The Washburn leader., 1899-10-21

oio" up tue SOlQ mines. why, II S
the simplest thing in the world"
The engineer officer-one of the best
known men in that corps of the army,
Who has made explosives a special
study-scratched match and lighted
his pipe, writes Washington corre-
spondent under date of Oct. L.
Its as easy as that" he said, throw
ing away the match. "Of course, you
know. it isn't necessary for the Beers,
II they carry out their threat, to in
terfere with the excavations. All they
have to do is to attack the machinery,
and it will only BE requisite for them
to blow up the pumping works. A few
hundred pounds of dynamite will do
the business"
The pumping works, then, are the
vulnerable point?" queried your cor
respondent.
Decidedly SO. Once the pumping
machinery is ruined, the mines are de-
stroyed. The shafts will fill up with
water, and to empty them after that
has happened is practically out of the
question. 1t would cost less to dig
new shafts.
The wonderful gold-bearing depos-
its Of the Rand in the Transvaal form
a single reef about thirty miles in
length-a narrow strip only few feet
wide, but running down into the earth
slantwise, for miles, apparently. On
the very edge of this reef is situated
the city of johannesburg, and along it
are scattered more than sixty mines,
owned by different companies, repre-
senting British capital chiefly. The
peril to these 'outlander' investments,
which run up into hundreds of mil
lions of dollars, is very great just now.
in view of the menace offered by the
Beers.
Necessarily, gigantic sums of money
have been sunk in the digging of these
great holes. Think for yourself what
a loss would be occasioned if they
should all be permitted to fill up with
water-a disaster which, as have
said, would be to all intents and pur-
poses irremediable. The gold deposits
would remain intact, of course, but,
after the war is finished, all the work
of getting at them would have to be
done over again. 1t should be remem-
bered, incidentally, that British invest
ments in the mines of the Rand do
not represent the aggregated millions
of capitalists merely, but the small
savings Of tens of thousands of Eng
lish people, who have put their little
all into shares of stock, hitherto re-
garded as admirable security. Wide
spread ruin, involving the widow and
the orphan, as we'll as the rich share
holders. would follow the destruction
Of the properties.
Naturally, the choicest locations for
the mines are directly upon the out
cropping edge of the great reef. Other
properties are located at short dis
tances from the reefs edge, but in the
direction of its slant, so that the ver-
tical pits may strike the ore body fur
ther along, after passing through bar
rem strata. The reef goes down at
tilt, you see, like one side of the pent
roof of a house. Some of the holes
thus excavated in pursuit of yellow
wealth are among the deepest ever dug
in the crust of this good old planet.
and one Of them, the Victoria, has pen
etrated over half mile into the. bow.
els of the earth.
"The mines of the Witwatersrand. to
give the district its full title, employ
today somewhat more than 10000 la
borers. understand ,all of whom would
be thrown out of employment for an
r>indeflnite period by the destruction of
the works. Enormous sums of money
have been expended in the purchase
and installation of costly machinery,
which includes about 5000 stamps for
crushing the ore, or 'banket,' as it is
called. Banket is the Dutch word for
nutcake, and the ore is thus termed