The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 8, 1897, Page 19

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, AUGUST 8, 1897%. 19 To comparatively small number , JT —— of the immigrants flocking to the Klon- | — cyke are the methods of mining in vogue here known, and if they were to be told | | t was a placer sysiem wmany of them | would by no means be enlightened. That | just the plan, however. The placer | stem is the only one generally available ere the hand of old Winter has so firm a grasp as in the Kiondyke region. By placer mining is meant that system which invoives the separation of the yir- gin gold from the earth by means of water. In other words, it is washed out. Icis really panmng gold on a huge scale, The other system of gold mining1s known as quartz mining. In this latter case the gold is found imbedded in quartz, and is taken from the mines to stamp-mill« where the quariz is stamped or crushed: and thus put in such a condition that the NOW, HERE'S A CONTRAST TO KLONDYKE JOYS This is eminently a year for aquatic| feats, and the water party bas become a feature of society, great and small. haps it is too much to say that the fad is entirely new, but certainly it has not b-en practiced in its present form, whicn is to a great extent thatof the water car- nival. On a pleasant eveninz on river and ocean there are visible the prettiest sights that have been seen on the wat in and around New York for a long time, The idea is to form a party of any de- | asired number, and instead of chartering a steamer large enough to take all the guests, boats are secured all the way from the tiny rowboat up to the small-sized steamer or tug. Quite as often it is the tug as anything else, because the idea of baving such a craft is to have at hand at | all times power sufficient to tow the en- tire number of boats. The tug of course leads the procession, and the smallest of the other craft concludes it. The form of decoration varies with the | taste of the people who have the event in | charge. Italso makes a great deal of dil- ference as to whether or not the party is composed of persons possessing plenty of money. These water fetes can be made to costas much oras little as 1t is desired. | | The decorations may be Chinese lanterns | or electric lights, and either give a de- | | lightful effect at a short distance. Of | course the Chinese lanterns are the cheap- est. Or 1f one wants imitation electric Jights they can take ordinary chimneys colored, secure a wooden base at a very low cost, and place inside the chimneys ordinary spermaceti candles. No one who has not seen this combina- | tion of candle-light chimneys can imagine | how charming the effect is, There is an excursion steamer which travels about New York daily that 1lluminates itself at night.in just this way, and the chances are ten to one that persons who have never been aboard of her believe her to be a mass of colored electric lights. It is a | means in the matter of expense, great expense and a vast amount of trou- The water fete idea first made its ap- ble to have a. procession of this sort wired | pearance in New York about two months 50 a8 to have electric lights. Naturally the |ago. That is, its first appearsnce for a electricity cannot be supplied from any | long time. About six years ago the 1dea one source, so it is necessary that each | was carried out to a slizht extent by very boat have a sufficient number of storage | wealthy people, but inasmuch as it took batteries to supply the necessary fluid. |such a tremendous amount of time, Any one who has had to pay bills relative | trouble and expense, no one cared to con- to storage batteries knows what that | tinue it another season, Tuis year, how- Per- e Mining as It Really Is. Hundred Dollars. HAT THEY DO AFTER THEY GET TO % / Py szt An Actual Scene in the Famous New Gold Fields Showing Placer Single Panfuls Have Yielded Five ever, what with the boatraces here and abroad, it has become quite a fad to go upon the water, and naturally that led to efforts to introduce some novelty. The ‘ City, with these young women they would find the latter their superiors. There are more than 200 boat clubs around New York and two of the crews composed of evolution of all this is the present water | rowing girls feel themselves able to defeat really like party, which is the number of boats afloat. As a rule par limited to twelve, for thatisall a tug can tow comfortably. power to tow more, but she can tow this number 1n a way that will not disturb il.e | party. The boats used to vary, as stated, in size, but usually nothing smaller than a ship’s | jolly-boat is employed, and from that it ranges up to an eight-oared barge. Occa- sionally a steam or naphtha launch is called into play, but this is rather un- usual. cession formed entirely of rowboats, the boats in a number of instances being pro- pelled by oars in the hands of young women, who have displayed exceeding skill in this athletic accomplishment. It must not be supposed that Wellesiey, Cor- nell and Vassar have the only ieminine boating crews. Tue Hudson River has halfa dozen eights who have never rowed in shells, but who can make an ordinary eight-cared boat travei cver the water at an exceedingly lively pace. The Hudson River is a favorite resort of these athletic young women. About four crews as a rule gather in their boats and start out. It is a charming sight to see the gayly decorated craft maneuver ns_if possessed of Luman instinet. They will execute all kinds of evolutions, and it 15 auite likely that if some of the young men who pride themselves on their skill with the oars were to attempt to handle 2 boat There is still another kind of pro- | fairyland | the best of those 200. It is, however, the fad par excellence of ticipating in an affair of this sort is | the stay-ai-home summer girl. She wis | in her glory during the recent hot weather, Not that she lacks!for the summer young man was only too glad to travel about with her on the river, where it is cool and it was not too warm to sit close together. Almostany even- ing from one to 2 dozen of these water parties could be seen on the East, North and Harlem rivers, with boats all lighted up in a charming manner, the large craft decorated with bunting, while occasion- ally from one of the larger boats would come the strains of a popular air rendered by an orchestra. The boats were never so brilliantly lighted as to prove an annoyance to the occupants, and they would drift about the river or be towed, as fancy dictated, from about 7 till 11:30 p. M. Occasionally a party would think 11:30 a trifle early to leave so delightful a location ana return to the hot flats and houses in the city, and it is reported that one party forgo: alto- gether what time it was until the fiery breath of old Sol streaked the horizon. An affair of this sort without reiresh- ments would be “Hamlet” with Hamlet left out, and so accompanying every party is what is known as a refreshment boat, with a man in charge and several waiters. This boat is rowed from one craft toan- other until the entire party is served. Sometimes each party has a whistle, which, blown three times, is a signal for the refreshment-boat to respond. Again the practice is to simply pass the word for the eatables and arinkables. Occasionally it is the case that the i pulled to some place where all bands can go ashore and enjov a regulation hop on terra firma. Aditer they have danced until they are warm and weary they return to the boats and beg n their journey home, or drift about on the river until they are quite ready to return to the point of de- barkation. e THE GOOSE AS A WEATHER PROPHET “‘Maybe you have often noticed that some farmers keep geese vear in and year out, let them have the run of the farm, and seem to show them all kinds of con- sideration,” said an observant summer boarder, ‘‘yet are always swearing that they are the bigrest nuisances in the world. If you have noticed that peculi- arity of the daily rounds of the husband- man you have doubtless many a time wondered why in blazes the farmer kept such nuisances on his premises. I used to wonder why it was, but I never bothered myseif to find out the reason, and one summer an explaaation of the mystery came about in a funny way. I was passing my vacation on a farm over in Jersey. “The farmer had a big flock of geese, and he was eternally throwing the weightiest kind of Jersey cuss words at them. One day I saton the front stoop talking with my host. The geese wera placidly cropping grass down along the road, a big gander leading them on. Peace, tranquillity and contentment spoke in every movement the fowls made. There wansa’t a cloud in the sky that 1 could s The farmer’s men were working without much ap- parent vim at raking and loading hay down in a meadow rot a very great way off. Suddenly the old gander poked up his head, gave voice to a peculiar squawk, lifted his wings and started cff on a run as fast as his big webbed feet would let him go. All the geese poked up their necks at the sound of the gander’s voce, lifted their wings, and, with a chorus of noises that only a flock of geese can produce, started after the gander as fast as they could waddle. The gander ran perhaps twenty yards and parties will be taken in tow by a tug and | gold and quartz can be separated by a process which 1s so technical that to be thoroughly understood it needs to be seen. When a Klondyke prospector has staked out his claim, which must be as near water as possible and generally about 500 feet in length, he makes an experimental panning as'a test of the claim. This may show very little at first, but when it is considered that 5-cent dirt—that is, ground that washes or pans out 5 cents’ worth of gold to the pan—is paying property it may be seen that ‘the miner’s standard is not so very high. Many a case has lately been reported from the Klondyke where the dirt has washed out $50 to the pau. With a claim of 5-cent dirt the miner, if he 1s industrious, may be reasonably sure of $50 a day. With $50 dirt he is a million- aire if his claim 1s of any considerable exent. The testing of a claim is, however, only the beginning. After it has been proved to be worth working, it is necessary to prepare for more extensive operations. The first thing is to make the sluice- boxes. In the Klondyke lumber is a scarce and very expensive article, pro- vided it is purchased all ready for sluice purposes. If the miner is industrious hie will fell enough trees from the thousands that cover the rugged lands about him to make all the siuice-box Iumber that he will need. It is much more economical or him to put in the time and labor neces- sary to do this than to buy the lumber ready made. When the lumber is ready it is con- verted into sluice-boxes of whatever length the miner may deem advisable. Thoese boxes are then placed in position, and allis in readiness for the washing pro- cess. Nowcomes the necessity for getting the dirt into the boxes. It isalways the case that pay dirt—dirt containing gold— lies next to rock. This being the case it 1s necessary to clear away the gravel that lies between the surface and the pay dirt. 1t is a laborious task in any event, but when one has to face Klondyke seasons it is still more difficult. Sometimes it happens that as much as twenty-five feet of gravel must be re- moved before pay dirt is reached, and when most of this has to be done within sAxty days, besides washing out the pay dirt, the necessity for hard work is appar- ent. As a rule, the depth of the suriace THAT WONDERFUL REGION depth it is possible for a miner to get at his pay dirt and wash a good bit of it in one season. Many of those who are on their way to the Klondyke to-day cherish the belief that all the miners do when they pan out gold is to dig it out of asur- ace lode and make ail the money they want to. On the contrary it1s often ne- cessary for a miner to spend an entire sea- son clearing away the suriace gravel from the pay dirt of his claim. The statements often made that it is impossible to do any work during the winter season are erroneous. Nearly all the tunneling is accomplished at that time of year. Fireis the agent by means of which the tunneling is done. There is plenty of wood to be obtained, and so the miner builds a roaring fire next to the gravel th®®ugh which he wishes to tun- nel. Naturally, this melts the frost out of the gravel, which is then shoveled out. This method does mot prove successiul with surface gravel. Occasionaily it happens that a claim is too far from water, and in such cases sev- eral fortunes have been rocked out—that is, rockers have been used. The rocker is Just what its name indicates. The dirt is placed within it, and it is rocked until dirt and gold have been thoroughly shaken apart. This system is used only on rare occasions, for as a rule water is sufficiently plentiful to make the ordi- nary methods of placer mining available. A curious fact that the placer mining of the Klondyke region has developed is that these mines are nearer the original sources than any ever discovered on the American continent, The Californian mines were never traceable, geologists say, but these latest discoveries give dis- tinct evidence of being near the source from which they originally came. Placer mines are in reality glacial deposits. The ice which formed the glaciers, mixed with great stones, st some time or another, wrenched from the original gold deposits fragments of the riches there located by nature. These fragments, swept along by the huge rivers of ice, have found resting- places at various points, forming what we know as placer mines. The geologists who have examined the Klondyke mines say that the original zoldfields are not far distant from Klon- dyke. It is, therefore, quite possible that the stovies from the aorth about still richer finds are true, and that the real El gravel is about eight feet, and at this Dorado 1s by no means reached as ye!, type. are leaving civilization behind to Here for the first time is published the most intelligent Klondyke Young college men, inelltectual as well as physical giants, who win fortunes in the frozen north. To such a type belongs A. J. Balliet, Yale’s former greatest oarsman and football player, who abandons a handsome law practice. < then with a wild shriek he took wing and flew in the direction of a pond a short dis- tance from the road. The geese flew aiter him, filling the air with their discordant cries. Gander and geese alightea in the vond, where they all gathered in a bunch, held a consultation in a subdued chorus of cackles, and went through all sorts of erratic maneuvers for a few minutes. Then they separated and swam about as placidly as they had been pasturing by the roadside a few minutes before. “At the first movement of the gander, when he disturbed the tranquillity of the feeding flock, my host rose quickly to Lis feet, and as he moved toward the meadow excifiimed: “There's them ding hayin’ hands workin’ as if they had all the rest o’ the year to git that bay in, and here we're goin’ to be ketched in a tearin’ old shower in less than an hour, or else there ain’t no use in keepin’ geese!’ “Then he hurried down to the meadow, spurred up the men, and took an active hand himself at the loading of the hay. Before fifteen minutes had passed I saw clouds banking in the horizon, and pres- ently the mutter of thunder was heard among them. The farmer was right. In an hour one of the hardest thunder- storms [ ever saw was raging over that part of New Jersey, and it caught the last load of the old man’s hay in transit. After supper that night I questioned the farmer on the goose question, and foun that the reason he tclerated a flock of | geese on his farm was that they kept him vosted on the weather. ‘* “They hain’t never failed me yit,’ be | said. ‘When I git up in the morning’ an’ | see them geese out on the pond, divin’ | and dressin’ down their feathers as if they was gittin’ ready to go to some party or other, I know that we are sure of clear, warm, dry weather, and I make my cal- culations accordin’ly. 1f the geese ain’t a-dressin’ theirselves much, but act:kinder as if it wasn’t of much use to spruce up, then I keep my eye on ’em. That's a warnin’ that we are in danger of a spell o’ weather. If the geese quit the pond and don’t go back much through the day I know that the danger holds, and 1 get my- self ready for a good, old-fashioned rain, sot in for a day or two anyhow. 1fthey teed along awhiie and waddle back to the pond chipper-like, and go to dressin’ themselves and divin,’ I’m quite certain for sure that there won’t be no sot rain commencin’ that day. If the gesse gits up all of a sudden and tears around like you seen 'em to-day then there’s a shower comin’, and a-comin’ fast, you kin bet a cooky.” “That’s the reason some farmers keep geese around, and still holler it out every little while that they wish the ding things were in Halifax. They are weathel prophets.—New York Sun.