STEEP TRAILS 



work on with comparative steadiness, and 

 remain rational. 



But in the case of the Nevada miner, he 

 too often spent himself in years of weary search 

 without gaining a dollar, traveling hundreds 

 of miles from mountain to mountain, burdened 

 with wasting hopes of discovering some hidden 

 vein worth millions, enduring hardships of 

 the most destructive kind, driving innumer- 

 able tunnels into the hillsides, while his as- 

 sayed specimens again and again proved 

 worthless. Perhaps one in a hundred of these 

 brave prospectors would ''strike it rich," while 

 ninety-nine died alone in the mountains or 

 sank out of sight in the corners of saloons, in 

 a haze of whiskey and tobacco smoke. 



The healthful ministry of wealth is blessed; 

 and surely it is a fine thing that so many are 

 eager to find the gold and silver that he hid 

 in the veins of the mountains. But in the 

 search the seekers too often become insane, 

 and strike about blindly in the dark hke rav- 

 ing madmen. Seven hundred and fifty tons 

 of ore from the original Eberhardt mine on 

 Treasure Hill yielded a million and a half dol- 

 lars, the whole of this immense sum having 

 been obtained within two hundred and fifty 

 feet of the surface, the greater portion within 

 one hundred and forty feet. Other ore-masses 



200 



