The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-12-27
MINING FOR GOLD.
Operations Carried On in the Vicinity
Of Washington.
Senator sawyer's Investment Not as I'm
productive as the "I-Told-You-So's"
Observation-Disclosures Work
That Pays Fair Dividends.
Especial Washington letter.

1t may be source of surprise to re-
ceive the information that there is a
gold mine within ten miles of the dome
of the capitol. Nevertheless, it is a
fact that there is a paying gold mine
Just above the Great falls of the Poto-
mac river. 1t has been known to a
limited number for great maly years
that gold existed in that section. The
little stream that skirts the foothills
and enters the Potomac river just above
the Great falls contains a great deal of
gold which it gathers as it washes over
the gold-bearing quartz lodges of rock
above it. For hundred years or more
it has been customary for the heads of
families, in rude and pristine manner,
to pan out handful of the golden
sand whenever any young lady was
about to be married. just a little bit
of gold would be brought into the city
and made into wedding ring for the
occasion Wedding rings from the
little stream above the Great falls are
scattered all over the state of Virginia
to-day They are kept as precious heir
looms In the families in which the
young ladies have married The people
who have known that gold exists
there. for at least hundred years past,
either did not know how to handle it
or else they did not believe that it was
to be found in sufficient quantities.
About eight years ago a big tunnel
was made for our aqueduct from the
Great falls of the Potomac to the city,
and at that time it was noticed that.
about a mile or two this side of the
falls. the tunnel passed through several
lodges of white and rose-colored quartz
which appeared to contain gold in some
uncertain quantity This fact revived
interest in the existence of quartz gold
mines and the New Maryland mine was
sunk. Gold, however, was not imme-
diately found in paying quantities and
the mine was eventually abandoned. II
now appears that if those miners had
only used little more headwork in
their search for gold, and sunk their
shafting little more to one side or run
out tunnels in a slanting direction a
little way from the bottom of the shaft.
they would have been more successful
and might have then found that mining
in Maryland can be made profitable
Senator Sawyer, of Wisconsin, pur-
chased large tract of land in the vicin-
ity of the forsaken Maryland mine and
placed it in charge Of Dr.. Kempster, the
celebrated scientist, who has been the
family physician of Senator Sawyer for
a great many years. Work was re
suned in the neighborhood of the ole
mine. and it has been demonstrated thai
gold can be found there in quantities
sufficient to warrant large expendi-
ture of money There are now some
half dozen mines in the country to the
north and east of the great falls. and ii
is current rumor that the owner of one
of them has just been offered more thar
a quarter of million dollars for hi
hole in the ground and the land aroundit
And here we have been buying ano
selling town lots at so much per square
foot. struggling to make little moro
money every year by speculatinc
on surface ground, when. as a matter
of fact, right within our reach there are
great quantities of gold quartz
and we all should have been out in the
mines instead of at work building a
city. That is, if money is the chief end
of man, and it seems that it is in the
national capital But the work of min
ing has commenced at last and activity
and life are rife in the vicinity of the
mines. Some of the more hopeful buy
ers of land and diggers in the ground
seem to think that before great while
the state of Maryland will be supplying
the American market with gold and
have little left over for export trade.
A visit to these gold mines in Mary
land is neither interesting nor instruc-
tive, because all gold mines are alike.
They are merely great holes in the
ground with the earth removed and the
rock ground to powder in search of the
little yellow particles which are regard
ed as of exceptional value by the com
mercial world. The great big holes in
the ground which are found in Mary
land above the Great falls of the Poto-
mac are no more interesting nor pic
turesque than the holes in the sides
of the Rocky mountains, long since
made famous by Mark Twain, Bret
Harte and other writer's concerning the
olden times in the mines on the frontier
[ did not see All Sin, Truthful James,
Yuba Bill, nor any of the celebrated
gentlemen written about as experts in
the mining days of twenty years ago in
the far west There are two great holes
with shafts in them and big windlasses
above to lift them up from the depths
when full of rock.
The manager of the mine was polite
enough to offer me the privilege of go
ing down into either one of these
holes in the big bucket; but series Of
adders runs down the side of one of the
shafts, and went down that way. The
,escent was about fifty feet, and at the
cotton I found that a subterranean
sunnel a couple of hundred feet in
length, connecting the two shafts, had
been made. The workmen were busily
engaged in digging tunnels and follow
ing the veins of gold-bearing quartz IN
various directions. These miners have