The Philipsburg mail. [volume] (Philipsburg, Mont.) 1887-current, 1891-08-06
MINING IN GRKECK
More Than Two Thousand
Years Ago.
RISKY CHARACTER OF THE WORK
The Ups and Downs of the Ancient Silver
Mines Worked by Slaves
Wages Paid Them-New Har-
vest Being Cleaned.

''The mines of Laurium" are still yield
ing silver, lead and zinc, says the ST.
Louis Globe Democrat. They give en-
ployment to 5000 men, and turn out
thousands upon thousands of tons of ore
annually. These are the mines from
which Themistocles got the silver to fit
out the fleet which whipped the Per
slams in the famous naval battle of Sala-
mis-, 500 years before the Christian era
And perhaps the mines we're ancient
when Themistocles saved Greece with
them. It is thought those hustlers of
the earliest times, the Phenecians, got
wealth out of them. Mr.. Manatt, the
American consul at Athens, has recently
walked through these mines. Director
General Cordella of one of the two big
companies operating the mines now, has
been figuring on what the ancients must
have taken out. The silver. he esti-
mates, amounted to 8,4OO tons. That
would be in the neighborhood of $780,
100000. This vast amount of silver was
was found with 1,1OO,O84 tons of lead.
The lead and the silver together were
worth $8O0,OOO,OOO
In the palmy days of Greece these
mines gave work to $1,000 laborers, al
most exclusively slaves. No fewer than
5000 worked under ground at one time
To-day the earthern lamps, water jars
and picks are found in the narrow pass
ages where they were thrown down 24OO
years ago. Slave labor was cheap enough
A man worked his own slaves or he hired
from other owners. For those he hired
he paid an obol day. This was 55
drachmas year. A drachma is about
20 cents. So the cost for hiring a slaye
for twelve months was about $11. Slaves
could be bought outright in Athens for
from SO upwards. Nicias, the Grecian
general, had 1000 slaves hired out in the
mines of Laurium. Nicias was the pious
old general who sacrificed the flower of
the Greek army to the changes of the
moon before the walls of Syracuse And
afterward the survivors of his army rot
ted as prisoners in the Sicilian stone
quarries.
There came a time when the thous-
ands Of slaves in these mines of Laurium
revolted against their cultured masters
tells how 10000 of them es-
capped and fled to the Spartan camp dur
ng the Peloponnesian war. The modern
appliances for mining were unknown in
hose days. There was neither blasting
1or hosting. These enormous masses of
're were Clipped down and then carried
'ut in goat skins on slaves backs. The
dangerous character of the work was
shown in the contracts for labor. When
IN owner leased out his slaves for work
n these mines he stipulated, not that
he slaves should be returned safe and
ound at the expiration of the contract. |
,ut that the same number should be |
Two thousand ancient shafts are found |
hey have connecting galleries under
round. These galleries open into chamb-
rs 80 feet high and 80 feet wide. The
aines belonged to the state Citizens
btained leases under which they were
lowed to work. These leases could be
transferred or could be willed like other
roperty. For his lease the lessee gave
p to the state one-twenty- fourth of the
utput. The revenue thus derived was
attributed to the citizens It amounted
} about s1.95 year to each Athenian.
ut Themistocles induced his people to
lspend the per capita dividend and to
ote the money for navy. With that
avy the Persians were beaten at Sala-
is and Greece was saved. Upon this
ctory and it's results, supplemented by
le continued product of the mines of {
aurium, Athenian supremacy was de- +
'loped. The silver question in ancient s
reece was greater issue than free !
image is to-day in the United States /
lining was carried on at Laurium un- t
r Spartan, Theban and Macedonian {
Ipremacy, and even into Roman times S
hen came a period of centuries during t
hich the mines were abandoned. But {
w new harvest is being, CLEANED. F
ne Stag and refuse are being washed T
er according to modern methods. )
ew mineral is being taken out from the I
lleries and chambers adjacent to those
1ich we're worked twenty or thirty CEN Y
ries ago.
The ranchers are very h,lsv c11ttinp havl