The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1877-05-17
The New Gold Diggings.

Tho main question about them may now
be taken IA definitely answered There
Is gold In the Black Hills, and n great deal
OF IT, The aggregate yield Of the mines last
year was, I'm round numbers, two and n half
millions Of dollars. A very competent and
painstaking correspondent, whose letter,
printed in tO-duy's Sun. is the best, full
est, and most trustworthy account OF the
new IL Dorado yet given TO tho public, pro-
diets that this years yield will reach, If 1t
does not pass, twenty-five millions. In view
of the fact that ore to the estimated value
of 100000 is now in plain sight in single
tunnel, and Of the other fact that improved
mining machinery Is weekly going into the
Hills, this prediction cannot he Pronounced
extravagant. Silver too, has been discov-
erod In largo quantities and galena .Sulphu-
ret Of lead groupings are reported in the
same vicinity. Il is quite possible that other
deposits Of the precious metals perhaps
richer than any ~ those now known, may
exist IN the r,moior parts ~ this strange
region stil awaiting exploration although
the Indian tradition about gllsteling yellow
mountains is hardly a solid enough basis
for theory. let alone joint stock cxplOr-
Ing company.
But this Black Hills country, rich as IL is,
Is no country for poor or helpless people,
and we earnestly advise all such people 20
stay away from 1t. There are too many
thcre already; on that point there is con-
current and conclusive testimony. 1t is per-
mitted 70 hope that the picture which our
correspondent draws If thousands of men
md boys wandering up and down the
Rulches, vainly seeking work and
IN imminent danger of starvation, is
shade too sombro in the color
Ing; the exact fact probably lies somewhere
between this rad the innammatory
sketches Of that incxplicable humorist, the
Hon. ELI PERKINS. But there can DO no
doubt that the fact is bad enough, and
that the immigration now pouring into
the Hills Will only swell the az
grcgatc Of disappointment and suffer
Ing Gold does not grow on the bushes (;
1t docs not even lie on the carths surface
ready TO be picked up II has TO be got out,
rs n rule by laborious and costly processes.
Successful mining takes time and money
especially money. There Is field In the
Black Hills now for capital seeking invest
Mcnt-nO field al all for labor seeking en-
plOyment, still less for labor seeking sudden
wealth and the emancipation which wealth
brings. All the known paying ground
IN the Hills is already taken up and is held
ly the owners, when they are willing to sell
at all, attgures far above the pockets Of the
great majority Of immigrants. OF course
there have been, and will bc, exceptional in
stances Of good luck; penuiless lads and
differentiation negroes have stumbled up
on fortunes. But these are the rare prizes
IN q lottery full of blanks; and in the ma
ture Of things, they viii be rarer this year
than last.
II II is folly for a poor man to go 10 the
Black Hills. it is sheer madness for feeble
or lazy poor man 10 go there. Capitalists
aside no one has any business at the mines
who Is afraid of the hardest work, or who is
physically unequal to 1t. The work there is
hard, and Of the most wearing kind; only
meni robust health can safely undertake II
We may add that robust moral health IL
rs essential as its physical Counterpart
Sound principles as sound constitution
The bad whskey-not TO speak OF other
mining camp yices-kills more men than III,
work