The weekly intelligencer., 1896-06-06
THE UNSEEN GOLD SUPPLY.
Some of the Queer Sources Whence 1t
COmes-GOId.P Plated Rats.

| Some of the Queer Sources Whence 1t
Comes-GoId-P Plated Rats.
The unseen gold supply is tech
nical term for gold that does not come
directly from the mines-that is, not
nugget, dust or bullion-and yet is one
of the most important feeders of the
| government coinage.
This supply, unseen" in the CONNER
cial marts, comes from several sources.
The best known is old jewelry, discard
| ed because it's hapless owner has suf-
fered shipwrecll on the financial seas,
and is compelled to throw it overheard
as an anchor to hold by.
1t is certain that no manufactured
| gold article endures forever. Even
heirlooms, guarded for generations,
are destined some day to fall into ir-
reverent or needy hands, and will ulti-
mateiy go to swell the unseen supply of
| the mints. Not that these odds and
ends may be sold there in small quanti-
ties. Thousands of dealers, all over the
country, are constantly gathering in
the unseen gold, little by little. When
their collection amounts in value to
$1O0 the mints are ready to purchase it,
but not before.
Not less than 100000 worth of
gold is used in the arts every year, and
all of this is lost to the world. In the
filling of teeth, also, millions of dollars
in gold are sunk annually, and all of
this, too, is lost, except that which
chances to be in teeth extracted by
dentists, who. you may be sure, are
careful to see that it is not wasted.
But the most curious of all the
sources of the unseen gold supply re-
mains to be described. Perhaps you
may think it romance, but it is strict
ly true. Have you heard that in France
a company has been formed for the eX-
traction of gold from the microbes that
are said to feed on and attach them
selves to the precious metal in count
less billions? Well, queer as that idea
is, the wide-awalle boys employed out
American watch-case jewelry factories
can more than match it.
What do you think of their killing
rats and burning their bodies to alb
stract gold from them? In furnishing
jewelry, especially watch-cases, oiled
rags are used, and these rags become
strongly impregnated with fine par
ticles of gold. Theoretically the boys
are supposed to take care that the rags
are put away at night o., ii = . ., .. 2
the always present rats. Practically
the boys do just the opposite thing.i
They have some ideas of their own on
the subject, and carry them out.
Knowing how fond rats are of greasy
substances, the rags are left with stud,
led carelessness where the rats will be
sure to find them and devour them.
And what happens then seems almost
incredible.
Six months of the rubbing-rag diet
fills the interior machinery of the rat
with thin gold plating that sticks
to him closer than a brother. He can
never get rid of it. 1t is there to stay
as long as he does, and he stays as long
as the rags and other inducements hold
out. These latter are in the shape of
butter and fat dropped by the sly boys
and rubbed into the floor by their feet.
They are careful to select spots where
gold filings have fallen, and so when
the rats come out at night and nibble
the floor they get an extra supply of
this unseen gold.
But the time comes when il is to be
unseen no longer. That is twice Il
year, when the boys have grand
roundup, catch and kill the rats by
the hundred, and then put them into Il
crucible and burn them. The intense
heat drives off all the animal sub
stances, leaving the gold in the shape of
a nugget, the purest of the pure. The
value of this nugget depends, of course,
on the number of "gold-plated" rats
cremated. 1t is always enough, how
ever, to give the ingenious lads consid-
cradle pocket money. - Philadelphia
Times.