The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-09-28

the sides of the great mountains sprang
myriads of golden fairies, answering TO
the touch of those nineteenth century al
chemists-the men who make mother earth
the study of their lives. And SO the re-
fining pots have been beaten into picks
and shovels, and Leadville is today the
greatest gold producing district in Col
orado
Mr. Louis Noble an expert mining en-
gineer, tells me that the Leadville miners
followed to a certain extent the advice of
eastern papers that called loudly upon
them to give up their selfish fight for sill
ver, stop mining it and produce gold in
stead. They were, of course, not to expect
TO find the moro -~cious metal In the
large bod: .ue, had been won't to do
with --:ver and lead, but they were TO go
to the mountain tops aTsl over the less eX-
plored parts of the country and work the
many small leads and the lower grade
bodies which had not been worth consider
ing before. This latter clause of the adj
vice, however, was not followed. The min
ers did not hunt for gold on the mountain
tops, but right on the old silver mining
lines, and found il too.
The portion of the Leadville gold belt
which is at present attracting the most at
tention lies on the east slope of Breeze
hill, directly east from Leadville. Per
haps the most famous mine in Leadville is
the Little Johnny, belonging to the hex
Mining company, and which is situated in
this district The Little Johnny turns
out 100 tons aday and could as easily turn
out 500 tons.
4 Brave Woman's Trip.
I went down the shaft of the Little
Johnny 500 feet into the bowels of the
earth. / wandered through drifts and
slopes, watched the brawny fellows who
were picking the ore from the brown earth,
saw the precious dirt heaped on the cars
and for one delightful and instructive
hour was entirely out of the world above
and in the earth beneath.
When presented myself at the shaft
house of the Little Johnny, was received
with great politeness by Sullivan, the
foreman of the mine, one of the best
known characters in Leadville. And right
here want to say that the typical western
miner in his rusty boots, corduroy coat
and flannel shirt can give lots of our
Broadway fIaneurs points on civility. [
have been knocking about now nearly six
weeks among miners, and / have yet 70
Sullivan brought mans rubber coat
and enyeloped me in its ample folds. Next
a natty brown felt hat was given me in
exchange for my straw nicotine. PIANO.
piled with my manly arTnor, / followed
Sullivan to the cage or elevator which
was to take us below. We took our places.
l clutched Suilivan's coat sleeve trifie
nervously, must confess. The little croak
CT of the party, who would not go down,
called after Us. We'll, if you never come
back And we shot downward in total
darkness.
Down, down, water dripping, dripping
about us in the awful blackness. a thun-
dering thump-we are az the first sta
ton. Through a falling shower light
gleams-an electric light at that. Blessed
light, Never was il more welcome
sullivan lights his candle, gives me one,
and we set out on our voyage of discovery
in the underworld.
In SubterraDean Gloom.
1t is an enormous mine-this Little
Johnny. We walked miles, climbed stairs,
Crawled through tunnels, descended into
depths and waIdercd through drifts and
never came 10 the end of anything. Far,
far OF in intsrminable vist3s cleaned the
pale. pickering candles OF workers. twin
king now. then disappearing altogethCr-a
weird effect. Duly at hand and softly a
a distance resoundcd the blows OF the
picks against the cleaving earth. The
miners all looked up IS we passed, and all
bowed. smiled in 4 grave. serious fashion
and lifted their hats, but they made no
speech. Your voice sounds thin and queer
and mufiied down there and SO you don {
feel inclined 70 cabble on frivolous topics
any more than you would in q cathedral
A desperately lonely life il must be. - l
said 10 sullivan. Il should think the men
would come To see phantoms down here.
sullivan laughed. Then he said quite
serious. We always try 70 keep t7Vo or
three men sss near each other Is possible In
case II accident.
But do they never think they see
ghosts persisted
''Oh. we'll" sullivan said. 4 have
rear,i stories about other mines. There
was Il tale of a phantom that rode up and
down in the cage IN one mine Il was
said 70 be the ghost Of a miner, and some or
the men declared they saw Il; but- OF
course that's all nonsense
l. It l wondered And / remembers
the story told ne a day or - ago by min
ing engineer who had occasion 70 p down
an abandoned shaft lie went SowE u
the bucket and stepped on something 10
the darkness. quickly lighted his candle
and looked into the facc Il dead nan
lie sent the bucket UP for his partner and
remained down there with that horror
, alone DOWN came the b1cket I'D wen