Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1898-09-22

politics, who would look after the
FROM CRIPPLE CREEK.


experience and large interests in
South Africa, was here two summers
ago, and In discussing the compara-
tive merits of the two fields, saieI to q
Cripple Creek engineer, "Why, my
good man, we have 60 feet of 90 ore
there" eyes," was the answer, "and
we have / foot to $500 ore." II it was
added that the former is most of it
1000 feet below the surface and the
latter 100, the lay reader will form q
correct idea of the comparative cost
and profit in winning the gold. Picture
to yourself a ton of rock and q ten
dollar gold piece ground up and init
mstely mixed through it-and, on the
other hand, q ton of slabs of stone
with filaments OF gold plastered over
them to the value of go ton dollar gold
pieces, and you have the idea.
Now, imagine another pictur,,. A
basin of granite about 8 miles sgluare
and the Lord only knows how deep.
All at once there came bang! and q
burst up, and there poured forth
from . great hole in the basin, or
some where near by, a stream of cream
colored lava, which filled up the basin
and got solid. Then, after the interval
of a million years, more or less, there
came another shake up and this lava
was cracked in every direction. and
up through the cracks came steam
and gas and hot water, with gold and
tellurium and quartz. in solution, and
the gold was not only deposited ON the
sides of the cracks in the lava, but
also soaked into the lava, thus alter
ing it into a rock full of quartz and
gold.
Sometimes there are found two
cracks, running for half mile or so
parallel with one another, and few
feet apart, and the lava rock between
the two cracks is permeated with
quartz and gold. They call this q
"vein," and the two cracks are the
swalls'' or sides of the veins. And it
is vein of ore, but not true fssure
vein, In the proper acceptation of the
word.
Then in addition to the two burst
ups already mentioned there came
great rents across the lava filled basin
and onto the granite beyond, and up
through these rents came slate
coIored molten lava, which cooled and
got solid, and then up the sides of
these lava filed fissures, at theil. con-
tact with the cream colored lava, came
more gas and steam and hot water
and deposited more gold and soaked
it into both sides. Sometimes the blue
lava cut through granite, and the
same hot water and steam and gases
came up the sides of the laws at its
contact with the granite, and deposit
ed gold in the latter, as well as partial
ly decomposing it. And we will call
the cream colored lava 'sporphyry''
and the slate colored "phon'olite,' p
which is nearly enough correct for our
purpose.
Most of the richest ore veins eeem
to be alongside or near one or these
phonolite dikes; and 80, perhaps, il
was the bursting through of the latter
that cracked the whole lava mass in
every direction. can't say, I wasn'l
there, though have heard men speak
as positively about it as though they
were there when it occurred. But II
really doesn't matter.
All this having been done, every
thing was quiet for million years OF
SO, more or less.
OF course, during this period, rain
and wind, frost and snow, and ice ane
running waters cracked up the surface
and made lot of loose rock on toI
and carried it about, and dust storms
and decomposition of the stone made
soil among the loose rock. Then treeI
and grass grew in the soil and lattel
on, about A. d. 1891, there were cattle
grazing on these now rounded an(
grassy hills, also foxes, hares, coyotes
and butterflies, but the animal ant
vegetable life Il nearly relapsed intt
science, and said fauna and slora')
are foreign to the purpose of thi
article.
Then some bucolical parties strolle,
onto the ground and picked up SOM
Of this loose rock (called "float" be
cause this is the very last thing it viii
do) and had it assayed and it was full
of gold, and then some agriculture
parties from the fertile States Of Mis-
souri,, Illinois and Kansas heard of
and trickled in and they got rich as
says, too. Next some people Of Colo
RADIO Springs, who had plenty Of mon
ey, and who were there for thei
health, sent In some working partner
and gave them grub and tools and a
began to dig and get gold and it wa
noised abroad. Denver sent man.
scientific men down to look it over
but they said there were no true vein
and that it was the wrong kind c
rock to be gold bearing and they wer
greatly amused to see the Colorad
Springs people spending their har
earned patrimony on such q scheme
Meanwhile, these agricultural an
bucolical gentleman and miners delve
away and got down through the loos
rock to the solid lava beneath, an
then into some of the cracks of th
same, of which have already tol
you-the rock got richer and richs
and the cracks wider-and, we'll! the
are now producing about miIlio
and Q quarter dollars worth Of gol
per month. The production for 1s'
was over 12 millions of dollars and
is anticipated that the production Il
1898 will reach 15 millions, while Il
total production to date 10 estimate
Z ct 40 millions Of dollars.
There are, 1t IL estimated, about 30
loco people in the five square mile
two good towns-Cripple Greek al
} Victof-four or FIVE villages, tu
steam railways, one electric rsiiwa
\ | electric power plants, good mills, ele