, and attempts to work it himself, he is likely to be so
browbeaten that he is finally forced to sell out to some large concern.
There are only a few smelters in or near the State and these are
controlled by large mining companies. Very well; we will suppose a
hypothetical case:

A, being a prospector, finds a copper mine. He says to himself: "Here's
a good property; it ought to make me rich. I won't sell it, I'll hold on
to it and work it myself."

So far, so good.

A starts in to work his mine. He digs therefrom considerable rich ore.
And now a problem presents itself.

He has no concentrator, no smelter of his own. He cannot afford to build
one; therefore it is perfectly obvious that he cannot crush his own ore.
He must, then, send it elsewhere to be smelted, and to do this must sell
his ore to the smelter.

In the meantime a certain big mining company has investigated A's find
and has seen that it is rich. The company desires the property, as it
desires all other rich properties. It offers to buy the mine for a sum
far below its actual value. Naturally, the finder refuses.

But he must smelt his ore. And to smelt it he finds he is compelled to
sell it to a smelter that is controlled by the mining company whose
offer he has refused. He sends his ore to the smelter. Back comes the
quotation for his product, at a price ridiculously low. "That's what
we'll give you," says the company, through its proxy the smelter, "take
it or leave it," or words to that effect.

Now, what can A do? Nothing at all. He must either sell his ore at an
actual loss or sell his mine to the company. Naturally, he does the
latter, and at a figure he finds considerably lower than the first
offer. The large concern has him where it wanted him and it snuffs out
his dreams of wealth and prosperity effectively.

These observations are disinterested. I have never, curiously enough,
heeded the insistent call of the diggings; I have never "washed a pan,"
and my name has never appeared on the share-list of a mine. And this,
too, has been in spite of the fact that often I have been directly in
the paths of the various excitements. I have been always wise enough to
see that the men who made rapid fortunes in gold were not the men who
stampeded head-over-heels to the diggings, but the men who stayed behind
and opened up some kind of business which the gold-seekers would
patronize. These were the reapers of the harvest, and there was little
risk i