Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1870-03-16

around We're piled clay and rock; at
one side a shed and horsepower
This was lead mine and these the
lead miners. 1 could not but note the
] difference between the scene at the
mouth of this shaft, and that at some
| of our Trumbull coal mines, with
their putting engines and busy hands
dumping" the coal as it comes from
the mine, or loading cars with it;
! while here, tho almost within pistol
shot of the principal streets Of the
largest city in the State, nothing broke
/ the silence but the low voices of the
miners as they talked of the then,
! late AVOndale horror, where so many
coal miners were buried or suttocated.
The miners, too, unlike our short,
/ heavy set coal diggers, were tall, well
/ built men, and by their speech, mostly
American born. Their words as they
! spoke of the accident, and the care
| lessness of mine proprietOrs, had an
elOquence that one would scarcely look
| for in men eftheir calling. When the
group broke up. TO go to their differ
/ ent places of work, for there were 9TH
er shafts close by, Iasked leave of the
! old miner. who was preparing to de-
q
we had been sitting, TO go down with
| him. Certainly, sir, he said, but
Z hold fast to the rOunds.n He and his
assistant descended the ladder, which
[ was fastened to the side of the shaft,
Z first, as 1 followed. Before 1 reached
the bottom realized what was meant
when he said "hold fast" for it was
something less than a mile to the foot
of the ladder, and my arms ached
most thoroughly by the time reach
ed there. The old miner had lit a
candle by the time touched bottom,
and we proceeded to explore the mine.
Now in my ignorance had supposed
! that lead ore is found as coal or iron
! is, in beds, or veins, between strata of
rocks above and below. Nothing of
the sort. 1t is in great caves, a humid
red feet below the surface, shut up
with nothing on the ground above TO
indicate its presence, but down deep
( in the solid rock, something after the
! fashion of the treasure hid in the en-
chanted caverns of fairy tales. These
caves or pockets" l believe the old
miner called them, are often of con-
siderable extent; some that we were
through were several hundred feet
long, twenty or thirty high, and half
that in breadth. Sometimes they are
connected together by narrow open
ings, sometimes by only flaws OF seams
in the rock, but more often they have
to "driftn through the solid rock to
find them. The miners can tell when
near them, the old miner said. by the
sound of the pick on the rock. The lead
is found fast to the sides and top, or
embedded in the clay of the floor of
these pockets, in a nearly pure state
frequently over eighty per cent. be-
ing pure lead. The remaining twen-
ty per cent. is mostly sulphur, which,
with the soft nature of the metal
makes it easily smelted. 1t is sold to
the smelters at prices, varying accord
ing to its purity, usually about5 cents
per pound. AT this mine it was rails.
ed to the surface by the horse power
which l had noticed; smaller mines
draw ii up with q bucket and windlas.
The pockets which We were looking
through had been worked out. and the
miner and his assistant were run
ming drift" to intersect one, which,
from traces of lead on the face of the
bluff, they supposed to be few rods
distant. AS the pockets run from east
to west, to intersect them the drift is
run north and south. l went to the
end of the drift, where they were
working. The limestone rock is so
intensely hard that the pick has al
most no impression on it it can only
be loosened by drilling and blasting.
Thex were fallnzVin2 y -sassaii seam in
the rock, which went nearly IN the
direction they expected TO find the
pocket, but even with its help they
could drive the drift scarcely foot
day. They had fired blast on leav-
ing work the evening before, and the
assistant proceeded to load car, hold
ing perhaps a bushel with the loosen
ed rock. This assistant, by the way,
was the only voter 1 have yet met who
had the good fortune to be born in
Iowa. He had been a shot maker he
said, but finding the business un-
healthy, had left it for mining. Accord
ing to him the shot is made thusly:
A projection is built over the brow
of the bluff far enough so that the
end of it may be directly above the
valley. The melted lead mixed with
arsenic to make it drop freely, is poured
from the end of this projection, thro'
sleeves, into a vessel of cold water in
the valley beneath. The different
sized meshes of the sieyes make differ
ent sized shot; the long fall through
the air into the cold water gives the
round shape.
But began to tire of the prolong-
ed stay in the mine, as you, gentle
reader, doubtless do of the account of
it, and the assistant having loaded his
car and commenced pushing it with
head and hands toward the shaft
bottom, bade the old miner farewell
and followed. The ascent did not seem
as tiresome as the descent, and / was
soon again in Goods free air."
Since the war, the demand for lead
has fallen off, and the price declined.
Some of the smelling furnaces are not
running. The "big strikes of ore do
not seem as frequent, and the business
generally does not flourish as 'in the
days of Aud Lang Syne.n 1t seems
that, whether in the gold mines of
California and Idaho, the oil bearings
of Pennsylvania and Ohio, or the lead
diggings of Illinois and Iowa, the
first days will be the best, and that
when the first excitement is over, and
the ''fever" abated, mining subsidies
into pursuit more uncertain, and ON
the whole, not as profitable as Agri-
culture. p. II.
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