The Arizona sentinel., 1876-03-04
GAS.

udIh pIdCSo lfSul' 10dG IS d very useful kind of gas and houses and whole cities are lighted with it. The gas that we are about to speak of is neither useful or orna- mental. It is of no value to man. kind, but is a great detriment everywhere throughout civiliza- tion. Gases are generally suppos- sed to be invisible, and they are invisible, except when colored, which happens in few instances and that is the kind ofgas of which we propose to speak, for it is al- ways highly colored. And there is a difference, too, in the man. ner in which these gases are ma- nufactured: Illuminating gas is made from coal or asphaltum, while this other gas is made by lungs and jaw-bone. It can be heard at the street corners, at the saloons, at the stores, and almost every place where people congre- gate. It sometimes issues from crowds, and sometimes only one man will hold another by the button, while he lets a full head of this gas upon him. Every town has these machines. This gas is often harmless, except the annoyance it occasions, and pro bably it acts as a safety valve for the machine that generates it.
 But it is not harmless when it deals in falsehOod and misrepre- sentations, no matter what object the party using may have in view. Arizona has been much injured and retarded her in her growth and development by gas. It has ruined nearly every mining enterprise that has ever been started in the Territory. It has been the great incubus that has kept the country from advancing in prosperity. No sooner is a rich mine discovered and sufficiently developed to induce men of capi- tai to invest in it and erect ma chinery to reduce the ores, than some gassy, inflated individual is sent out to superintend the work. He generally puts on great airs of importance, and gases loudly of hisknowledge ofChlorides, Brom- ides, Sulphides, and all the other ides; and the inexperienced mi' ner is often struck with awe at the vast fund of knowledge he carries and regards him as the country pumpkins regarded Gold smiths village schoolmaster:
 They gszed and gazed and still the won
 der grew
 That one small head could carry all be
 knew"
 Nearly all such operations have ended in disaster because too much gas was used instead of so- ber, solid practical knowledge. All such operations tend to the injury of the country.
 Tbe miners themselves are not always free from superabundance of gas. A gassy man man is one who is inflated and eXhilerated. When a man finds a good mine he is very apt to be inflated and exhilerated, aud heis not to blame for being so, for it seems like the fruition of his hopes. But in his hurry to realize his'hopes, he too often lets off too much gas of the colored kind-gas that is visible to induce capitalists to come out and purchase his mine for hun dreds of thousands of dollars, be- fore sufficient work has been done that an estimate can possibly be made of the value of the mine. The capitalist comes and looks, and goes back disgusted, and his report to his friends tends to the injury of the country.
 And gas is used very extensive ly in other operations than min ing. Many man uses gas to ob- tain credit. and thereby contracts