The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-05-28

United States patent for these claims was
awarded TO the Derbee Blue Gravel Min
Ing Company. the mine has been contln-
uously operated to this day, but the dis
eoverer is destitute.
The old man fariv broke down when
the golden visions of Grass Valley and
Nevada County passed before his eyes.
lie looked around on his surroundings and
MS eyes fell on the mass OF papers IN his
trunk: lawsuits letters, chemical memo
randa, newspapers. all mixed up IN SEEM
lngly hopeless confusion.
Just here an attendant came in and the
OLD man never took his eyes off him till he
mad finished the pretenSe of tidying up
and had left the room. Poor Derbec! de
dreamed that this man might steal some of
MS great discoveries and the millions GER
tain to accrue from them.
The reporter eSsayed to draw from the
old man some general idea of his scheme
ana the scope of his eleven patents.
Never" he exclaimed, will L divuige.
is set to work. Everything is part of a
colossal plan. | shall remove mountains
without filling up the rivers. L shall re-
cover millions of tons Of gold now tiowlng
in a state of fine division to the sea.
Let me recount one of my early expert
ences, which may read like romance, but
it true, nevertheless. After different at
my. residence on Virginia street, now
called Trenton street, between Jackson
ana Washington.
There l made the first concentration
ever established on the Pacific Co st from
Cape Horn to Boring Straits. II was SIM
ply. canvas affair, moved by hand.
took few sacks of sand from Mob Hill,
where not single house then existed.
The first effort succeeded perfectly. Sew
eral grains of gold the size of a small pea
renamed in the concentration. So, said j.
San francisco is aurferous. The expert
ment was verified by my then colleague.
Colonel j. B. n. Pascal, and M. +. Craveri,
an Italian scientist.
My friend said the old man. the en-
tire coast of the Pacific is auriferous,
from the Gulf of California to Boring
Straits, and from the Sierra Madre to the
North Pole. Think of the immensity of
the future which awaits those who can
put these resources into circulation, re-
sources of which the human mind cannot
even form an idea If others had seen
them as have seen them, and as l see
them nOwI
Once more Derbec's face assumed rapt
expression.
This gold" he murmured; sit is mine
| see. i'll feel it. | shall be rich-mi-
lions !-millionsv'
1t was not difficult to believe that Derbec
has,spent several fortunes in his patents,
explorations and inventions. In the days
OF his good fortune when, like Midas, all he
touched seemed to turn TO goId, he gave
IayiShly also to charities and was one of
the founders of the noble Institution in
which he is now an INDECENT inmate.
MY great, grand, immense force" he
exclaimed, as the reporter turned sadly
away; 1t viii move mountains. drive a
thousand mills, transport ships; it will
reVolutlonize the world. 1t will cost moth
ing. and in mining will dwarf the greatest
powers OF the hydraulic. Think of it, in
DRIFT mines the miner attacking with his
spade solid deposits 300 10 500 feet thick Is
ike an ant trying to overthrow the pyra-
mids OF Egypt by gnawiDg at their base
But my plan"
Here the old man stopped as if he lad
said too much.
Stranger things have happened than that
TINS veteran, practical miner of forty
years experience. should have discovered
the secret he claims. 1t is hardly likely
that he Will unfold his plans in his life
time. but the idea may be there, though
the dlscoVerer may die a pauper.
Etlenne Derbec was made chevalier of
the Legion OF Honor by the Emperor Ma
pole0n III In 1869 at the instance of the
Prince de la Tour d'Auvergne, then Min
lister OF Foreign Affairs, for services rem
dered to the French citizens of California.
The old man was born at Dillon in 1917.
and amid al his dreams of gold is at heart
as simple as little child and as fearless of
death as In the days when he slept on the
lonely SHOWS of the Sierra foothills FORTY
years ago.