St. Landry democrat., 1889-02-02
TRICKS FTASSAYERs.
A. ChemIsG Relates Some Expert-
ences III His Business.

A ChemIsG Relates Some Experi-
ences III His Business.
AL Visitors Regarded as Knaves-- flow
- sa,nple-O Owners Try to Obtain
Fraudulent Certificates-The
Gabriel Sword Swindle. =
"Pardon me, sir, we allow no one In tnat
room but the assayers." l looked at the
speaker with an expression OF injured IN
nocence, writes correspondent OF the new
York Mdn aud Express. He was the member
of the great firm of chemists whose certlh-
cate as to the output OF mine would De
worth fortune if favorable. "Sorry to
offend YOU, sir" he continued, "but we as
sumo chat every man who comes here Is
knave"
This aroused my curiosity, and improved
the first opportunity to ask an expert as
saver to explain these misanthropic senti-
ments DIR I4edoux, famous chemist con-
nected with the firm mentioned above, sat
isfied me that they were well founded. 1--WE
can hardly trust our own Senses" he said.
81 have known sample of ore to yield
heavy percentage of gold when its owner
was present at the test and none at all
when he was absent. How can that be!
Well in this instance I saw nothing wrong,
but recently | was conducting an assay in
the presence of the owner of the sample
and noticed that he was chewing tobacco
very vigorously and also gong to the assay
furnace to eXpectorate into the fire. Watch
ing him narrowly saw him spit into the
crucibe, and, selling him by the throat,
forced out of his mouth the TOBACCO and
along with it quantity OF gold DUST which
he was attempting to get into the cruclble-
this was to make his assay run high. 1t
would require very lutte gold thus added
to an ounce of ore to make difference
of many hundreds of dollars per ton in the
result.
"The most singular attempt at swindle
which we have ever come across was in
connection with 'Gabriel's Sword You
may remember that in the month of May,
1883, the papers in Ulster and Sullivan Coun-
ties and the New York daily papers were
widely excited over most remarkable dis
covery back of Kingston, N. Y. strange
sword had fallen from the skies and had
been discovered in the town of Rochester,
Ulster County.
"Scsse time IN July following, long
haired ur:Ssudual came into our office stag
gering raid fa5 V075e722ght Of box seven ven
about afes otys otength' PEI He ask asked If we
would az q THU thing, and on being as
driver ea and csr1fuU un1screwed his box, out
of which he took a sword. 1t was curious
weapon nearly seven feet long and SO heavy
that | could scarcely lift the point from the
ground with one hand by taking hold of the
handle 1t was covered with Hebrew or
Phenecian characters apparently, and COW
cred with rude figures of men and animals
This marking was only apparent where the
rust with which most of the weapon was
heavily corroded had been rubbed off.
''The man said that he was the discoverer
of this strange sword, and was exhibiting
it about the country; that some unbellevers
had scotfed at his statements that it came
from spiritual world, and that he desired
us to make an assay of it to prove that it
was genuine. He stated further that on
It's appearance and ring when it was struck
| one would naturally take it to be steel, but
that he had been in times past blacksmith,
and was samlhar with metals, and that it
was his opinion that it was compound OF
silver and iron, and asked me whether such
an alloy was not uncommon.
81 told him yes of course, when he tri-
umphantly added: Now, l want you to as
say this sword and give me a certificate
that it is neither iron nor steel but an alloy
containing silver, and l want you to say on
| your certificate that such an alloy is not
used in this world for such purposes and
would not have the hardness, fexibility
| and other characteristics which this sword
| possesses
81 was interested and amused, and agrees
to make the test. The old man seemed anx
ious not to mutilate the weapon, and it was
agreed that we should file off portion from
place where it was particularly rusted
and assay the fling. l was convinced that
it was nothing but steel, and was most in
tensely surprised when our assayer brought
up large silver button which he had OF
tanned from the filings. The old man was
| triumphant but was at once on my guard
as scented swindle. 1t was, of course
possible to coat the surface with silver SO
luton which would dry on and produce the
result which we found, and refused to give
| him a certificate without further test
He readily acquiesced in this, and said thai
| he had rather anticipated such a request
and proposed that he should file the end O.
the cross-bar, calling my attention to the
fact that one end was about half an Incl
longer than the other, and that the cross
bar and sword were undoubtedly forged ou
| of the same piece of metal, so that what was
| true of the composition of the bar was true
| of the sword. This / agreed to-, and the
end was filed off. 1t appeared to be
simply cube of soft iron or steel, heavily
rusted on five sides, and bright and homo
geneous where cut by the file. "Now,'
| said my client, "you tell your man to put
this in the srucible and / will abide by the
result" In spite of the appearance of the
piece of metal our assayer was instructed
to take cold chisel and cut it in two ano
assay the two halves separately. To oul
intense establishment he brought the two
| portions upstairs, showing US, concealed il
| the middle, plug Of silver surrounded or
all sides by the steel or iron. The whole
| thing was at once plain! The old man, OF
| some one, in manufacturing the sword had
bored hole through one end of the cross
bar and plugged it up with silver, so thai
| it did not show. He had probably invent
ed the meteoric story. We, of course, de.
clined to give him certificate of the su
pernatural origin of the weopen, which he
| had undoubtedly made himself, and he de-
| parted.
'sThe men we most fear are the new proc
| ess' characters who profess to be able to
| find gold or tin or her metal in the most
unlikely rocks by secret means of their
| own. They come to US for certificates and
| always insist on being present when their
| process is tried. Sometimes they will salt
the sample or put gold into the crucble in
spite of the greatest watcbfulness."
A Collection of Pens.
| A man in Denver, Col, named Lyon, got
an idea some years ago that it would be a
fine thing TO collect all the odd-shaped pens
| be could find. so he started in and to-day he
has lot comprising over seven hundred
different varieties About twelve different
| metals are represented in the collection,