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

shirts being stuck into their trousers At
first you think they are lazy, but you soon
learn that they are miners, and that the
mines work day and night, in eight-hour
shifts, so that there always men off duty
waiting for their turn to work. About Mer-
cur the mines are to be seen on all sides.
At one end of the horseshoe are the Golden
Gate mines, These rude, factory-like build
ings with what to be gravel banks be-
side them are they.
The gravel banks are piles of ore, and
the dust is worth SIS a ton as it lies out
there under the sky. Back and to the left
OF the Golden Gate is the great Marion mine,
whose mill has been grinding up fifty tons
Of rock a day since 1S93 and which has
with 200, 600 tons of gold-bearing rock in
sight. Further is the Geyser mine, which
Is now producing fifty tons Of ore a day
at cost of SLIT ton, and adjoining them
is the Brickyard shaft houses, SO called be-
cause the mines connected with them are
under the site of an old brickyard. Facing
miles down the canon, are the great Sun
shine works, where the golden blankets are
said to be seventy feet thick, and where the
miners work right into the ore from the
start. In these mines 300,0 600 tons of ore
are blocked out, and some parts of the gold
bearing rock can be reduced for less than
a dollar ton. Near this is the Overland
property, which is largely owned by ex-Con-
gresham George w. Dorsey, who by the
way, is one of the shrewd investors here;
and to the right of you, way up on the side
and dumps of the great Mercur mine, one
Of the first gold mines which was opened up,
and probably the largest producer Of all in
the camp today. Out of it has already been
taken more than a million dollars worth of
gold, and it has paid it's stockholders more
than $500 900 in dividends
NEBRASKANS MADE MILLIONS.
The story of the Mercur is as romantic
as that of the treasures of Monte Cristo.
Six years ago its chief owners were COM
paratively poor men in the little town of
Fremont, Neb It's president, John Dern,
about score Of years ago, was driving
team in a lumber yard. He was poor Ger
man, but he saved his money and at the time
he invested in this mine he was, l venture,
day his income runs into the thousands
month, and / doubt whether he would sell
his interest in this mine alone for a million.
1t was with him that l went through the
mine, and from him / got the story of its
development. One of the Fremont men
knew that this Mercur rock contained gold.
He got up a company Of Nebraskans and
they bought the property for about $4,000
They worked 1t with experienced miners
but though the assayers told them there was
gold in the rock, they could not get it out
They wasted thousands of dollars in trying
to reduce the ore by quicksilver but failed.
Then they tried the cyanide process and
again failed. The rock when reduced to
-four became pasty and dough-like and the
solution of cyanide and water would not
percolate through it. At last as an expert
ment, instead of crushing the rock to -four
tney put IL into Inc pdns IN Jumps Oh ABOUT
the size of pea and in this shape the
cyanide solution over it. This solved the
problem. The cyanide solution soaked into
the crushed gravel and carried away the
gold. They have now here one of the big
gest cyanide mills in existence, and though
they still lose about II per cent Of the gold
they get enough out of the rock to give them
an enormous profit.
The ore as it is taken from the earth has
no sign of gold about it. Such of it as is
ground into powder looks not much different
from the dust of limestone road and after
it has gone through the cyanide solution the
gold which is taken cut is mixed up with a
lot of dust, which looks for all the world like
the scrapings Of saopstone. After going
through the min / shown a lot of this
golden dust If the material was in
your backyard and you did not know what it
was you would probably want to sell it for
ashes. 1t looks not unlike ashes. 1t is how
when 1 was given a long handled sovel and