The silver lance., 1898-06-24
OUR SALTED PLACER.
Washed From the Rich Deposits on The Lance
Exchange Table.

General Shafter should capture Santi-
ago this week. The people are impatient
to place his name alongside those of
Dewey and Hobson. II came, saw, 1
conquered" should be the report of every
commander who goes out to strike Spain.
Dewey set the example Let the army
now do as well.-Monte Vista Graphic.
-
j. II. Hoffman of the Hoffman smelter
at Marble, was in town Monday on bust
ness. He says that his smelter has
proven a success beyond doubt and its
handling of ores in that section will per
NIT numerous properties now owned by
poor mon to start up and haul their ore
to his smelter.-Gunaiso Tribune.
az
A man appeared on the streets OF Ar
kansas City this week who had just heard
of the blowing up of the Maine. He
said he didn't take any papers because
they lied so, and then, he didn't have any
time to read. This man will be rccog-
nized by print-shop people as close kin
OF the man who stops his home paper
because he is already "a tal<in' more pa
pers n he kin read" Horton, Kansas.
Commercial.
The newspaper field il a wide field of
roses and thorns, writes an eastern editor.
When you roast the preacher the ungodly
smile; when you roast the ungodly the
preacher smiles. If YOU roast the saloon
men the teetolalers smile, when you roast
teetotalers the saloon men smile. If you
don't swear you are hypocrite; If you
do you are tough. Ii you have an
opinion you get cussed and il You don't
you are nonenity. The preacher knows
one thing, the saloon man another, but
the editor is expected to know all. Hei
the best and worst man in the whole
community.
A correspondent writes to enquire if
there is any way in which one can legally
avoid doing 800 worth OF work on an
unpatented mining claim and yet not
forfeit his claim to the same. Yes; there
is one way. The owner may begin work
on the last day of December, and the
claim would not then be subject to re
location. Whether failure to continue
work Immediately following the last day
of the year would render the claim sub
ject to relocation is undecided. But If a
man does continue and performs 500
worth of work Immediately after the first
day of January following the day when
he began work, that work will hold the
claim, for the year for which 1t was done
and the claim cannot be jumped for
failure to do 500 worth of work for the
previous year. A man does not forfeit
his claim by a failure to do the required
work any year. He simply tenders it
liable to forfeiture through anyone else
locating it. If no one else locates it, he
may let it lie idle for an indefinite num-
Der of years, and then begin work on it,
| and the neglect is cured, because no
claim is subject to relocation while the
original locator is at work on it.-Min-
ing Industry.
Referring to remark made in the
Tribune two or fhree days since that
every ounce of gold secured from the pla-
GERS of California cost quite s20.67, cor
respondent asks how, inasmuch as gold
dust is worth only from ?l5 to 800 per
ounce, people got rich out of tue mine.
To arrive at that the amount OF gold
! obtained must be divided by the men
engaged in producing it. For instance,
suppose one thousand men work each
thirty DAYS on placer. The same men
could earn 81 per day ID other work. OF
course, then, their wages for the time
would be worth 100000. II one hundred
men of the number cleared each $500
| they would be doing we'll. For an ex-
penditure of $50 each they would each
get 800. But if the total yield was
$4,000 the other nine hundred men would
get but $4,000 or a trifle less than s1.50
day. Between 1919 and 1897 quite
| 10000 men were mining and supplying
miners IN California The mines Welded
sOO,OOO,OOO, or $1,000 for each man 50
employed, or for eight years 500 each
per annum. But in point of fact not
more than twenty per cent of the whole
| number made more than a bare living,
while some of the twenty per cent made
great fortunes. So the rule there was,
is and always has been, that every dollar
of either gold or silver in the world has
| cost a dollar Indeed the original value
Of both gold and silver was fixed by the
amount of labor necessary to produce it,
and the measures Of values by money was
| <af l,I,