Project Gutenberg's The Boy With the U.S. Miners, by Francis Rolt-Wheeler

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Boy With the U.S. Miners

Author: Francis Rolt-Wheeler

Release Date: May 10, 2010 [EBook #32322]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY WITH THE U.S. MINERS ***

Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

[Illustration: cover of The Boy With the U. S. Miners]

[Illustration: NOT DEMONS, BUT SAVIORS.

Mine rescue crew, equipped with oxygen-breathing apparatus, exploring
mine after a disaster.

_Courtesy of U. S. Bureau of Mines._]

U. S. SERVICE SERIES.

THE BOY WITH
THE U. S. MINERS

BY

FRANCIS ROLT-WHEELER

With Thirty-six Illustrations

[Illustration]

BOSTON
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.

Copyright, 1922,
BY LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.

All Rights Reserved

THE BOY WITH THE U. S. MINERS

PRINTED IN U. S. A.

BERWICK & SMITH CO.,
NORWOOD PRESS,
NORWOOD MASS.

PREFACE

No walk of life is more wild and adventurous than that of the questing
miner, whom neither Arctic cold nor tropic heat can bar in his mad
race for the buried treasures of the Earth; no profession is more
hazardous than that of the working miner, whose every step underground
is full of peril.

Wealth is not all. The thrill of the miner's life lies not in the
making of millions. It lies in the ruggedness of his manhood, in the
vigor of his partnerships, in the roaring ways of the mining camps,
and the life of open spaces.

Heroism and daring mark the miner. From the waterless deserts of
California to the shores of the Arctic Ocean, from the loftiest peaks
of the snow-capped Sierras to the stifling depths of the Carson Sink,
the prospector has prowled. Lonely and forgotten, his discoveries have
brought great states into being; hungry and poor, he has opened vaults
of riches thousandfold vaster than the treasuries of kings.

To give a glimpse of the lives of such men, to reveal the amazing
wealth which the Earth yields to those who are willing to dare, and to
set forth what an incalculable debt of gratitude the United States
owes to