Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1894-07-02
WHAT I SAW OUT WEST.
BY DAVID HILL.

Of the city. L had seen the ore as 1t
was taken from the mine; had seen
it as it was taken from the crushing
mills; now I desired to watch the
process of converting it into bullion,
and from that into the little bars of
gold and silver which rendered it
ready for the mint. The works I Wis
tied covered several acres of ground.
The buildings were long-extremely
so, compared with their wild th-and
were composed principally of brick.
Their nights varied. Out from the
tall brick chimneys poured volumes
of black smoke issuing from furnaces
the fires of which were seldom extin
guished. It meant hundreds of dol
lars to start up those fires, and to
bring those great melting-pots to a
white heat; therefore, day after day,
month after month, night after night,
year in and year out, those furnace
fires continue to burn.
A sidetrack extended along the
front Of the first building the length
hundred feet. In the side of the
building were numerous doors; and
in front of the doors, extending the
entire length of the building, was a
platform stood the carloads Of ore as
they were shipped from the mines
and crushing mills. WOrkmen with
small wheel-barrows were wheeling
this ore into the building at the diff
ferent doors. I went in. The width
of the building was some eighty feet
and the whole interior was without
partitions. Divide the floor length
wise in the center, raise the back half
of it five feet higher than the front
half, and you have the arrangement
of the floor. I stood in the front half.
On each side Of me, between doors,
were great beds Of ore. Not ore
thrown in at hap hazard, Or in broken
piles, but in great cake like squares,
forty feet wide, the same in length,
ten feet in depth, fat and smooth on
top, land the ends facing me as straight
and smooth as a NOW Of hay cut down
with cutting knife. One carload
of ore would be spread out on the
bottom; another carload on top of
that; and SO on, until several carloads
from different mines. and each lot of
in one great bed.9t4 So closely would
the ore pack, and so smooth were the
ends facing me, that the color Of each
layer could be plainly traced; and
those used to it could tell the compo
sition of each layer by merely glanc
ing at the colors. While some were
wheeling in ore from the cars and
building up those great beds others
were wheeling it from beds already
made and dumping it down into tun
nel-shaped holes Of which several
could be seen extending the, length, Of
the raised flooring. To follow the
course Of the ore a guide took charge
of me and we went down below.
Once underneath and 1 discovered
that the building was situated on a
kind of side hill which placed the
lower story on the ground in nearly
the same manner as the upper one.
The whole front was open with posts
at certain intervals as in horse shed
while in front of it was large open
yard. Within this shed-like room,
which was without floor and open in
front, were numerous furnaces kept
almost at a white heat, while over
them hung the massive crucibles or
pots into which [ had seen
the ore dumped from the room above.
So great was the heat around those
furnaces that could barely stand it;
and yet, men stripped nearly to the
skin, fed those fires and handled that
liquid metal day in and day out, night
alike. They were used to it. New
men had to be worked into those
places in the winter in order to in
sure them to the intolerable heat of
summer. Numerous two-wheeled
trucks were standing around, each
truck containing set of moulds the
exact shape OF an old fashioned bee
hive, and holding, as near as I could
judge, about one hundred pounds.
Those empty moulds would be back
ed up to the mouths of the melting
pots and placed directly underneath
long, circular-shaped iron spouts.
Above each spout was the mouth or
clay plugged hole reaching in to
where the molten metal was confined.
When all was in readiness a man
with a long iron poker would work the
clay from the hole, which, when ac