Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-12-21
RUTLAND, VT. THURSDAY MORNING. DECEMBER 21, 1871.

perhaps of too personal a nature to be
dwelt upon here, were it not for its bear
ing upor the tin muddle already alluded
to. Now there is no tie or intimacy like
that of student life; and after
my old friend, Mr.. Oettinger, bad fur
nished US with dry clothes and dinner,
and we had mutually given an account of
ourselves, I took him aside and asked him
in confidential whisper, "Really now. is
there any tin in this mountain ?" mot
doubt of it. Here" he said, drawing
what is called "tin button" from bis
pocket. II got this out of my own oruci-
ble I have assayed the ore dozens of
times. I completed my studies at the
German mines, and [ know tin when L
find it," Imagine the mental state of
couple of unscientifo iDquirers who had
been assured by the last chemist they had
met. that he had assayed the ore dozens
of times, and would bet his head there is
no tin in that mountain.
Nevertheless, the company have spent
over hundred thousand dollars in pierre
ing the mountain, taking out the ore, and
erecting the works which figure in our
engraving. The works were not yet done
but they are, as is allowed by the friends
and enemies of tin alike, to be of the
most complete and extensive kind. The
processes by which tin is got from the
rock are similar, but OF more delicate
nature, than the processes by whi1h gold
and silver are melted. kThe company will
have shown one hundred and fifty thous-
and dollars worth of confidence in the
euccees of the enterprise, when the works
are done, and if sucoesa crowns the effort
at last. there is no means of computing
the gains. The ore is abundant, and
80 easy to get at and withal 50 unprece-
IDENTIFY full of tin cay the belieVers) that
it will be one of the richest mines in the
world. The works are situated on the
banks of the Little st Francis, with Tin |
Mountain back of them, as shown in our
picture"
Mr. Keeler says that it is the general
impression among the uneduoated inhabi-
tants of the country. and among some of
the workmen employed by the company
at Tin Mountain, that it is a silver mine
in their midst.
Aud after describing the great mine
LaMotte, near Fredericktown, as one of
the oldest lead mines in this country and |
one of the richest in the world, be closes
the tin part of his interesting article
thus:
"If we needed proof of the interest st. Iouis
and the w@rld at large take IN the mineral re-
sources of Missouri, we had it certainly in the
number of geo'cg sts, chemists, and scientific
men ger era ly whom our tram picked up at the
Tay-stati ns on our return 20 the Future Great
City" Our Bismarck acquain ance, the state
geologist, with some Of his assistants. was
among the number, and the argument about tin
was resumed 1 can give no idea of the heat
and uproar of whole carload of disagreeirg
DOCTOR We were wore confused and cOnfound-
I'd than ever. One believer in tin would instance
a public a~sag which had been N ade IN the pres
ence of n score of uubpi~veTs, when, rhink he
said, twelve pn cent of he meta in d'sOufe was
found to which his opponent would retort hat
there Was hocus-pocus i'll TIE huxrs used. Gov,
Ora Brown got on board the tr in somewhere
on the road and thea the debate waxed wilder
and wiId-r TIL we finally reached s.. Louis. The
TN m On SEEM to t-lk the Ioudest in The guher
material ear, for the next day the State geoogis'
was remove from Office; catastrophe which
Prof Hagar seems to bar with the cheerfuest
,quauiglty, expecting as he does a grand TIL
umph when the works are tried and Tin NJ un-
ain is found wanting. He still maintain that
hey will never find tin in workable quantities
that quarry of greensboro.
And so the controversy rests or should rest,
3ut doesn't,-until Mr. Oettirger and hts ad-
mirable machinery shall put an end to the sus-
oense; a con-umma'ion expected about week
rom this writing. When to the sum Of our JOLT
ngs and the wood-ticks accompanying us from
he Little St. Francis an forest, is added the .
lumber OF nights were kept up by the argu-
npnt pro aud con, after our return to st. Louis
t can be UNDERSTOOD | think, that to us at least
here is no subject just quite so pathe ically
nteres ing and so absorbirgy uncertain, as the
uestion whether there really is any tin in Tin
1t will be seen then that our for
ner townsman has made no uncertain l
mark in his brief official career among G
he mines of Missouri 1t was never his c
ault when among Us to play the poll (
ician, and skulk behind the folds of gar
nents rolled in the official dignity 10 Or y
er to find or hold the place of power, and a
While "the clearest precision of language" o
escribed by Keeler may not have sound b
d pleasantly to the ears of those men
yho had invested enormous sums of mon ;
Y in Tin Mountain, one can not but ad- h
nire the boldness with which the "im- t.
orted geologist from the Green Monn- g
aims" (as the newspaper friends of the a
resent Missouri executive, sometimes -
all Mr.. II y takes hold of his work and i,
oes what he believes to be his duty. I
hat such man like other mortels may I
e in error is admitted, but of his even
ual success it is not problemstical Meet P
ng the equally confident Dutch geologist 81
gho completed his 'studies at the Ger o
lan mines," the self-taught and success %
ul Yankee shrinks not from the enooun
er-and the question-"Is it tin ?" as =, a
1mes an interesting phase in Missouri !.
minerals, as well as in the success of the
in Mountain Tin Co., as in the disagree a
~ doctors of mineralogy. C. he.