The Fairfield News And Herald

A Miner's "Close Shave."

[Las Vegas Gazette.]

A miner in the hills near Socorro, New Mexico, made a lucky strike in a wonderful manner lately. Two weeks ago, while tramping over the rocks, the prospector suddenly discovered that his haversack was on fire, caught probably from the condensation of the sun's rays by a prospector's glass which he carried in his kit. Now that haversack contained about six pounds of blasting powder, and our hero dropped the bundle and got out of reach as fast as his legs would carry him. The bundle of traps fell into a crevice in the rocks and the powder soon exploded. The prospector turned mournfully to gather up such of his effects as were uninjured by the explosion, when something in the appearance of the shattered rock struck his eye, and he examined it closely—it was horn silver. The now jubilant miner located a claim at once, which he called the "Close Shave," and in less than a week disposed of one-third interest at $13,000. The name of the "honest son of the pick and shovel" is John Quincy Adams, and he hails from western Ohio. John is well known in Socorro county, and receives the congratulations of his friends in a modest manner. John Adams' "close shave" is a by-word now in the mining camps.