Evening star., 1901-08-24
MANY FACTS ABOUT GOLD
IT'S VALUE PARTLY DUE TO COLOR,
BRIGHTNESS AND DURABILITY.
Speculation as to When and How the
Precious Metal Was Dis
From st. Nicholas.
covered.

The only abundant metal in the world
that is yellow is the most precious of them
all-gold. Brass IS not a true metal. but
an alloy a compound. And the color which
gold shares with the sun has great deal
to do with it's value I do not think 1t
would be possible that we should ever have
come to love and admire any metal SO much
to choose it for our highest currency and
our ornaments, no matter how rare or due
tile it might be, IL 1t were of dark, dull,
gloomy color. The human eye never gets
too old to be pleased with very much the
same things which pleased 1t in childhood;
and no eye is insensible to the charm of
that precious yellow.
1 like sometimes to think back to the
first man of all .f1en that ever held that
rock of the SUM- in his savage hand, and
to imagine how he found it, and how it
made his sharp eyes twinkle: and how he
wondered at its weight, and pounded it with
one smooth rock upon another, and found
that he could fiatten it. All these things
come by accident; and gold was an accident
that befell when the world was very young.
Probably there had been a great rain, that
washed the comely lump from its nest in
some gravelly stream bank; and the pre-
historic man. in his tunic of skins, chanced
that way and found it. 1t may be that the
poor barbarian who picked up the first yell
low nugget sank with it still grasped in
his swarthy fist.
The First Gold Seeker.
We do not know even the name of the
man who first discovered gold, nor where
he lived, nor when. But it was very, very
long ago. Before the time of Joseph and
the coat Of many colors gold had already
become not only q discovered fact, but
used in the worlds trade. The early Egyp-
tians got their gold from Nubia; so. very
likely, the discovery was first made In
Africa. At all events, it dates back to the
very childhood of the race; and before men
had invented the letters Of the alphabet
mankind had achieved the prettiest play
thing 1t ever found.
All gold began in "veins" In the earth's
rocky ribs; but Time. with his patient ham,
mers of wind and rain and frost, has
pounded vast areas Of these rocks to sand !;
and the gold. broken from great bands to
Jumps, has drifted with the bones of the
mountains into the later heaps Of gravel.
The processes Of mining gold which still
remains in it's original home In the rocks
are much more complicated. There Is a
vast amount of boring to be done into the
finty hearts of the mountains with steel
drills and with blasting; and then the rock
which is dotted with the precious yellow
flakes has to be crushed between the steel
jaws Of great mills. Much of the gold that
is mined. too, is so chemically changed
that 1t does not look like gold at ALL and
requires special chemical processes to coax
of the most important factors. It is the
mineral sheriff, swift to arrest any fugi-
tive fieck of gold that may come in its
way. The sluice boxes in extensive placer
mines and the Sheets in stamp mills are
all charged with quicksilver, which saves
a vast amount Of the finer gold dust that
otherwise would be swept away by the cur
rent Of water: for water is equally essen
tial in both kinds OF mining
i Gold I'm the Sea.
There Is no such thing as ''pure gold,'
often as we hear the phrase Natures pur-
est. her virgin gold," is always alloyed
with silver; and the very finest is 50 or 90
per cent gold. California gold averages
about the fineness Of our American coin
90 per cent Of purity. 1t is an odd fact that
the sea is full Of gold. No doubt at the
bottom of that stupendous basin. which has
received for all time the washings Of all
the world, there is an incalculable wealth
OF gold in dust: but the strange ocean mine
Is not all SO deep down that. The sea
water itself carries gold in solution-a frac-
tion of grain Of gold to every ton Of wa
ter, as famous chemist has shown.
Among the historical big nuggets found
In various parts Of the world there have
been some wonderful yellow Jumps. In
found in 1910 which weighed thirty seven
pounds troy. In 1S42 the gold fields Of
Natoust, in the Ural. gave a nugget of
nfnety-six pounds troy. The Victoria Aus-
, d
pennyweights. Of which only ounces were
foreign rock. and the Ballarat (Australia)
nugget was thirty-nine pounds heavier yet
The largest nugget ever found was also
named for far-ofr loved one. 1t reached
the astonishing weight Of 233 pounds and
+ 4 ounces troy. wonder what Miner Sands
felt when he struck his pick upon that for
tune in one lump!
Within the last fifty years California and
Australia alone have produced more than
half as much gold as the whole world had
mined before Columbus. At present the
United States produces over 100000. 900
worth Of gold year. which Is far more
than any other country. South Africa and
Australia rank next. producing each over
$50, 900. .OOO and after come Russia South
America and Mexico. The total annual
production of gold In the world is over
$500, 100000.
The Annual Loss OF Gold.
Yet the world Is not richer in gold by all
that vast amount every year. It Is losing,
too-an amount very trifling compared with
the whole, and yet very large in fact. You
hear people wishing that they owned this
rich mine or that vast fortune, but If one
could have just the annual loss on the bill
ions of dollars worth of gold now In the
worlds hands there would be no need to
envy Croesus. Every year an impalpable
golden dust-so infinitely fine as to seem
rather vapor than dust-is worn from
all gold In use, and passes forever from
our wealth and our knowledge. And in
our handling enough gold to make one per-
son incalculably rich disappears every year.
lost as absolutely as if it had never exist
ed. So even If the worlds needs of gold
were not multiplying very rapidly. there
would be required a large annual produc-
tion merely to meet this shrinkage by
"wear and tear" The quality which
makes gold the most valuable of the metals
is it's docility. The cunning hammer Of
the smith can teach 1t almost anything
The more stubborn metals crumble after
they have been reduced to certain point
Of fineness. but gold can be hammered
into a sheet so infinitely fine that 2S2, 900
Of them, piled one upon the other, would
be but an inch thick! And a flake Of gold
tiny as a pinhead can be drawn out in a
finer thread than ever man spun in a spider
thread-to length Of 500 feet.
There is no end to the uses Of gold. They
broaden every day. In one Of its many
forms our yellow Slave helps us In al
most every art and walk Of life. It Is as
necessary as its red fellow-servant, fire
and better in one way. since, unlike fire, 1t
can never become "a bad master" except
through our own fault.
STEEL FRAME BUILDINGS.