The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-08-14
WEALTH In MARBLE.

In Pickens county, Georgia, are some OF
the finest and most extensive marble de-
posts in the world, the quality being said
to be fully equal to the Vermont article and
the quantity perhaps superior. Since
marble is entering more largely now than
ever before into structures, furniture,
monuments and articles of various descrip
ton, the subject becomes more interesting
and brief statement of the discovery and
development of the Georgia quarries is
good reading.
That entertaining bohemian AMOS j..
CUMMINGS informs US that six years ago H.
C. DEMENT,, Chicago clOthier, and FRANK
SIDDELL, representing soap concern of
the same place, were riding in car on a
Georgia railroad when one Of them noticed
in a paper he was reading, reference to
the existence of marble in Lost Creek
valley. DEMENT, had been raised near the
Vermont quarries and knew of their value,
and he and his brother drummer agreed to
go and see the vein. They found it on
a farm which had been bought for trifle
sixty years previously by man named
TATE, who held it till his death and, know
ing of the existence of the marble, had
charged his sons never to sell it under any
circumstances, as some day it would be
more valuable than gold niue. The trav
elers made the boys a good offer for the
property, but they were loyal to their
fathers Injunction and would not sell, but
they consented to lease it for good-sized
royalty. The two men then formed a big
corporation and bought up all the adjoining
land. The vein of marble on being devel-
oped, was shown to be 1000 feet wide, and
it has been traced for two and a half miles.
II is solid mass without crack. Chunks
as large as the pyramids of Egypt could be
taken from it. 1t is of fine texture, all col
ors, and in the form of slabs is as transiu-
cent as ordinary stained glass. The drum
mers have already made fortune, and the
boys receive 81 800 per month royalty.
The interest in all this, apart from the
facts themselves, lies in the suggestion
which is inculcated. IF these two men had
not accidentally read that paper, they
would not have been informed of what
subsequently made them wealthy. For
tune often turns upon some tritting Incl
dent like that; but this is not what we in
tended to say. The moral of the thing is,
that we should always make the most of
what nature places within our way. In
Utah are as vast marble deposits rs any
where in the country, but so far nearly all
the development that has been accomplished
has been on paper. 1.-THE patient dint and
powder shock" without which nothing of
a mineral character that lies beneath the
surface, except gold placers, is ever made
=, firth n tha pf
man, are too seldom resorted to in cases
where wealth of the kind referred to is
known to exist. Carrara and Parian
marble, besides the palmer and
Uommoner kinds. together with ala
baster alabastine and every form of
stone with which habitatiOns are
made comfortable and beautiful, are all
around US and not very far off. This is a
truly favored land; it contains almost
everything that any other does in the way
Of adding to material welfare; and some
day it will all be utilized.
It is not only gold and silver that make
the human family comfortable by supply
ing the neceSsaries and comforts; in COM
parison with all other products of geology
these are trifiing. It is the delusion that
these alone, together with copper and lead
in great quantities, are all that produce pro-
fit, which has kept US as far back as we are.
There are in Utah vast fields of asphaltum,
gypsum, natural wax and graphite, all of
which are neglected here, and every variety
of marble, which has received slight atten-
ton, any one Of which further east would
be seized upon with avidity and worked for
all they were worth. And yet some of the
knowing ones" here advise that all such
be let alone because there is nothing in
them" Truly, there is not much in them
now; there would not be much in silver
mine whose ore was ineXhaustible and
worth SIS, 900 per ton if it were left in the
place and condition in which the great up
heaval placed it; but small amount of
capital fanked by energy and backed by
enterprise will soon make everything and
anything that contains values yield up
their value, or some paying portion of it.
More particularly should the marble, which
of all rock, is the most chaste, beautiful
and enduring, and in its varied capacities
most conducive to and illustrative of civil
zation, be developed and brought upon the
market.