Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1877-07-06
The Black Hills.

abominably bad. d."-Hdrper's Weekly.
The Black Hills.
And now word to those who
contemplate coming here and think of
taking up a mining claim: Stop; the
turkey is carved, and the pieces won't go
round; If you intend to buy claim, the
seller knows its full value, and as it is
not Christmastide you will not get any
part of the value thrown in as present.
II you are greenhorn at mining they
will sell you, cheap, quartz claim in
which the gold veins they show you have
been put by drawing the edge of a twenty
dollar gold-piece over the rock, or if they
think you are very green they will just
use the end of an old brass cartridge.
You can buy placer claim, into which
the gold has been washed" by the, aid
of an old shotgun. If you are me-
chanic, coming to work at your trade,
there are thousands here ahead of you,
and no work for them. A few carpenters
received four dollars per day early in the
season, when builders were pushed but
they are now down to two dollars, and
no work for the vast majority of those
who apply. Laborers can be had in any
number for one dollar, and many beg
work, asking only food and place to
sleep, and still thousands are pouring in.
The roads from Cheyenne, Sidney, Yank.
ton and Pierce are crowded with them
They come through by what the stage
companies cali fast freight. They leave
the forwarding offices seated on the wag-
ons, looking happy. The first day out
the overloaded horses or mules become
tagged; the second day they stick dead,
and for the balance of the fifteen DAYS,
over muddy roads, Mr.. Pilgrim has to
foot it. For the moment he gets on the
wagon it stalls. And a motley array
they are when they reach here; Falstaff's
army were royal-looking in comparison;
dirty, weary, foot-sore, many with their
boots off and their feet tied up in rags
and old grain bags, armed with three
dollar revolvers and ten.dollar rifles, and
soaring the wits out of the grasshoppers
and prairie dogs with the fusilade they
keep up. And then when they ask them
selves the question: "Will it pay9" we
answer: No, boys; it won't. There is
nothing here for you. Go back and tell
your friends in the East, who are making
dollar q day, to stick to that dollar
place, and if you have a friend who is
out of situation and has just enough
money to reach the Hills, tell him to
spend that money in having a high old
time and then go into the poor-house, and
he will be better of than if he comes to
the Black Hills.
There are more merchants, saloon and
restaurant men here now than the coun-
try will support, and as soon as the thou
sands who are now on the way back
spread the news of their disappointment
and the utter hopelessness of new comers
getting claims or employment the rush
will stop anG business will fall off Those
who want to take homesteads and farm
had better go where there is less winter
and more water, for no crop is sure here
without expensive irrigating bitches, and
on our prospecting trip we saw millions
of young grasshoppers. The cry now is:
:" On to the Big Horn" and many will be
allured by it. When we were on the Big
Horn plains we saw many hunters who
thoroughly knew the country; none of
them had ever seen gold there, and
many had prospected for it, but the idea
is abroad that there is gold there, and
that is enough to draw the crowd.
My attention has been called to the
Colour de rose letter of Gov. Thayer, of
Wyoming, published in the New York
Tribune. Every experienced miner and
prospector in the Hills pronounce his
statements of the richness of the hills
and gulches outside of the Deadwood
and Bear Butte Hills false. He says that
it is " the poor mans mining country;
the gulches Tor hundreds of miles can be
worked by the shovel and sluce-box,
and will pay as we'll as the best portions
of California or Montana ever paid"
This statement is simple lie. Dead
wood Gulch, which is less than five miles
long, and part of Whitewood Gulch,
and these two only, will it pay to work
in this way In the California and Mon
tana mining towns you will see gold,
great heaps of dust and great piles of
bars, but here if bank gets hold of a
drinking-glas full of mixed dust, worth
perhaps $400, they will display it in their
window, with an immense card stuck in
it saying it is worth $4,000. The Gov
ernor says that the region, sixty miles
by one hundred in extent, carries every
where gold, silver, copper, lead and
iron" The small region that we have
mentioned carries precious metals and
the balance carries simply red sandstone,
limestone and clays, and we refer the
Governor to the thousands of prospect
shafts and holes that have been dug and
to every box canon in the region for the
falsity of his statement. But the terri
tory is new. There is now dispute as
to whether the Hills lie in Dakota or
Wyoming. Emigration must be coaxed
or fooled in, and the Governor wants
subjects, and that accounts for the milk
in the cocoanut.-Deddi0O0d Cor. PhiEa-
delphia Times.