The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1923-11-22
Tribute to the Prospector--Only few
Left of Picturesque Class That
Conquered the West

cock IN Chandelier they may have
been trying to raise the sun with
Their voices.
Thousands OF prospectors lived and
dleu without ever having attained
anything approaching financial COM
petence Failure did not discourage
them. Their vivid ImagInatlons, their
ooundless confidence. their nope
( transcendent buoyed them up and.
like Olive Sinners seeker after
Truth who gave lifetime pursuing
the bird ana died without having more
than touched one feather from It's
wing, 50 the gold seeker died without
having realized more than "a meager
eNistance, but filled to the last with
dreams OF the days when I'm goin
to eat pie with "a fork" which with
many OF them was a term synonymous
with the possession Of the wealth of
Henry Ford.
The stories Of the pick accidentally
stuck in the footwall uncovering min
! eral wealth that has made half
dozen millionaires. of the burro who
accidentally uncovered lead that
made its owner rich-the Bunker Hill
mine of Idaho-of streams the beds
of which were stubbed with golden
pebbles caught the fancy of every ad-
venturous spirit The free life in the
clean hills lent an additional appeal
and the prospector became as i'm
portant as the banker.
Old Timers of Montana.
He is no longer seen in all his by
gone vigor The type is practically
extinct. Charley Carver who ran the
first store in Butte, crossed ChilcOot
pass in company with Bill Owsley-
both men well past sixty-with his
pack on his back, now lives in real
house and takes his ease. Billy
Parks, who sank the first shaft in
Butte, is still driving tunnel back of
Sheridan in the foothills at the age
of SO, and George Briffy who helped
in that sinking. is living on a ranch in
Park county. Here and there about
the states may be found other ex-
prospectors, men who can still make
sour dough" bread, turn hot cake,
a pair of eggs or a rasher of bacon
by merely Tipping the skillet IAN
without losin' a drop o. grease" are
still to be met but they have no
What cold, hunger, thirst and pri-
walton could not accomplish has been
brought about by other means.
What the Indian stake, rifle and
tomahawk We're powerless to bring
about has been achieved in part by
half a dozen pudgy, specialized gentle
men sitting about a mahogany table
in the financial district Of London.
These men fix. each day, the price of
silver
The British government is the
worlds largest silver purchaser. These
financial gentlemen determine for
themselves how much silver bullion
is available and what are the market
demands With this basis they cal
culate the amount that the producer
may be willing to accept-and this is
the market price.
AS a result of it's demonitization,
and the consequent decrease in price,
silver was slowly relegated among
to the same class or near
ly the same as pyrites of iron.
Refined gold was still $2O.67 an
ounce and gold was still to be had,
and so they continued to prospect.
But the world war sent the prices Of
food. clothing and supplies skyward,
while gold remained at its former
price, and the days of the prospector
snded.
81 am afraid we have been too much
disposed to take the prospectOr for
said Secretary Hamiltin of
he United States mining inquiry COM
mission at Butte ito think he need
my encouragement"
At the commissions hearing in this
ity where less than a bakers dozen
# prospectors were on hand and of
hese not more than half a dozen were
# that celebrated type who can not
My see the pot of gold at the rain
,ow's end, but can likewise see the
of the coin in the pot
nd even the mintage date on each
DIN.
Like the sea elephant the prospect
II is fast becoming an extinct species
n another decade he will have Joined
he wild turkey the dodo and the
treat aux.
The "Old Prospector" whose por-
RAFT is painted on the rotunda walls
f the state capitol-it is a likeness of
sure enough prospector, by the way,
hat of George Giles, formerly Of
frantic county-will be pointed out
o the children of the next genera
ion as the product of an artists brain
torn or perhaps as a picture Of the
riginal inhabitants of the western
fountains.
The term "golddigger" once ap-
lied exclusively to the California
has entirely lost its sig
ificance and is now used to designate