The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 10, 1899, Page 4

890 APRIL 10, 1 JONDAY. JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor. to W. S. LEAKE, Manager. i’[!iLl\.’ATlON OFFICE ..Market and Third Sts., S. F. Telephone Main 1868. EDITORIAL ROOMS ....217 to 281 Stevenson Street Te! i dress All Communications DELIVERED BY CARRIERS, 15 CENTS PER WEBEK. Single Coples, B cents. Terms by Mail, Including Postage: DAILY CALL (including Sunday uaH). one year: .00 ¢ CALL (inciuding Sunday Call), ¢ months, . 3.00 C. ing Sunday Call), 3 months, . 150 CALL—BY Single Month. . 63e AY CALL One Year. . 1.60 KLY ‘CADL, One Yea . 1.00 postmasters are authorized to recelve subscriptions, copies will be forwarded when requested. OAKLAND OFFICE. Ry ...908 Broadway MEW YORK OFFICE. “Room 188, World Building DAVID ALLEN, Advertising Representative. WASHINGTON (D. C.) OFFICE . ......Wellington Hotel C. C. CARLTON, Corrcapondent. CHICAGO OFFICE agevanes .Marquetts Buflding C.GEORGE KROGNESS, Advertising Representative. BRANCH .OFFICES—527 Montgomery street, corner Clay, open untll 9:30 o'clock. 387 Hayes street, open until ©30 o'clock. 62! McAllister street, open until 9:30 c'clock. 615 Larkin street, open until 9:30 o'clock. 1941 Mission street, open untll 10 o'clock. 2991 Market street, corner Sixteenth, open untll 9 o'clock. 2518 | Mission street, open untll 9 o'clock. 106 Eleventd | street, open until 9 o'clock. 1505 Polk street, opsn untll 9:30 o'clock. NW. corner Twenty-second anq Kentucky streets. open untll 9 o'clock. ] AMUSEMENTS. Lace Handkerchief.” o and Free Theater—Vaudeville every afternoon | 1 | Mason and Ellis streets, Specialties. use—Sauer Hecitals, Wednesday afternoon, Tuesday afternoon, April 25. | resort. Amusements every AUCTION SALES. This day, at 11 a. m., at 316 Fourth | April 11, Co.—Tuesday, at 12 t street. | April 12, at 2 and § p. m,, goods. . April 13, at 10:30 a m| HE expected has happened in Wall street. Over- ation has been called down By the banks. The rebuke was brief, but very much to the T point. The function took place on Friday—a ‘very | for such affairs—and for a few hours the in an uproar; prices for the indust: pped like plumblines and a good many lamb speculators were wiped off the street. To those who watch the mainsprings of business the lic not surprising. Along last fall the commercial agencies called attention to the ten- | dency to form all sorts ‘of trusts, out of all sorts of After the turn of the' year this tendency | d, and a few weeks ago assumed the | proportions o 1ze. Then the banks began to look cross-eyed at industrial combinations, and, this was the | of the end. The bankers objected to! the ing up of millions in enterprises, some sterling, but many visionary. The money | slowly hardened and interest rates went up. | the banks began to reject the industrials as collateral, ‘the brokers could not carry their | customers on account of this lack of bank accommo- | This, of course, alarmed | the street, everybody rushed in to sell and there was | hioned break. But it did not last long. The | \dustrials, though considerably shaken up, | hered the tempest all right, and the others col- In two or three houts the atmosphere cleared, | s of capital rushed in and stemmed the hrcak,‘ | s | ridation W aterial. became mark a cra v market Fin on and begax to realize. we lapsed prices reacted and the flurry was over. At no time during this episode of the combinations were the standard industrials under suspicion. They are sc But there were too many irons in the fire for the safety of the market and the banks ¢ them out. The market will probably be | on a better basis from now on. A gratifying feature | of the whole business was its brevity and the ease with which the financial sky cleared, showing that the finances of the country are on a sound foundation. The commercial situation stands about the same as on the_preceding week. Business is reported quieter, but the bank ciearings of the country show a gain of 50.7 per cent over the same week in 1898, and not a single large city shows a falling off in trade according | to these clearings. The failures were 190, against 220 for the same week last year. But the leading staples ¢ quieter, and even the iron trade has sfackened up, though thi id to be due to lack of supplies, and not to any cessation of the demand, which is still | enormous and which has led to the starting up of This latter feature has tended to ease the market by promising increased sup- plies later on. Boots and shoes are reported very active and lumber is as firm as ever. There is no particular change in the wool and cotton trades. Wheat has been irregular, and during the past few days reports of serious damage to the crop in many States by the February freeze have multiplied. It is admitted that the crop outlook is not as brilliant as it was several months ago, except in California, where the prospects are excellent. Meanwhile there has been a slight shrinkage in quotations. The local situation stands about the same. Busi- ness is very good, and no complaints are heard. It is now pretty well scttled that with one or two excep- tions the harvest of cereals and fruits will be very large this year, and this gives everybody unbounded confidence in the future. Some districts will need another shower or two to mature the crops, but others can go through without any more rain, especiatly north of the bay. Tt is equally settled that the fruit crop of the Eastern and Western States will be al- most a total failure this year, and in most of the great peach States the trees themselves were killed by the February ireeze. All fruits, even apples, will be short, and as stocks of canned dnd dried fruit are reduced to almost nothing all over the country the outlook for a prosperous fruit year in California is brilliant. Indeed, buyers are already looking about for fruit, and $75 per ton is reported bid for apricots in sfiveral dis- tricts. If this figure proves true and other fruits are ~equally desired, 1809 will be the banner year for the California fruit-grower. e —————— Our boys in Manila will have to make a good many speedy marches during the next month, for they are | racing against time as well as against the Filipino and are bound by the terms of the campaign to over- * take the native runners before the rainy season sets in. quietly drew is forty-cight more furnaces. | judicial standing, originally acquired in this State, DEATH OF STEPHEN J. FIELD. HE desth of Judge Field in his 83 year, after the Tlongcst judicial career of any Justice of the Su- preme Court of the United States, commits a lif2 of great labor and of marked eminence to the calm arbitrament of history. The main facts that will enter into his biography are elsewhere recapitulated. His became national, and there is no part of the United States in which his passage from time to eternity wili not excite interest and comment. He came fiom revolutionary stock. His fathe- | was a distinguished clergyman. He was one of five brothers, all of whom were exceptionally giited and | noted. He was classically educated, and spent two | years r thereabouts of his earlier life in Greece. In 1837 he graduated in the first ranis from Williams College. ifor four years he applied himself to pre- paratory law studies and in 1841 was admitted to the bar of New York. For eight years he was in partner- ship with his elder brother, David Dudley Field, who was numbered among the great lawyers of the Union. | In 1849, aiter 2 second visit to Europe, he came to | California, .and arrived barely in time to escape ex-| clusion from the Society of California Pioneers. In 1850 the record of Judge Field's activities fairly begins. His 'possession of unusual mental power, especially @da‘fi(cd ta the profession he selected, and | for war every week and sometimes two a week. These | incentives to incessant war. his thorough comprehension of principles and knowl- edge of technicalities have never been questioned. | Possessed of these advantages, at the age of 33 he | took his place among the pioneers of this State, who, | in proportion to their numbers, combined intelligence, i education and energy in a degree to which the history | of new communities furnishes no parallel. The adaptation of American institutions and American law to the conditions established by the Mexican rule, and especially in relation to land tenures, also pro- “duced litigation of original impression and of vast im- portance, which demanded and obtained for its solu- tion legal capacity of the highest order. Judge Field had scarcely reached Marysville, where | he first settled, when he became a judicial officer | through ‘an election as Alcalde or Judge of the Courtf of First Instance, and to strengthen his authority he was also appointed and commissioned as a Justice of | the Peace. His earliest practical service, however, | to the State was in a legislative capacity. As a member of the Assembly he prepared the two prac- | tice acts, civil and criminal, which, as amended and pplemented, regulated the local administration of the law until the adoption of the codes. He also framed legislation for the protection of miners and the mining interests, upon which one of the most im- | portant departments of our State jurisprudence has been chiefly based. Aiter years of lucrative practice, in which his suc- cess'in appealed cases raised him above most of his contemporaries, in 1857 he was elected to the Supreme | Bench, where he served for about six years, and with | able coadjutors, first as an Associate Justice and afterward as Chief Justice, contributed to the elevation of our highest tribunal to a dignity which commanded respect not. only throughout the Union but abroad. | Politically he was a Democrat, and when the Civil | War broke out he threw his intellect and his influence on the side of the Union. In 1863 he was appointed by President Lincoln one of the Justices of the Su-| preme Court of the United States and was assigned to the Tenth Circuit, It had been anticipated that the ap- | pointmenr. would be tendered to Oscar L. Shaiter, one | of the greatest lawyers and purest citizens that the “Union has-praduced. This fact alone shows the weight and the influence by which Judge Field was | backed. Transferred from the Supreme Court of the State to the Supreme Court of the nation, a tribunal that in | the extent of its jurisdiction and in the novelty and | ntricacy of the questions it is required to determine, has no equal on the globe, the opportunities of Judge Field for the illustration of his judicial strength were | enhanced by the heavy and complicated litigation, involving searching constitutional interpretations, that followed the close of the Civil War. He proved equal to every occasion, and though frequently in a minority | and subjected to severe criticisms for some of the 1:- cisions in which he participated he left an indelible | impression upon the jurisprudence of his country. | His vote determined and his opinion expressed the | decision of the Supreme Court of the United States | against test oaths, which overturned the decision of | our own Supreme Court upon a similar question. He | wrote prevailing opinions in a large number of leading | cases. His dissenting opinions in 'the legal tender | cases, in the confiscation cases, in the slaughter- | house case and in other controversies of equal sig- | nificance, would alone have ranked him among the able judges of the century. | He was a member of the electoral commission of 1877, which decided the conflict between Hayes and Tilden, and was one of the minority ot seven. In| 1880 he received 85 votes for Presidential nominee in | fhe Democratic National Convention. During his ju- | | dicial life many honorary distinctions were conferred | upon him which it would be impracticable to enu- | merate. - I He possessed the faculty of judicial reasoning in an | eminent degree, but in his personal character he was] extremely positive, aggressive and unconciliatory. | Consequently he made warm and true friends, but also | persistent and bitter enemies. At Marysville he quar- | reled with Judge Turner, and for months their mu- | tual animosity was vented in the courts and on the | streets. In the Legislature possible bloodshed be- | tween himself and one of his fellow members was only | averted by the decided action of David C. Broderick, | who was among his closest and dearest friends. While ! on the Supreme Bench the stabbing of Charles S. | Fairfax, clerk of the court, by Harvey Lee was due to | a struggle between the Court and the Governor for the appointment of an official reporter, in which Judge Ticld was conspicuous. The episode of the killing of Judge Terry at Lathrop is still' fresh in the public memory. . This is not the time nor place minutely to analyze the character and the acts of Judge Field in their bear- | ing upon popular rights and upon questions affecting the integrity of American institutions. The opinions | for and against him in relation to those parts of his | career are strong and contradictory and must be re- | served for that ultimate judgment which, in the United | States, is sure to be searching and just. On one point there will be no contrariety, and that is that in his ! death a great intellect ‘and a wealth of erudition have | been extinguished. INGLORIOUS CONTROVERSY. AN BOUT the only gratifying feature of the con- fltroversy over Samoa is the promptness with which the Governments of the three powers have arranged for a joint commission to settle it and put an end to it, From first to last the whole train of events leading up to the present crisis has been in- glorious to civilization, and the only -way for the The only way to compel boxing, contests to a finish ;'to present 4 respectable figure in this city is to insist - unon the ?cx:ra’ul_t' license ;5eeflo}‘ $5000 a year. Um’ted_ States, Great Britain and Germany to get any | credit out of it at all is to close it up quietly and say no more about it. . | proper way to do justice in the. matter would be to | destined to be the home of the world’s grea ! neglect of Congress to properly promote the interests | is one of the foremost among the younger leaders in I With the laudable ambition of taking up the “white FRANCISCO: CALL, MONDAY, nizn’s burden” and serving the brown men of .the South, Seas, the merchants and the missionaries of Germany, of -England and of the United States weat to the Samcan lslands and began to trade and to teach. Their ostensible mission was to promote the material and spiritual welfare of the natives, and as a firm foundation on which to build they announced that first of all they would establish and maintain peace. Then the trouble began. So far from keeping peace among the natives, the civilized protectors of the islands could not keep peace among themselves. Before the advent of the whites the natives had no cause of quarrel except to determine which of two rival chiefs had the stronger | following. When one side whipped the other the quarrel ended. i With the whites came all the quarrels of civiliza- tion. There arose trade rivalries, issues of prestige and precedence and questions concerning the best means of getting to heaven. Merchants and mission- aries mixed in a wrangle. The native had a new cause causes, moreover, cannot be settled by fighting it out in one battle, because being issues of principle, they survive the arguments of club and sword and remain At last all parties are agreed that the only way for the three powers to bear the white man’'s burden in peace is to separate the burden bearers. Now the send the disturbers out of the islands and leave the Samoans in possession of their country, their inde- pendence and their trade. Such a course, however, would be a surrender of the white man’s burden, and the conscience of diplomacy revolts at such an aban- donment of duty. So we are to disrupt Samoa, divide its people and rearrange peace on a new basis. Fortunately, the end of the dreary business seems All the powers have agreed to a conference. A member of the Berlin Foreign Office is quoted as having recently said: “The German member of the commission has not yet been selected, but we shall send a man who is eminently conciliatory, for we are determined to make peace.” The United States and Great Britain are undoubtedly animated by the same sentiment, and the commission will be harmonious— perhaps. WHERE _THE BLAME RESTS. T is the opinion of the Oregonian that the Pacific Coast is “the football of Congress.” It says: “If the Pacific Slope had a fair show it would be the busiest section of the United States,” and in proof ef that assertion points to the fact that civilization has turned its eyes at length to the world’s greatest ocean, | est coni- | merce. One factor of that boundless trade is to be | found among the teeming millions of Asia and an- | near. other in the vast resources and productiveness of California, Oregon and Washington The Oregonian fears, however, that we are not| going to profit by the possibilities of that commerce as we should. It points out that our Government has | done nothing to promote trade with the Orient, while European nations have done much; and it ar- gues that Congress actually forbids trade between the United States and Asia, saying: “Trade on the Pacific Slope is under the ban of Congress, put there from studied purpose of a conspiracy on the Atlantic seaboard. The parties to the conspiracy are three— the sugar trust, the Canadian Pacific and New Eng- land traders.” it With the statenrents of our contemporary concern- ing the possibilities of Oriental trade, and of the of the Pacific Coast, there is not likely to be much disagreement. There is mnothing in the situation, however, to justify a belief in the existence &f a con- spiracy in the East against our section of the Union. The fact is, we are ourselves to blame for Congres- sional neglect, for we have not sent from the Pacific Coast to Washington a representation equai to the service required of it. Rarely has any member of Congress from this coast held office long enough to make himself an influential factor in legislation. While the Eastern States send | to Washington the same men year after year, and thus have the sefvice of experienced statesmen to look after their interests at the national capital, the custom on this coast has been to send new men with each succeeding election. The result has been that while the East obtains about all it asks for, we receive so little attention that the Oregonian is half justified in saying the Pacific Coast is the football of Congress. The voters of the Fiith California Wistrict have Eeen wiser than those of other sections of the Pacific Cozst, and as a result their representative, Mr. Loud, Congress. He holds important positions and is able to render valuable service to his district and his State. I7 his colleagues from other districts in this State and | from Washington and Oregon were equally experi- enced and influential much would be accomplished. Ii is not worth while to accuse the Eastern people of conspiracy. They have been looking after their own interests, as they should, and it is for us to look after ours. Since the British are of the opinion that the Ger- mans are the cause of all the disturbance in Samoa, and the Germans are equally certain the British are the offenders, an opportunity is afforded our diplo- macy to persuade both of the contending parties to get out and leave the islands in our hands until the dispute is amicably settled. The spectacle of Lillian Russell abandoning the stage because Edna Wallace (once Hopper) was get- ting along so swimmingly with so little clothing is fit for the gods.. The fair Lillian’s mood is due entirely to an overdose of sour grapes. In addition to having described San Francisco as a jay town, she never had courage or shapeliness epough to wear tights. In the popular mind the game of basket ball will | no longer be classed among beanbag athletics. At last Saturday’s meeting between the pretty co-eds of the universities of Nevada and California one fair player achieved a broken nose and another lost a tooth. What are we girls coming to? The theory of the Berkeley professor that girls are mentaily unable to play football because they are too careful of others to make a winning rush is visionary. Put up a spring bonnet for a prize and the feminine team would run over everything in sight without a halt. % Are the Duke and Duchess of York running for office, or what? Their second visit to Ireland almost on the heels of the first looks like an attempt to cap- ture the Irish vote. When the police have cleared the gambling houses from Chinatown they will confer a great favor if they will proceed to clear them away from other parts of the city. . DU ¥ When diplomacy divides the Samoan group of isl- ands it will be interesting to observe how much of a | to the provisions of tne F share is given to the Samoans - 1 CAPRIL 10, 1899 THE MINE LOCATION The miners of California are all at sea concerning the law governing locations since the Legislature adjourned. A flood of questions comes to every le souce of information, and prospecto: are evervwhere wondering what they must do now. There has vet been given no clear exposition of the situation, and many mining attorneys have mnot yet poss! not ready to express definite op In a general way the situation is this: The Legislature repealed .the law of 1897 and accomplished nothi There is now nothing in the C statutes governing mining 1 tions in any way. Thére never was any State law governing mining locations until the two notices of location of I nature, the abolishing of mining dis recorders, the filing of location notices with the County Recorder only, and the doing of $0 worth of work within days after location upan lode claims and $10 worth on placer claims. The Federal law governing mining locations is a sim- ple one of rather skeleton form and per- mits an contemplates supplementary State and - district legislation. The Sowdrd law was the first of such sup- plementary legislation by this State, and the miners did not like it. At the recent session of the Legislature two bills passed both houses. One simply repealed the law of 1897 and the other enacted simpler requirements as to mining locations, pre- scribing but one notice, but retaining the requirements of assessment work within sixty days and the filing with the County Recorder. The Governor signed the repealing act but not the other one. Hence, thanks to Mr. Gage, the State has no location law and the Federal law ounly governs. The miners are thus left simply where they were before 1897. The repeal- ing act went into effect April 1. The situation is thus sumple on the face of it, but the transition backward brings its troubles to the mnd - instance, May mini at once organized : with its recorder? in Would either the pre- liminary or second notice used during the past two years be good for use mow, or must the old forms be obtained? What must be done by a man who located a claim a day or a month before the repeal of the State law, but who had not yet done his $50 worth of sment worl In other words, Does ¢ repealed law govern' locations begun under it? S questions as these wiil arise among min- ers and preserve an open season for aoubts for some time. The opinions of H. Ricketts, the well-known authority on mining law and author of the mining law of Nevada will be of interest concegning points. Concerning the situation ne ¥ ““I'hé eftect ol the repeal oI the min= v L ing act of 157 by the I ature of this State 1s to relegate the acquisition and maintaining of title to mining claims derar muning faw and the local rules, reguiations and customs of miners, and 1if tnere 2 one of the latter whoily to the United States nw. 1t is not necessary for the vaiidity of a mining location within tne State of Calitormia_that the same snall be situ- ated within any orgamzed aistrict, but the miners have now the unresiricted right to torm mining districls and 1ormu- late such rules and regulations as tney whicn are not_incon- may see Proper, 5 sistent with the paramount or Federal i —that is to s they may now ng la prescribe the boundaries of the district the manner of locating a mining claim, whether the same be a lode or a placer claim, and the place, manner time of recording location notices and the contents of the same, provided that each record contains such a description of the claim by reference to some natural o Jject or permanent monument as will read- y identify the claim. The miners of the district may provide for the election of a mi- trict recorder, the posting and filing of notices of location, alu. w..ac. . L iF. regulations or custom > nouces of 10 cation will be prima facie evidence of the facts recited therein in any court in this State. Miners may still record their hotices with the County Recorder, but unls the district Tules so provide such notices will not be admissible in evi- dence. Z “In_order to make a valid location the State of California under the laws now existing therein, and in the absence of any local rules, regulations and cu toms, it is sufficient to make a discoves of the lode, post upon the ground a no- tice of location containing the name of the locator, the date of the location, the name of the claim and such a descriy tion of the claim located by reference to some natural object or permanent monu- ment as will identify the aim and by placing a monument, which generally consists of a stake set in a mound of stones at each corner of the four corners of the claim and a similar monument at center end of the location, and, for , to record the same in the office of County Recorder of the county in And upon claim located since the repeal of the act of 1897 no work need be done on any location until during the second cal- endar r of the locatiol “Since the repeal of the act of /1897 it is not nece: v to complete the location by doing the amount of work within the sixty days required under that act nor the filing of the final or completed n tice—that is, the second notice of loc: tion therein provided for. The Sta wholly ceases to operate on the ¢l The law of 1867 did not abolish mining districts, but it made the office of district recorder useless by taking away the legal- of district récords and making the county seat the only place for a valid rec- ord. The practical effect was to generally disorganize mining districts. Prospectors grumbled much at the inconvenience. Now there will be a general reorganiza- tion of mining districts throughout the State and location notices will be again filed with district recorders. The State law, with its detailed requirements, left mining districts little latitude for legis lation, but now they are again the sole sources of supplementary regulations, When the law went into effect district records were gathered, often with much trouble, by the County Recorders. In Mr. Ricketts’ opinion such old district records must remain where they are. Prospectors will throw up their chiefly at the escape from the assess work required within sixty da: such requirement is badly needed when a man may, locate forty claims and hold them for nearly two years without doing a stroke of work on them, and then relo- cate them, if quick enough, and hold them for another two vears. The effect of the State law was to vastly lessen the number of locations made, as a prospector could hold only as many claims as he could put $50 worth of work on in two months. * Now one may locate as many claims as he pleases, and he not only has until December 31, 1900, to do his $100 worth of work but any work done this vear will not count.on his assessment. With the present boom in prospecting mineral re- Zions will be staked out in A lively way from now on. And. according to Mr, Ricketts, one who located a elaim just be- fore the repeal of the law may drop his pick and not complete the $50 assessment work that may be worrying him. As to the use of location notices, printed according to the State law, they would be valid enough, but they are cumbersome and complicated, and one of the old forms would be better. RAPID RISE OF GOLD DREDGING IN CALIFORNIA. ’ The starting of three new, gold dredgers now in the which the claim is situated. hats calls attention to the fact that dredging |- for gold is just coming to the front in California. Wide interest is being awak- ened in this interesting form of gold min- ing, which surely has a great future in this State. Withih two years some hun- dreds of thousands of dollars have been invested in this field. which is rapidly as- su_‘lr‘r}:‘ln large impt:)tmtmia B ere are now about ten dredger; kinds and sizes on_the I“ma.ll-‘ger,‘E l?fxl;‘xi“ American, Trinity, Klamath and Upper Sacramento rivers. Two of the jargest and best will be ready for operation with. in a few days. There is no good reason why there should not be hundreds of gold dredges wm'k.h'nfl in the State, and there undoubtedly will be In a few years, jn volving investments of ~millions, giving employment and trade to many and large- ly_increasing the fold output. There. is probably no large gold region in the world so inviting for this kind of mining. The beds of the lower courses of the tributaries of the Sacramento and of other streams are deep beds of aurifer- ous gravels which can seldom be worked. Miles of such unworked river beds are as and | MESS. BOOM IN GOLD DREDGING. rich here and there as any ground worked in _early days. Since the beginning of | gold mining here such beds have been | worked in small areas by wing damming. | a costly and risky operation which can | be conducted but a small part of the| season,: but which is often very profit- ble. Bedrock, where the greatest riches oft buried many feet deep, in P nearly a hundred feet and in| others but five or ten. One of the notable mining enterprises of the State is the turning of the Feather wholly out of its bed. A successful gold dredge works | such river beds'to bedroek and gets a| conslderable percentage of the gold lying on the bedrock and in its shallow crevices | and can operate all the year. Many de-| posits hdve been worked only to the water line. _ But the greatest amount of gold-bear-| ing gravel is in the benches flanking the | streams and in old channels, bars and | basins. There is an immense area of such ground averaging moderate values | of a few: cents a cubic yard through many feet of depth and often rich near bedrock., The only economical method of working such ground has been the hydraulic process, and as thousands of | acres of such ground lie where the | hydraulic process camnot be used,- the | old still waits extraction. A properly | designed gold dredge will work such de-| posits at a cost of from 3 to § cents a cubic yard, ar as cheaply per vard as a hydraulic. plant would work ground. As| vast areas of ground will average 10 to 20 cents or even more] the opportunities are evident. | California, which has led the world in | quartz mining, is late in getting around to this form of the mining industry. It began in New ‘Zealand in the early 'S of mining there, has reached its highest development there, and the world turns to New Zealand to learn the business. I There has been a steady evolution of | the gold dredge since then until now it | is one of the chief features of the New | Zealand mining industry. On the Clutha River in the province of Otago on the southern island there are seventy-five dredgers, and there are perhaps a hun- dred more elsewhere in New Zealand. In. quite recent years the success at- tained in New Zealand has attracted at- tention throughout the world, and New Zealand methods have been the subject of much inquiry, report and discus Australia, South Africa, Siberia, Canada, the United States and elsewhere. Dredges are now being built or contemplated in | every auriferous region of the world. Gold dredging in California may be said | to have started about five years ago, when | the Diestlehorst Brothers of Redding | rigged up a primitive contrivance and went to working the bed of Lower Middle Creek above Redding. It was a peculiar shaped scoop, holding one-third of a cubic yard, and operated on a pontoon by a Steam winch at ope end, which dragged the scoop along the bottom quite like the first New land plant. But it paid, and the Diestlehorsts planned a larger power scoop dredge of another styl built it on the Klamath. Then they built another, and the two Diestlehorst dredges re NOW ope ng at Big Oak Bar on the Jlamath. A similar dredge of compara- tively small size was put to work on the | Upper Sacramento two or three years ago by others, and then somebody installed on that stream a dredge of the clam shell type. No definite information as to cost | ¢t operation or profits of any of these dredges has been given, but they work on | and evidently pay. | Three years ago R. H. Postlewaite came here on a business trip from New Zea- land, where he had for some years been building modern dredges on the Clutha, and seeing the great possibilities of the business in California he went into it here 1i which began operating eighteen months ago. This was the first here of the type | uged in New Zealand—the continuous or ain bucket'type, in which an endless chain of buckets is directed against a bed or bank. The scoop and clam shell dredges have paid under favorable conditions, the suction dredge, o efficient for some pur- poses, has always failed in this field, and the New Zealand type has generally been | adopted,. though the first cost is larger. When the Postlewaite dredge was in-| stalled several large dredging plants had | been put into successful operation at va- | rious places along the Missouri, in:«Mon- tana, in Colorado and ‘elsewhere through the western region, where they are now rapidly multiplylng and interesting capi- tal. The success of the Postlewaite dredge | on the Yuba has been followed by the building of five more, making six great dredges of the modern type. One is on the Trinity, one on the American._one on the Yuba and three are on the Feather below Oroville a few miles. These dredges are all similar. There are two pontoons about 100 feet long connected so as to practically form one boat of that length, 23 feet wide, with a well hole five feet wide and 75 feet long, through which is operated the ladder or girder, up and | down which the chain of buckets travels. This girder will, with its buckets, reach ground 45 feet below water or quite a dis-| tance above. Thirty-eight heavy. steel-| lipped buckets or scoops travel at the rate of fifteen per minute, driven b; 45-horse- | power engine. These scoops will pick up boulders of a ton weight, will dig into | hard ground and will scrape and dig up the top of the bedrock. At the top the | buckets empty their material, which goes into a big revolving screen or grizzly sup- plied with 3000 gallons of water per min- ute. The fine material is washed through the screen and passes to plates and to| sluices fitted with cocoa matting and rif- | fles, where 98 per cent of the gold is said | to be saved. The tailings and the boulders from the grizzly go to an endless carrier, which reaches out behind and which will stack the debris 26 feet high. The ma- chinery is massive to stand the shocks and wear. One of these dredges i$ quite a complicated and striking affair. Each has a dynamo driven by a separate en- gine for electric lights. and a five-barrel | steam winch for the cables which radiate from the corners and straight ahead to hold the dredge in place and to move it. Such a dredge costs $35.000. and in favor- able ground will handle 2500 cubic vards per twenty-four hours. In Montana and Colorado such dredging plants have in cases been put on wheeis running on a track, but wherever water can be had floating is preferred. These dredges are operated twenty-four hours a day by three shifts of only two men each. The only other necessary employes are one drlf-flgo master and a general superintend- ent. Some of these dredges have bee: “launched” like any boat, but others hav’; not. The one on the Trinity was built nine months ago, and is owned by Messrs. Gilman and MeNelll of Chicago who hought nearly. four miles of placer ground_about Lowden’s ranch, ten miles above Weaverville. The dredger was put up in an excavation nearly a mile from the river, on an old bar, and a sliice was started up stream to supply water to float ~ and operate the dredge. The dredge floated off and went to work at the gravel about it. There is a great area t&fenny :ravfll ttWP‘l;\t)l-flve to thirty feet eep, enough to Keep sev 3 Busy mans e 4 eral ' dredgers O. DENNY. AROUND THE CORRIDORS J. Liberty Tadd is at. the California. F. M. Shaw of Denyer is at the Occi- dental. E. C. Voorhies of Sutter Creek is at the Palace. G. D. Plato, a merchant of Modesto, is at the Lick. “Senator E. C. Voorhies of Sutter Creek is at the Palace. Joseph W. Graeme, U. 8. N., s a guest at the Palace. George Teaford and H. A. Krohn of Ma- dera are at the Lick. R. Michzutanl and A, Amado of Naga- eaki are at the Palace. A. C. Johnson and J. P. Farrell of Los Angeles are at the Occidental. L. A. Crane, a rancher of Santa Cruz, is at the Palace for a brief.stay. 8. D. E. Cohen, a merchant of Carson City, is stopping at the California. John Ballard, the mining man and cap- italist, of Claremont, is at the Lick. T. C. Bunting, a retired general, United States army, is staying at the Occidental. ‘W. H. Sperry, a Chico business man, is making the Occidental his headquarters. George H. Cowie, a prominent citizen of Stackton, is a guest at the California. Thomas Fitzgerald, Pacific Coast travel- ing passenger agent of the Texas and Pa- {'the British cruiser Terrible on March 1 geles, will be at the Occidental for a few days. k3 J. 8. Chapman and wife. T. 8. Fullet’and wife and Ben Goedrich of Los Angeles are at the Palace. M. S. Arndt, a merchant of Stockton, accompanied by his wife, is stopping at the California. ‘ George T. Myers, a merchant of Port- land, Or., is at the Occidental, accompa- nied by his wife. J. W. Purdy, H.- 8. Allen and J. P. O’Brien, well known rhining men from Sonora, are stopping at the Grand. Railroad Commissioners N. C. Black- stock of Ventura and E. B. Edson of Ga- zelle are in the city to attend a meeting of the board and are at the Occidental. NEWS OF IOREIGN NAVIES. Officers in the German navy are hence- forth to be either ¢lean shaved or to grow a full beard and mustache. This rule is adopted from the British navy. The Japanese battieship Asahi, lz\uncl:,- is the largest v She is 42 feet in length, 75 feet inches beam and displaces 15200 tons on a draught of 27 feet 3 inches mean. The two sets of engines have a collective horsepower of 15,000, calculated to give a speed of eighteen knots. The guns, all furnished from Elswick, are four 12- inch, fourteen 6-inch quick firers, eight 3 and four 21 pounders. The maximum thickness of the armor belt is nine inches, and the gun deck is protected by 6-inch armor. The coal bunker capacity is 1400 tons. Four armored cruisers, known as the Drake class, are building for the Britist nav: They are 500 feet in length, T feet beam, and displace 14000 tons on a fear draught of 26 feet. A speed of 28 knots is to be maintained for eight hours under natural draught; with 30,000 horsepower, and an average of 21 knots at sea: in smooth water, under continuous steam- ing, during twenty-four hours. They will have six-inch vertical armor,- and’ the bottom of the hull will be unsheathed. The armament includes two 9.2-inch aire- bound rifles, sixteen: 6-inch quick-firers, fourteen 12-pounders, three 3-pounders and two torpedo tubes. The mnormal coal supply is ons on the speed trjals, Dbut the bunker capacity is 2500 tons, mak- ing the seagoing displacement 15,350 tons. The explosions of the tubes in the Belle- vue boflers on the British cruiser Ter- rible, which oceurred on her recent trip from Malta to England. occasioned quite a stir in Parliament. W. Allen, who_has vigorously opposed the introduction of these boilers in the navy, said the, ships were practically ruined by these boilers, and that it was time the House appointed a committee to inquire into the matter. The stokers and engineers on these ves- sels lived In fear of their lives, because there was.an enormous pressure in °the boilers, which could not be used, and which made lost dan- ger. The ve these boilers were only fit for the scrap-heap. During 1898 there were jaunched a total of cighty-seven war vessels, classified and distributed among the ral navies as Jown in the table appended Total Armored. | Unarm’d. { and bullt a_dredge on the Yuba River, | Ger taking The Coroner at Portsmouth is testimony regarding the explosion while the ship was on her way from Mal- ta to Portsmouth.” Assistant Engineer Morley -stated that he heard' a noise,: and at once gave orders to the fires,” and that when Fireman Sulli- van opened a fire door one of the tubes burst. and the steam escaping, Carri the fire across the stoke hold, burning Sullivan to such a degree that he died a few hours later, and injuring three ,oth- ers. At the time of the explosion -the steam pressure was only 180 pounds, while the boilers had been tested at 260 pounds. In his opinion the accident was caused by defkctive welded tubes, five of these hav- ing burst during the short vorage, and that if the tubes had been ‘‘solid drawn’ the accident would not have occurred.” The Terrible is fitted with Belleville boilers, and the sad accident has given an oppor- tunity for the opponents to water-tube boilers to make a fight in Parliament against the furthet use in the navy of this type of boilers. Cal. giace frult 50c per b at Townsend" e Look out for §1 Fourth st., nr. 5¢ barber and grocer; eveglasses, specs, 10c to 40c.* B Special information supplied daily to business houses ‘and public men the Press Clipping Bureau (Allen’s),510 Mont- gomery street. Telephone Main 1042. = * —_——— The public entrance doors of the grea building of the Bank of England agg .F finely balanced that a clerk, by pressing a knob under his desk, can close them in- stantly. THE CALIFORNIA LIMITED, Sante Fe Route. Three times a week; 3% days to Chicago, 4% days to New York. Handsomest train and most complete service. Full particulars at 625 Mar- ket street. “Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup” Has been used for fitty years by millions of mothers for their children while Teething with perfect success. It soothes the child, softens the gums, allays Pain, cures Wind Collc, reg- ulates the Bowels and Is the best remedy for Diarrhoeas, whether arising from teething or other causes. For sale by Druggists in every part of the world. Be sure and ask for Mrs, Winslow's Soothing Syrup. %e a bottle. ————————— - HOTEL DEL CORONADO—Take advantags of the round-trip tickets. Now only $80 by steamship, including fifteen days' board at hotel; longer stay, §3 per day. Apply at 4 New Montgomery street, San Francisco. The healthiest spot in the world seems to be a little hamlet in France named Aumone. There are only forty inhabi- tants, twenty-five of whom are 80 years of age, and one is over 100. ADVERTISEMENTS. 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