The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1884-04-20
G0ID IN AUSTRALIA.
The Ballard. Mine The Terrible Tale OF the
DiaginGs.
INf n ConMay's leu

mi. ID. Conway's letter.J.
Gold costs a good deal. SO though. lo-
day when was sinking into na'i Soc
grave, little more than yard square, ovy
feet into the earth. For their eight nou,s
dp,,y toll in this Hades each miner oo'1'ns
ri. 75--a sum whose smallness alnazeu me
The Ballarat mine IL owned by cou'-
many. which toilcd for some years Will
ont much result on ground wnere ,"o
FIRST discoveries had found much goiu
few feet deep. They sunk shafl very lar
down, they battled with flood ana SAND siA
years before they reached success--So,ooV
per day. Now, at the end OF twenty-five
wears, the company can count over S5o'.
coo, 900 as It's gains; and yet, the mud ana
CRIME of IL, the subterranean slime ana
cold. the unsunned existences passed IN
digging down there. combised into SYM
Dol OF the quantity OF dirt, darkness,
drudgery, and uDhappiness, through
which, In America, as well rs Baliarat,
many must pass before gold can be plied
upl That serpent on the English soyer-
eign must eat the dust all it, days.
So far as / can learn comparatively few
OF the great fortunes OF Australia have
been built up on gold-mines. AS we
drove through Ballarat many houses were
pointed out far-sunken In the earth by
reason OF the excavations beneath them,
and the wealth excavated appears TO have
largely rested on q similarly insecure foun-
dation. In old German folklore 1t is said
that they who would dig successfully for
hid treasure must work in silence and full
fiji certain formulas demanded by fatal
guardians OF such things-a single word,
loft,er anntTUh IN hiring mot
only failure but danger. The real condi-
lions OF wealth are not less stern than the le-
Qendary. They are not TO be met by
riding horses sbod with gold, though that
made one Cameron famous in 1896. Few
of the diggers could have fulfilled all the
dread conditions OF obtaining riches, fail-
ure in the least OF which may turn fine
ores to devils dust, or to chains more gall
ing than iron. There are true legends
haunting these Australian gold-iields which
sometimes sound as if Invented by some
sage to teach the vanity Of mere luck. A
poor wretch finds a thousand-pound mug
get and sleeps no more.
There is In Victoria a town OF ruined
houses atlock. Its life began IN 1854
with q rush Of diggers. The last inhab-
liant left in 1879. In that fifteen years
Matock had found fortune and seen IL
turn to dross. The diggers lost their
wits, a. at Ballarat, liz their pipes
with bank-notes, and played at skittles
with bottles OF wine. ION one occa-
SION" SAYS Mr.. Switzerland, Z" two lucky
miners laid wager about which Of
them should treat the assembly with the
largest shout The first one ordered
several dozens Of the most expensive
wines, far more than the company could
be expected to drink with the utmost dill
geDce. But the other eclipsed this effort
bv ordering out the landlords whole stock
OF champagne, amounting to about 200
bottles. 1t was brought and disposed OF
in every absurd way that reckless in
genuity could invent. This sort OF
conduct ruined many OF the dlggers."
Deesou, the poor man who went out
one day with his children's cries
for bread ringing in his ears, and returned
with the nugget ("Welcome Stranger y
that sold for $4,000, was a man OF good
personal habits, but soon fell into poverty.
lie did not know when he had enough.
He invested his fortune in machinery. and
lost It all. He tOiled on through life in
poverty hundred yards from the spot
where a single stroke OF his pick turned
I'D q fortune.