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About The Lump City Miner (Lump City, Mont.) 1895-1895 | View This Issue
The Lump City Miner (Lump City, Mont.), 19 Jan. 1895, located at <http://montananewspapers.org/lccn/2014252004/1895-01-19/ed-1/seq-4/>, image provided by MONTANA NEWSPAPERS, Montana Historical Society, Helena, Montana.
THE LUMP CITY MINER: SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 1895. GOOSE -NESTED ()UT. \Dan DeQuint , \ Writes an Interesting Article which will be Appreciated by all Old Montana Miners. The above is a phrase which will be understood by all old Montana placer miners. In the wild and rollicking days of ealifornia, when the first eager and [way tribes of gold hunters epread them- selves abroad through all the canyons, gulches, ravines and streams of the west- ern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains many words and phrases were 'coined to tersely express various operations con- nected with the now business of placer mining and the peculiar phases of life itt the mountains and the mines. Although not a few of the newly coined terüns may have smacked of slang, yet they were so expressive, and their fitness was so obvi- ous, that they e ere instantly adopted, and at once spreading through all the camps, became a part of the vocabulary of the California placer miner. Among thee was a phrase, now seldom heard-- that heading this article- which in two words expresses a great dent. \ Goose -nested out \ has a world of mean- ing when once understood. Though in- vented to express a certain and by no means uncommon predicament in pros- pecting, this phrase is equally applicable to every occupation in which the human animal engages. To explain it we wii4 say that a prospector while exploring the mountain wilds in search of gold comes upon a likely -looking ravine. Choosing a spot on a little bar or flat he begins sinking a small shaft or prospect hole. He does not know the depth to the bedrock, but probably concludes from the appearance e the surround- ings that it may be found by sinking O or 8 feet. ''Naturally he desires to at- tain this depth at the cost of as little la- bor as possible. In starting his little shaft, therefore he makes it neither very long nor wide. He is in haste to reach the bedrock and makes no allowance for obstacles. At a depth of 3 or 4 feet probably boulders begin to come in. He is able to take out those in the bottom of the shaft and perhaps all that show in the sided, but he only goes down a foot or two before more boulders appear. One or two of these are so big that he cannot get them out without beginning anew and greatly enlarging his shaft. This he does not like to do, so he trusts to luck and leaves the noses of the land - dors stieking ()ut into the edge of the little shaft. He goes on sinking the nar- rowed bole in hope of being able to carry it down to bedrock. Presently a big boulder sticks its nose in ae the end of the little shaft; then others come in at the sides, and as the prospector contin- ues to sink in the contracted hole it at last becomes 80 small that he can no longer use the pick or shovel. If he has with him a bar he prods loose the dirt in the bottom and raking it out with hie bands still hopes he may be able to bare a few square inches of bedrock. Finally he cannot get down another inch in this way. The prospect hole hfre come to a point -is a perfect funnel in erhape. Then the prospector crawls up from the hole and out upon the bank. There he stands a chop fallen and de- feated man. He has goose -nested him- self out. All that now remains for our prospec- tor to do is either to start anew and make his shaft a fair working size (so large that all boulders encountered may be properly (heliostat of) or shoulder his tools and leave. As may ‚seedy be imag- ined, the tired prospector who finds him- self thus ousted from his hole is very likely to adopt the latter alternative. In taking a iiarting look at the goose - nest he has I'' il» (4 hie venture, he per - hope o. folds himself in some degree by promising to return some day and so en- large his shaft as to permit of it being carried (I( (win to any depth required in spite (if all obstacles, but it is always a good two to one bet that he never comes back. There are hundreds of instances of men in the early days of California go- ing into such abandoned peoepeot holes and making wonderfully rich \finde.\ Not unfrequently the apex of the goose - neat lire; been found to have been to within n foot or two of bedrock, all alive and sparkling with gold. Although owing to the decadence of placer mining and prospecting in Cali- fornia -the phrase \goose•nest. ,I out\ is now seldom heard among mIlier•i. the predicament indicated by th, ai ht 'li exists, anil in every kind sued by man It is not alone in pro.. pecting for plamer g' li that men goose nest th em Fed VPS '''ut'ROO mn around LP every ilay wh. , have a° managed their buainems that if has oompletelroueted them. In hen of the boulders which came in and narrowed down the shaft qt the old California prospector, we lute° in other kinds of business debte closing in on this side anil that till at last no el- bow room is left; matters come to a to cus•and the man is goose -nested out. Had the man started out in proper shape and kept the boulders of debt frein crowding in on him from the beginning - clearing them out of the way as fast as they appeared -he would alwie)s have enjoyed freedom of action anil could have gone on with his business to the end of his days. In a thousand wio s we are \goose nested out,\ no matter what our business unless we are very alert and methodical. Whenever the business runs the man and not the man the business, the man is sure sooner or later t() find himself goose -nested out. When a boy in Ohio, I once knew a man who was goose -nested off a little farm of '20 acres in a curious way. The man woe of the \white trash\ stripe, from \oleTirginia sah.\ He had seven- teen children and about as many dogs. All he hail with which to cultivate his little farm was one old horse and a shov- el plow. About the time he began to \wuck\ his land, the briars began to \wiick\ him. Starting from the cornes of the surrounding fence the blackberry bushes marched boldly out into the field after him. In that moist region (60 miles south of Lake Eriej weeds and briars could almost be seen to grow. The man's shovel plow would not touch the bushes and he was too lazy to go at them with a grubbing hoe. The result was that on all sides the briars were marching out toward the centre of the little farm; year by year the cultivated area of land grew smaller, and in about tive years the briars closed in upon the man and his old horse. He was goose - nested out, sold for what he could get and meandered back in direction of \ole Virginia\ to starve on . a less prolific soil. Even in small matters we not Unfre- quently allow ourselves to be goose - nested out rather than make an effort tb clear away encroaching rubbish. As I write these lines I am obliged tke smile on looking about me to find that I am myself at this very moment pretty effec- tually goose -nested eut. My table has gradually become so piled with books. magazines, boxes of tobacco, pipes, pa- per, pone, pencils, bottles of ink, muci- lage, epeciniens of ore and other trash, that so little clear space is left in a hich to write that I am actually cramped for want of elbow room. Worse than this, I am goose -nested out of my working - room. Books have crawled down from the shelves and are piled on the floor; every chair is piled a yard high with newspapers, magazines, maps, Govern- ment bulletins and all manner of pro- miscuous mental fodder. Among these stacks of literary lumber run a few nar- row alleys, but these, too, are gradually closing up -I am feet being goose -nest- ed out. How often do we see editorial rooms that are on the point of ousting their oc- cupants? Out they would go but for the fact that about once in six months the average editor has come upon him a tit of desperation at seeing himself being gradually closed in upon and in danger of suffocation, when he , turns to and pitches to the \devil\ all in sight, good, bad and indifferent. In some houses I know whole families are to -day on the point of being goose - nested out by their collections of brio -a - brae. Elbow -room ia getting very nar- row with them and soon must come either a flitting or a grand convulsion, with a vomiting forth of the beauties of art and the wonders of nature. In conclusion we may say, let a man's business be what it may, he must at the very start make his shaft a oomfortable working size; then he must always all sides square and trim, or he will pre» ently become aware of alumina! closing in whirh will go on until he at last finds himself in the small end of the funnel and utterly helpless- regularly \goose - nested out.\ -Dan DeQuille. How Mines are Formed. The prooess by which nature forms her silver mines is an interesting study and a number of ecientiste are specu lilting upon this geological desideratum. Once in n while we rir' itenbee a tu' ri' well written article on the au hj,,t, and the following is found among them. It is good reading for some 'Id prospectors who think they are , wang to live nevezi or eight, generations: '•It mumt be remembered that the .•arth's crust is full of water, %quell per e' ‚'r u where through the rovka, I waking solutions of the elements ob boned frui them These chernioal ti k lte up small partii•les of the precious metal w hieh they find hero anil \lhe Leadville of •Montana.\ LUMP CITY Townsite, Development and Mining Co. A. B. KEITH, President, 4 O. C. DALLAS, Vice -President, C. E. GABLE, Sec'y and Treas. • Lots in Lump City for sale on easy terms. Lump City is the only town in the famous Lump Gulch Mining District; is centrally loca- ted and rapidly building. No agents employed. For further information call on or address C. E. Gable Man- ager, Lump City, Montana. The Greatest Silver Camp on Earth. there Sometimes the solutions in ivies tien are hot, the water having got so far down as to be set boiling by the internal heat of the globe. Then they rush up- ward, picking up the bite of metal as they go. Naturally, heat ea/3We the per- formance of this operation. \Now and then . the streams thus formed, perpetually flowing hither and thither below the ground, pass through cracks or cavities in the rocks. where they deposit their loads of silver per- haps thousands of years until the fis- sure or . , pocket is filled up. Crannies permeating the stony mass in every di- rection may become tilled with the pre- cious metal, or occasionally a chamber may be stored full of it, as if a million hands were fetching the treasure from all sides and hiding away a future mine for nome lucky prospector to discover in another age. Don't Forget the Miner's Union Ball. Extensive preparat ions are being made by the members of the Miner's union for their 1st grand ball to be held by them at their new hall in Lump City on Jan. 22nd. The hall is a new, large, commo- dious building, with a good, snexith flOor, which will be waxed like an east- ern dancing academy, and everything' possible done to make the affair a rm. , - COHN This hall will be prettily trimmed and ornamented in Gothic faslii(in and the best, of music has been empl(iyed - Professor Piti,iden'e entire orchestra from Helena, eimsimting of eight pieeem, hav- ing been engaged. The miners (if Lump gulch are the backbone of our prosperity anil it is to be hoped that everybody will turn out, and help make( the occasion one of gen- uine pleasure and enjoyment and give the Isle a great (de On the east extension of the Little Nell a new uh' aft house hue been notuple- ted end other preparations maile for eon tinning mining iiperationm on a more i.x- tensive scale. This property is under bond by 1,areon, Welch and l-lnediker, and is looked upon FIA a vory valuable property. With the, ir e pr i ve d facilities for operating there, as now eompleted, we poet to hear go' «I reporte in gliort, time THE Lump City -lotei Mrs. MAKI Meli,ACHERN, PROTIIIETIIXAM. The Lump City Hotel is the Pioneer Hotel of Lump City. Visitors to the Mines in Lump Gulch and the surrounding countty are hereby informed that they can be accommodated with first class meals, at all hours. The patronage of the traveling public is respectfull solicited. Mrs. MARY MCE1CHERN, Proprietrc,. The LUMP CITY MINER. $2.$60 Per Annum, The Lump City MINER is the on- ly paper and rep- resentative organ of the now fa- mous LUMP GULCH Mining District, a district which is aston- ishing the miner- alogical world. THE MINER is published in the very heart of this bonanza re- gi o n, and will each week con- tain faithful re- ports from the mines, concern- ing their develop- ment and output, and all other news of an inter- esting character. We respectfully so- licit your patronage, WILIAAMS RT, SONS, Publishers. Lump City, Montana. WO»
