The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-12-26
RATING WORKS I'm THE BLACK
HILLS COUNTRY.
MILLIONS RUN TO WASTE.
DIFFERENT METHODS USED TO
WOO THE PRECIOUS METAL
FROM ITS ORES.
HOW MOUNTAINS ARE ROBBED.
'iSanfic Homestake Mine, the Like
of Which 1t Would Be Hard
to Find.

to Find.
DeadWood is big hole in the ground:
Lead City is strung along deep fur
row climbing the range. The former
mas more pretentious and metropoii-
tan aspect, with some neat shops and
handsome blocks of brick and stone
It's dwellings, seem to stand on shelves
In circ!ing tiers up the steep noun
tain side, and their windows overlook
the streets below At night these
towering mountain galleries are aglow
with the lights of many windows, and
one might imagine himself looking at
some marvel Of modern architecture
Deadwood Is then at it's best and
at its worst. It's 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 card, are thronging around the
faro tables and the various hazards
OF fortune, hoping that tonight they
VIII have the long looked for run of
luck and then take brace an git
some new clothes an go back East an
ncIier merry Crfs'mas t. the Oh folks
JUS like OF times, an plunk down
enough gold t. lift that NOR gfdge on
the farm an stay to home an behave. -
THAT'S the sad end of Deadwood life
1of' as hipling says in his ballad:
Poor devil, ell ne-er see 'ome.
ana no more will these stranded
ueVils VINO have been racked on wheels
OF fortune In the far West. Patience
ana nope are a strong team, but they
go lame II overworked, and by and by
are down Tor good. Then the poor
ueVll jumps into the reservoir or
CrdWlS into some barn and dies JJn-
fortunately there are also MANY very
decent fellows who hit the games. They
are men who can take the gaff more
cheerully and who protect their re-
serve
But there's feature of night life in
DeadWood that Is beautiful and more
fascinating than these games OF
chance-the rivers of molten metal.
the cascades of flowing Stag and snok-
ing, fiery gold, the scintillating food
Shouting out of the forehearths and
Illuminating the darkness, the NINA
ture Vesuvii Of powdered ore below the
chutes growing with red avalanches
rresh from the roaster
These are the things that have made
DeadwOOd possible
FIERY CURRENTS.
From one Of the forehearths thew
nave made a winding course Of sand.
perhaps sixty feet long. into which tha
with gold-so rich that pot of it No,
larger than an old-fashioned potato
Kettle would sell for $780, 1t is literally
a river of gold-the precious metal can
be plainly distinguished as it comes
smoking from the furnace and sinks in
the MOOD, being heavier than the met
ais from which it is parting company.
This process Of fusing the ore, which
Is more spectacular than any other. is
employed by one Of the companies. The
ore Is Shoveled into the furnace with
coke, lime rock and pyrites of IRON
Which are used for fusing The fire is
urged with blast of wind that would
run presidential campaign. The Stag
flows out Of the furnace over the perfo-
rated top Of the forehearth and the
weight of the gold carries it 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 pot on
trucks.
When the mat is cooled it is beaten
with a sledge hammer and shipped to
Omaha to be separated
The roots Of the tree of evil have
many branches <Aat grip the hills
round about DeadMood No less hot
and suggestive is the mill Of the chlori
nation works, where the gold is kept in
tanks-a yellow liquid that looks like
sweet cider. Here the ore Is pulver-
lied and then fed into big barrels of
iron, revolving horizontally, where 1t is
roasted to get rid of the sulphur by
flame that shoots through a big hole
in one end Of the barrel.
The powdered ore is then treated
with chlorine gas, whereupon the gold
flows out Of it in solution. Then it is
churned awhile in 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 metals are precipitated by
adding sodium sulphide to the solution
and stirring it to hasten and intensity
this chemical action. The gold is then
caught in series Of cloth strainers,
which are burned to release the metal.
There is still another process of pull
ing the leg Of mother nature in the
Black Hills. 1t is called the cyanide
process At the mill Of this company
the powdered ore is run into great cir
cular watts and treated with cyanide
Of potassium, after which the gold Is
leached out Of it 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 it, and the two are welded for
a season-until Monday of the succeed
ing week, to be exact-when they are
divorced by fire, the gold being cast
into bricks and sent to the money
changers.
The mill would look like common
cheese factory If 1t were not so dirty.
The air Is rank with fumes, and one
Of the workmen told me it made whis-
kers grow on his windpipe, by which
he meant to say, no doubt, that 1t was
a serious offense to his lungs. 49,
OTHER PROCESSES.
The Homestake mine at Lead City
Is the most monumental hole in the
ground in the Black Hills, and I fancy
it would be hard to find the like Of 1t
anywhere else. They say that Hearst.
Lounsberry, Haggin and others bought
Probably the sum paid was between
one and two hundred thousand.
Since then they have taken out Of It
hard on to hundred million 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 sight to last twenty years-some
part of that, however, must probably
be charged to exaggeration.
There is a rapid stream flowing along
the road to Lead City that Is red, as If
stained with the blood of the noun
tains standing rent and sore about
Lead City. The shaft Is
nine hundred 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 verticle crushers.
Then 1t takes q slide to the stamp
mill down the gulch.
ing up and down upon the ore like pile
dy.Ivaa. Probably fha roar of q th011 ga nd