The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-08

presented by Napoleon IN. to Joseph
Francis the inventor OF the life-saVing
car. There Is also a medal OF gold. worth
-, 600 which was given by congress To
Francis In recognition OF his services 20
humanity. II is the most valuable medal
ever conferred by this government ON an
individual. Francis died about six
months ago. being long past 20. Some
time previously he had surrendered these
trophies to the national museum, and dur
ing the last years of his life he constantly
haunted that institution, keeping an
eve upon the case containing his gold
box and gold medal, while watching
with gratifed interest the visitors who
paused to examine the mementOcs of his
achievement All such treasures at the
museum, though apparently protected by
glass, are in reality connected with a sys-
tenn of burglar alarms, so that nobody
could touch a single article without rous-
lug the whole building. Once a year all
of them are cleaned, though their bright
ness is but little dimmed, the cases being
air-tight. There are ever so many gold
en- valuables besides those mentioned,
such as the big chunk OF gold in the form
of shoes most commonly which serve for
coins in China, and japanese gold coins
as large as tea plates, and bearing curious
hierOglyphics.
Considerable quantities of gold beaters'
film are used at the government printing
Office for titles and ornamental designs on
the covers of certain public documents,
such as the published obituaries of con-
gressmen. This work is done by young
girl who is held responsible for all scraps
Sometimes she has as much as $1,000
worth of gold dust in her table drawer
II is virgin metal, 2+karats fine. She
gives a final polish to the gliding by rub
bing it with burnt India rubber The
pieces of rubber employed for this pur-
pose absorb a good deal of gold, and
eventually they are sent to the assay
Office to be assayed. For the gilt letter
ing on most of the books issued by Uncle
sam a cheap substitute called German
metal is utilized.
AT the National Museum is exhibited a
reproduction of the biggest nugget of
gold ever found. | t is cast but, being
gilded it looks just like the original The
latter was dug up at the mines of Bal
larat, Australia. The proprietors of a
"hOle" had gone away to lunch, leaving a
hired man digging with a pickaX Sud
denly the pick struck something. The
workman dug around it to see what it
was, and then he tainted Presently the
owners returned and, seeing the man ly-
ing in the hole, they thought he was dead
One of them jumped in, turned him over
and then he tainted also Both of them
were dragged out and Immediately dig
cling was wildly begun for the nugget,
which lay partly exposed, The mass
was so great that at first they supposed
that they had come upon a reef of pure
gold, When they got it out it weighed
$50 pounds and a few ounces Its value
was Sill 900. Being sent to England, it
was exhibited there for time and was
an in m 4
sovereigns.
That was solid and substantial reality
What imagination will do where gold is
concerned is illustrated by the story of a
certain volcanic island in the Indian
ocean, the sand along the shore of which
is filled with gold-colored crystals of
chrysolite of gold stone" These crys-
tails glitter brightly in the sun, and about
a century ago a crazy Frenchman, struck
with the brilliancy of the pebbles, sup
posed that he had hit upon riches COM
pared to which the wealth of Omus and
Of Ind was as nothing. He collected
quantities of the crystals, heated them in
a crucible and fancied that he produced
ingots from them. His delusion was
quite harmless. But only few years
ago lot of chrysolite-bearing sand from
the same island was shipped to France
and made a great sensation. Great num-
bers of people went wild about it, and
companies were organized to begin min
ing operations along the strand Of the
golden isle. 1t was declared that the sup
plies of precious metal to be obtained
from that source We're ineXhaustible.
Much money was spent in the wildcat
enterprise, which, even to this day, has
not been wholly abandoned.
1t is true that the sand of all beaches
does contain certain amount Of gold,
though ordinarily the quantity is not sufti-
GENTLY great to pay for separating it..
However, certain sands near the mouths
of rivers in Oregon are really so rich in
the precious metal that attempts have
been made to mine them. The streams
have brought it down and deposited it in
a condition of unusual purity, though
finely divided. Unfortunately, it is only
found deep down near the bed of the rock,
and as fast as the worthless superincum-
bent material is taken away, it is washed
back again and covers up the wealth be-
meath. There is SO much gold in sea
water that a single bucketful of it reveals
a yellow trace on analysis. Every ton of
water in the ocean contains about one
grain of the metal That amount of gold
is enough to gid tifty-six square inches of
surface, or il may be drawn out into 500
feet of wire. Thus it appears that there
is plenty of the shining standard of value
in the world, the only difficulty being 10
separate it economically from the other
elements with which it is found com
bined.
Probably gold was the first metal known
to the ancients. 1t abounded in the sands
of many rivers of antiquity which have
long ceased to be auriferous. From the
readiness with which it was to be got in
those early times one may imagine how
such prodigious quantities of it were col
lected as are spoken of by authors who
describe the wealth of Solomon, the
statues, tablets and vessels of gold dedi-
Gated by Semiramis, and the riches of
Croesus. Roman conquerors fetched
gold home with them literally by wagon
loads. These great accommodations were
usually the result of conquests So it
was with the enormous treasures gath
cred at Babylon under Semiramis; at
Jerusalem under Solomon at Sardis I'M
der Croesus; again at Babylon under
Darius; at Alexandria under Alexander,
and afterward at Rome while she was
at the summit of her power. The first
historical mention Of gold is in the Bible.
where Abraham is described as being
every rich in cattle, silver and gold" 1t
is an odd fact that gold was used at Rome
as early as 300 B. c. for the purpose Of
securing artificial teeth in their places.
Cloth, also, was made of it at the same
period, without admixture with other
materials