Kansas City daily journal., 1897-01-03

tricity 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 Won
derful advance we have made over the Old
World in the use of machinery. Many of
the European mines are still worked in Il
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 II 4
net 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 mine. Such horses are used
TO maui cars to the shafts, whence they
are raised by machinery. All of our mines
so far as 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 Grent Lakes.
1 went up the lakes on one of the steel
steamers which are built especiau.- TO
carry iron ore down to Cleveland. The
ship was one of $500 tons, and i carried
nothing but ore. We Travelled almost as
fast as you do on the ocean steamers cross
ing the Atlantic. Arriving at tine mines
not far from Duluth. the vessel was loaded
within Il 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
for carrying iron, and the whaleback ships
We're built TO carry iron and wheat. The
ore deposits of Michigan lie in the shape
of great wedge leaning against the state
of Wisconsin, while those of Minnesota
occur in two parallel ranges. alCng the
other side of the lake. More than half of
the iron ore of the United States comes
from Lake Superior and i'll 1890 more than
100000 tons of this ore was carried to
furnaces which Were an average distance
of 600 miles away.
Visit to an Alabama Iron Mine.
1t is far different in the South. The
furnaces at Bessemer are within a half
mile of the 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 mouth of the mine in n carriage
winding our way up a little range of noun
tains the sides of which were covered with
terra Gotta stones. l picked up one of
the stones and found it exceedingly
heavy and was told that it was iron ore.
The iron lies right on the 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 mountains of that
region, and it is a wonder that they were
not developed long ago. 1 was told that
iron mines We're worked there during the
late war and that the Confederate govern
ment got large part of its 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 We're told them.
Mr.. Hewitt Wouldn't Believe 1t.
One man who owned some of the most
valuable iron territory of Alabama called
upon Abram s. Hewitt, who, you know,
has made a fortune OUT of iron, and who
has big iron interests to-day. lie showed
Hewitt the ore and told him it lay there
in Alabama on the top of the Eroun1 ard
could be had for the picking it up. Hewitt
replied that he had no money to invest
at present, and he evidently did not believe
the mans story. why" said he. we
people here in New York look upon iron
as so much gold and you can hardly make
me believe that you people have Jumps
of gold laying around down Soutn and that
no one has yet picked than up. If your
story is true I advise YOU &c take Sev eral
New York experts to .he SouJn anI set
them to swear to what they see before
you try to place such property in New
York" 1t was some time after this before
the Alabama mining boom began. A great
deal of this was on paper, but the founda-
tion is there and the iron mines are as
valuable to-day as they were ten years
ago. They are now all owned by big cor
porations and they are being deyclored
after the best business principles. The
mine which we entered was worked with
compressed air drills. The cars were
hauled up and down an inclined railway
by steam, and hundreds OF sooIy labCl IL =
with candles in their hats, We're at WORK
The vein of ore that saw ranged in width
from eight to twentyfour feet. IL is a
great sandwich of iron ore between walls
of slate and rock. 1t dips down into the
ground at an angle of about SO deg.
Some of the Dangers of Mining.
the blasting powder as 1 went through the
mine. At times the air shook and quivered
with the concussion and our candles We're
blown out Dynamite is used almost alto
gether in iron mining, and the danger is
very great if it is not carefully handled.
Every now and then terrible accidents &C.
cur in our mines. Men are torn 70 pieces,
the walls fall in, and there Is n great loss
of life. The miners 1 saw in Alabama " ere
negroes. They are not as careful as the
whites and their wages are less than The
men at work in the mines of the Lake
Superior region.
Making Pig Iron.
Leaving the mine I next went 10 one Of
the great furnaces at the foot of Red noun
tain, where the ore is turned into pig iron.
Iron, you know, never occurs pure in a
state of nature. The ore of the led noun
tain, which is used at the Bessemer fur
naces, contains only about As per cent of
iron, and the superintendent told lie that
the purest iron stone found anywhere con-
tains only 20 per cent. The rest is made up
or rock and other minerals and it Is neces-
sary to separate the iron before it can be
used for manufactures. This process is
known as making pig iron. The iron is
mixed with limestone and coke IN G=eat
n six-story house. The furnaces are filed
with alternate layers of coke. limestone
and iron. 1t takes an enormous blast to
furnish enough heat for such a furnace
and the blast is created b. immense en-
gines, which force the air first through
what are perhaps the biggest stoves of the
MI