As to the mine manager, he should be a miner, surveyor, metallurgist, assayer, bookkeeper and half-dozen other things rolled into one, and that one an honest man. Very low grade ore would probably pay in the hands of such a paragon of perfection—but he must be sought for long and diligently, and even then he may not be found.
New processes are to be shunned until they have proved their worth and ceased to be new. No sooner is a mine floated than all sorts of knaves and fools appear on the scene, with new and wonderful appliances for saving 99.9 per cent. of all the value in the ore. Be rude to them. Drive them away with sticks and stones if necessary, but as you value your salvation do not hearken to them. Let some one else do the experimenting; when you know a process is good, the time will have come to spend money on it. There are at the present moment thousands of tons of costly machinery rusting in lonely Rocky Mountain canyons that were in their day "novelties," warranted to save all the values in the ore, while the unfortunate shareholders, whose misspent money freighted these things to their final resting place, are now, perchance, "touching" the belated Chicago or New York pedestrians for a nickel.
The only real guide to the economic value of an ore is the treatment of a large bulk of it in the mill.
Plenty of ore should be kept blocked out ahead of the workings. The more ore in sight the better for the future of the mine.
Lastly, remember that thieving sometimes takes place on rather a large scale, and be on the watch to detect it.
But there is a bright side to mining as well as a dark, and those fortunate men who paid 3, 5 or 8 cents for the stock of a mine that now sells for $7 can see it quite plainly; and there are many such. Mining is not a gamble as some would have the world believe, but a legitimate occupation, demanding great nerve and skill, and sometimes great patience, but not infrequently rewarding the possessors of these admirable attributes by wealth almost inexhaustible.
CHAPTER IX.
MEDICAL HINTS.
Miners as a rule are a healthy, hardy lot of men, but nevertheless they are occasionally taken ill, and there is very seldom a doctor near at hand. Moreover, by the very nature of their work they are particularly liable to accidents.
The so-called miner's consumption is caused by want of fresh air. The miner passes most of his life in places where there is a great deficiency of oxygen. Deep down in the mine the air is usually very bad, being full of smoke and damp, and the hut in which he sleeps is too often overcrowded, while the places in which he seeks his amusement, should he live in a mining camp, are usually little better. The remedy for this state of affairs is to get all the fresh air possible, then consumption is not to be feared.
Should poison have been swallowed, an emetic ought to be given as quickly as possible. Mustard, or salt and warm water, are tolerably efficacious, but a dose of 60 grains of ipecac is more effectual. While the emetic is acting, the patient should drink freely of warm water or warm milk.