The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1920-03-18
THE PROSECUTORS LAMENT.

Engineering and Mining Journal)
While the engineers keep saying
that the prospector has quit. or he
amt so energetic as he one time used
to be, there's a reason for his slackin'
and if you will wait bit think that
/ can make it just as plain to you as
me. First: go back score of years
or more to the good old palmy days
when a man was treated like a man.
so long as he played straight; and he
wasn't bein' pestered to reform or
mend his ways, and didn't worry much
about the walkin' delegate. And could
always get a grub-st and his credit
all the time was as good as any bank
er's, though his settlements was slow;
he could pay his bills by worEin'
through the winters at some mine
where the boss was glad to see him
come and loath to see him go. The
RANGERS used to help him, and the U.
5. G. S. boys always gave him a few
pointers when he'd stroll into their
camp; and his yarns (for compensa-
tion) added somewhat to their joys
AOl AlitF inflow NM Us a MO4htls not
some good for-nothing tramp
You would never call him vicious,
tho he had a vicious rate of worl1in'
lat a faro bank or buckin' the roulette,
and he played a middlin' hand at draw
and took his liquor straight but in
spite of all his failin's he would be
prospectin' yet, if it hadn't heen for
copper bein' found in country rock !
where they put up an oil derrick to |
sample out the vein; if it hadn't been |
that silver dropped so nearly out of |
hook that the prospects was it never |
could be brought to pay again. If il |
hadn't been that even gold was gettin'
hard ITO sell and he sometimes couldn't
sell or even give his lead away, and it
surely was amazin' how the smelter
rates amt fell and the 'wops" that
worked as miners wasn't worth a buck
a day. Yet with all the prices droppin'
the costs was on the stack and Ma
tional Parks took so much land there
was no place to go, so in spite of all
the distance he loaded up his jack and
crossed the Rio Grandy for chance in
Mexico.
Now, there amt no use denyin' that
the game was somewhat tryin' when
they started revolutin' and some band
its stole his mules and a-thinkin'
they was trayin' he sets out to do
some tyin, gets back to camp and
finds they've stole his grub and clothes
and tools. There amt no use a
dwellin on the treatment that he gets,
if he called upon a Consul Chin that
works for Uncle Sam)-Gf you've
been there you've found that out, if
not, just place no bets, for all the
help you'll get from them amt worth
a tinker's DAMN And he has to hunt
a job back home, but it's no work for
a miner (they run sawmill cuttin
stulls where they don't do cave stopin';
and the single-j jack has been put out
Oy thing called Water Leyner), and
the wops and bohunks gets the jobs as
soon as they are open. SO he hunts b
Job from camp to camp or takes a
chance that's given, and husks the
)un'kins, slopes the spuds - forever
that this Comment seems
o try to stop his maxim Of a Twin. in
he way he's most familiar with q
The games not like it used to be,
tho it's no less interestin'; but the
nan who finds a claim to sell has just
,egun his toil-for the man who used
o look for mines and was open for in \
'estin,' is dom all his plungin' in the
lever game of oil