The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-20

to find the most economical and best meth
DDS for getting out the gold. The Mercur
as we'll as the Golden Gate and all the other
mines here, is run on business principles
No money is spared to cheaper the cost CT
production and the cents are as carefully
saved as in the Wall street counting house
where the broker saves the envelopes OF ms
correspondence to figure on. AS it is, how
ever the Mercer still loses II per cent Of its
gold. 1t has mountains of refuse about its
cyanide MILL and every ton OF these mountains
contains from $3.50 to 81 worth of gold. In
the future some one may discover process
by which this refuse may be worked at a
profit
Think Of riding down through silvery noun
tains on a bed of gold It was in this way
that we came from Mercur to the Utah valley.
Our party consisted of Mr.. John Dern, the
millionaire of Mercur, Mr.. Heintz Of the Rio
Grande railroad Mr.. Hanson, the city editor
of the Deseret News, and myself. Squatting
on a rock pile OF gold-bearing dirt and rock
worth at least $500, holding on to the Jagged
stones for dear life, we few round and round
and in and out on our way down over one
of the most remarkable railroads of the world.
1t was built in 1894, at a cost of $150,0O 1t
Is only four miles in straight line from
the point where 1t begins to the point where
it ends, but it takes more than eleven miles
of winding curves to make the journey. 1t
begins at little over 5000 feet above the
sea and in this distance it carries you up
ward an altitude of almost half a mile 1
have gone up the little narrow-gauge railroad
which takes you from the plains of India to
Darjellng IN the ft1malaya mountains.
1t is only two feet wide, and It's cars are
not much larger than store boxes The
Mercur and Salt Lake railroad is OF the stand
ard gauge, and it has curves so short that
standing on the rear of the train we could
at times almost touch the engine as it flew
around them. Now the engine seemed to be
climbing an inclined plane and were
pitched almost straight down to the level be-
low. We could see the line running in par
allel tracks down the mountain, and 1t seemed
as though we could easily have jumped from
one track to the other, thus cutting off the
distance, which by curves required several
miles. As we went down we hung in places,
as 1t were on the sides of the mountain. We
could see the great Utah valley stretched
out below us, the Utah lake shining like
silver in the horizon, and beyond it, on the
opposite side, wall Of mountains the Wa
satch range whose silvery peaks with their
ragged edges cut the azure sky. And so we
went on and on, winding In and out like a
snake, now travelling toward the east, now to
the west now to the south and again to
the north in making the curves. until we came
to the foot of the mountain. Here we stopped
before large frame building. Our cars car
ried us UP on trestle work, and we stood
on the track and watched the ore dumped into
the crushers of the Mercur cyanide mill. We
were shown the various processes Of reduc-
ton, and then taking the train, found our
selves in little more than an hour back home
in Salt Lake City.
FRANK G. CARPENTER