Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1899-08-11
A MINE OF CRYSTALS.
Dying Man Tells Valuable Secret to
~ Milwaukeean.

pAce balls turned from quartz crys-
talsshave obtained considerable
amount Of popularity, chiefly fer dec
oratlye purposes, new mining field
has been opened up for those who
have sufficient confidence in the per-
manence of the present fancy. Thus
lar, S29s the New York Tribune, the
largA and finest balls have come
from Japan, one notable specimen
being now in the possession of Miss
Helen Could 1t is about u inches in
diameter, and, together with its gold
and silver mountings, is said to have
cost Miss Gould $4,000. But within
the last year several tons of valuable
crystals have been produced in this
country, and it is hoped that from
some of these masses, or from Others
still waiting to be excavated in the
same neighborhood, balls may be
turned which will equal the foreign
ones in size and beauty. This i'm
mense deposit of quartz crystals is be-
ing worked by Milwaukee mining ex-
pert, John f. Burton, and the story
of how he came to undertake the prof.
ect reads somewhat like the Capt.
Kidd tales of caves of buried treasure.
Several years ago." said Mr.. Bur-
ton, who has just spent couple of
weeks in this city, ga friend of
mine, a mineralogist, who was very i'll
and believed he could not recover,
told me a secret which he had long
guarded carefully. Although his story
sounded much like many other i'm
probable yarns of the kind, 1 was
somewhat impressed with the idea
that it was true. Briefly, it was that
in an old cave, the exact location of
whH he described carefully, in the
Sierra Nevada mountains in Gala
veras county, CAL, there were tons
upon tons of pure quartz crystals,
many of them of huge size. He gave
me the name of the owner Of the prop
erty in which the cave was-Capt.
Jack McSorley, of Mokelumne hill
urging me TO believe what he told
fSee and to investigate the contents of
tthe wonderful cave After spending
nsN months in studying the subject
of quartz crystals and in making in
quiries regarding the demand for
them and their market value, l decid-
led to try to discover the deposit. Hav-
ing located the cave, it was bought by
a friend of mine, and l called on Tiff
fany & Co., which firm / knew to be
interested in quartz crystals. Nat
urally they were little incredulous
about the existence of the cave, but
they said that if my statements were
true they would handle all the crystals
] could send them.
"Well, it took me seven months to
open the cave, but when / saw the as
founding mass of crystal it contained
l considered myself well paid for my
time and labor. Last February /
shipped IL tons-an entire car load
of the sparkling stones to Tiffany &
Co. Among these we're some magnif-
cent specimens, but hope to discover
still finer ones in the course of the
present winters work"
There is now to be seen at Tiffany
& Co.'s crystal ball 81 inches in di-
ameter, which was turned from one
of the Calaveras county specimens. 1t
is fawless and as clear as distilled wa
ter, and is valued at $4,000. The ma
for turning the balls is very
expensive, and this fact, together with
the rarity Of crystals that will yield
perfect balls of large size, accounts
for the high prices charged for them.
1t would be possibleto produce much
larger balls if occasional flaws were
but when perfect one is de-
sired there is often a great deal of
waste in the cutting. The 51-inch ball
now at Tiffany's was originally II
inches in diameter, but, owing to the |
discovery of a small flaw, it had to |
bs4eut. down and turned to it's present |
size. y The value of the balls increases
far more rapidly when the diameter is |
more than seven inches. Mr.. Burton |
declares that if he could secure a crys-
tai which would turn a perfect ten
inch ball such a sphere would sell for
SIS, 900 without any difficulty. Be
.ides the use Of the crystals for balls
Mere is certain, although limited,
market for them in another way. At
present buttons of pure crystal, cut
,SSacets, are seen upon fashionable
IN gstly garments, and many Of the
smaller specimens can be sold for this
nnrnnse.