The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-12-01
DOES GOLD GROW?


Some Veteran Miners Who Pretend to
Believe That 1t Does.
They We're all weather beaten trail
blazers who had led the march of civil
ization into the mountains, and as they
toasted their sllns by the big stove in
Lon Pickett's hotel bar at Melrose their
conversation wandered from the recent
election and the departed glories of
other days to the latest discoveries in
science. John Helehan had just fin
ished reading from a mining journal
about Professor Emmons' discovery of
the method of transmitting silver into
gold
II think Emnlons is a humbug," said
old Judge Lonely, a California Argo-
naut. "The old alchemists, you know,
tried that, but they might as well have
| tried to make ar apple seed. Nature
| holds the germ and all the scientists
who initiate her can do is to quicken its
growth.
"I've heard tell of gold growing" re-
marked VIII Robbins.
| 80 have T. said the judge, "but you
have never seen it grow, have you? I
don't believe all the yarns these experts
spin, anyhow" O.
Boys" spoke up John Treanor, per
| haps / have got some queer old notions
slowed away under this diggin' hat of
mine, but for thirty years, man and
boy, I've been a prospector, and have
| been dom some thinking. And I tell
you now that believe gold does grow.
Twenty years ago l struck the Locust
and sank a shaft. 1t was silver ore,
and after diggin' for a while / gave it
up in disgust, Then wandered over to
| the other side of the range and located
| the Banner, a copper mine now in the
possession of the Anaconda company.
I moseyed around for awhile, and eight
years ago I went back to my old love,
| the Locust. Hang me if 1 could believe
| my eyes, boys, when I found the pref
| test ledge Of gold ore right where the
silver ledge was. 1t was as pretty as a
| pictur, and kept right on diggin', and
have been diggin' in that hole ever
since. 1t seemed to me that in the
places where the water struck it, it
grew richer. I run in three tunnels at
| the bottom, but found the gold was not
yet ripe, SO just closed up the tunnels
and let them rest for a fey years"
| "Blafne me if I don't think Hank
| Stebbins does the same thing" said
! Jack F'lice. Hank lives up in Soap
| Gulch, and has a claim he calls the
Belcher. He discovered it thirty years
ago when Wash Stapleton was making
bullets in his lead mine to kill Indians
with. 1t is in funny formation for
that part of the country. 1t is in a reef
of sand lying between the lime forma-
/ ton that borders on the Nfelrose val
ley and the stratified gneiss formation
that runs from that point to the base of
/ Red Mountain. Thirty years ago Hank
| discovered that there were globules of
silver in the sand and located it, but
there wasn't enough mineral to pay and
| he abandoned it. Ten years ago he
went back TO the old mine and began
| turning over the sand. He began to
find chunks of gold instead of silver
He has good thing of it now. He
mines it like the Mexicans used to mine
it years ago. He cuts stairs in the
sand and takes the rock UP in a candle
box and sorts it over. Now all he has
got to do when he wants to make a
| stake is to go down to the sand pile and
wiggle a crowbar around for a few min
utes when up comes a piece of shining
gold. Several capitalists have attempt
ed to get hold of the mine, and one of
Heinze's agents made him a good offer
for it, but Hank won't sell, for he is
sure he has a fortune if the gold keeps
on growing. Butte Daily Inter-Moun-
tain.