Luxurious in the metropolis lives a man with everything his whim or fancy can desire, if only the purchasing power of money can obtain it. Riches are his, gained from the mines, and fair fortune smiles upon his happy life. On the western plains is a human skull, bleached, and white in the sun; ghastly in the pale light of the moon; a toad has made his refuge in it secure in the silence of the desert, and it is nothing; the man lost his all, and his life was a sacrifice to fortune, he sought for mines and had no reward. These are the extremes, the prize to one, the penalty to the other. Who goes a searching after mines? The spirit of adventure and speculation stirs always in the human soul, desire, triumph and achievement ; or desire, hardships and failure perhaps death ; one is the penalty, the other the reward. Is it worth while? Perhaps, at any rate men will always take the risk, that is some men; and when an excited prospector presents himself before those who might take a chance with him in the property he has found, or thinks he has found, is it a great thing that one should risk a little money to test a property, which may have been obtained after years of hardship, exposure and danger. My belief is that where a miner who has done honest work, has really searched and prospected, and can show a record which would entitle him to confidence, and presents himself to people with capital, saying that at last he has found a prize, then his story should have ready listeners, and it ought not to be so hard for him to secure the money to prove up what he has found. To take a chance at first hands with those who prospect for mines is a most attractive form of speculation, that is, where the prospector has succeeded in finding something which promises to develop values. To grub stake a prospector, meaning to give him the supplies which will permit of explorations to find mineral deposits, is playing simply on a chance, and may or may not be good business ; but where the prospector has found a mine it is a very different proposition, and one might well take the risk.

To tell of great individual fortunes which have been made at mining is not of interest to our subject, we are treating of that which an investor could do and what he should do in the spirit of adventure and speculation, to risk a little for gains in volume. Only one must risk with judgment, but a risk one must take if one would share in the hidden wealth of mining regions.

In considering what some have gained, the copper deposits of Michigan may have a prominent place in one's thoughts, for there are the accounts of how hunters and adventurers, years ago, brought back stories of great exposure of pure copper; some said mountains of pure metal exposed in the forest lands of the little known northern peninsula of Michigan. Occasionally people gave heed to these stories, most held them in derision, but those who gave heed sent and secured the' properties. Then came the struggle to obtain funds and it is said that stock in the great Calumet and Hecla mine went begging for purchasers at but a fraction of its par. It was a struggle of some years, but in the end those who had ventured were triumphant ; and rumor, on well founded information, has it, that some of those who were first to take the risk have had a competence for themselves and for their children out of small amounts invested in Michigan. Surely a good compensation for the risk. Not only the Calumet and Hecla but other great mines were developed. Then when some had secured the prizes a speculation developed; great was Michigan, copper was reported to be everywhere, and copper companies, exploration syndicates and mining enterprises sprang up in numbers; people bought, and speculation ran a turbulent course ; but the cream had been secured, most of the latter propositions had no value and they who went a trailing after where others had been first, lost money, and some were ruined.