The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-01-21
FORTUNE IN OLD TIN CAN.
LUCK CAME TO PROsPECTOR WHEN
HE WAS READY TO GIVE UP.

bought the Claim for a. Royalty
and Soon Found WenIth-Now
Lives Life of Ease While His
Bank Account Accommodates.
From the Washington Post
Il have heard people speak of stumbling
onto fortune, but l never knew of but
one man who actually did So" said Col.
George W. Irwin of Montana, and former
ly state commissioner of mineral lands.
the other day. No, this is not a story
of poor, desparing miner who kicked
over lump of gold-bearing quartz just as
he was about to give up the ghost. Such
things are all right in the field of ro-
nance, but they have little foundation in
the real life of the West. What do you
think of man accidentally kicking over
a tin can and getting rich as the result of
his awkwardness? That is exactly wha
happened to ]. l.. Ledford of Butte, Mont.
and there are plenty of men who will
bear witness TO the fact.
You have heard of course of the Ana
conda copper mine in which Mary DAILY
is so largely interested. 1t is one of the
richest producers in the world. and has
paid millions in dividends, There may BE-
Two which surpass it in the output, the
Hecla, in Montana, and the Verde sena-
torp Clark's great mine in Arizona. The
stockholders of the Anaconda have all
grown rich, and there is not one Of them
who thinks there is more money in gold
mining than copper mining.
An Unquenchable Fire.
There is just one drawback to the Ana
conda. 1t is on fire, and the flames have
been raging for more than ten years. 1t
started on one of the lower levels, and al
first it drove the men out of the ground.
The mine is very heavily timbered, and
in places where the face is high it is
double-decked and triple-decked, until it
looks like a forest of the carboniferous
age. Thousands of cords of wood have
been used to hold the roofs of the drifts.
All this caught fire, but the most COM
busible material was the sulphur in the
mine. Gases were liberated and soon the
men in the ground found that the vapors
and the flames were too much for them.
After trying to subdue the conhagra-
ton by all the ordinary methods the SUI
perintendent of the mine determined on
a new plan of action. He decided to bore
diamond drill holes from the top of the
ground into the part of the mine THAI
was burning and turn water into them
from the streams above. The survey was
made from the top so that the holes
would strike the proper places, and the
entrance to the drifts was damned up
with heavy bulkheads, so that the water
would not flood the rest of the mine.
This mode of procedure has been found
fairly effective, but as fast as the fire
would be put out in one drift it would
break out in another
All this water had to be pumped out
after the fire was eXtinguished and the
most expensive machinery ever known to
the mining industry was installed. Here
a new difficulty presented itself The wa
ter was found SO strongly impregnated
with mineral acids that the machinery
was spoiled in a very short time AL
though it was comparatively pure before
it was poured into the drifts, IT Carried
a very strong solution of sulphur and
copper when it was pumped out. The iron
pump columns. fanges and bolts were
rusted in an Incredibly short space of
time. It was found necessary to line the
columns with lead, which resisted the ac-
ton of the sulphurlc acid to a certain eX-
tent.
Was Sore on His Luck.
1T was at this time that Ledford Dame
on the scene. He had come to Montana
from Tennessee and had been in the min
ing business a good deal of the time. He
had been town marshal of Butte when il
was little mining town, and later became
chief of police when it rose to the pre-
tensions of a city He had made a good
deal of money, but he had pun it back in
the ground, where it stayed. l doubt
whether he could have raised $50 in the
whole town.
The fact of the matter was. Ledford
was sore on his luck, and he had no con-
fdence in himself or anybody else. He
boH n lx.a1 @
had no more credit than the poorest miner,
and he spent most of his time
wandering over the camp, just TO shake
off the blues. One morning he went over
to the Anaconda mine to see how the
pumps were working. A great stream of
yellow water was pouring out and Led
ford stood watching il in an absent-minded
way He has told me since that he was
feeling blue enough 70 murder a man for
money or to commit suicide to get rid of
his troubles.
"As he started to go back to town he
saw rusty tin can lying at the edge of
the water that was running out of the
mine. He stumbled onto it and il cru-ll-
bIed to dust beneath his feet There was
something remarkable about il, but Led
ford stopped down and picked up the brown
dust simply for lack of something else to
do He was surprised 10 find that the rust
from the can was quite heavy, and that
il gl1Stened signify instead OF having the
dull color of corroded iron. Ledford had
been mining long enough to know that
some curious phenomena develop around
diggings of all sorts, He was shrewd
enough to know that he had better keep
his secret to himself.
Fortune i'm His Hand
"He did not know the exact nature OF
his find if it was find so he had 10 con-
suit a metallurgist. He took the crumbled
remnants of the tin can to man whom
he knew and told him to make an assay
and give an opinion on the character OF
the stuff
"'Where did you set this?' asked the as
Tout of a new prospect of mine said
Ledford. evasively.
IT'S good stuff, said the assayer visit
fully.
What is 1t worth?"
About $40 ton. Say, Ledford.
...o,,1d lit,a 10 DOT i'm on Ia urrot,pa a..