The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-13
In A COLORADO GOLD MINE.
Precautions Taken to Protect the Ore
and Assayed Metal.

Spectator" in the Outlook.
The Spectator had supposed that any re-
spectacle stranger presenting himself at
Colorado mine and asking the privilege of
looking over the works would be Hospitality
treated and allowed to see everything. That
is mistake Without a letter of introduce
ton, and good one, you will not get inside
of an important mine, any more than you
would be admitted to fort in war time. In
fact, the mine to whose manager we had
letter was not unlike a fort. There was
high board fence along the road, with
blockhouses at the corners, in whose walls
were holes from which the rifle-barrels
could CLEAN in case of need. The watch
man at the gate was armed, and there were
several racks of Wnchesters in the office.
1t made the Spectator realize that he was
in a community which had to attend more
closely to the execution of it's own laws
than we are accustomed to in the East In
case of a strike the mine owners must be
prepared to protect their property.
Driving up through STRAY Horse gulch,"
at Leadville, the name recalled Bret Harte
or was 1t Mary Hallock Foote? What was
familiar about STRAY Horse?" Why. LED
Horse - that was it - THE Led Horse
claim" Just then our host pointed out
mine on hillside near the original, he
said of the one in Mrs Foote's story, and
the mine farther down the hill was the one
which had besieged 1t, and there had been
a real fight there, just as in the novel. We
put on old clothes overalls and rubber
boots stepped into an iron cage and in a
moment were shot down eight hundred feet
into the bowels of the earth When we came
up the Spectator took off his hat to the ST.
lent man who sat with his hands on the
levers and his eyes on the dials which regu-
lated the cages. There were more than
0f 1efF hi
a dozen different levels, and saw the
various veins Of ore and heard of the infer
ences that led to digging this way or that.
There was no CLINT Of silver or Rold only {.
dark gray substance that lay crushed and
moist, between porpllyry and other hard
rock. But many millions of dollars had al
ready been taken out of that gray mass,
and there were millions more to come.
We went through great smelling estab-
care in admitting strangers. Only gilt-edged
introductionS are honOred, and the Superln-
tendent himself must show the visitor about.
The reason of it is because of the compare
tive ease with which small sample OF ore
may be enriched by the passing stranger,
who has been known to have gold concealed
under his finger nails, or in pipe which he
might empty near little pile of ore that
was awaiting the test. In smelling, the law
of average reignS supreme. The mine does
not get back its own bullion. The smelter
buys the ore outright, and the amount that
he should pay for the whole mass is regu-
lated by the amount that very small av-
leaves the mine the owner has done his own
aSSaying. When it reaches the Smelter the
carload is shoveled into bins every tenth
Shovelful going into a wheelbarroW. This
tenth is crushed, laid out on the floor into a
fiat, circular pile like great pie, ten feet
in diameter, and the pie is cut into quarters.
Two quarters that face are taken together,
made into a smaller pie, cut again, and so
on. until the small amount is left, which is
fairly representative of the entire. carload.
The operation of crushing into the finest
powder the final sample is done in two
rooms, each Enclosed in glass, where no one
but the woTkmen (who are often changed
about may enter. In each room the same
samples are worked upon simultaneously,
and if these exactly agree when tested by
the assayers. the value of the carload is de-
termined Two envelopes are filed with the
same sample ore, one for the mine owner
and one for an umpire. in case of dispute as
to IT, asSaying of the samples.
After all the crushing and burning and
grinding, the finished product of the smelter
looks like pigs of lead, but there are gold
and silver with it. and the pigs are sent to
another establishment finally to be resolved
into their valuable elements. When the ore
contains only gold, as is the case with sew
eral of the Cripple. Creek mines, it goes to
a reduction works. Here by a process
quite different from that of smelling four
or five hundred tons of ore-twenty carloads
are reduced to a single gold brick. We
saw one turned out-a real brick-so heavy
that you could not lift 1t with one hand
From white-hot fire (oil on which steam is
blown a red-hot pot was lifted, and about
a quart of thick yellow cream poured into
a mold, from which, as soon as it had
cooled, the gold brick was shaken out on
the dirty foor-shaken just as if 1t had been
worth $40 a thousand instead of $4,000.
When two bricks were made and stamped
they were wrapped in canvas, put on a
mans shoulder. and the workman who had
made them took down Winchester from
the wall, unlocked the iron gate which shut
off his room from the rest of the works, and
the two men started across the yard for the
Office the man with the gun few steps
behind the bearer of the gold. The Specta-
tor felt that he had never before realized
ard of value and, in three days. man. with
his knowledge of chemistry, had drawn 1t
out of the dust of the ground, such as yon-
il was so valuable that if any of those
laborers made move to seize ii they would
be shot down in their tracks.
Building Permits.
T. Steinmatz refsairs S45 Hosbrook street s12S.
Tratarav,oisc z9vshhar (omnarv brick addition,