The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1897-02-10
II flows out at the foot in little
river of gold. The stream looks like
molten gold alloyed with copper until
1t gets q distance of perhaps twenty

feet away from the furnace. Here it
is divided into two STRAINS. The iron
flows one way and the Stag or refuge,
which has formed a scum and floats on
the top, is carried off in another.
The iron is now of yellow gold color.
1t seems to have lost its reddish tint.
IL runs off in golden stream into u
bed of sand, in which little holes have
been cut or nodded, so that il looks
for all the world like n garden patch
ready for planting. These holes are
OF just the size and shape of what is
known as an iron pig. They are
about as big around as the upper arm
of good.sized man and about three
feet long. The yellow stream finds
its way in through them and soon the
garden is full of these bright yellow
pigs, which turn to a copper tint as
they cool and then change to the gray
or cold pig iron. AS the metal is
cooling the heat waves dance over the
garden patch of hot iron, and you
have TO hold you hat before your face
to keep from being scorched. After
the pigs are cooled they are piled up
ready to be shipped to different parts
of the United States for use in manu-
featuring. The Stag goes to waste. 1t
runs off into q great iron pot fastened
ON car wheels, and is wheeled on n
railroad track some distance away
and emptied out on the Stag heap.
There are mountains of such slne near
every great furnace, and the invention
hns yet to be made which will turn it
to any other uses than that of ballast
ing railroads.
We lead the world not only in the
production of iron, but also in the
making of pig iron. We made 10,-
10000 tons in 1892, which was an
increase of more than 1000 per cent
over the product Of 1865. Since that
time we have increased our steel pro-
duct $50 times, and we are now max
ing enough steel every year to give
every man, woman and child in the
United States 140 pounds, and have
some to spare. Some of our pig iron
which was lately sent to England, ]
am old, was sold for less than 81 a
ton. We made pig iron at the time
of the Revolution, which was worth
500 ton, and we are making steel
now, ut is said, almost as cheaply as a
good class of iron.
Ii is wonderful how iron increases
the value after it is turned into ma
chinery or articles OF use by the
people. You get some idea of what
labor is worth when you think of it.
1t is estimated by Carroll ID. Wright.
of the Labor Bureau, for instance,
that seventy.f five cents worth of com
mon iron ore when turned into bar
iron is worth 80. If you make it into
horse shoes it is worth $40, or il into
table knives, $3.50. Seventy five cents
worth of ore manufactured into need.
les is worth SGS00, and when made
into buttons more than S22, 1000. II
the iron is converted into watch
springs its value is almost ten times
gs great, and when turned into hair
springs your seventy.five cents worth
of rock and stone will sell for the
enormous sum Of 100000. The diff
ference between seventy.hve cents and
Si00, 900 is the value paid for labor
alone. So you soc that, after all, the
real wealth OF a country lies in the
muscles and brains of its people. il
wo could turn all OF our iron ore into
hair springs, and could find customers
fo- them, we would be SO rich that we
could buy tho whole world and take
flyers in all tho speculative property
on the sun, moon and stars and still
have money to burn.