The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 14, 1897, Page 25

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, FEBRfiARY 14, 1897 25 TREASURE AMID THE CLOUDS . Delving for Gold in Mines Two Miles Above the Level of the Sea Nevada Mountains, in a region of #3 deep canyons and mighty cliffs, where snow and ice reign almost perpetu- Iy, occurs a group of mines which are without doubt the highest in the United States; and ly in North America. ced w e Homer t, which in the region proba de about the head of Mill and Lake canyons. One of the culminating peaks of the dis- trict is Mount Scowdan, rising to an ele- vation of 12,5 mountain is 00 feet above th This nclosed hetwe +wo canyons south of the little town of Landy, presenting a bold front which rises r 4000 feet above The bold clitfs are hiterally seamed with gold-bear- jug quartz veins even 1o its very summit. se arly The May Lundy is the most noted of the mauy mines on this mountain, having been worked for years with the prodauc- tion of a large amountof gold bullio Let us glance for w moments at the scenery of this wild spot and the condi- | tions under which mining is carried on almost in the very clo tle to the west of body of water desert d with The region lies but Mono- Laké—that s 6000 fe ands and ters-so alk stroy | most or; On the west is | the bold orra Nevada, ris- ing 6000 feet h hidden e deep- col feeding most Leevining | ng the most n which symmetri- raine as we ascend the open | s'ope of desert cour f he lake | Mill Creek Canyon is entered. We are | in by towerng walls, ng higher farther up precipitous that every s beard the deaf roar of the ice which too of fin some il cabin in its path and bears it On a July morn very different. ever, the scene rocky walls stand | he bottom thro N the eastern slope of the Sierra | his cabin and I i so conveniently arranged that he can sit in his door, smoke his pipe and watch the slowly circling mill grind out the precions particles. When the rock s all ground a few more days’ work with 4 of the cable and he 1s prepared for His cabin is in the center . which is a little wider here, bes do not reach it. Thus vears perfectly contented the aid of of and the aval ne passes th and hapyy. Oa the same side of Mill Creek Canyon and in the great granite wall east of the mouth of Lake Canyon lives another of these hermits. His home is situated very dgifferently, however, being berched o nigh in tbe crags that a field-glass is necessary to bring it into vision. The cabin appears as a tiny speck in a little rece:s nearly 3000 feet above the town. Puffs of smoke and echoing reports are occasionally heard as this lone miner fol- lows up a pocket-seam, whence he obtains nuggets varrying from tweaty to several hundred doilarsin value. But what about the May Lundy mine the most noted one of the district? It is not in sight from the town, but is situated two miles away on the face of Mount »wdan, opposite Lake Canyon and 3000 feet above the town. The Jatter canyonen- ters Mill Creek Canyon opposite Lundy, but with a scarp 1000 feet high. Lake Canyon is also bounded by precipitous walls 2000 to 3000 feet high, and contains several lakelets, originally very beautiful, but now, alas, marred and partly filled with slickens from the stamp of the May Lundy mine. To gain the mouth of this canyon asteep and zigzaz traisleadsupt e side of Mill Creek Canyon, and then a gen- tle grade brines us to its head, near which the mill is situated. One of the lakes lies higher still and the stream whicn flows from it is used to run the mill. The alti- tude here is 9600 feet and snowbanks lie scattered around even in July. Although the snow drifts here in the winter so as to almost cover the trees the mill is kept running the greater part of the time. A wire cable 2500 feet long stretches upward toward the higher cliffs of Mount Scowdan until it is lost to sight, its presence being marked by the little buckets which come slowly down loaded with ore, and return ither empty or filled with the provisions ry to keep a large number of men cond at an elevation of The climb from the nd labe mill to the mine is ious, as the lightness of the v noticeable. The habita- n, as well as the supe are gathered in a little the m s office, MAY LUNDY MILL AND MOUNT SCOWDAN. parison with the genial air outside. The {cally, runs over the very highest point perpetual dripping of the water forms|and has been worked to some ex- masses of ice near the mouths of the tun- | tent. nels, which remain the year around. ¥ The view is unsurpassed. The rolling, tering one of the lower tunnels a bright | plateau-like summits of the mountains morning in July an overcoat is needed by | about us have been gashed deeply by the one not used to the chiily air. The veins | canyons, so deeply in fact that from our dip into the mountain and appear to be | poiat of view we cannot begin to see their inexhaustible. Although they are very | bottoms. Away to the southwest are stiil in the mountain near the openings of the ma nels. The immediate sur- ther cheerless, nothing bare rock and snowdrifts, for at this creat altitude the snow stays on in pro- tected spots all summer. A great bank of lies r removed the timber wit e his deep burr tings snow between the tunnel from | rich the cost of working has been so great that the mine nas bad its ups and downs ike most others. After climbing up through the old work- ings and stoves. we at last emerge far above on the cl.ffs overiooking the camp. From this point we still climb upward, but in the oven air, and at last, reaching the top of the precipitous portion of the | snowfields greet the eyes, We know, ho | higher peaks, among which are Mounts | Dana, Conness, Warren and Gibbs. The beautiful lakes, with their green meadows | and piny forests, are mainly out of sight because of the sharpness of the canyons, and nothing bat bare rock and immen; ever, that e canyon is dotted with glacial lakes and that beautiful cascades UP AND HUSTLE. Here and | 1 d by the reddish ¢ h tints characteristic of mineral se primeval beauty is gone e trees have been felled, the parily filled up with sickens from artz mills, cliffs alone remain beyond the power of | man to seriously mar. | Above the town on the left is the stri granite front of ant Scowdan, that great mass of rock which hides so many | millions of shininggold, and in the search for which the beautiful valleys have been despoiled. The morthern face of the mountain bordering Mill Creek has been nearly all located by mining claim These are reached by lonz and steep z trails over the bowlder siope at the base of the mountain proper. Over these | sweep the winter avalanches, oiten carry- ing away rocks, trees and every vestige of | the trails, The veins outcrop in the al- | most vertical face of the mountain, and the miner who spends the winter here is obliged to place his cabin under the pro- tecting points of rock to avoid the con- stant dangér from the avalanche. The ore from the more accessible mines is vacked down on mule back to the mill near the town, but otbers cannot be | reachea in this manner. Daring me= | -have climbed around the precipice and carried & wire cable to connect with the | . workings of some small rich veins. This enables them to let down the ore in buck- ets to a point at the bottom of the ciiffs whence it can be taken to an arastra on the creek. / In Mill Creek Canyon, about two miles ubove the town of Lundy, tnere lives one of these free and independent miners. He takes out the ore from his mine in the clouds only as fast as it can be ground in | " the arasirs, mnot troubling himself with afortune which he cannot use. For a hermit he has 2 most enviable home. The arastra has been built under one wing of surroundi they are 4 the cold, desolate | | With the exce vhich the ore is delivered to the cable nd the quariers, and across this the men have worn a deep trail. The houses of the men are much like those of other mines, if anything less pretentions. They are perched upon spots which have been partly leveled off and are often supported by props from below to keep them from tipping ever and rolling into the depths of the canyon. Above them the mountain still towers nearly 1000 feet, and in the spring whon the snows are melting and the rocks loosening bou'ders frequ ntly come down in the most dangerous fash- ion. E may rything which is used here costs, as be imagined, a good round sum. ion of vegetables, which are raised in favorable yearsaround the shores of Mono Lake, everything must be obtained from some point on the Carson and Colorado Railroad and freighted some 100 miles to Lundy. From there, unless the road happens 1o be in repair, which 1s not generally the case, they are packed on mules to the mill and then ruised by cable to the workinzs, Thus deprived of all but the necessilies of life and almost as iso- luted as the sailor upon the ocean, it is not tobe wondered at that whena holiday comes the men leave what is virtually a prison, end relaxing in tie temptations of the mining towns below, have to be al- most carried back to work when their time is up. It would seem that mining at such a spot, at an elevation of 11,000 feet, would not pe attractive, but plenty of men are always found. There is a marked contrast between the open air and the interior of the mine both in winter and in summer. In winter it must be a relief to escape from the asctic storms and freezing temperature outside to the drifts of the mine, hundreds of feet from the surface, where there is but little variation in {emperature the year around. In the summer, on the contrary, the drifts and tunnels appear cold and damp in com- mountain, have an easier path until the very summit is reached, where some time is needed to recover breath. We are now almost on the summit of the Sierra vadas, at an altitude of 12,500 feet. Ev. here weare not out of the mineral be, ing 1egion, for a vein, stanaing verti and picturesque scenes lie all around and imagination supplies the detail of what is out of sight. The investigation of Mount Scowdan showed that it is intersected in every di- rection by gold-bearing quartz veins, and | the time may yet come when it will be | veritably honeycombed with tunnels, One company has started n tunnel on the | north from Mill Creek Canyon, about 3500 feet below the top of the mountain, with | the intention of penetrating to the center of the great mass of granite, and it would | seem that it must intersect many of the veins which dip 1mto it from various di- rections. Will the gold obtained make up for'the great and irreparable injury which is being done to the wild and romantic scenery of the Sierra Nevada Mountains? The trees are cut down, the lakes filled up and what nature has been thousands of years accom- plishing man destroys in a very short time, The canyons which open eastward to the outsider at present, but the time will come when our love of all that is grand and besutiful in the mountains of California will see to it that the strange and interesting region along the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevadas is jealously watched over. H W. FAIRBANKS, Ph.D, STORY OF THE BLIND LUCK OF LAZY PETE If His Wife Hadn't Chased Him Outdoors He Would Never Have Tumbled Into Riches T ain’t no use sayin’ foiks get their | hadn't had luck. { deserts an’ no more, anyway, in this| Course she was a better-class woman { world. The most good for nothin’ are | than he was a man, but she'd married him the ones that stay on top, and some bard- | and she’d stick to him. workin’, honest devil is sure 1o be at the | don’t believe in doin’ that nowadays, but bottom, with everybody trampin’ on bim. | they did then, an’ I guess the women was Most everything’s just luck. pretty good goods, What made me think of it just now,| Well, the cbildren were growin’ an’ ma’am, was lookin’ at Pete Garber's big | wearin’ out lots of shoes aw’ pants an’ house there on the hill. His wife just | things, an’ she was wearin’ out herself, passed in her carriage an’ spoke to me. | an’ one day she got mad. There wasa She’s one good fortune can’t spoil. 1 bet | big boom that time; quartz strikes were she remembers as well as I do the days | common, an’ folks were takin’ up minin’ when she done up my shirts. Yes, ma'am, | land all over the hills, I guess she got that woman used to take in washin’ to | to thinkin’ about it an’ how shiftless Pete get flour an’ bacon to feed Pete an’ the | Was, an’ she was tired, an’ there was Pete four young ones. She worked like a | lollin’ an’ smokin’ his pipe. She went out horse. There wasn’t a man on the river | to him an’ she laid down the law to him didn’t feel sorry for her—a go-ahead |in great shape;'she wasn't goin’ to slave woman tied to a lout like lazy Pete. | no longer an’ he could get up an’ hustle. He's just as lazy now as he was then, ' She ordered him to start out prospectin’ 25 g IN THIS WAY HE STRUCK'A BONANZA. but he's smart enough to put bis money | that very mornin’ and to not come home where it's safe. | till he had located a mine. They lived down on the crick afew| Pete was all knocked in a heap, It was miles in a little clapboara shanty with a | as if the oid tabby cat bad jumped up an’ mud an’ rock chimbly, an’ as I told you | clawed him in the face. He wes too lazy, she washed for the livin’. Pete didn’t | though, to fizht back, so be took his tools care how the flour an’ bacon come aslong’s | an’ started out. He slouched up the hill it did come, an’ she’d been washin’ to this | for maybe half a mile an’ then he sat un- day if she badn’t got mad, an’ if Pete | der a big shady tree. It wasthe ouly tree They say women | of size for a long stretch, an’ the morni n | was awful warm, an’ Pete was tired—born | 80, you know. He sprawled there an’ smoked till the shadow of the tree crawled away from him, an’ then bLe crawled into it again. This exertion made him think of his wife an’ what he had come out for, an’ how he did hate to get up. So he thinks to him- self that he'll stake a claim right there in the shade an’ then go home an’ get a bite to eat. Now, here the luck comes in. Layin’ there on his side, pickin’ away at the ground, without thinkin’ a thing about what he was doin’, that chap struck a vein of quartz just lousy with gold, an’ no troubie at all to work. He did get up steam enough to make pretty good time stakin’ it an’ gettin’ it recorded, though I guess it was his wife’s head that managed it an’ made it public. Soon’s it got out there was a big compuny wanted to buy it out for more money than Pete would be willin’ to count, but his wife wouldn’t let him sell itall They fixed themselves up for life with the price of half an’ they’re makin’ money hand over fist out of the over hall. No; Pete he don’t do nothin’ but sprawl an’ smoke same's ever, only now he sprawls in his own carriage an’ smokes imported cigars. He'd be stuck up if he wasn’t too lazy to put on airs for more than a minute or so at a time. But his wife, she’s a sensible woman. She’s seein’ that the kids have good schoolin’ an’ raisin’ an’ she don’t forget folks that’s down on their luck. I guess we don’t none of us begrudge her the money, or Pete, either, for that matter, only it does seem as if bein’ a rustler don’t count for much against such blind luck as Pete's. Orive HEYDEN. Fatal Fifty-Six. Fifty-aix years seems to be a fatal age for people of genius. Among those who have died at that age may be mentioned Dante, the Italian poet; Hugh Capet, King of ¥rance; Henry XIII, King of England; Henry 1V, Emperor of Ger- many; Paganioi, Italian violinist; Alex- ander Pope, English poet; George Sale, English orientalist; Marcus Aurelius, Em- peror of Rome; Frederick I, King of Prussia; Jobn Hancock, American states- | man; Maria Loui Empress of Frauce; Philip Massenger, English dramatist; Saladin, the great Suitan of Egypt; Rob- ert Stephenson, English engineer; Sciio Africanus, Roman general; Helvetius, French philosopher and author; Henry II, the first of the Plantagenet line; the elder Piiny, Roman naturalist ana au- thor; Julius Cmsar; Charies Kingsley, English author; Juan Prim, Spanish gen- eral and statesman; Henry Knox. Ameri- can Revolutionay general; Thomas Mif- flin, American patriot; Von Tromp, Dutch admiral; Abrabam Lincoin; Marryatt, the novelist; George Whitfield, English founder of Calvinistic Methodism ; Robert Dudiey, Earl of Leicester, favorite of Queen Etizabeth; Johann Gaspar Spurz- heim, German physician and phrenolo- gist, and Frederick II, Emperor of Ger- many. AMATEUR VS. PROFESSIONAL Baird Throws Light on a Question That from these mountains are bus little known' Agitates the Athletic World E of the subjects that is absorbing the attention of tie publicat the @presenl time, and particularly young men engaged in athletics, is “What is an amateur?” When athletics were organized on a per- manent basis in this country in 1878 one | of the first acts performed by the newly organized National Association of Ama- teur Athietes was to formulate a defini- tion of an amateur. This decree was com- prited in six or seven linas and was more import: and far-reaching than all the other articles of the constitution put to- gether. The definition of an amateur vas not only the cornersione of the edifice that has since grown to such stuvendous proportions, it was the B 1 bearing the weight of the entire structur The ideas therein contained were bor- rpwed from England, the mother of ama- ur athletics, revised, modified or im- proved according to the judgment of the legislators on amateur law. ‘When the influence of the National As sociation began to wane and the Amateur Athletic Union rose to its present posi- tion of power an idea was circa’ated that it might be well to substitute “‘conditions of competition” for the old “definition of an amateur”” On the reorganization of the constitution of the union upon its present basis the made were: The partition of the country into “associations,” of which there were | to be six, and (second) the adoption of the new ‘“‘conditions of competition.” It bas been stated that we are indebted to England for our amateur principles. The origin of the idex in that country arose from their aristocratic establish- ment, which, as everybody knows, is very elaborate. In that country the people are separated into two classes—*'gentlemen and commons.” This division is not clearly defined; however, the line of de- markation between the ‘*‘aristocracy’’ on one hand and the laboring and artisan classes on the other is, so sharp that no one can possibly make a mistake. Di putes to tbe ciaim of gentility arise chiefly from what is termed the middle class. ‘The better element of society recog- nized the fact that tbere was a vast differ- ence between the runmer, walker and prize-fighter who exvended all their efforts aud most of their character on making money, with little or no regara for the rights of others or their own good name, and those who did not. True, there were some honest men among them, but they made very little money compared to their dishonest brethren, and the struggling and lonely light which they shed only served to make the surrounding blackness more profound. At that time even more than at present pedestrians slipped a bit of soap in their mouths and feli down at the critical point in a race be- fore the sympathizing spectators, foam- ing at the mouth; sprinters sold their two greatest changes | a gymnasium or training an athlete or team for some physical contest, or having | charge of athletic groun Here he | actually gets paid for his Jabor, or even if he does not get paid for athletic exhibi- | tions he bas at his disposal opportunities for perfecting himself that the amateur | cannot have—at least the vast majority of | them. But the receivt of money is not the only z that maxes a man a professional. be the only means at his disposal ng an honest living for himself | and family. Ifsuch be the case the man is entitled to respect and is respected, for | T have seen professionals of this character | and bearing a good name treated with creat consideration by gentlemen ama- teurs of refinement and culture. How- ever, there are acts that will not only make a man a professional, but will bring | down upon him ten times more contempt | than a lifetime of earnings in the profes- sional ranks—I refer o knavery. Such tricks as selling a race, deliberately foul- ling a competitor, secretly injuring ma- chines in a bicycle raca and other im- moral practices will pitch a man from the amateur ranks as though shot out of a gun. It seems o me that the reader will have no trouble in comprehending the defini- tion so far as I have chosen the principles easiest understood. Let us now take up explanations a trifle more | complicated. It will notbe difficult for | any one to see why persons who had re- | ceived money for competing or had | cheated others out of their just dues | should be disqualified, but there are many | who cannot see why a man who has gone down to Los Angeles, for example, and run under an assumed name just for | fun should forever be debarred from com- | peting with amateurs. And yet the rea- | son 15 very simple when you look closely. Among gentlemen everything should be done in a manner above suspicion or re- proach. There must be no tricks of any | kind whatever. When a sentinel warns a | prisoner not to cross the dead line and | the man keeps far from it the sentry is at | ease; but when the man begins to walk | up and down on the dead line the soldier | looks to see ifhis cartridge isin order. It | you permit one man to enter a race under a false name you must permit all to do so if they feel so disposad, and then you would have endless confusion. | There is another point that will debar a man very quickly from the amateur ranks if he is detected in it, namely, re- ceiving a consideration for becoming or remaining a member of a particular club. This does not apply to cases where men have been udmitted as members of clubs and their initiation fee waivea. ot only can a man be debarred from mateur contests for entering under a false name, but the same punishment | awaits the one who enters under a club | other than bLis own. However, I do not THE GHASE—ANGIENT AND MODERN. Trom L'linuratlos uuting a8 it will be, races with only one regard, that of the fury of an outrazed populace, and pugil- ists slugged each other with bare fists in a manner too revolting to describe. At last the time came when the English gentleman (and I use that term now as we would use it) came to the conclusion that if he would be an athlete he must take his choice between mixing with such in- tolerable company or *flock off by him- sell.” Right here let me say that ama- teur athletics are founded on one of the grandest impulses in the human. breast, namely, love. Itis love of exercise and the excitement of the contest alone that inspires the real amateur. The foregoing was written before it ocenrred to me that mateur” is derived from the Latin amator, lover. Having given the history of the defini- tion of an amateur, we will now consider the conditions as prescribed by the Ama- teur Athletic Union. The law on this subject is rather voluminous, covering as it does over two closely printed pagzesofa pamphlet. being so exhaustive was to leave no loop. holes open tbat might give rise to dispute. My intention is to boil down and rear- range the rules that they might be more easily understood by those who are not conversant on the subject. First and most important of all the con- siderations which debar a man from com- | peting with amateurs is the fact of his having received money for the exercise of his physical powers. This is the most flagrant offense of its kind, the ieast ex- cusable and the easiest understood by the public. His. offense may have been com- peting in some contest of physical strength or speed and receiving money for a re- ward. It may have been for teaching in The object of its authorsin | know whether the court before which he would appear would be as severe as in the ‘other case unless they could prove or had reason to suspect an intention to defraud. There area few other conditions which must noi be infringed upon if a young man does not wish to bring himself under the ban of the athlet ¢ authorities. The rules strictly prohibit entering a contest open to professionals, or what are called ““open competitions,” that is, events tbat are understood or advertised as open to all | comers without any restrictions. To enter | such a contest, even if the men did not compete, would indicate a professional spirit, for it is to be supposed that his intention was to start and to win the prize. As before remarked, no one is wanted in the amateur ranks who is not an amateur st heart, and the object of | sueh a etrict rule is to keep young men | away from the dead line. Letme not be | misunderstood—a gobd rule is one thing, the enforcement of it is another, and someiimesthe executive officers of athletic law are derelict in their duty. However, 1 am exceedingly glad to see the officers of the Pacific Athlet:c Association so strict and just in their rulings and enforcements. of the law. Again, an amateur will be debarred for competing with a professional in a private race or contest jora prize of any nature whatever. I repeat, the object of the rule is to keep the two ciasses as far apart as possible. Ina future issne I may devote some space to explaining what relations the amateur can bear to the professiohal withous being disqualified thereby. GEORGE D. BAIRD. Several jockeys at Newmarket earm £3000 a year. ~