AMERICA'S UNDERGROUND WORKERS 29 



way. When large masses of ore are to be removed, the square 

 set timbering explained heretofore is resorted to as the best 

 plan. 



Only an expert can tell however the direction taken by 

 veins and the best manner of mining for thom. Although 

 the various ores are becoming well known, the majority of 

 people have only a ver}^ indistinct idea of what a metal bearing 

 vein looks like. There is no glittering show in a gold mine 

 for example. The black sulpharet ore on the top of the great 

 Comstock lode was handled for months before anyone sus- 

 pected its value. The same is true of the carbonates of Lead- 

 ville. No mercury drips from red cinnabar like water from 

 a wet sponge. The novice will fail to see lead or zinc in 

 the dull gray rock that contains those ores, and he will not 

 pick up as copper bearing a rock sprinkled with green and 

 blue specks. Even the richest diamond fields in the world 

 are but areas of blue ground to the eye. 



It requires skill and a high degree of training to find a mine, 

 but it requires all this and courage of the highest t}^e to 

 drag from the earth its treasures — the kind of courage that 

 was exemplified in the early history of mining in the country; 

 the same kind of courage that animates the great under- 

 ground army that is working away, fighting odds and over- 

 coming obstacles in the mines of America at the present day. 

 It is an army that is growing every year and with its growth 

 its victories — measured by the increased outputs of the mines 

 — are becoming greater. 



