Evening star., 1897-01-02

Letting Horses Do>xn1nto the Mine.
million dollars capital behind 1t. Rockefe-
Ter owns some of the biggest iron mines of
Lake Superior. The Carnegie company
have the biggest steel works in the world
and this combination will result in an enor,
nous production Of iron and steel at the
lowest cost. The Lake Superior iron mines
are wonderful. visited some of them a
year or SO ago. Many of them are loca ted
from twelve to eighteen hundred feet above
Lake superior, and from fifteen to one
hundred miles from the wa ter. The iron is
worked down to distances of about fifteen
hundred feet below gfolfrid. The mining is
done with the finest sof machinery Elec-
tricity furnishes the HgHe and compressed
air and steam work the pumps, drills and
hoists. II -aEF 3.
Our Mines vs.. Those OF Europe.
These Lake Superior mines show the won
derful advance we have made over the old
world in the use of machinery. Many of
the European mines are still worked in a
very crude manner, and it is not long since
the cars underground in the Belgium mines
were hauled by women, who crawled along
on their hands and knees, being harnessed
up like mules. Even now horses are used
in some of the European coal and other
mines There are mines where horses are
born, live and die underground. They have
stables under the earth, and spend their
lives hauling minerals. l have a picture
showing how horses are let down into such
mines. They are sometimes swung up in a
ret of straps and thus lowered They are
paralyZed with fear during the descent, and
1t takes them some time to recover after
they are IN the NINE Such horses are used
to haul the cars to. the shafts, whence they
are raised by machinery. All of our mines
so far as l am able to learn, are worked BY
steam, and the American miners receive
better wages than any others of their kind
in the world.
The Ore Steamers of the Great Lakes,
l went up the lakes on one of the steel
steamers which are built especially to
carry iron ore down to Cleveland. The
ship was one Of $500 tons, and 1t carried
nothing but ore. We Travelled almost as
fast as you do on the ocean steamers cross
ing the Atlantic. Arriving at the mines,
not far from Duluth, the vessel was loaded
within couple of hours. Everything was
done by machinery and thousands Of tons
of iron ore We're dropped into the steel
holds of the ship with the use of hardly an
ounce of human muscle. No one who has
not been to Lake Superior can appreciate
the enormous amount of capital invested
in the iron business there. Millions of dol
lars have been expended on shipping and
receiving docks and on railroad terminals.
Millions are invested in steel steamships
Tor carrying iron, and the Whaleback ships
were built to carry iron and wheat The
ore deposits of Michigan lie in the shape
of a great wedge leaning against the state
OF wisconsin. while those Of Minnesota
occur in two parallel ranges, along the
other side of the lake. More than half of
the iron Gre of the United States comes
from Lake Superior and in 1890 more than
100000 tons of this ore was carried to
OF 6OO miles away.
Visit to an Ala ma Iron Mine.
1t is far different in the south The
of
mile Of he mines from which the iron is
taken out. In company with one of the
superintendents of the Tennessee Coal and
Iron Company I visited them We rode up
to the ,Houth of the mime in carriage,
wlndll If way up a tGtla range Of noun
tains the sides Of which were covered with
terra Gotta stones. 10 picked up one of
heavy and was told that dit was iron ore
The iron lies right onrtila surface of the
ground. They begin on the vein and work
right down into the mountain taking out
nothing but iron. Deposits of this kind
extend through the nmountains OF that
region. and 1t is a w0ndef that they were
not developed long ago. ri was told that
iron mines were worked there during the
ment got large partlof FITS coal and iron
from that region. FROM tffife to time north
ern capitalists were sasked to invest in
the mines.. but they would. not believe the
stories that were told them.
MIR. Hewitt WouIdp,stt It Believe 1t.
One man who owned some Of the most
valuable iron territory Of Alabama called
Upon Abram 8. Hewitt, who. you know,
has made fortune out Of iron and
who has big iron interests today, He
showed Hewitt the ore and told him it lay
there in Alabama on the top of the ground
and could be had for the picking 1t up.
Hewitt replied that he had no money to
invest at present and he evidently did not
believe the mans story. why said he,
I'VE people here in New York Took upon
iron as so much gold and you can hardly
make me believe that you people have
and that no one has yet picked them up
II your story IL true I advise you to take
several New York experts to the south
and get them to swear to what they see
before you try to place such property in
New York; It was some time after. this