The San Francisco call., 1897-03-05

| the gravel along and under the stream was
worked over By placer-miners long ago and
the placer-mining claims have Deen aoah-
doued Much of the gravel is talllngs con-
tanning little gold and there are thousanos
OF cubic yards of unworked deposits whlch
contain traces of gold. The water IS rlgnt
tnere and one man or little party oi men
could average from rs cents to $1 70 per oay
by hard work with rocker or sluice. -Nopoay
cares to bother with this gravel. Five miles
below gang of Chinese is industriously earn
ing these wages. They not unempioyeu
One OF these days lot of them will PACK tnelr
rice and little lumber over to Poor MAJ
Bend and go cheerfully to work getting more
gold 20 60 back to China with.
Down at Howard and New Montgomery
streets John Willing Jones slept last night On
the barracks floor, and ate his share OF the
days charity at 8 80 p NJ. He pawned his Klt
OF tools some time ago, and he is knee-deep in
wide morass of city poverty. with thousands
OF others, which is more hopeless ana cursed
than being as deep in narrow muo-nole'
with firm ground and sunshine ABOUT. ne
would start promptly to walk to Fresno II ne
knew that he could earn a dollar Gay when
he got there.
Jones has seen pictures of miners with their
pans and rockers by streams in the hills, ana
that's about all he knows about mining. But
way off, where he can eatn q dollar oay
digging gold, if ne can get shovel ana PICK
and few boards; that he can dig a hole TO
sleep in, or build little shelter OF logs ana
brush; that he can live if he can get q Ettle
bacon, -four, coffee and fishl-ine; (; that In two
or three weeks 3he can get together enough
gold dust to provide him better outfit, and
that II be is sober, industrious and resolute ne
may soon enjoy Independent manhood amld
l fy1x n vrfI In I'M
at the opportunity with more gladness ana
hope than he would at six months work on q
boulevard. You see, the lure of '"gold dig
ging" is in it, and the hope in it CLEANS in
spiringly.
There are through the gold belt of California
many thousands OF acres OF S uch ground, ana
though they are very thinly ..spangled
with the golden grains they hold many mil
lions in treasure. They constitute the resi-
due after the placer operations OF the years
since 184S. The placer miners have taken
out hundreds of millions, and the richness is
gone from all the surface deposits but the old
placer miners didn't get all the gold from the
gravel they hustled over the RIFLES, and vast
quantities of that same old gravel will just
pay for the re-working. Greater quantities that
have always been ignored because too poor to
work by hand labor line the water courses.
Most of this ground is in the hands of pri-
vate owners, and pieces of ground are ire
quently worked after negotiations with the
owner. Hydraulic comp panies own big stretches
Of it here and there. Much of 1t is on railroad
lands, with the privilege of working easily
procurable. Here and there are spots. little
and big, on Government land, which nobody
wants. One may wash gravel on public land
as freely as he may gather green's 1t is not to
be disputed that a man or small party OF
men may go to one of thousands OF places In
this State and thus make living.
The difficulties appear when actual opera
tions on large scale are contemplated. The
bureau in charge must find definite prices of
ground and know just the value OF the gravel
that here or there three or thirty men can earn
so much. 1t is the idea that the Mining Bu-
reau should locate the ground and plan opera
tions. This and the matter of getting the un-
employed there and started each involves or
ganized machinery and expert effort The
human nature in the unemployed would pro-
vide for the difficulties.
This would be substituting gold patches for
pota to patches. The pIan is extensively and
successfully followed by the colonial govern
ments of New Zealand and Australia. With
the gold-bearing commons of the mountains
and foothills charted and asssyed by ay aila BILE
patches, and way OF getting industrious men
there with picks and beans there would be a
reservoir of productive labor waiting to be
tapped to any extent 1t sounds easy in theory
and the gold is there. The trouble is to get
the thing 10 work. JAMES ORR.