The San Francisco call., 1898-08-22

:: County are beginning to find out and
 their indignation grows daily.
 .. Some three years ago a great English :. .:corporation possessed of inexhaustible Q means took possession of mine which
 was being worked with but indifferent . success on the Iron Mountain The
 ore was wonderfully rich. it contained
 not only copper and iron, but also sil- ..ver and gold. But the former pro-
 prietors. for lack of proper appliances. had cOntented themselves with merely :. :extracting the two precious metals, ~Ieaving the more valuable copper and iron behind.
 . The English company, possessed of . ample capital and every appliance known to scientific mineraIogy, soon
 changed all this. Keswick, a little town
 a few miles north of Redding and some
 seven miles from the mine, was select
 ed as the site for the smelting works,
 and Keswick to-day bears awful testi-
 mony to the triumph of ruthless capital
 over innocent nature. l do not know whether Keswick was ever a pretty place, or whether il was even a place
 at all before the smelting works came there, but to-day it certainly looks as
 if the Deity had learned to ignore its existence.
 Imagine the hideous newness of a .. mining camp combined with the noisy
 tinkling vice of the Barbary Coast : Bare unpainted wooden houses and "Shahties are scattered all over the bar . ren hillside without any apparent ar rangement, for as yet there are more .: vacant allOtmeutS than dwellings in ;.Jhe township. The place centers upon a high WooQen fence, which marks the boundary of the smelling works. Upon
 the gate is announced, with true Brit ish: conservatism, the fact that the ground within is private property and that. no treSpasSerS will be permitted :. Still, despite the threatening inscrip- tion, the gate stands wide open, and anybody who chooses may walk in :: and out.
 :~ = Close to the entrance is a long line of. wooden shanties, each of which is =" d. gin mill of the lowest description. :. Though it is not yet high noon, beery, '-unshaved men lounge about the side : :WallS, and stagger in and out of the
 dens, holding, after the manner of :. drunken men, loud and aimless discus :. sions upon nothing in particular. The = works run day and night, consequent
 ly. there are always a number of men off duty, and the saloons are never : enfpty. Occasionally, to vary the mo- nOtony of everlasting beer, there Is a
 free fight, and the one doctor, who lives =: in. the only decent hotel the place possesses, just over the way, is called : upon to patch broken head, or to sew
 up an ugly jagged wound caused by
 a bottle Shooting cases are rare. The
 bottle or the knife is the favorite 2 :weapon. The pop, pop, pop Of shoot =. ing gallery indicates the only form of :: innocent recreation available, while farther down the hill, where the com .. pany's fence rises to double its usual
 height, is a large wooden building, in which the scarlet woman holds sway. .. The midday sun shines with overpoW- 'ering heat on the unsheltered place.
 There is not flower or a green thing ;:. to be seen; even the frs on the hill-
 side hang their Withered brown taSSelS
 in. despair. No form of vegetation can grow in such an accursed spot Only
 man. impelled by need or greed, strives to drag on miserable existence there. =: Though the air is clear, there is a
 noticeable smell of sulphur everywhere, .. just as If some one had struck match
 under your nose. The residents don't notice it. This is nothing" said @ dried-up looking man. as he tilted his . chair back on the veranda Its a dry day. Wait till we get some wet j.. weather and then you will see the fumes settle down on the town like a ..pall, and almost choke the life out of you"
 :.I declined the invitation, for even on
 .a. clear hot day there was quite as : much sulphur about as was pleasant
 The hill slopes sharply down from the town into deep canyon, and here, :nestling round the banks of what was .once a clear mountain stream. rise
 huge sheds and tall iron chimneys. The
 stream has long since disappeared :.
 Viscid pools of ugly looking yellow and
 gray slime have taken its place. but it is worth noticing that the gully drains into the Sacramento. When the rainy
 season sets in, and a flood of water
 rushes down the canyon, all this refuse must be washed down into the river. .polluting the beautiful stream and de-
 stroying the fish for many miles.
 From the tall chimneys of the smeIter
 clouds of blue vapor pour forth day and