The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-20
SPIRIT OF rzu PRESS.
Ra,,or,nI Opinions of tho Leading Journals
Siuon Carrent TOpics-COmpiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
THE GREAT NEVADA TUNNEL.


tunnel in Nevada, have shown him to be
man of extraordinary energy and perseVer-
ance. He has personally urged his scheme
in all the bourses of the world, from New
York. London, and Paris, to Amsterdam,
Vienna and Frankfort; he has labored with
the great money kings and money lenders OF
Europe; he has appealed to the American
Congress with the greatest pertinacity, and
has reasoned with Senators and members by
dav and night; he has importuned the editors
of all the leading journals of the country; he
has fought the Bank of California, the great
financial power of the Pacific coasts he has
printed books and pamphlets, maps and en-
cravings: he has held correspondence or per-
sonal interviews with nearly all the leading
scientific men and mining engineers now Nv
ing; and he has sacrificed all the funds ne
himself possessed in his determined efforts
to secure the capital required for the con-
struction of the tunnel. When, after his un-
wearied labors with Congress at its last ses-
sion, he failed to obtain an appropriation,
though the House Committee on Mines and
Mining recommended q subsidy of S5,000,-
600, it seemed as though he would at last be
compelled to give up the struggle. He had
apparently tried and exhausted every means
that promised success; and, in resigning all
hope of it, he would at least have the con-
seriousness that he had only failed after dis
playing an amount of ingenuity and perti-
nacity sufficient to secure success for almost
any possible project.
But Captain Sutro has neither given up
his prospects nor his labors On the contrary
he has Just announced his purpose of making
another attempt, which, we must say, gives
better promise than any of those that have
preceded it. The speech he has recently de-
Ivered on the subject in Nevada sets forth
his new programme in detail; and while doing
SO, he takes occasion to recount his past
struggles, trials, plans, hopes, and misfor-
tunes in America and Europe; and this he
does in a way that makes it as interesting as
any romance of personal adventure.
The new plan of Captain Sutro is to induce
the Nevada miners themselves to commence
operations upon the tunnel on their own ac-
count He desires, in fact, to carry on the
work upon the cooperative principle-offer-
ing opportunities by which some of the men
may give their labor. while others may invest
such sums as they possess, from S. upwards,
receiving therefor stock in the meantime, and
subsequently such returns as may be fur
nished by the silver which he feels assured
will soon be reached. The plan he has drawn
up appears entirely feasible, and he has pre-
sented it in such way that we are not sur
prised at the encouragement he has received.
The privileges, rights, and grants of land he
has already obtained from Congress give an
excellent basis of security on which to at
tempt the cooperative plan; and the assur-
ance of immense returns to all interested par
ties in the event of success, furnish an ele-
ment of attraction peculiarly tempting to the
American, and, above all others, to the Anne
rican miner.
The plan that Mr. Sutro has finally deter
mined to try has been adopted, not only be-
cause of the failure of all others, but because
of the objection the capitalists everywhere
made to his efforts to induce them to invest
in the tunnel He was asked here in New
York, as well as in London, Paris, and
Vienna, why the Nevada people themselves
did not take hold of project that offered
buch inducements as he presented. He an
6wered this as well as he could, but still the
question was repeated; and at last he realized
that the doubt it implied would absolutely
prevent him from obtaining the means re-
qured from Eastern or European capitalists.
He also discovered that there was but one way
OF meeting the difficulty, and that was by
actually obtaining from the people of Nevada
that practical Endorsement of his scheme in
Volved in contributions of their own money
and labor. In setting about the work of
securing this, he has acted with his usual
vigor; and if he meets with any reasonable
success, and is able to show any practical
result, there will thereafter be no difficulty
in obtaining all the capital necessary for
continuing the work through the silver mines.
The Sutro tunnel, as our readers are aware,
was projected as means of piercing the sill
ver-bearing mountain, in the State of Nevada,
wherein exists what is known as the ''Com-
stock lode," the richest silver vein of which
there is any record in ancient or modern his
tory. This lode has been worked for ter
years past, and during the last six years has
produced 1915, 600, OO0 but Captain Sutro say'
that the whole of this enormous sum ha'
been swallowed up by the expense of pro
ducing it. The business of working it, which
has always been great, is now one of extreme
difficulty and it is merely question of TIM
when it will have to be abandoned, no matte
how rich the ore. The I.iners have reached
an average depth of about one thousanC
feet, at which nearly fifty steam engines arr
required to pump out the water and hoist tn,
ore, and the expense of keeping all this ma
already Improbable to work some of tn
mines. In addition, it appears that the hea
has SO greatly increased that at the presen
depth, the miners can do but one-half theil
proper amount of labor. Now if fifty en-
gines are required to work these mines
depth of one thousand feet, how many wi
be necessary at depth of 1900 to 2000 feet
and if the thermometer now stands at 10
degrees Fahrenheit, how high will it stan
with another years progress into the earth
It is admitted on all hands, we believe, tina
the mining of this lode must ere long cease
though there may not be the slightest sign {
the exhaustion of the silver deposits.
It is the opinion of all scientific men an
mining engineers, based on experience an
investigation, that mineral lodes, true fssul
veins, such as exist in this locality, descen
indefinitely No termination of any of thel
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