St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-12-27
HOW LONGS SYNDICATE.
The Adventures of Bill Nye and a
Junta of Journalists i'm q Mine.

/
Junta of Journalists i'm q Mime.
Boston Globe
Receiving another notice of assessment
on my stock in the Aladdin mine the other
day reminded me that | was still interested
In bottOmlesS hole that was supposed at
one time to yield funds, instead of absorb
ing them. The Aladdin claim was located
in the spring of '76 by syndicate of jour
nalists, none of whom had ever been openly
accused of wealth. If we had been we
could have proved an alibi.
We secured gang of miners to sink on
the discovery, consisting of a Chinaman
named How Long. How Long spoke the
Chinese language with great tiuency. Being
perfectly familiar with that language, and a
little musty in the trans-Missouri English,
he would converse with us in his own
language, sometimes by the hour, court
eously overlooking the fact that we did not
reply to him in the same tongue. He would
converse in this way till he ran down,
generally, and then he would refrain for a
while.
Finally, How Long signifed that he
would like to draw his salary. Of course,
he was ignorant of our ways, and as inno-
cent of any knowledge of the intricate de-
tails peculiar to a mining syndicate as the
| Slliio OO HC Idu SOuc W tl16 DI6Sl-
dent of our syndicate, and had been re-
ferred to the superintendent, and he had
sent How Long to the auditor, and the au-
ditor had told himdto go to the gangboss and
get his time, and then proceed in the proper
manner, after which, if his claim turned
out to be all right, we would call meeting
of the syndicate and take early action in re-
lation to it. By this the reader will readily
see that, although we were not wealthy,
we knew how to do business just the same
as though we had been a wealthy corpora
| ton.
How Long attended one of our meetings
and at the close OF the session made few
remarks. AS near as l am able to recall
his language it was very much as follows:
'China boy no sabbee you dam Syndicate
GU alice same fOolee me too muchee How
Long no chOpee big hole in the glound alice
day for health. You Mclean boy Laddee
silver mine all same funny business. Ne
no likee Syndicate. Syndicate heap gone
all same woodbne. You sabbee me? How
Long make EN- Syndicate pay tention. You
April foolee me. You makee me tired. You
puttee me too much on EN- slate. Slyndi-
cate no good. Alice time stanemoff China
boy. You alice time chin chin. Dividend
allie time heap gone"
Owing to strike which then took place
in our mine, we found that in order to
complete our assessment work we must get
in another crew or do the job ourselves.
Owing to scarcity of help and feeling of
antagonism on the part of the aboring
classes toward our giant enterprise, feel
ing of hostility which naturally exists be-
tween labor and capital, we had to go out
to the mine ourselves. We had heard of
other men who had shoveled in their own
mines, and were afterward worth millions
of dollars, so we took some bacon and other
delicacies and hied us to the Aladdin.
Buck, our mining expert, went down
first Then he requested US to hoist him
out again. We did so. l have forgotten
what his first remark was when he got out
of the bucket, but that doesn't make any
difference, for l wouldn't care to use it here
anyway.
1t seems that How Long, owing to his
heathenish ignorance of our customs and
the unavoidable delay in adjusting his
claim for work, labor and services, had al
lowed his temper to get the better of him
and he had planted a colony of American
| skunks in the shaft of the Aladdin.
| 1t is not very good mine if man wants
it as source of revenue, but it makes a
mighty good well. The water is cold and
clear as crystal. If it stood in Boston, in
stead of out here in northern California,
| where you can't get at it more than three
months in the year, it would be worth
$3.50. The great fault of the Aladdin mine
is its poverty as a mine and it's isolation as
a well,