Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1881-08-13
OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.


IEADvILLE CoLo., Aug. 6, 1881.
This is the strangcst town in America.
An infant of four years as city, it is
old in sin and sorrow. OF its former
population Of - 900, ut least 10000 have
floated oir to other bonanza fields, and
there are other thousands waiting, like
Micawber, for something TO turn up.
There are disappointed hopes and
stranded expectations, enough in this
city To answer for the entire country.
Gambling houses with ali their seduc-
tive appliances are open in great num-
bers on either side of the principal aven-
ne, day and night, seven days in the
week. Rum, riot and gin have swept to
perdition thousands who came here
with aspiration for wealth. A better
day Is coming even to this Sodom. A
few months since a proposition to enact
an ordinance closing all business places
on the Sabbath was defeated by vote
of the city council This action called
the attention of the better class of citi
zcns to the matter and now all the re-
spectacle business places are closed on
the Sabbath The school houses,
chuches, y. Nj. G. A. are already making
their influence felt through the entire
community. The gush and boom of tho
early excitement has given place to u
settled business-like purpose in the min
ing interests. The day for stocking
mine covering 10000 square feet at q
cool SlO,0OO,OOO aud two openings in the
bush" in the east has gone by, and
honest hard working miners are digging
out of these silver-ribbed mountains an
annual product of Sl2,0O0,0OO. The
sampling mills and smeters in the city
are points of interest to the visitor.
Though the politeness of Mr.. James,
one of the propretors of the Grant
Smelling Works, we were shown tiio
process of the reduction of ore in it's
various stages. The ore in the Lead
vile district carries about ninety mine
per cent Of pure lead. This establish
ment reduces about $4,000 tons of ore
per month, their furnaces running night
and day the year around, smelling one
tenth of all the lead produced in the
United States The ore used by them
purchased from different mines; is
weighed and piled ready for smelling.
Large beds arc made by spreading layer
after it has gone through the crusher,
and it is then taken, weighed and put in
the furnaces which are charged with
charcoal and lime stone as Il tux and
the whole is melted, the lead and silver
running into basins or retorts, is dipped
out and poured into moulds for bullion
bars, each of which weighs lOOlbs The
Stag, composed of melted limestone and
non-metalic portions of the ore, is
drawn from the furnaces in molten
state, is cooled and cast aside as waste,
or reused again as tiux. This firm has
shipped since the first Of January 624
car loads Of bullion to Omaha, where
the silver and lead src separated, the
silver being sent to the mint and the
lead shipped to eastern markets.
The altitude of ofLeadville is lO,25O feet,
and "tenderfeet" find their lungs work
ing like Il pair of bellows and their ears
turned into factory with buzz saw
running 500 revolutions to the minute,
while their knees smite each Other like
Belshazzar of old. With snow capped
mountains in full view, and chilly mort
ais lowering over good fire in the
hotel on the 10th of July, cander COM
pels me to say that this must have been
the very spot the fellow was sighin for
when in agony he cried ooh for q
lodge in some vast wilderness, &c.
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