Prospector

“ The master salesman does not regard himself as merely a "prospectee," but as a prospector. He thinks of "prospecting" as the gold miner uses the word to describe his activities when he searches for valuable mineral deposits. "Prospects" do not just "happen" in the selling process of achieving success. They do not result from circumstances merely, but must be accumulated by the activity of the salesman. ”

“ Of the great army of prospectors constantly seeking to unearth the vast treasure hidden in the rocky breast of the mountain ranges of the West, few attain a realization of the hopes which lead them onward, and secure the wealth for which they so persistently toil. The instances are very rare in which the prospector has reaped an adequate reward for his discoveries. ”

“ The man who furnishes a grub stake shares half and half with the prospector he equips.
No matter how little they have, prospectors will share with anyone who comes their way. Their hospitality is genuine, though perforce limited. They invite you first, and learn who you are and what your business may be later.
One day I was picking my way down the bogs and marshes of Forest Cañon. All at once it narrowed, boxing up between high walls. To go on I had either to climb the walls or back-track for some distance. I elected to climb. After the struggle up the face of the rock I sat down to rest. ”

“ He said no word, but he gave me one look that seemed to read every thought within me, a glance of complete and utter scorn. Some old prospector he was, a man who had spent his life trudging over the barren hillsides, looking for new mines, disappointed a thousand times, seeking fortune and never finding it. Others who followed him had prospered by his discoveries, had found the riches that he could not keep; for the man who prospects is seldom the man who gathers wealth. ”

“ The ideal prospector is born, not made. He may be versed in geology and mineralogy and excel with the blow-pipe, but unless he has the love of wild places in his bones he will never fulfil his purpose. ”

“ FIG. 96.—A PROSPECTOR IN THE DESERT The prospector needs little capital except health and strength, but he must be willing to lead a rough life. He will be more likely to succeed if he knows something about the different kinds of minerals and rocks, and is able to distinguish the valuable ones from those which are of little or no worth.
The prospector may have a pack-horse and a second horse to ride, or he may go afoot with merely two burros to carry blankets, provisions, and tools. A burro costs little and will live upon almost anything. The variety of food that can be carried is not large ”

“ A man who goes out in search of a mine is called a "prospector." The best prospector is a man who has learned to keep his eyes open and to recognize the signs of gold and silver and other metals. A faithful friend goes with him, a donkey or mule which carries his bacon and beans, blankets, saucepan, and a few tools, such as a pan, pick, shovel, hammer, and axe. Sometimes the prospector also takes with him a magnifying glass and a little acid to test specimens, but usually he trusts to his eyes alone. ”

“ The learner, if he be far afield and without appliances of any kind, can only guess his prospect. An old prospector will judge from six ounces of stuff within a few pennyweights what will be the yield of a ton. I have seen many a good prospect broken with the head of a pick and panned in a shovel, but for reef prospecting you should have a pestle and mortar. The handiest for travelling is a mortar made from a mercury bottle cut in half, and a not too heavy wrought iron pestle with a hardened face. To be particular you require a fine screen in order to get your stuff to regulated fineness. ”

“ My endeavour has been to supply practical and useful information in language as free from technicalities as possible, so as to adapt it to the ordinary miner, mill operator and prospector, many of whom have had no scientific training. Some of the expedients are original devices educed by what we are told is the mother of inventions; others are hints given by practical old prospectors who had met with difficulties which would be the despair of a man brought up within reach of forge, foundry, machine shop, or tradesmen generally. ”

“ The road that leads to fame;
The way is strewn with skeletons
Of those who have grown lame
And have fallen by the wayside.
The world will pass you by,
Nor pause to read your manuscript
Till you go off and die.
[104] CHAPTER XII. IN COLORADO—THE PROSPECTOR LABORED AND LOOKED AWAY TO THE MOUNTAINS.
THE life of a prospector is one fraught with hardships and privations and, in locations infested by Indians, often one of peril. But in his search for the precious metals, the hardy prospector gives but little thought to personal danger. ”

“ There's no competition and cuttin' throats in our business, nor we don't rob the widders and orphans. A prospector is defined as a semi-human being with a low forehead but a high sense of honor, a stummick that shies at salads, but a heart that's full of grit. They don't never lay down, and the very beauty of the business is that you never know when you're due. Some day a guy comes along: 'I hit her over yonder, bo,' says he, whereupon you insert yourself into a pack-strap, pound the trail, and the next you know you're a millionaire or two. ”

“ We are studying the ways to assure your success. If your prospects depended on mere happenings, they would be highly uncertain; because what you hope and expect may occur, may never take place in fact. The master salesman does not depend on such prospects. He makes his own luck to a very large extent by skillful prospecting; as the trained prospector for gold tremendously increases his chances of discovering a rich lode by thoroughly and intelligently investigating a mining region. ”

“ A few simple tools and a not very deep knowledge of assaying, with an observant eye and a brain quick to deduce inferences from what that eye has seen, are the most valuable assets of a prospector. In time he will gain experience, and experience will teach him much that he could not learn in any college nor from any book. Each mining district differs from every other, and it has been found that certain rules which hold good in one region, and guide the seeker after wealth to the hidden treasure that has been stored up for eons of time, do not apply in another region. ”

“ Although the scope of this work does not include the very complex problem involved in the working of a great mine, prospecting and the simpler mining operations are so intimately connected that it would not be desirable to make mention of the one and ignore the other, because the prospector must perforce become a miner as soon as he discovers mineral, even though his operations should not go beyond a shallow trial shaft. ”

“ Then you will not discourage those honest differences of opinion that enlighten one's own ideas.
Rid your face of sharpness if you would be a good prospector for your best chances to succeed. Avoid "the cutting edge" in your voice and manner when you make inquiries about opportunities you seek. You are likely to be most effective in prospecting if you cultivate an easy attitude of friendliness. The master salesman does not set his jaw when prospecting. He uses curved, instead of straight line gestures to supplement his words. ”

“ I do not wish to institute comparisons, but it is often said that a prospector, or pioneer, who explores with the hope of gain to himself, cannot be deserving in an equal degree of the credit due to those who have risked their lives in the cause of science. ”

“ Therefore the prospector parts with his mine as soon as he can find a purchaser, usually an agent, who sells at a profit to some company, which in its turn sells at a greater profit to the British or Australian public. ”

“ The Goddess of Excelsior
When the two isolated mining companies encamped on Sycamore Creek discovered on the same day the great "Excelsior Lead," they met around a neutral camp fire with that grave and almost troubled demeanor which distinguished the successful prospector in those days. Perhaps the term "prospectors" could hardly be used for men who had labored patiently and light-heartedly in the one spot for over three years to gain a daily yield from the soil which gave them barely the necessaries of life. ”

“ The prospector is not usually a business man; hence in dealing with business men who, like Hamlet, are "indifferent honest," he frequently comes to grief through not having a copy of his correspondence. ”

“ While these simple surveying problems are easily solved, the prospector should never forget that mine surveying requires skill, experience and accuracy. He will do well always to call in the service of a mining engineer should his "prospect" ever become a full-fledged mine, as little errors of direction are particularly costly mistakes when they occur underground. ”

“ The prospector no longer deems it necessary to seek entirely new territory in which to prosecute his search for the precious metal. He has learned that good results are obtained on ground many times prospected. ”

“ We had to make a detour [Page 59] by way of their dwelling, a canvas huis similar to friend Abraham’s, but decidedly cleaner, and where I slept cosily on the corn-sacks in the waggon; and three days after leaving the dorp I came up to the prospecting party, in very wild country, at a place called Davedas. I heard them blasting long before I reached them, and extending to them the prospector’s etiquette learnt in an older country, I did not go near their shaft, but sent one of the drivers to say that I should like one of the “baases” to come over to my waggon. ”

“ At the outset comprehend that no other step in the selling process involves so much hard work as you will need to do in order to find all your possible chances of success and to make the most of them. It is necessary that you look intelligently, most earnestly, and constantly. You must expect to spend a great deal of time and energy in your quest for prospects. So it is essential to your success as a prospector that the investigation of your field of opportunity be carefully planned in order to make the most effective use of the time you spend prospecting. ”

“ By no effort of his own is he able to increase or decrease the fixed quantity and quality of the golden chances about him. He can only increase his likelihood of discovering gold. Even the most intelligent, skillful prospecting will not make a miner's success certain.
You, the salesman prospector for opportunities to succeed, are not so limited. There are particular things you can do, and particular ways of doing them, that will assure your finding chances to make sales of the best that is in you. ”

“ Twice a few of the Siwash, who come down the rivers with the spring, awoke when the moon was in the sky, and heard a trampling of horses high up amidst the pines that shut in a lonely valley, and once a solitary prospector, camping close beneath the snow, rose drowsily beside his fire, and wondered whether he was dreaming as he saw a line of mounted men with rifles flit by and vanish beyond a black hill shoulder. ”

“ For in the unsettled parts of the country the traveler must even yet rely to some extent upon the fish and game he may be able to secure, and every old prospector becomes a trained hunter and camper. Knowing how to bake bread is sometimes more valuable than much mathematics; ability to build a rough boat is often the one hope of salvation. ”

“ And, above Two Prong, strung along the whole length of its hundred miles of mountain windings, were the isolated cabins of trappers, and old-time prospectors who may be found in the hills about the head- waters of any placer creek, hammering and chipping their lives away in vain search for that will-o'-the-wisp of the prospector's dreams—the mother lode.
Possibly twenty white men, all told, and a band of half-starved Indians, who dwelt near the head waters, comprised the population of Cameron Creek—and these were they who enjoyed, and encouraged the disrepute into which the valley had fallen. ”

“ The amateur prospectors are recruited, first of all, from the ranks of those who have everything to gain and little to lose—the rolling stones, the lovers of pure adventure, the gamblers, the fellows 111with the grub-stake and a thirst for sudden wealth. ”

“ They grew morose, and finally both blew up their holdings to conceal their riches and headed back along the Divide to meet, face to face, the partner they had deserted.
Prospectors are philosophers, without hurry or worry. They meet each situation as it arises calmly, and let to-morrow take care of its own. ”

“ You cannot afford to loaf on this preliminary job.
Prospect Continually Act Quickly
Every moment you are awake should be used in prospecting; unless it is required for some other part of the process of assuring your success. There is no keener pleasure than the eager, continual search of a miner for gold and of a master salesman for possible big buyers. It is necessary that you feel their thrilling zest for discovery; that you develop their unflagging energy ”

“ On the fourth day after swallowing the capsule the prospect will not go home from his job. Or a woman, possibly marketing or returning from an afternoon with friends, will not return home to cook dinner. The prospect, his consciousness eager for change will drift until spotted by one of us. The floating agent is efficient, and alert. The prospect taken under the wing of the agent . ”

“ As already has been emphasized, the object of the good salesman when prospecting is to discover the lacks of men who might benefit from the things he has to sell. If you are looking for your prospects with that service purpose, you have taken a long preparatory step in the process of selling your qualifications. Find the employer who needs your best ability, and your success will be assured the moment you get into his mind the true idea that you are the man he has been looking for. ”