158 MINING. 



known to the mine manager, and call attention to them 

 as briefly as possible ; but as time is short and the subject 

 long, I will stop theorizing and moralizing, or as some of 

 yott may think ''dogmatizing ^ and give you some ex- 

 amples from actual life to illustrate and prove my theo- 

 ries — and the first shall be last and the last first. 



On my return from Arizona in 1880, before railroads 

 were in operation, there were five men and one woman 

 in a stage coach coming north to Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

 It was slow, tiresome business, and sleeping and meals 

 were very uncertain and very uncomfortable. One night 

 after a dark and long ride, with a long time between 

 meals, we came to a changing place for the horses and 

 were informed by the driver that we could get something 

 to eat. Of course we were hungry, and all the men went at 

 once to the stable where the stableman had some bacon, 

 beans, and black coffee and fresh biscuits, which he 

 would let us have at seventy-five cents each, and 

 notwithstanding the surroundings and the appearance 

 of the food and the men who had prepared it, we 

 were all ready for supper, but thought of the woman 

 in the stage who did not want anything ; but some 

 kind-hearted man said he wanted a cup of coffee for 

 her anyway, and (being no chicken) asked what the price 

 of a cup of coffee would be. The proprietor of the food 

 said seventy-five cents, the same as a meal. Upon the man 

 expostulating and saying it was for a poor woman who 

 could eat nothing, this thorough representative of the 

 doctrine of the survival of the fittest said, "I don't sell 

 coffee by the cup, but will tell you where you can get 

 it.", " Why, where ?" asked the man. "In Saint Louis, 

 Missouri," answered this thing, followed by the ques- 

 tion, "what do you think I am here for?" Such an oc- 

 currence in a populated part of the country might have 

 caused a row, but as all the passengers knew, it was ^2^^ 

 up or shut up in such a place as that. They all shut up 



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