, rather, into. the
Santa Ysobel silver mine; how he had
taken capitalist into his secret,
bought the property and upon investi
CATION had found that when it was