The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-20
GOLD IN THE BLACK HILLS.
MOUNTAINS ABOUT DEADwoOD BE-
ING GROUND TO POWDER.


Travels to the Very Ends of the
Earth Lurid Night Scenes In
LeadvilIe.
Deadwood Letter Pittsburg Post.
Deadwood is a big hole in the ground;
Lead City is strung along a deep furrow
climbing the range. The former has a
more pretentious and metropolitan aspect.
with some neat shops and handsome
blocks of brick and stone. Its dwellings
seem to stand on shelves in circling tiers
up the steep mountain sides, and their
windows overlook the streets below Al
night these towering mountain galleries
are aglow with the lights of many Win
dows. and one might imagine himself look
ing at some marvel of modern architec-
ture. Deadwood is then at it's best and
at its worst. Its dens of infamy are open
TO all corners; the buns and loafers Of the
Town. who have been stalking their all for
years on the turn of a card, are thronglng
around the faro tables and the various
hazards of fortune, hoping that tonight
they will have the long-looked-for run of
luck; and then take brace an git some
new clos an go back east an holler
merry C'ris' mas t. the oil folks, JUS like
OF times, and PUNK down enough gold
L lift that mor'gidge on tn farm an
stay to home an behave" That's the sad
end of Deadwood life for, as Klpling says
in his ballad:
Poor devil, ell never see 'ome."
And no more will these poor stranded
hoe n Wheels
of fortune in the far west. Patience and
hope are a strong team, but they go lame
If oyerworked, and bye and bye they're
down for good. Then the poor victim
iunnps into the reservoir or crawls into
some barn and dies. Unfortunately there
are also many very decent fellows VINO
hit the games. They are men who can
take the gan more cheertully ana VINO
protect their reserve.
But there's a feature of night life In
Deadwood that is beautiful and more tas-
cinating than these games of chance-the
rivers of molten metal. the cascades or
flowing Stag and smoking fiery gold, the
scintillating food spouting out of the fore
hearths and Illuminating the darkness,
the miniature Vesuvii of powered ore be-
low the chutes growing with red avail
anches fresh from the rooster. These are
the things that have made Deadwood pos
sible.
From one of the forehearths they have
made a winding course of sand, perhaps
sixty feet long, into which the fiery pro-
duct of the furnace flows rich with gold
so rich that pot of 1t no larger than an
old-fashioned potato kettle would sell for
$50 1t is literally q river of gold-the
precious metal can be plainly distinguish
ed as it comes smoking from the furnace
and sinks in the flood, being heavier than
the metals from which 1t is parting COM
pany. This process of fusing the ore,
which Is more spectacular than others, Is
employed by the Deadwood and Delaware
company. The ore is shoveied into the
furnaces with coke, lime rock and pyrites
of iron, which are used for fusing. The
fire Is urged with a blast of wind that
would run a presidential campaign. The
Stag flows out of the furnace over the
perforated top of the forehearth, and the
weight of the gold carries IL through the
perforation into the forehearth, while the
Stag flows over it, then the forehearth is
tapped and the mat of gold and silver is
drawn into a pot on trucks. When the
mat is cooled it is beaten with a sledge
hammer and shipped to Omaha to be sep
arated.
The roots of the tree of evil have many
branches that grip the hills round about
Deadwood No less hot and suggestive
is the mill of the Chiorination works,
where the gold is kept In tanks-a yell
low liquid that looks like sweet cider. Here
the ore is pulvenzed and then fed into
the big barrels of iron revolving horizon
tally where 1t is roasted, to get rid of the
sulphur by fame that shoots through
big hoe in one end of the barrel. The
powdered ore is then treated with chic
ride gas, whereupon the gold flows out
of it in solution. Then II is churned
awhile in a big, lead-lined tank until the
gold comes like butter in a black powder
that settles to the bottom. To be more
severely scientific, the gold and other met
ais are precipitated by adding sodium SUI
phide to the solution and stirring 1t to
hasten and intensity this chemical action.
The gold is then caught in a series of cloth
strainers which are burned to release the
metal There is still another process of
pulling the leg Of mother nature here in
the Black Hills. 1t is called the cyanide
process. At the mill of this company the
powdered ore is run into great circular
watts and treated with cyanide of potassium,
after which the gold il leached out of 1t
in solution. This liquid then flows through
a series of boxes, each of which is filled
with zinc shavings. The zinc loves the
gold and seizes 1t and the two are welded
for a season-until Monday of the sue
ceeding week to be exact-when they are
divorced by fire, the god being cast into
bricks and sent to the money changers.
The mill would look like a common cheese
factory If il were not so dirty. The air
Is rank Win TUNES ana one OF the WOfh-
men told me II made whiskers grow In his
windpipe, by which he meant to say, no
doubt, that 1t was serious offense to his
lungs.
The Homestake mine at Lead City is
the most monumental hole in the ground
here in the Black Hills and I fancy II
would be hard TO find the like of it any
where else. They say that Hearst, Towns
berry, Haggin and others bought it some
twenty years ago for 100000. Probably
the sum paid was between one and two
hundred thousand. Since then they have
taken out of II hard on to hundred mil
lion dollars. They have ground UP several
OF the everlasting hills, so called. and torn
the bowels out of two mountains. Now
they say there Is enough paying ore in sigh
10 last twenty years-some part of that
however. must probably be charged to ex.
aggeration. There is a rapid stream flow
ing along the road to Lead City that is
red, as If stained with the blood of the
mountains standing rent and sore about
the town. The shaft is 800 feet deep, and
the ore coming up the hoist at the top OF
the mountain is fed into the roaring muz-
zles of the great vertical crushers. Their
It takes a slide to the stamp mill down this
guch. Here 400 big iron shafts are pound