The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 23, 1898, Page 21

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JANUARY 23, 1898. o2 P08 2000000000000009000000PPPVPVVVPVPPOPVPVPOVPOPPPPPOOO®RG STARK MAD FOR SILVER By Miriam MIchelson. + 0000000000000 0000000000000000000900009000000000000000000 @ P90 00000 4 PPPPOOPOOSOO MERIGO VESPUCCI did not are not a matter of choice. And its glants who wrought in those old discover America. Consequent- Patrons being what tney -were, what bonanza days. ly it was named after him. °%% Y9U expect of a town? Of course ye:s were: -extrayagant. We have done some queer things, up there on the side of Mount Davidson in Nevada. 6000 feet a the sea. Inthoseold days outgrown our antisilver stupidity and no more sought for paltry gold placers while ten feet below Belcher, Crown Point and Yellow Jacket lay a rich mass of solid quartz; in those freez- ing winters when we crept into tun- nels and dwelt there to escape the Washoe zephyrs that tore, shrieking, down the canyons, and the snow that shrouded the town in white, Virginia City was made up of frame shanties pitched together by accident; tents of canvas, of blankets. s of potato sacks, and old shirts, empty whisky barrels for smoking hovels of mud coyote holes in the hillside seized by men; pits and shanties smoke issuing from e piles of goods and rubbish on craggy When we had money we spent it roy- ally. Why, San Francisco, half your young men were directly or indirectly supported by our mines. We used to pay a dollar a pound for butter, for hay $100 a ton. We paid our cooks $100 a month. Our shovels cost $9 apiece. We paid §1 a pound for freight. The best your markets could produce was sent up over the mountains and that crook- ed little railway to Virginia City. We spent ten miilions in litigation. It cost us three-quarters of a million monthly to pay wages in the mines. Our 20,000 people spent $900,000 a year for beer. It took 61,200 pounds of quicksilver a month for use in our mills. Two million dollars was spent that Comstockers might drink mountain water that is the purest, the sweetest draught that has ever quenched man’'s thirst. We used 80,000,000 feet of lumber a year in tim- bering our mines. Once in 1863 we made James Finney or “Old Virginia” and H Comstock, or had nothing to do with the ¢ of the greatest of silver fore their names a: Comstock lode and V become world-famous. The thing in discoveries is to know Just when not to make them. We Comstockers are not exactly proud of our godfathers. In strict confidence, be it sald that Old Vir- ginia was a bibulous, disreputable, Jolly old teamster, who smashed a bot- tle of whisky over the sage-brush land ight and between hiccoughs de- e this ground Virginia mines; there- applied to the rginia City have clared, Town.” relate, he of ‘“free: points, in the hollows, on the rocks, in the trip between Sacramento and Vir- sible pr the mud, on the snow—evervwhere— ginia City by stage in twelve hours and associz scattered broadcast in pellmell con- twenty-three minutes. Steam and iron It was t fusion, as if the clouds had sudden do not accomplish as much nowadays, had ed burst overhead and rained down the over the same route. ward fr dregs of all the flimsy, rickety, filthy But everybody was a millionaire, or e little hovels and rubbish of merchan- expected to be one, in those days. All came P that ha me the pro- one had to do was to buy a mine, like e W from the earth Con. Virginia say. The Big Bonanza The intervals could have been bought for $40,000, but y or may not have {t took nearly $100,000. In three years been streets, were dotted over with it produced $105000,000. Or if you human beings of such sort, variety and hadn’t quite $100,000 to invest, it was numbers that the famous anthills of almost as profitable and ten times as Africa were as nothing in comparison. interesting to buy Crown Point at $2 a the mountain To say that they were rough, muddy, ghare and watch it safl up to $1525: or v Comstock m empt, and unwashed would be but Belcher at $1 650 a share and sell at A Hese 1onors faintly ve of their actual ap- §1595 a share. because the o6t seemed to have caught " gjver was king In those days when th ibolical tint and grime of the tno heart of the Comstock was struck, > place. and a cubic chamber ten feet on edge It must be admitted that we was exposed, glittering with st\‘ph;\nnza, m Bodie' and_“ with the finest chlorides and the richest s” in those days. W ed plack sulphurets. tables and in the saloons— “uphe goene within this tmperial treas- the poor, we still have With ¢ yoyse was a stirring sight. Cribs swaggered and bullied 2nd ¢ tymper were piled In successive ce, which ms were kes a pic aghast to read I blasphemed the wore nd robbed in our frank, et . Sy 5 . ek stages from basement to dome, 400 feet thelr " stoi Siogged simple Comstock fashion. We hired gpove, and everywhere were men at “bogus st1 iptal™ s - . work in changing shifts, descending d as miners, we stepped on the cage and went under- ground to meet others like us; and down in the hot, dark, moist drifts we fought like subterranean monsters for the po: ion of a mine. Our judges— our judges were =o corrupt that r tenths of the voting population of the Sta and everybody knows w Nevadans are not pr ned a pe tition as i Yes, it's all true. But other side of the account. fornia miner knew not one-thot of the danger, the privation, that we They hurl canyons, s and ascending in the crowded clamberin, with sv candles blin; cages, up to their assigned stopes nging lanterns or flickering picking and drilling the crum- g ore or pushing lines of loaded to the stations on the shaft. Flashes of exploding powder were blaz- ing from the rent faces of the stopes; blasts of gas and smoke filled the con- necting drifts: muffled roars echoed along the dark galleries; and at all hours a hail of rock fragments might be heard rattling on the floor of a level and massive lumps of ore falling heav- ily on the slanting pile at the foot of I wonder that Nature didn’t shrug those powerful rs of hers, the Washoe d so bu Nevad dollars ekl suffered. He washed out his pan of ¥ {0 the .t would Fair h rock on the horders of a limpid stream g 1 . kay, and Floc in a cltmate’ that made out-door living _ The total vafluation of all the mines on the Comstock lode at that time was nearly $400,000.000. Now—well, now the Comstock is iIn bhorrasca. But the spirit of the Com- stock is as sanguine, as unconquered as 01d Comstockers will tell that for ears ago the “bears” clared N da a “played-out” country, while the richest treasure in the world at their very feet. In that queer slanting city which ecircles Mount Davidson, blessed with the most glor- ious climate, air which is like etheres ized champagne, there are undismayed old miners whose hopes shine as stead- fas as the stars that bespangle the s these dark, cold winter nights. They know that the Comstock In her old spendthrift days threw away enough to make a flourishing mining camp of’97 or '98. They are firm in their belief that, in time, some way will be discovered of working the old tafl- ings. They have faith in the o0ld lode They hone for the re-opening of old levels, Thev are ready to declare for the Brunswick ledge. % They will never admit that the Com- stock is dead. GOLD YIELD st and drill ed in a at times. delightful. We had to b and burrow; to work nearl ure of 175 degre We went mad from the heat; we lost has all a_mother" our lives from from w. from for her off ng. falling, from horrible accidents to So these two n machinery. We stary weren't Old Vi SDEnE Gl best located their c below the surface of arth. If then Comstock cam s e the riz]gp on his old m use to descrit T legs. bru nstock ha yduced such :“_‘,'.“"“f{: the world not known 08 e el It has given birth and op- alas! that I portunity to men of - extraordnary genius. We have taught the world how to construet Comstock pumps that ft 1,000.000 gallons of water a d fo build V flumes and carry v ty-five miles across thirteen st gulches, every curve and every ang of road mapped and measured: we have shown you how to dig a tunnel more than six mi If a mile below the earth the famous Fr neing Sutro tunne nd five fee aires—and But, fortunat tient. She’ a giving him a quar claim. Then along the divide narrow Gol gave Old V token of good asked in ex one-tenth int in that bar! upon the r as a stock ginia want desolate Neva s nd while rg tunnel was ad feet a month t ahead one ed the n did O1d Vir- te piece of e other, the ng should be pled g value of that old m with nds of miners. weighed t ace in London ything we needed wr had to in- and anoth, telegraph com- vent. The world has never encountered pany d line, a whole guch difficulties befo but we of the street of and the most mounted them. “The Comstock beautiful 1 of working ore bodies could no more PACIFIC COAST. gowns and expensive femil ncies pe mproved upon,” £aid a scientific en- without number. = And Stll old Com- gineer, “than the cells of a honey-hee.” STt S stock’s mustang wouid go down, down, We had to have the best, and if the By Th i 1 w ¥ oma: 5 while th wted wealth of half yoct that existed was not good enough, y gace e dozen pr il ‘I" we invented a better. By the magic of T is estimated that at the time of the geninse as known would weaith allied to intellect®we changed discovery of gold in California, on But the old arrastra into a gigantie mill, January 24, 1848, the total gold avail- P the thunder of whose crashing stamps able in the whole world was not Gonich. by once filled the town with its noisy clat- b than five thousand millions of bt = ter. ollars. ent, plor = 7, i y, 9 Presla -0 Why, a vear of Nevada life then was _ 10 the sixteenth century, from 1s3 to 1600, the gross gold product for the 108 years amounted te $501,693,337, which is an_annual production of $4,645,307. During the seventeenth century the to- equal to ten years of life elsewhere, in opportunity for development, for growth. Before the ratiroad was built we spread blankets before the pack burros feet that he might not sink into the snow. We built roads that are un- rivaled in picturesqueness by the most famous roads in the old world. The tale can never be fully told of the of blood pcisoning in tt of unhewn American Fl E: T from the effects of t terrible two weeks' journey over the Sierras in the dead of winter, a hundred miles from the last cabin in Nevada to the first one in California. But godfathers, like other cabin uth of he other fathers, \ il il tal gold product of the whole world was $606,314,608, an average of $5,063,000 per an- num. In the elghteenth century the gold product was _§$1.26280G,400, the annual average being $12,625,064. In the nineteenth century, from 1801 to the end of 1847, the annual average pro- duction of gold in the whole world was a little over $11,000,000. From 1843 to 1860 inclusive the annual gold production.for the whole world averaged the enormous total of, In round numbers, $134,000,000. During this same period the average an- nual productior of California was not less than $61,000,000. Up to the year 1597 the gross gold prod- uct of California was fully $1,400,000,000. being an average annual production of $22,000,000 since the discovery of gold in his State in I848. 3 Thes maximum go'd yield In California for any one year was $85,000,000, and the minimum $1 000, this decline follow- ing on the cessation of hydraulic mining. During the past four vears, however, under the wise administration of the United States Mining Commissioners. hydraulic mining is on the increase. and this, with the d interest in gravel and’ quartz mining, has resulted in a gradual increase in our production of gold. When the figures for 1597 are all in we will doubtless find that our pro- duction for that year was not less than $18,000,000. . The discovery of gold in California was not only important on account of the rich harvest which followed in this State, but also on account of the stimulus which it gave to the search for gold throughout the whole world. Even the long neglect- ed and almost forgotten gold mines of Great Britain were reopened as a result of this stimulus, and they are producing some gold even down to the present time. "The most important result which flowed from this, however, was the discovery on the Austra continent, where the results from placer mining have exceeded those of our own State, and even in quartz mining th are pressing us hard for supremac: 7 Tt was our own hardy “forty-niners” who, In the search for gold in other lo- calities. di red the great Comstock lode, whic! s vielded its $400,000,000, 45 per ‘cent of which, it must not be for- gotten, was in gold The: ame hardy prospectors trav- ersed every foot of Nevada, and to their energy is due the enormous silver dis- coveries in ireka and other dis- tricts. At they solved for the world a = m in metallurgy— the economical treatment of low-grade lead ores. These resolute miners spread still far- ther out and invaded Utah, Montana, Idaho slorado ith results which are pa v i's history. In these remote re did not find, it is true, the rget of California, but found the combined with baser in, to separate these been produc n enormous ac- the ori entific and ~hanica s a result of gross gold produc for the past r was no . It must be remembered, too, tnat tue skill and experience of the California as been extensively utilized in the of £ frica, and that the area mined, is the cer in the world. n as a whole the gross gold pro- iotion of the world during 1897 was fully 000,000, and it is safe to predict tuat the end of the itury the annual eld will be quite & 0. ven these figures may be largely ex- recent discoveries in Alaska il anything like the expectations ailt upon them. The miner whose ex- perience has been confined to California will find many new difficulties to meet in Inhospitable Alaska. frozen ground to blast and ing purposes during at of the year. ‘ornia, d e the fact that it has mined for half a century, has really prospected only in part, and it unrivaled in extent of gold- rea and facilities for economi- which should be remem- ho are casting yearning beer Been stands sti bearing a cal mining—fact; by those glances toward A _————————— MONKEYS AS GOLD-FINDERS. Captain E. Moss of the Transvaal tells the following story of the monkeys who work for him in the mines: “I have twenty-four monkeys,” sald he, “employed abc my mines. They do the work of seven able-bodied men. In many instances they lend valuable aid where a man is useless. They gather up the small pleces of quartz that would be passed unnoticed by the workingmen, and pile them up in lit- tle heaps that can easily be gathered up in a shovel and thrown into a mill. They work just as they ple: , some- times going down into the mines when they have cleared up all the debris on the outside. They live and work to- gether without quarreling any more than men do. They are quite method- fcal in their habits, and go to work and finish up in the same manner as hu- man beings would do under similar cir- cumstances. It is very interesting to watch them at thelr labor, and see how carefully they look after every detail of the work they attempt. They clean up about the mines, follow the wheel- barrows and carts used in mining, and pick up everything that falls off on the way,” NN 108 108 308 106 0 308 G 408 0% 508 0K 0% OR many years been one of the great silver- producing countries of the world and has also contributed her proportion of gold, copper and lead. But notwithstanding all this the possibilities and opportunities of that land are less understood and appre- ciated than those of any other mineral bearing country. Mexico has opportu- nitles, and those too in abundance, for men of brains, energy and means. The mineral wealth of Mexice is quite an unknown quantity, and it is safe to say that for the number of mining ven- tures for that country as compared to those of California, rado — Mexico can show a larger percentage of successes than could be scored by either of the above-named States. For some cause American capital has fought shy of Mexico as a field for in- vestments, and has given as an excuse, first, that the laws do not afford ade- quate protection for either life.or prop- erty; and, second, that transportation facilities are insufficient. The first of these objections is unwar- ranted, while the second must be ad- mitted. In Mexico the miner, instead of mak- ing a location as he does in the United States, makes a “denouncement” which to all intents and purposes is the same thing, and he secures possessory title to the land desired by filing an appli- official, causes a survey to be made and records cation with the same. The Government imposes an annual tax of $10 for each “pertinentia,” which is a block of ground 300 feet sq proper Mexico Nevada or At any time after making the nouncement” the prospector is at lib- erty to commence developing his prop- erty; but the mining laws of the coun- try do not permit him either to reduce or ship away the ores extracted from the ground until he has first procured a MO N patent from the Interior Department at the City of Mexico. Under what was known as the old mining laws of Mexico, it was neces- sary to employ two men for at least twenty-six weeks of each year upon the property; but under the new law, the enforced labor ciause has been re- pealed and a tax of $10 for each “per- tinentia” per annum has been substi- tuted. This includes both “denounce- ments” and patent locations, without regard to the number of “pertinegtias™ that are held by the individual or com- pany. This is not quite all, for the Govern- ment still exacts an extraction tax, which is an ambdunt equal to about 5 per cent of the gross product, payable in silver. It is this last named tax that has been much exaggerated throughout this country, and has given many the Impression that the Mexican Govern- ment was disposed to impose unreason- able and unjust taxes upon foreigners operating mines within her borders. On the contrary, a large majority of Americans who are engaged in mining in Mexico, while not disloyal to their own country would assure the inquirer that the mining laws of Mexico are preferable to those of the United States. The prospector in Mexico is allowed more latitude thanshere in our own States, as no private land holder can deny him the privilege of entering and prospecting under certain regulations to suit the case. As, for instance, If a prospector enter the field of a farmer to prospect for mineral bearing rock or placer diggings, he is not permitted to sink more than thirty feet, which ex-~ cavation he’is compelled to refill if the project is abandoned. But on the other hand, if the discovery warrants the purchase, and the prospector and farm- er fail to agree upon the price of th land, then the Judge of the district, sisted by two citizens, who are chosen to represent the parties to the transac- tion, appraise its value. For it is writ- ten that the farmer must sell to the miner such lands as he wishes for min- ing purposes. The same law applies to timber, water rights and mill sites. N R ¢ feteReReEoEegegagageg R eReToFugagugugutogeRaRaRugaFugaoFaRegagagagoRaReguiaPaPaPaFaRagugegagagaRaRugagegaFagayal HUNTING FOR LOST FIINES IN MEXICO. fe¥=FF-F-F-F=2-F-F-F-F-ReFeF=FuFeReicgoFoFoFoFoRoFeoFeteFugagaF-2=F:Fe3x2:FuFuTuFFuFF T ok TR uk TR aRato 2 306 308 308 308 108 308 306 308 308 X0 1 One of the interesting features of mining in Mexico of recent year: been the reopening of the old doned mines of the Spanish pac Many of these have developed i Inos( valuable properties of the coun- Ty. Under the padre system the mines were operated by Mexican and Indian peons and generally worked to a water level, with pillars of ore left standing to support the ground. The ores were then reduced by either arastras, patios or smalladobe furnaces, which process was very slow, and the gold and silver bullion produced was then exported by the Spanish masters to Europe, leaving the yawning exca- vations, the church records and an impoverished people as Mexico's share of the profits. After freeing themselves from the rule of Spain, the Mexicans and In- dians of the country turned their at- tention to the pillars of ore left by their former rulers, and these for years furnished them occupation. They hav- ing in a degree benefited by their ex- perience with the foreigner, reduced their ores by the same slow metallurgi- cal process. Mexico is a which to do slow country iIn business, and to attempt to open a mine there and supply it with a milling plant is an underta g calculated to try the patience of Job. Mule trails constitute the roads and highways, and instead of the freight wagons and prairie schooners of the United States, the Mexican freighter utilizes the “hurricane deck” of a Mexican burro, and with these little beasts of burden all freight and sup- plies are transpcrted throughout the interior mining country. An American in this country would hesitate to carry a large ¢ rtz mill from San Francisco to Grass Valley, or to the Siskiyous with a pack train, but a Mexican provided with a sufficient number of burros, a little parched corn and a stock of cigarettes will wade into the transportation busi and land Al N \ RO § \ \:‘ \ \:" - & \ f‘ 1 et the mill in due course of time. A good example of this is the Bata- pilas mill of sixty stamps and steam plant that was packed in sections for 300 miles through the Sierra Madre Mountains. 2 Placer mining has received less at- tention in Mexico than other branches of the mining industry. This is mainly due to the scarcity of water. There are in various sections large placer fields that would yield fortunes if water could be obtained, in the absence of which the natives work the richer places by the process of “dry washing.” Prospecting by the foreigner has been chiefly confined to the old abandoned mines, which at best is rather -a blind undertaking, as the “ancients” (as they are called) seem to have prospected the country very thoroughly. In most instances they succeeded in working out the surface ground, so that the in- dications to which the latter-day miner pins his faith are the old depressions, together with the dumps, by the size of which he calculates how extensively the old mining had been carried on. The old arastra beds and slag piles from the primitive adobe smelters are also figured upon as something to as- sist in their calculations. Owing to the methods of milling and smelting then in vogue the Spaniards and natives assorted the high-grade ores from those of lesser value, leaving the second grade or refuse on the dumps. Many of these second-grade dumps have been discovered which contain thousands of tons of ore that can be handled at a profit with modern milling and concentrating machinery. The time is coming and that speed- {ly when the crude mining methods pre- vailing in our sister republic will have become a thing of the past. Rallroads will connect her isolated mining camps with the outside world, and Mexican mining centers will have been estab- lished, which will rival Virginia City, Butte and Denver, G W. G