624 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15. 



miners' claims; and where they sank their 

 shafts (or we might call them wells) to bed- 

 rock, as a miners' claim is 16 feet square, these 

 holes became numerous. But the palmy min- 

 ing days have become a story of the past; and 

 only debris, and holes caved in and hidden 

 with brush show where the men toiled for gold. 

 Now and then an old miner strikes a little " pay 

 dirt," as he terms it, and. by the side of a little 

 stream of water, works out with his rocker a 

 paltry two bits a day, or even less. 



Quartz-mining has taken the place of all 

 other methods; and to even start one of these 

 mines requires as much of a fortune as would 

 satisfy an ordinary bee-keeper. The largest of 

 these mines are located in Angels. The Utica 

 mine gives employment to some 600 men, tak- 

 ing out $250,000 per month. The mill operates 

 180 stamps; each stamp weighs 8.50 lbs.; and 



But another sound comes to the ears. The 

 poor sewing-woman in the garret, the laboring 

 man on the street, raise the earnest cry, "Sil- 

 ver, silver; good silver." The farmer and the 

 bee-keeper sing the refrain, " Root of good, root 

 of good; silver, silver." The church - bells 

 chime the silvery tones, and a day of rest, day 

 of rest. The silver shout grows louder; the 

 relentless rattle of gold for the rich has its day; 

 the ballot brings peace and good will, and the 

 thundering stamps now merrily shout, " Silver 

 and gold! silver and gold!" 



Mr. Schaeffle touched me on the shoulder, 

 and the dream vanished. We went forward 

 with our inspection of the mill; but "silver 

 and gold, a day of rest, peace and good will," 

 echo in my ears even unto this day. 



The gold is liberated by crushing, and is 

 caught in a quicksilver battery. This yields 



t. ^ .% 



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^fe:' 



jI 



A QUARTZ MINE AND MINERS. 



its fall of five inches, to crush the ore, is about 

 every two seconds. The reader may judge 

 that the 180 stamps, all in one building, make 

 a deafening roar — the earth trembles. These 

 stamps continue their harsh music for 365 days 

 in the year. 



Amid the roar of the mill I fell into a sort of 

 trance; and as I listened to the water gurgling 

 under thi- stamps it seemed tosay, " No Sunday 

 here, no Sunday here." The ore. as it rattled 

 continuously toward the stamp, said, "Root of 

 evil, root of evil." The stamp harshly answer- 

 ed, " It is gold, it is gold." Out of the din and 

 thunder of the stamp-mill the mind flashes to 

 the far-nlT cities, and finds a connecting link in 

 the soulless railroad corporations, and the din 

 of railroad trains answers to the mine, "No 

 Sunday here, no Sunday here." The rattle of 

 traffic on the street echoes " Koot of evil, root 

 of evil." In the stock exchange the frenzied 

 calls of the gamblers, the raps of the gavel, and 

 the madness of the hour, re-echo, " It is gold, 

 it is gold." 



about 65 to 75 per cent of the gold. Formerly 

 this was all that could be saved; but now the 

 sulphurets, in which the waste gold went off, 

 are saved in a large building called the chlo- 

 ririation-works. The process is quite compli- 

 cated, and now 95 per cent of the gold is saved 

 from the ore. 



Mr. Schaeffle being upon sort o" fraternal 

 terms with the superintendent, we were al- 

 lowed to descend into the mine. A large bucket 

 of boiler iron (that is what we should call it, 

 but in miner parlance it is called a skep) is 

 operated by a hoisting-engine and a wire rope 

 that runs over pulleys in a tower fully 60 feet 

 in height. The superintendent had gotten this 

 drop on us, and ordered Mr. Wilder and myself 

 into the skep. while he and Mr. Schaeffle clung 

 to the rope and stood on the edge of the skep. 

 We were provided with candles; but the miners 

 have little lamps on the front of their hats. 

 This allows a free use of the hands. The sig- 

 nal is given — a tap of a gong — and down we go 

 —down, down. The shaft is 1000 feet deep, and 



