In the summer of 1916 I decided to get some mining experience. I invited my brother Clare to go with me to the Coeur d'Alenes lead mining district near Wallace, Idaho, looking for a job. There were a lot of big mines operating and we got to work right away, at a mine in Burke, Idaho. The work was mucking, or shovelling ore into cars after it was drilled and blasted. Clare and I were given different jobs in different levels. He was working about the 2000 foot level. One day as he was on his way down, the skip was stopped at 1000 ft. to let off some workmen. The hoist operator forgot that there was one man, Clare, left on the skip to go to the lower level. He therefore as was customary with an empty skip dropped it practically by gravity until he slowed up at the bottom. Clare protested this fast ride.
One of his jobs was to load cars from a chute above which were thousands of tons of blasted ore. At times the chute would become blocked with chunks of ore wedged together. Then a big steel bar was used to pry the rocks loose. Sometimes they came loose with a roar before the fate could be closed. This was at times very dangerous. My job was chiefly shovelling rock into cars. A small tunnel was being driven to search for new ore. After the drilling and blasting was done, our job was to shovel the broken rock into cars. It was a miserable job shovelling the rock from the rough blasted floor. We had some steel plates which we tried to get under the broken rock to make the work easier. There was a constant dripping of water and we had to use oilskin jackets and pants to keep from getting soaked. One day I was given a new helper. He was a big man, over 6' tall and broad. He was not accustomed to hard work and after a while he was laid off. I was kept on which pleased me a good deal.
The boarding house, named the Tiger Hotel, was of course excellent. Two beautiful sisters were our waitresses. Their names were Ethel and Eleanor Clapsaddle. They were big husky girls and I thought very attractive. On a Saturday night one of the boys who had a small car invited us all to go to a dance at Mullen. The car was crowded and Ethel had to sit on my lap. Befor we got to the dance my leg was paralyzed. Her entire weight was on one thigh. I was too polite or modest to say "please shift over to the other knee."
My boss said he was sorry to see me go, when I left for college.