Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1882 — How They Salt a Claim. [ARTICLE]

How They Salt a Claim.

“I wish you would explain to me all about this salting of claims that I hear so much about,” said a meek-eyed tenderfoot to a grizzly old miner who was panning about six ounces of pulverized quartz. “I don’t see what they want to salt a claim for, and I don’t understand how they do it” “Well, you see, a hot season like this they have to salt a claim lots of times to keep it A -fresh claim is good enough for a fresh tenderfoot, but oldtimers won’t look at anything but a Sickled claim. You know what quartz i, probably?” “Well, every claim has quartz. Some more or less. You find out how many quartz there are, and then put in so many pounds of salt to the quart Wild cat claims require more salt, because the wild oat spoils quicker than anything else. “Sometimes you catch a sucker, too, and you have to put him in brine pretty plenty or you will lose him. That’s one reason why they salt a claim. “Then, again, you often grub stake a man—” “But what is a grub stake?” “Well, a grub stake is a stake that the boys hang their grub on so they can carry it Lots of mining men have been knocked cold by a blow from a grub stake. “What I wanted to say, though, was this: You will probably at first strike free-milling poverty, with indications of something else. Then you will no doubt sink till you strike bedrock, or a true fissure gopher hole, with traces of disappointment “That’s the time to put in your salt You can shoot it into tue shaft with a double-barreled shot-gyn, or wet it and apply it with a whitewash brush. If people turn up their noses at your claim then, and say it is a snide, and that they think there is something rotten in Denmark, you can tell them that they are clear off, and that you have salted your claim and that you know it is all right” The last seen of the tenderfoot bo was buying a double-barreled, shot-gun and ten pounds of rock salt There's no doubt but a mining camp is the place to send a young man who wants to acquire knowledge and fill his system full of information that will be useful to him so long as he lives.— Bill Nye. Eugene Kimball, billiard player., died at Rochester. *