EarnieP
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OLD 'NEWS'
Here’s a little ‘nugget’ I dug up that some of you miners might enjoy.
(I did not change any of the original punctuation but did break the article up into paragraphs for easier reading online.
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From the Weekly Arizona Miner Oct. 19, 1877
The Golden Mirage
from the Territorial (Nev) Enterprise
Yesterday Chas. Tozer called upon us and in ten minutes told us that during the early summer he was in Arizona; named several mines in that Territory which he believes are to become famous in the near future, and a dozen more of less extent which are comfortable for the owners. He could stay but a few minutes, being obliged to hurry his arrangements to take the train for Tuscarora last night.
When he had gone we could not help but think of the life he has lived for years on the coast, which is but typical of thousands of other lives in our midst. When we knew him first - a dozen years ago - he was an old miner then. At that time he was sure that his fortune was secured in a copper mine in Gennessee valley, Plumas county, California. Since then he has been to every mining camp on the coast; every hill and every sagebrush in this great desert basin is familiar to him; he can give dimension of every mine in Nevada; tell the nature of the ores which they contain and in what formation they are found. He knows nothing about fatigue; is at home alike in city and in the wilderness, and expects sometime to secure a bonanza and gather to his bank account a few million.
Every day we see such men; not many who are gifted like Tozer - who is competent to take charge of mines and mills - but men who are following a golden dream all over the coast. Every little while we hear that one of them has grown weary of prospecting and fallen asleep; their eyes fixed on the silver hills beyond, and they did not see the grave which had opened across their trail until they stepped into it and disappeared. Those graves are everywhere amid our hills and mark where strong hearts, at last worn out, cease to beat. But the race seems ever renewed. When one falls by the way another takes up the burden and struggles on toward the beautiful coast which shines ahead, and though, to nine out of ten, it is but a mirage; the fact does not discourage them.
If the history of the lives which have been worn out in this way within the past twenty eight years could be written it would be a study for thoughtful men ever afterward. It has not been a miser’s search for gold, for these men are always generous and always brave - two attributes which misers do not possess. With the majority of them the dream has been not to gain fortunes for the sake of being called rich, but rather with gold to hush the sorrows of those who are dear to them, and to shield others from hardships which they had grown so familiar that to bear them uncomplainingly had become second nature. It was these men who made the skirmish line for the army of civilization which followed them; who beat back the savages; who lit the wilderness with signal lights; who blazed the trails; who marked where the streams could be forded; who measured the deserts and found the springs; who made it possible for cities to be built; for homes to be made and order to be established.
We should never forget these things, and when we meet one of these men we should remember that he has braved more than soldiers have in battle; has endured marches and bivouacs which the bravest soldier would shrink from, and generally his only reward has been the hope which kept him company through the years and the dream of joy which should come when the hardships should all be past.
Here’s a little ‘nugget’ I dug up that some of you miners might enjoy.
(I did not change any of the original punctuation but did break the article up into paragraphs for easier reading online.
-----------------------------------------------------
From the Weekly Arizona Miner Oct. 19, 1877
The Golden Mirage
from the Territorial (Nev) Enterprise
Yesterday Chas. Tozer called upon us and in ten minutes told us that during the early summer he was in Arizona; named several mines in that Territory which he believes are to become famous in the near future, and a dozen more of less extent which are comfortable for the owners. He could stay but a few minutes, being obliged to hurry his arrangements to take the train for Tuscarora last night.
When he had gone we could not help but think of the life he has lived for years on the coast, which is but typical of thousands of other lives in our midst. When we knew him first - a dozen years ago - he was an old miner then. At that time he was sure that his fortune was secured in a copper mine in Gennessee valley, Plumas county, California. Since then he has been to every mining camp on the coast; every hill and every sagebrush in this great desert basin is familiar to him; he can give dimension of every mine in Nevada; tell the nature of the ores which they contain and in what formation they are found. He knows nothing about fatigue; is at home alike in city and in the wilderness, and expects sometime to secure a bonanza and gather to his bank account a few million.
Every day we see such men; not many who are gifted like Tozer - who is competent to take charge of mines and mills - but men who are following a golden dream all over the coast. Every little while we hear that one of them has grown weary of prospecting and fallen asleep; their eyes fixed on the silver hills beyond, and they did not see the grave which had opened across their trail until they stepped into it and disappeared. Those graves are everywhere amid our hills and mark where strong hearts, at last worn out, cease to beat. But the race seems ever renewed. When one falls by the way another takes up the burden and struggles on toward the beautiful coast which shines ahead, and though, to nine out of ten, it is but a mirage; the fact does not discourage them.
If the history of the lives which have been worn out in this way within the past twenty eight years could be written it would be a study for thoughtful men ever afterward. It has not been a miser’s search for gold, for these men are always generous and always brave - two attributes which misers do not possess. With the majority of them the dream has been not to gain fortunes for the sake of being called rich, but rather with gold to hush the sorrows of those who are dear to them, and to shield others from hardships which they had grown so familiar that to bear them uncomplainingly had become second nature. It was these men who made the skirmish line for the army of civilization which followed them; who beat back the savages; who lit the wilderness with signal lights; who blazed the trails; who marked where the streams could be forded; who measured the deserts and found the springs; who made it possible for cities to be built; for homes to be made and order to be established.
We should never forget these things, and when we meet one of these men we should remember that he has braved more than soldiers have in battle; has endured marches and bivouacs which the bravest soldier would shrink from, and generally his only reward has been the hope which kept him company through the years and the dream of joy which should come when the hardships should all be past.