The Irish standard., 1896-03-07

ed, anu man VINO is down cannot easily
command the hearty support of his
friends. 1 had good friends, but I con.
cluded that l would go elsewhere anC
strike out anew"
"How old were you then, governor p
asked
'I was then 43 years of age" was the
reply.
':Just about this time I was in New
York City and I heard there of the Bato
p.las mines Of Mexico. They belonged .tC
Wells, Fargo & Co, and were offered foi
sale. l was given an option on them al
81 900, 900. I knew nothing about mining
but took a mining engineer and others
and went to Mexico. The engineer re-
ported the mines very valuable. and the
result was that | organized a company
and bought them for $10O0,000. | then
took $3.50 900 and went to Mexico TO work
them. l thought that the remainder OF
the money | could get~eut Of the mines,
1 had not been-sec~ work very long before
1 found-tttt1af l had been deceived by the
engineer. The mines had been only par
TALLY opened. He had estimated that
there was at least 100000 worth cf silver
in the pillars of the mine. | expected this
to supply the funds; for carrying on the
work ] took out the pillars. They netted
just $4,000.
Il then had to go on with my mining
as best could the governor continued
II had to use all sorts of shafts, getting
the money out Of the mine as [ went
along. ] kept this UP for years, greatly
improving the property, until | have now
taken out about $10,500.000 worth of sill
yer, almost all of which has gone back
into the mines. We nave bought more
territory, and we have now sixty-one
square miles Of land surrounding these
mines, including some of the best silver
bearing leads of the world. We have
built aqueducts and tunnels, and within
a short time We expect to be taking out
between two and three million dollars.
We are now working down the veins
from the top Of the mountain toward the
tunnel which we have run into the sides
OF the mountain. At present we have TO
carry the ore UP to the top. lifting it hun
dreds of feet, and then cart it down to the
smelters on nluIeback. 1t costs us about
So a ton to get the ore to the mills. When
we get the veins cut through to the tun-
mel we can run it out for about 10 cents
ton, so you see that our profits will soon
rapidly Increase
"How about the silver mines of Mex
leo? Are they not almost exhausted?"
mo. indeed" was the reply.,sI be-
lieye Mexico to be one of the richest min
eral territories Of the world. The coun-
try has not yet been prospected. The
people dc not know what they have. The
mines which they have already opened
are of vast extent, and YOU can get some
idea of the production when / tell you
that Mexico has been coming for years
silver at the rate of S22.000,000 annually.
There are enormous amounts of gold in
Mexico. Take the country along the Pa
cific coast down as far as Mazatlan.
There are half dozen Californians in
this strip OF country with more than Cal
ifortlias " richas..l why if we could have
railroad built from The Pacific to the
Ratopilas mines J believe inside Of year
there would be $4,000 miners in that ter
ritory alone. There are good gold mines
near us, and in all of my prospecting in
Mexico T. have yet TO find a place where
there were not races of gold .....
"How about the old gold mines of Mex
leo. governor? Are any OF them good?"
YES" replied Gov. Shepherd. "The
Spaniards did not understand the geo.
logical conditions that produce silver.
They thought that all of the ore was on
the surface, whereas the best OF the veins
are far down. Mines which have been
abandoned for years are now being re-
opened, and many Of the abandoned
mines are producing large outputs OF sill
YER and go]d.''
Glow about the dumps of refuse about
those mines, governor? have been told
that the Mexicans got out only part of
the silver and gold, and that the dumps
can be worked over at a good profit
THAT is q mistake,' was the reply.
t'The Mexicans mine very we'll, and it
does not pay to work over their refuse.
We had the idea that we could make a
great deal out of that at Batopilas, and
we estimated that it would produce
good profit per ton, 1t paid only a very
small percentage over the cost of work
ing"
"ffow about the safety Of Mexico, gov
crnor? Can Americans go there and
mine without danger OF losing their
liyes?"
''Of course they can,'' was the reply.
Property and life are as safe in most
parts of Mexico as they are in the United
States. President Dias has a good gov
ernment, and the day of revolutions
seems to have passed away. Now and
then there is a little scare OH the from
tier, but such so-called revolutions
amount to nothing. Take that Of 1894.
1t consisted of a conspiracy which was
made ZIP by some men at Ell Paso to rob
one of our trains. About forty vaga-
bonds on the American side Of the line
united with the forty vagabonds on the
Mexican side and planned to rob U.s. We
got telegram from the bank at Chihua-
hua not to send out the train, and when
the robbers appeared they failed to find
our men and dispersed. Their band was
spoken of as that of revolution Presi-
dent Diaz sent some Of his soldiers up to
the mine, and they cleaned out the rob-
bers"
Glow are times in Mexico, governor?
Has not the demonetization OF silver in
jured the eountry?''
Il think not replied Governor Shep-
herd Mexico is very prosperous, and
that notwithstanding that for four years
1 he crops have failed, and there has been
considerable famine. This demonetiza-
tion of silver acts as a protective tariff
for Mexico 1t keeps out foreign goods
which are sold at gold prices by making
them too expensive, and the result is that
the Mexicans are establishing all kinds
of factories. 1t is the same in Japan. and
will be the same in China. The Japa-
rese are now making most of their own
cottons and China is establishing cotton
mills We are. think likely to ruin
ourselves if we keep UP our present pol
icy. We are trying to establish free
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