Arizona weekly citizen., 1893-02-25
THROUGH THE PLUMB
KNOWLEDGE OF ANCIENT HISTORY
 HELPED OUT MINERS.

They Followed the Example Set by Cyrus
 the Great When He Captured Babylon.
 4 Few Tons of Silver Ore Instead of
 City Was at Stake. However.
 There were gathered in the lobby O' the. Windsor hotel a number of engi neers ana; mining superintendeuts. AS IS frequently the case, there was a good ieal of talk of shop. Among the mum per present were men who had been working. at one time or another, in near v every prominent silver camp in the United States. The climax. However. was reached when one of the mining men showed how a knowledge of ar- .ient history once came into play anG paid man exceedingly well.
 "'Of course, he said, you have all heard of the Pelican and the Dives mines It Georgetown, and know that there has been very rich ore taken from these claims. There was a dispute between the owners of the claims. The Dives used to keep it's ore and have 1t all sampled Sunday. The idea was that no civil pro- cess could be served Sunday, and by get ting the ore down and sampled that day there was no chance for their opponents to do anything. Of course, after the ore was sampled. no one could swear to its identity when removed from the sam pier, and so it was safe the rest of the week.
 ''The Dives people aimed to ship down about fO0 tons each Sunday, this amount of ore being valued at about 5O,O00 Sir. Schneider, the banker, who was lfterward shot, was the owner of the Pelican and was anxious to get even with the Dives people in any way possi ole
 "One day he told one of the miner around Georgetown that he could have all the ore that he could get from the Dives people, and that he would pur chase the same at full value st the Peh can mill.
 ''The bargain certainly gave no one a legal title to the ore th,Is to be obtained, md as to the moral aspects of the queS- ion 1 suppose that didn't bother any one of them. The law certainly would have looked upon ore taken from the Dives people under this arrangement as stolen ore
 OBTAINED THE KEGS.
 "The miner with whom the arrange nent had been made had for some Sime aad some low grade ore ill sacks in one lf the bins of the Foster sampler, a mill about half a mile above the sampler where the ore of the Dives people was sampled. One evening, after he had made arrangements with a couple of friends, he went to Mir. Foster. after the latter had locked up his sampler, and asked him for the key of the mill. as he wanted to get the sacks holding the lc~ grade ere stacked in the mill. Mir. Eos ser, of course, had no objection and handed over the key.
 During the night there came along wagon loaded with ore picked out at the Dives mine by one who knew the grade of the ore. It was dropped C4 tne hiE and the two men packed the ore in the Foster sampler. The ore was put in the sacks which formerly held the low grsde galena ore. It was impossible to take away the ore that night, so it was left, with the hope that GIr. Foster would not notice anything out of the way. But when the next night it was noticed by the two conspirators that a brand nev .ock was placed on the door of the mill md that all the windows had been finn y fastened down, they needed no one to -ell them that Mir. Foster wanted an ex olanation Of how worthless galena or had suddenly become ore running 51z ounces in silver.
 ''The two cOnspirators sneaked around ine mill, hunting for an unguarded place. but every point was locked, nc lOor opened, TO window was unshu> To break in meant burglary, and bun slary means Canyon City for a term, $ discovered. So what to do became tbs question.