Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1875-03-25
Largest Circulation in the District
Number Of Obpies.
No '.Psyinx' Gold In the Black Hills

IL will be rather rough on the gold seekers
who are rushing to the Black Hills In viola
tion of our treaties with the Indians, should
they lose their scalps In a wild goose chase
A correspondent of the Chicago TSib,use In
Lowell, Nebraska, discusses the Black Hills
question In a practical, logical way, and con-
clusiveIy shows the whole thing, as reported
to be "a palpable, barefaced fraud, which
will not bear the test Of reason, experience, or
common sense" and Professor Hayden the
well-kDowD geologist and explorer writes to
an intimate personal friend i'm Chicago ad-
wishing him not to take stock i'm the assertion
that there is gold in the Black Hills worth
going there to dig.
The Tribune correspondent says of the re-
ports OF Witcher and Gordon, the men who
brought the first news of these gold discov-
cries to Sioux City. that they evidently never
saw mine. They report having discovered
''gOld and silver lodes from the grass-roots to
the bedrock" This Is simply an absurdity-
an impossibility. Gold and silver Iodes are
not scattered prOmiscuously through the al
luvial formation in which they are said to
have been found; but are well-defined veins
of ore, extending into the depths of the earth
TO distance beyond that man has ever yet
been able to explore. 1t. therefore. requires
no great practical knowledge or scientific at
tainments To satisfy any one that these gen.
nious frugality. They saw no unfriendly In
dians, had provisions to last until June, and
game was plenty; and yet they tramped
through the snow hundreds of miles
after achievements. This is illogical,
Inconsistent, and unreasonable Two
parties from the same camp are said to
have arrived at different times at Cheyenne
and make different reports,-one claiming
that the recent supposed discoveries are
carnations Of a disordered fancy or DELHI
crate falsehoOds; while the other SAYS that not
half of the truth has been told. They exhibit
specimens of the gold which they panned
ost of the gravel near the grass-roots; and,
for fear this might be doubted, they exhibit
rs proof the veritable gross-rOotS intermixed
with the precious metal. Any man that has
ever seen pan OF dirt washed or panned, as
is done in prospecting for gold, will at once
recognize the utter impossibility OF such
statement being true. In panniug out, the
hghtest material is washed out first, and
afterwards the heavier gravel; the gold, If
there II any, being the heaviest, remains in
the par Other statements and explanations
credited to these supposed miners are quite
As senseless, incongruous, unreasonable and
impossible. These persons, If their savings
have been correctly reported, are practicing
upon the credulity of the people They
cNiuently nave na1 no experience in
mining, or they would have told of con-
ditions that might have been true.
and transactions that might have occurred.
III 10 were known beyond a doubt that the
deposits of gold claimed were at the places
and in the quantities stated, the severity
OF The weather during the winter would have
prevented the operations described. Every
miner knows that, in shallow placer-dig-
gings. where the pay is distributed from the
surface To the bedrock, mining operations
cease altogether during the winter months.
in cold ATTITUDES. With the thermometer at
20 degrees below zero, a it is represented to
nave been, and as IL in all probability was,
how could one mine waist deep in water
even If this were possible under any circum-
stances? II these diggings were what they
are represented, and the fortunate discov-
erers miners, they would have spent the win
ter in running drain-ditches, and making
sluiee.boxes, and getting in shape to COM
mence work when spring opened. Therefore
the correspondent comes to the conclusion
that the story Is 'palpable, bare-faced
fraud"