The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-05
GOOD TIMES ARE AHEAD
Philipsburg and Granite Will
xAgain Be Prosperous.
THE WORK BEING DONE
The Consolidated Companies Are Put
ting New Men to Work Nearly
Every Day-Repairs and I'm
provements Being Made.

Philipsburg, Jan. Awhile coming
events are presumed to cast their shad-
ows before, and probably do the inter
probation of these shadows, when fore
casting the doings of a large mining
corporation is more often wrong than
correct. The reason for this is not be-
cause those who have the direction of
affairs and the making of events throw
out false shadows to mislead the world,
for the general rule with such concerns
is that they don't care whether the pub
lie knows what they are about or not,
and if it does know, do not care what it
thinks about it, but because those who
set out to interpret the shadows are apt
to let wish or fear be father to their
thoughts, accordingly as events will
have a good or evil effect upon their
personal affairs and interests. When
ever one of the largest industrial con-
Germs of a city or county, whose opera
tions, or desisting from operations,
make or unmake most of the BUSINESS
which is being done by the tradesmen
and artisans of such city or county,
lays off, considerable number of it's
operatives, these tradesmen and artis-
ans, remembering some time when such
an event was preliminary to the grad
ual but total suspension of operation,
are prone to look upon the situation
gloomily. Particularly is such the case
in communities like Phlipsburg and
Granite, where events but very recently
passed and which still leave their inn
print on all who experienced Them are
such as to make pessimists of most peo-
pie. On the other hand, when sucn a
concern puts on" an increased force
the wish that such will be the case leads
people to think that such increase
means permanent operations and that
business will Immediately revive and
become stable.
The people of Phlipsburg and Gran
lite having long ago become accustomed
to the changes their feelings are apt to
undergo by the many, and to them in
applicable actions of the Granite and
Bimetallic companies (now consolidat-
ed) it will do them no harm to state
that never since the resumption of oper-
atoms in July of last year by the con-
solidated companies has the foreshad-
owing been so favorable for protract-
ed run on an immense scale and that,
unless all signs fail, as they have never
failed before. the year 1899 opens by far
the most propitious of any since the
memorable 1888 Every since the CONSOLE
dation, which made it possible for the
two large properties to be handled as
one, the management has been pursuing
its silent but steady and apparently po-
tent way To all inquiries addressed to
it as to the meaning of certain work,
the same reply: ''It is contrary to the
company's policy to tell it's plans has
been given Thus the people have made
use of their only recourse, that of guess
ing, and when the draft among the
miners was made last month, for some
reason unknown to them, they guessed
that operations on such large scale
didn't pay, but when the old men We're
again put to work at the beginning of
the month together with as many more,
they concluded that they had assigned
the wrong cause and that it might be
well to wait with complaints until they
were actually hurt.
The destruction which was wrought
to the tramway by the breaking of the
traction cable some days ago was quick
ly repaired by mending the scaffolding
and using the buckets from the Ramsey
tram while the old ones, which are scat
tered along the way, are gathered up
and repaired. Grading work for a new
concentration twice the size of the pres
ent one has recently been started and is
being pushed as rapidly as possible.
Preparations for the building of tram
way to connect the old Granite hoist
with the tram now leading to the mill
at Clark from the Bimetallic shaft are
also under way. The repairs which
were necessary to put the south half of
the mill in running shape are about
completed and additional stamps have
been put to dropping at intervals for the
last two weeks, until now the mill is
running to almost it's full capacity, thus
giving employment to new men every
day. Whether the connection of the
Granite shaft with the mill means that
the latter shaft will in the future again
be used cannot be said, but it is not
probable, as an underground connection
tends to greatly reduce the expense of
operating two hosting works, but those
who are posted maintain that the Gran
tie mine is not by any means exhausted.
In fact it is claimed that there is more
rich ore yet in that mine than has been
extracted, though the grade may not be
as high as that milled when the mine
made its record as dividend payer
Men who have gone through the mine
and are acquainted with all the work.
ings say that only a small percentage
of the ore has so far been extracted and
that the ore yet remaining will, with
the present reducing facilities, last more
than another decade. 1t is also claimed
that the development of the mine is
such that the remaining ore can be ex-
tracted easily and cheaply. Neither can
it be said whether the effort of the COM
pany to have the railroad company put
the track leading from Philipsburg to
Ramsey in good shape so that trains
can again run between the two places
means resumption of the large and ex-