Evening star., 1898-10-15

went on. Some of our best copper mines
are idle for lack of money to work them
The ore is in sight. but there is no money
TO get 1t out. The nitrate fields are spotted
with English companies who have put over
$luo,oOo,oU0 into them and have taken vast
fortunes out. They will tell you they are
losing money today, but their stock has
been watered again and again. The COZ
deposits about here are very valuable. an
only small part of them are being worked
Ihey extend for about q hundred miles on
the edge of the sea, the beds sloping down
under the water. The CouSino fortune of
millions was made out of the mines at
Lota about twenty-five miles from Concep-
Clon, and those of COronel near by which
are now being worked several miles under
the ocean, are very valuable. Twenty
miles away on AranCo bay there is a coal
property that l was once asked to manage.
one million dollars had been spent upon it.
and 900 men were at work. | saw at once
that the work was going the wrong way,
ana that the seam went down under the
sea, instead of into the land. | stopped
the works at once, and upon the nvestiga-
tons of the engineers the works were
closed for lack Of money, the company be-
coming bankrupt. That mine could now be
bought for $50 900 in gold and 500 900 put
into working it would produce | believe
- l,ooO00O | was once the manager of the
big PuchocO coal mines, which are of the
same character, and which now produce
2Hl,cUO tons of coal a year. They are stu-
ated on COrOncl bay, and were at the time
l had charge the property of Baltimore
men. / took out 10000 tons of coal the
first year, and We made throughout an
enormous profit. running as high at times
as % per cent a year. This coal region is,
you know, practically the only one on the
west coast of South America, and all of
the ships must coal here. | know there are
a number of good properties of this kind
All that the capitalist needs to do is to
bring his experts out here and investigate
They can tell from these other submarine
m w n he will he
probable profits
Mining Coal Under the Sea.
These coal mines of Chile are exceedingly
interesting. They are far different from
any mires we have in the United States
and in some respects are far more difficult
to work. The seam OF coal, which is at its
best about five feet thick. begins at the
shore an& runs down under the waters of
the Pacific ocean. The rock above il is
slate and Sha!e, so compact that the water
does not drip through The tunnels are so
cleanthat you could walk through them in
a dress suit without danger of getting dirty
They are worked with the latest machi-
merry, and during my visit to them l had
several experiences which it is hard to real
ize could take place in Chile. Think, for
Instance. of riding an electric trolley
coal train through q tunnel ever n mile
long under the Pacific ocean at a speed of
twenty miles an hour. Imagine mines light
ed by electricity forming a catacomb of
corridors and chambers under the waves.
Realize that just above you great steam
ships are floating and that the coal which
is being taken out of this bed of the Pa
cifc is being shoveled into them. Picture
sooty miners, half naked, blasting out the
coal and loading the cars, and follow the
train carrying tWenty-seven tons of black
diamonds to the shaft, where a mighty
steam engine lifts four of them at one time
10 the surface, and you have some idea of
what is going or at the Lota coal mine
mi al
OF coal day and $50 miners are employed
within them. They pay a profit running
high into the hundreds of thousands of
dollars a year and are as carefully man
aged as any or the great coal properties of
our country. l asked as to the pay of the
miners and was told that they received
from 30 cents to 81 Chilean, or from 81 to
30 cents of our money. | wonder what our
Pennsylvania miners would think of that
The Chileans, however, have their houses
rent free and coal is furnished them at
cost price.
The COusinO Fortune.
These mines We're opened by Don Matias
CoUsino in 1855 and they formed the foun-
dation of the Cousno fortune of which vol,
have read in the stories published about
the late Madame Cousno, the so-called
richest woman in the world. Her income
from the mines and factories at Iota Is
said to have been a million dollars a wear
estate now that she is dead, though still
large, is many millions short of the amount
at winch 1t has generally been estimated
The Senior COusino who was her husband
must nave been man of great ability
He owned copper mines, silver mines and
big estates, and he established here a COP
per smelling works to which the ere from
the Cousino mine Is carried in the steam
ers belonging to the estate. Under him
the town of Lota, which now contains
about 1900 people, grew up and in the
different Cousino works and factories here
more than 5000 men are now employed
On a mountainous little peninsula, above
the coal bed and just opposite the smelter.
is Madame Cousino's famous park and nal
ace of Lota. 1t is one of the most beau
tiful parks of the world and a fortune has
been spent in making it so. 1t is even
more beautiful than her estate of MocuI.
which l visited from Santiago and is full
of wonders of landscape gardening and
picturesque effects of land and sea.
FRANK G. CARPENTER
Hero (getting up)-"Any one down stairs,
James?'