Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1901-11-11

naIl SuaAt WueEc ii Is lOiSteQ pN the
elevator to the top level where on
other tracks it is conveyed TO the
mill where it is fed into the stamps
like corn in a hopper and pounded
into fine sand.
A stream of water is constantly
passing through and over the quartz
as 1t is being pulyeriZed, the sand
and water dropping into :. box or
battery OF quicksilver, which holds
and fastens the precious metal, the
81 | and TT passing of down a
sharp Incline or apron Every ten
days there is a cleanup The
quicksilver in the battery which has
gathered the gold is taken out by
hand, the mass is squeezed into balls,
squeezing out all the quicksilver pos
Sible. These balls are placed in iron
kettles and hauled to the assay office
few hundred yards away, carefully
guarded by Mr.. Northam with his
Winchester repeating rifle. Here it
is carefully weighed and placed in re-
torts or long iron pots and subjected
to an intense heat in furnace for
several hours, the intense heat melt
ing the metal and reducing the quick
silver to vapor. The vapor passes
off through tubes into water where
it changes into its original form
and is ready for use agar.
When sufficiently cooked the fires
are shut off, the pots taken out and
the contents p ed out on the'heavy
iron floor and with hammers and
chisels broken irto small pieces the
size of an egg and smaller. These
pieces are again placed in long iron
pots and placed in another furnace,
and again subjected to an hour S
cooking that is made intensely hot
by coke and coal The iron lids of
the pots are lifted off from time to
time by the foreman, and when in
the proper condition the pots are
lifted out by a rope and pully, and
with long pair of tongs which fit
around the pots of gold the molten
mass is poured into a heavy iron
mold about 5x12, and here's your
gold brick worth a kings ransom.
The beautiful ribbon of gold as it is
poured into the molds is a sight
worth a trip across the continent to
see. 1t assumes all the colors of the
rainbow painted in it's grandest hues,
and words fail to describe its wonder
Gus beauty.
Four bricks was the result of the
ten days roundup, and the average
OF each was 800 ounces or thirty
thousand and four hundred dollars
per brick, one hundred and twenty
one thousand doyars Tor the ten days
Clean up, or three hundred and sixty
thousand dollars for the month.
Every thirty days these bricks are
shipped to New York.
It is not at all strange that the
company employs a couple of keen
eyed, fearless men to keep watch and
ward over the product of the mills
from the time the ore is taken from
the quicksilver battery. A lump the
size of base ball, 20 per cent. pure
gold, would be II pretty good pocket
many who handle it, and chunk
half that size after it has passed
through the retort and has been
chopped up pinto pieces for the smelter
would still De worth looking after
and quite easily secreted.
Deadwood and the many near by
mining camps have had a history as
wild as the widest, and it's murders
and killings have for the past twenty
five years been fast and furious.
The Peteche mine near Central
City and about a mile from Dead
wood was one of the first mines
worked by drilling into the hills and
was supposed to be very rich, which
soon caused deadly strife as
to the ownership and resulted in the
death of five men who were shot from
ambush while attempting to work
the miEe, and strange to say not a
dollar has ever been taken out of the
mine and it has been wholly aban-
doned.
Harry Tier, who has been men
toned, mas a history OF his own which
he has gathered in every land, an as
sorted lot OF romantic adventures
that would fill a good sized book. He
was the guard on the old Deadwood
stage that took the first shipment of
gold out of the Black Hills, His run
was eighty miles to where driver and
guard were changed. The route was
through a rough and wild country.
jest before the stage got to the end
of his route he noticed a man S
head peering out from behind large
boulder near the side of the road;
and he at once got the drop on
him with his double barreled
gun loaded with buckshot, and held
it till the stage passed out of danger
At the end of his trip be told the new
driver and guard what he had seen
and that he was sure it meant hold
up Barry said the new driver and
guard did not seem to thank him for
any information and gave him to un-
derstand they were on to their job.
From where the man behind boulder
was seen the stage road made a long
detour of some fifteen miles, but il
was only Eve miles across for
men afOOt or on horse back,
and sure enough the stage was halt
ed and the guard ordered to throw