Arizona weekly citizen., 1894-09-29
BISBBB. The Mountains a Vast Store
 house of Copper. THE COPPER QUEEN. One of the Most Thoroughly
 Equipped Mines of
 Arizona.
THE COPPER QUEEN.

Bisbee, Cochise county, Arizona, lies Tn the shadow of mountain perhaps g couple of thousand feet high that is precipitous, rugged and to all appear ances lending in the hills" That mountain IS one of the worlds depots oi copper. In it IS stored copper that will form a respectable proportion of the worlds output of the red metal for the next ten years. From it has come prob. ably as much copper as from any one source ln the world for the last fifteen years. Its appearance of solidity bellies it. That mountain is almost as hollow as an oven. The chambers in it are huge. The winzes are hundred feet wide, often. Over sixty miles of tunnels go writhing through and around the depths of the earth from there, in dark lnysterIous places. Thirty-six miles of track wInd through ,he darkness, all leading to some of the shafts that open to the light of day. The great caverns echo with the sounds of the miners tolls for miles underground. So deep are the workings that the terrific ex- plosions of the blasts are not heard on the surface. It is standing joke there that the workings reach into Mexico, and that some of the metal taken out is therefore smuggled. Electric lamps throughout the mines make brilliant spots in the great erie, hollow darkness.
 This removal of the great deposits of copper stored so generously through the mountains requires it's compensations. Every day many thousands of feet of timbers are devoured. Fine seasoned pine from the distant forests of Wash Ington and Oregon is taken underground never to see the day again. There it is set with the most excellent system, every timber small enough to handle conven- iently, yet so put together that cham bers a hundred or two feet wide are held rigidly ssunder. This greed for timbers must ever be supplied, however costly. Timbers often do not last six months and they must be renewed, or the oppressive crushing millions of tons overhead will crunch down on the vacuum, with woe to any man there. Or should the cham bers be old and worked out the waste of the mine is stored there, and the timbers are packed as tightly as possible.
 The mine ls vast beyond imagination compared with the gold or silver mines of Arizona. Were it possible to carry out the fantastic proposition of the man who was going to cut up his old we'll up into post holes, the same principle could be carried out here, and half the preci- ous metal mines of Arizoua could be stored in the Copper Queen.
 Some of the mineral beauties taken from these depths are the bandsomest in the world. They attracted merited at tention and admiration at the worlds fair. Some of the caverns as left by the miners dazzle and glitter In beautiful contrast ro the wierd darkness of the surroundings.
 Copper has fallen in price of late years, and at the copper properties retrench- ments have been necessary. One re- trenchmept at the Queen was the dis continuing of prospecting work in the mines. Last fgll the prospectors were taken of. Yet at that time they had ore enough in sight to last and work proftab ply for the next ten years.
 In the mine are huge blocks of ore. acres of, 'tis shid-ready to knock down, at the institution of new pro- cess of reduction. The ores in question contain sulphur, and the new process is to remove the sulphur.
 WHERE GRE COMES METAL.
 The plant of the Copper Queen shows the wisdom of employing Americans. Everything is done ke clockwork. Ev- cry man has his work, he does It, and doe it well. All about the place is neat and in order. Such is the place where the fires only go out to rel air the stacks from years end to years end. Nine times year at Bisbee the old fire spirit, Salamander, supposed to come out of fire continued forty days, might appear. It IS evidently a desirable place to work, certainly the wages paid are good, and it is no wonder that many unemployed come to Bisbee. That they do is evidenced by the following sIgn Tn prominent place: ''No Men Want ed this Month";"
 "This month," as applied to the time the sign was made was evidently long ago, for the sign is far from new one. Yet as read in the time of reading 1t probably applies, and it doubtless has sent & chill to many a poor fellows heart.
 The output of the Bisbee smelter at present is about twenty five tons of bull lion a day. A total of 400 men are em- ployed by the company. Twenty-Five tons is 5O,OOO pounds. This brings, ac- cording to present quotations, nine cents a pound, or, figured out, SLIPS @ day per man. But when all expenses are figured out, the constant and enor- nous consumption of coke and timbers, the freights on the same and on the bullion going out, the wood used, the with thousand and one other expenses, go deeply into that SLIPS per man per day besides his wages. Yet the man. agement is efficient and the company mnet be making money. Dividends are declared regularly.
 Twenty-Five tons of bullion day are turned out. Two hundred and fifty tons of ore are knocked down and car ried miles underground to the shaft. Upward the cars are shot, only littie less swift than lightning. Into the smelt CT is an old story. Its bulk, when molten, comes forth 90 cent slag, IL per copper. That copper is in neat pigs, or e of the leading products of Arizona and
 
 commerce. Every day Bisbee adds a oar load of copper to the raw material of the world.
 THE METAL BECOMES USEFUL.
 Copper, that has almost an infinity of uses. 1t may, witL it's impervious qual- ities, become the sheath of the bottom of some noble vessel and carry men Tn SC curity to the ends of the earth for dec- adas to come.
 It may, with its marvellous conductive become good wire that in a hairs space of time will convey the thoughts of men to other continents.
 With it's cohesive property it may be utilized to destroy the race of man. Perhaps it will go to Russia and be made into cannon. A great deal of to- days production of copper has that function.
 Some of it will go east and be trans formed into articles of manufacture and