Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-20
SILVER TO BE CHEAP.
A Free Coinage Dollar Will Be Worth
Less Than Seventy Cents
IF THE BIG FINDS CONTINUE
Bonanzas Of Fabulous Treasure In the
Argentiferous West.
INGENIOUS WAYS OF sALTING MINES
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH. /,

| WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPArcH.t
Will silver ever become q cheap metalS
The question is seriously suggested BY the
recent discovery IN Colorado Of deposits
| which promise to yastonish the world with
their productiveness and perhaps to reduce
| the market value of the precious substance
| itself
The silver output Of this country is grow.
ing steadily greater-it was more than s70,.
900, 900 last year-and it is realized that the
| argentiferous regions of the West have but
begun to be drawn upon. Bonanzas of fab
ulous treasure remain yet to be discovered,
of which q mere suggestion is afforded by
the recent finds of gigantic ore masses q.
Creede and Aspen. One of these, called the
':Molly Gibson Nine" has yielded rock
worth So, 900 a ton. A single carload pro-
duced $4,000. The writer was shown
chunk of it the other dav. Silver composed
one-half of the mass, mixed with arsenic
and antimony-a rare combination. Work.
ing in this kind of stuff is almost like dig.
ging for wealth in the vaults of the Treas
ury at Washington. A pocket in the
''Park-Regent" at Aspen, as big as good
sized room, struck nine weeks ago, held
s10O, 900.
How Silver Pockets Are Formed.
The process by which nature forms such
accumulations of silver are very interesting.
It must be remembered that the earth's
crust is full of water, which percolates
everywhere through the rocks, making
solutions of elements obtained from them.
These chemical solutions take up small
particles of the precious metal which they
find scattered here and there. Sometimes
the solutions in question are hot, the water
having got so far down as to be set aboil ing
by the internal heat of the globe. Then
they rush upward, picking up the bits Of
metal as they go. Naturally, heat assists
the performance of this operation.
Now and then the streams thus formed,
perpetually flowing hither and thither
below ground, pass through cracks or
cavities in the rocks, where they deposit
great length of time, perhaps thousands Of
years, until the fssure or pocket is filled up.
Crannies permeating the stony mass in
every direction NAV become filled with the
metal, or occasionally chamber may be
stored full of it, as if myriad hands were
fetching the treasure from all sides and
hiding away future bonanza for some
lucky prospector to discover.
Always Found the Combination.
The silver is not deposited in q pure
state, however, but in combination with
sulphur, arsenic, or other minerals, de-
pending upon whether the original solt-
tion was sulphide of silver, arsenide of sill
yer, or what not Frequently it is found
together with lead and sulphur, because
lead has the peculiar property of being able
to dissolve silver This is the case with the
ores at Creede, which are in enormous
masses of rock that were thrown by vol
canic actien out of the interior of the earth
perhaps millions of years ago. So wonder
fully rich are they that the stuff dug out is
sent crude to the mills, without sorting,
and yields often thousands of dollars ton.
Here and there chunks of the pure metal
are found, where the other elements have
been dissolved out of it by the action Of
water, leaving what looks like silver moss
Stories of saIted Mines.
Silver, as it is ordinarily found in nature,
is not pretty to look at, nor has it any
glitter The rich ore from the 'sMolly Glib
son" is of bluish-gray color and lusterless.
There is plenty of glitter to be seen in the
silver caverns, bVt it is the iron or copper
pyrites.
An amusing story is told by the famous
geologist, Clarence King, of an investiga-
tion which he made of an alleged silver
mine in Utah. On the way down the shaft
the walls on every hand cleaned brightly
with the shining ore in the light thrown
by the lamps, and the sides of the drifts
were equally beautiful However, while
examining the rock more critically, he no
ticed by chance coarse thread hanging out
of it Ordinarily threads do not grow in
rock, and the finding of this one led to tho
discovery of the whole swindle; for the fact
was developed that the owner of the mine
had taken great quantity of galena, re-
duced it to powder, made it with water into
a plaster, and carefully succeed the entire
walls of shaft and drifts with the material.
The plaster was carried for this purpose in
gunny sacks, thread from one of which
got mixed up with it.
The Luck of Ex-ser.tor Tabor.
Perhaps even funnier was the salting ofa
mine in Colorado which was bought by ex-
Senator Tabor BY order from some friends
of his in Denver Chicken-Bil1. prospec-
tor of rather disreputable notoriety, did the
Job, performing it so successfully that S40,-
900 was paid over to him for the property
without any question. He was so elated
over the transaction as to be unable to keep
the secret, communicating it to a number Of
intimate friends In this manner the news
reached Denver, and the people who had
employed Tabor as their agent in the mat
ter refused to receive the mine. So Tabor,
finding it left upon his hands, determined
to make the best of the situation, and pro-
ceeded to dig further in the hole. He
pierced the rock ten feet further, and came
upon body of ore which proved to be ons
of the richest ever found in the State
Undoubtedly the most scientific method
of accomplishing this sort of swindle is to
apply the silver in the shape of nitrate
solution. When it is ready for use some
salt is put into it, and it is squirted over the
the rock, the salt causing an immediate pre-
cipitation of the metal in a manner that Is
equally conspicuous and deceptive to the
eye. d. L. WEXToN.