LITTLE 

 JOURNEYS 



coal, copper, silver and gold were largely mined, and 

 the Government either operated the mines direct, or 

 else leased them on a percentage. 



I am told that in America all mining is done by indi- 

 viduals or private companies, and that four-fifths of all 

 mining companies have no mines at all merely sam- 

 ples of ores, blue-prints, photographs and prospects. 

 The genus promoter is a very modern production and 

 is a creation Humboldt never knew ; the " salting ' of 

 mines was out of his province, and mining operations 

 carried on exclusively in sky-scrapers was a combi- 

 nation he never guessed. 



Whether society will ever take a turn backward and 

 the whole people own and control the treasures de- 

 posited by Nature in the earth, is a question I will 

 leave to my Marxian colleagues to determine. 

 As a mine manager Humboldt was hardly a success. 

 He knew the value of ores, utilized various by-prod- 

 ucts that had formerly been thrown away, made 

 plans for the betterment of his workers, and once sent 

 a protest to the King against allowing women and 

 children to be employed under ground. 

 But the cost per ton of his product was out of propor- 

 tion to expenses. While other men mined the ore 

 he wrote a book on "Subterranean Vegetation." The 

 details of business were not to his liking. His own pri- 

 vate financial affairs were now turned over to Knuth, 

 his modest fortune resolved into cash and invested in 

 bonds that brought a low rate of interest. Freedom 

 was his passion to come and go at will was his de- 

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