Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1896-11-26
DOES GOLD GROws
some Veteran Miners who Pretend
10 Believe That IL Does.
Butte Daily Intermountain)

Butte Daily IntermOuntain)
They were all weather-beaten tran
blazers who had led the march Of civil
cation into the mountains, and as they
toasted their shins by the big stove IN
Lon Plckett's Hotel bar az Melrose their
conversation wandered from the recent
election and the departed glories Of other
days 10 the latest discoveries in science.
John Helehan had just finished reading
from q mining journal about Professor
Emmons's discovery Of the method Of
transmitting silver into gold.
Il think Emmons IS a humbug,' said
old Judge Longly, a California Argonaut
1.-THE old achemists, you know. tried
that. but they might as well have tried
TO make an apple-seed Nature holds
the germ and all the scientists who imi-
tate her can do IS 10 quicken It's growth"
1--WE heard tell Of gold growing re-
marked VIII Robbins.
so have l." said the Judge, but you
have never seen it grow, have your /
don't believe all the yarns these experts
spin. anyhow
Boys" spoke up John Treanor, per
haps l have got some queer old notions
slowed away under this diggn' hat OF
mine, but for thirty years, man and boy,
I've been a prospector, and have been
doin' some thinking. And / tell you now
that | believe gold does grow. Twenty
years AGO / struck the Locust and sank
a shaft. II was silver ore, and AFTER
diggin' for awhile / gave 1t up IN dis
gust. Then I wandered over TO the other
side of the range and located the Ban
ner, copper mine now I'm the possession
of the Anaconda Company. ! moseyed
around for awhile, and eight years ago
l went back to my old love. ths Locust.
Hang me If | could believe my eyes. boys,
when / found the prettiest ledge or
gold ore right where the silver ledge
was. 1t was as pretty az a picture, and
/ kept right on diggin', and have been
diggin' I'm that hole ever since. II seemed
TO me that in the places where the water
struck 1t it grew richer ] run in three
tunnels at the bottom, but found the gold
was not yet ripe so / just closed up tho
tunnels and let them rest for Few
years"
Blame me il don't think Hank steb-
bins does the same thing" said JACK
Flice. Hank lives up in Soap Guich,
and has a claim he calls the Belcher.
He discovered it thirty years ago when
Wash Stapleton was making bullets IN
his lead mine TO kill Indians with. il
Is in a funny formation for that part
Of the country. IL is in reef OF sand
lying between the line formation that
borders on the Melrose Valley, and the
stratined gneiss formation that runs
from that point to the base Of Red
Mountain. Thirty years ago Hank dis
covered that there were globules OF sill
yer in the sand and located it, but there
wasn't enough mineral 20 pay, and he
abandoned II. Ten years ago he went
hack TO the old mine and began turning
over the sand. He began to find chunks
OF gold instead of silver. He has good
thing of il now. He mines It like the
Aloxicans used to mine it years ago. He
cuts stairs in the sand, and takes the
rock up in a candle-boX and sorts II over.
Now. all he has got TO do when he wants
10 mako a stake is to go down 10 the
sand-plle and wiggle n crowbar around
for n few minutes, when up comes
piece Of shining gold. Several capitalists
have attempted to get hold Of the mine
and one of Henze's agents made him a
good offer for II, but Hank won't sell,
for he is sure he has a fortune II the gold
laans an craving