The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-01-03

Angeles during my stay in Utah, and
there are large iron deposits In Mis-
souri,. Today the leading countries OF
the world which produce iron are Great
Britain, Germany France, Austria
Hungary, Russia, Belgium and Swed-
en-. Spain mines great deal or iron
ore. but she ships the most Of 1t to
England. I heard of big undeveloped
iron mines in China during my stay
there, and there are some good mines
In Mexico and Central America. There
is one iron region in Cuba, and you
will find small beds scattered through
out the West India Islands. The great
bulk of the product of this hemis.
phere, however comes from the United
States, and, as I have said, the lndl-
cations are that our resources have
not yet been touched.
MEANS GOOD TIMES.
It is said that good iron business
means good times, and that prosperity
and the reverse In the United States
rise and fall with the prices Of steel
rails. If this is so, we are on the eve
of good times, for the iron industries
of the country are picking up. The
foundries of Pittsburg and Cleveland
have taken back their men, and the
mines of iron and coal are being
worked along Lake Superior as we'll
as in the South A report was publish
ed last week. stating that the Carnegie
and Rockefeller iron and steel interests
have united and that the new combi-
nation has a hundred million dollars
| capital behind 1t. Rockefeller 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
enormous production Of iron and steel
at the lowest cost. The Lake Superior
! iron mines are wonderful l visited
some of them q year Or so ago. Many
! of them are located from twelve to
eighteen hundred feet above Lake Su-
perior, and from fifteen to one hundred
miles from the water The iron Is
worked down to a distance of about
fifteen hundred feet below ground. The
mining is done with the finest Of ma
chinery. Electricity furnishes the light
and compressed air and steam work
the pumps, drills and hOists
OUR MINES VS.. THOSE OF
EUROPE. -...--
These Lake Superior mines show the
| wonderful 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 Belgian 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 under
ground They have stables under the
earth, and spend their lives hauling
minerals. 1 have a picture showing
| how horses are let down into such
mines. They are sometimes swung up
iVo Of CIV nd hue cd
They are paralyzed with fear during
the descent, and it takes them some
time to recover after they are in the
mine. Such horses are used to haul the
cars to the shafts, whence they are
raised by machinery. All Of our mines,
so far as 1 am able to learn, are
worked by steam, and the American
miners receive better wages than any
others of their kind in the world.
ORE STEAMERS OF THE LAKES.
1 went up the lakes on one Of the
! steel steamers which are built espe-
| Cially to carry iron ore down to Cleve-
land. The ship was one Of $500 tons,
| and it carried nothing but ore. We
travelled almost as fast as you do on
| the ocean steamers crossing the At
lantic. 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 -Su-
perior can appreciate the enormous
| amount of capital invested in the iron
| business there. Millions of dollars have
been expended ON shipping and receiv-
| ing docks and ON railroad terminals.
! Millions are invested in steel steam
l. H.
| back ships were built to carry iron
and wheat. The ore deposits of Michi-.
gan lie in the shape of a great wedge
| leaning against the state Of WiScon-
sin, while those Of Minnesota occur in
two parallel ranges, along the other
side of the lake. More than half of the
iron ore of the United States comes
from Lake Superior. and in 1890 more
than 100000 tons of this ore were car
| ried to furnace which were an aver
age distance of 900 miles away.
VISIT TO AN ALABAMA MINE.
It is far different in the South. The
! furnaces at Bessemer are within a
| half a mile of the mines from which
| the iron is taken out. In company
| with one of the superintendent of the
/ Tennessee Coal and Iron company l
visited them. We rode up to the mouth
Of the mine in a carriage, winding our
way up a little range Of mountains,
| the sides of which were covered with
terra Gotta stones. I picked up one
Of the stones and found it exceedingly
heavy, and was told that 1t was iron
ore. The iron lies right on the sur
face 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 mountains of that region, and 1t
| is wonder that there were not de-
| veloped long ago. I was told that
iron mines were worked there during
the late war and that the Confederate
| government got a large part Of it's coal
! and iron from that region. From
time to time Northern capitalists were
asked to invest in the mines, but they
would not believe the stories that
were told them.
HEWITT WOULDN'T BELIEVE 1T.
One man who owned some Of the
| most valuable iron territory of Ala
bama called upon Abram S. Hewitt.
| who, you know, has made a 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 it up. Hewitt replied
that he had no money to invest at
present, and he evidently did not be-
| lieve the mans story. '.Why," said he,
1--WE people here in New York look