Evening journal., 1888-08-23

HOW THE MINERS SWEATED AND
DIED FOR IT $4,000.

INNNNAANN AHAtAl VA AfOtA ArtAA-AniAA-
cations.
Taken from 1850 TO 1850 the great majority
OF diggers did not in my belief, average 81
per day Tor their work and time. There
was often SO much time used up before tho
actual gold bearing earth could be worked
OF washed. Men worked one, two, and some
times three years in digging bitches 10 get
water on their claims Wnter is almost as
necessary for gold workings as is air for
human breathing. bitches had TO be dug
canals would be the moro appropriate namel
over 100 miles in length 70 tap the snow fed
streams IN the highest Sierras. Digging up
there in places was 81 no avail. There was
little TO dig in, and the water was in places
brought in immense fumes, holted 10 the
sides Of preciplces eO0-feet from tho valley
below. In river mining years were some
times spent in blasting races through quar-
ter OF a mile Of ilinty rock, and then, when
tho river bed was finally laid bare, little gold
was found In river mining certainly one
claim out Of three proved total failure Gu
dry, upland surface diggings men spent
years waiting for water,n that il, waiting
either for the promised ditch 20 be com
pleted, or waiting los tho winter rains. How
did thoy liver Perhaps by packing buckets
Of dirt half mile 20 tho nearest creek or
river and there washing il. Or by rocking
out dollar or two day from the oft
turned over gravel on some rivers banks.
And miserable, squalid life it was for thou
sands who had come out from tho states full
OF the expectancy OF returning home in five
years at least with pile and marry the
girl left behind
But they stayed ten and fifteen and twenty
/ years IN cabins which here would not he
deemed DC for stables, cooking for them
selves, washing for themselves, forgetting
what IL was to sleep in clean sheets or any
other kind; living or tough beef, beans and
bacon, working like packhorses summer and
winter, getting yearly moro gray and
/ griI2led and angular, looking year after
/ year on tho same gloomy, sterile, chaparral
covered hillside, their only recreation tho
! Sunday trip TO the nearest store or camp for
their provisions, whore they might or might
not, but generally did. wind mp with moro
or less Of drunk aad then for two, three
or five miles over hin and down guleh
trudge homo again. Little wonder they got
drunk. Il was the only method Of getting
temporary relief from lifetime Of blasted
hcpes-the only salve to apply 70 the old
/ longing for their eastern homes These were
the men whose eastern relatives sometimes
make or send home money Most of them
now are buried and enriching the soil they
dug in. Many Of them arc in namelcai and
unknown graves. Many went insane. Some
times one was left the only resident ION the
Barr Thon It would be reported that Smith
was acting queefly, and Smiths next transi-
ton would be 70 tina county hospital and
from thence to onooi CALIFORNIA; two insane
ssyhums.
is thera much gold vet in California;
Lots Of il. Lots Of it. though, wheic Won
must put a dollar md a half in 20 get ono
dollar ont Lots ~ it in places where, after
You dig certain depth, you meet too much
rock to blast and hoist ont and water 70
pump out Lake Springfield Flat in
Tuolumne county-a geological curiosity
plain mile square, ont Of which all tho
| red pay dirt has in former years been taken
to O depth Of ten or twelve feet, leaving cx-
posed great knobs and ridges of reddish rock.
washed and worn by some great water power
untold ages ngo into fantastic shapes These
are all really loose powders from the size Of
a small church down. They arc OF marble.
Break on a piece and the fracture under tho
yellowish red Of the outside is as white as loaf
sugar. Rich gold, and plenty Of il, has been
taken from Springfield Flat. 10 was worth
nearly sl0 per ounce, when Tuolumne River
gold brought but el7. But Springfield Flat
could never be bottoued on account OF the
enormous powders so strangely piled in
there and the water beside, though the mug
gets grew bigger as they worked down into
tho crevices. 1t is on the "bowlder range. -
This is a remarkable underground geological
freak, running many miles in southern Cali
fornia, Of great powders similarly piled on
ooh .Hla Il II
where shafts wero sunk in it, the bottoms
have tumbled out and revealed subterranean
streams running underneath.
There arc ranges Of low hills bordering the
san Joaquin valley I'm MERGED, Stanislaus
and adjoining counties. whore small "pros-
pccisn of gold may be obtained. There arc
miles Of these "weshed graveln mounds. But
save in rainy weather, when the water comes
right down on the spot whore You want to
uso it,, there is little working these placers to
any profit What with digging and carting
the dirt half mile or more 70 the river ana
there washing it, and possibly being under
the necessity Of pudding it before YOU can
wash 10, there is more than a dollar spont in
getting dollar out Yet gold lies in those
hils-lots of it, could you get il out in a
lump And there is many another doposit
locked mp in California's hills and mountains
which time may reveal, but to look for it
now is @ look for the needle in an acre 81
haystacks.
This sido Of the Rockies has never been
''prospected' for gold 50 thoroughly rs the
other There ninetenths Of the first settlers
have been miuers more or less. Whatever
their occupation, they have kept an eye open
for surface Indications and pick and pan
handy TO test gravel for gold whenever they
had leisure and water 70 wash it. AS q re-
suit, from Cariboo 20 Mexico scarce a gulch
exists that a white man has visited but that
has felt the good seeking miners pick On
this side, and especially at tho extreme cast,
an idea prevails that because it Is an older
settled country il can have no unknown min
oral deposits Few people here know how to
prospect or wash pan Of dirt Gold dust
may be in your door yard for ages and give
no sign Of its presence, and many people
wouldn't know what it was il it did-Pren-
tice milford in New York star.
Varieties OF Hay Fever.
Hay fover is not hay fever at all in most
] - III