Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1896-08-22

those Of great factory. a look at II
gives you some idea OF the enormous
cost oi silver mining. The engines
which move IL machinery have ten
great boilers, and It's furnaces arc so
large that ten men are constantly
shoveling coal into them TO keep the
fires alive. They cat up from twenty
five to thirty tons OF coal day, and the
coal bill Tor the furnaces alone amounts
10 $3.50 daily. Five hundred dollars
day Is paid for wages TO the miners, and
the machinery Is OF the most costly
description. Alter dressing In miners
clothes | went down into the shaft.
Stepping on the elevator was dropped
hundreds OF feet, past tunnel after tun.
mel running of into the vein, until was
at last more than thousand feet below
the surface.
Running oil iiom the shafts are these
great pipes or tunnels out OF which have
been cut the silver and lead. They arc
lighted by electricity. They are driven
this way and that, so that they form a
labyrinth like the avenues IA the cata.
combs OF Rome. You could lose your.
self In this mine. II connects with the
great Henrietta mine, aud you might
wander about from tunnel TO tunnel
without finding your way to the shaft
The mine Is a wet mine, and Il takes
an enormous amount OF money to wall Il
with timbers. Many such mines contain
forests OF great logs, and !, Is estimated
that there IS more than $1,000, GOO worth
oil lumber and timber used In the mines
OF Leadyilc alone. Each OF these tun.
nels IS rooted and walled with big pine
logs, and the Slopes, or caves, cut away
from the tunnels In order TO get the sill
yer out, have to be almost filled with
timbers for fear their sides may cave In.
No one who has not gone through a
great mine can appreciate the amount OF
water which flows into IL. In the bottom
OF the Maid Of Erin streams Of ice-cold
water Flow through the tunnels like so
many mountain brooks Overhead are
pipes Tor steam and for compressed air
to run the drills. There is a railroad
track In each tunnel and boards upon
which you can walk to keep out OF the
stream. The water rs taken out Of the
mine by enormous steam pumps. Nine
hundred feet below the surface OF the
ground ! found an immense engine
room, large part Of the machinery of
which consisted OF pumps, which work
away there day aud night They carry
out Of the mine goo gallons OF water a
minute, or $4,000 gallons an hour. II
they were stopped Tor two or three hours
the mine would be filed, and II would
cost fortune to open Il again. As you
go upward to other levels you find other
pumps, and you are somewhat surprised
TO learn that a mine IS now managed on
the same business principles as a great
manufacturing establishment. All OK.
penses are cut down to the lowest
notch, and capitalists watch the money
they put into mines lust as they do their
Investments In other businesses,
TuSsELiSo TOR ORE,
They do not hesitate to spend a great
deal to bring abou, results. visited
tunnel the other day that was being
driven into the side OF mountain, In
order to strike the gold veins which are
supposed to lie there.
Every foot OF the tunnel would cost al
| least sac, and Il was TO be more than
| mile IN length. The company expected
TO spend more than 500, COO in making
the tunnel, and they were drilling
through the rock by steam, forcing the
drills into the granite by means Of com.
pressed air. In company with one Of
The men entered the tunnel. We each
carried a candle, but we had to shield IL
with our hands, tor the water came down
In torrents from the roof OF the tunnel,
and was carried of in a drain or box