The news-herald., 1901-12-07
PROF. WYNNS THEORY
Recalls an Article by Mark Twain Wherein
Wind and Water Bears Gold.

1O1' w LII . OoAA A'A PNAAAAAS .
Process" which is making such a
stir in the mining and scientific
world, recalls a piece written by
Mark Twain some years ago con-
cerning a new process OF extracting
gold, which he claimed to be the
result of much study and scientific
investigation on his part. The re-
suits that Mark obtained received
about the same attention in the
mining and scientific world as will
the remarkable discovery of Pro
fessor(?) Wynn. Twain's article
is as follows;
Il have just seen your dispatch
in the Saturday Evening Post about
gold in solution in Calistoga
Springs, and about the proprietor
having extracted 1000 ounces of
gold of the finest from two barrels
of water in the past fortnight, by a
process known only to himself.
This will surprise many of your
readers, but it does not surprise me,
for / once owned these springs my
self. What does surprise me, though,
is the falling off OF the richness OF
the water. In my time the yield
was a dollar a dipperful. | am not
saying this to injure the property
in case a sale is contemplated, | am
saying it in the interest OF history.
1t may be that the hotel proprie-
tors process is an inferior one. Yes,
that may be the fault.
"Mine' was to take my uncle I
had an extra one at that time on
account of his parents dying and
leaving him on my hands) and fill
him up and let him stand for fifteen
minutes to give the water a chance
to settle. Well, then inserted him
in an exhaust reservoir, which had
the effect to draw the gold out
through the pores. l have taken
more than $1,000 out Of that man
in less than a day and a half.
II should have held on to those
springs only for the badness OF the
roads and the difficulty of getting
the gold to market. | consider that
the gold-yielding water is in many
respects remarkable, and yet no
more remarkable than the gold
bearing air OF Catgut canyon up
there towards the head Of the aurif-
erous range. This air, or wind, for
it is kind of trade wind which
blows steadily down 600 miles of
the richest quartz groupings during
an hour and a quarter every day
except Sundays, is heavily charged
with exquisitely fine impalpable
gold.
Nothing precipitates and solidi
fes this gold as quickly as contact
with the human flesh when heated
by passion. The time that William
Abrahams was disappointed in love
he used to sit out doors when the
wind was blowing and then come
in and begin to sigh, and I would
extract $50 out OF each sigh. He
sighed right along.
"And the time that John Harbi-
son and Alex. Norton had a fight
about Harbison's dog, they stood
up swearing at each other, and
they knew how, and what they
didn't know about that kind Of
business they couldn't learn from
you or me, not by a good deal;
and at the end of every three or
four minutes they had to stop and
declare a dividend, for if they
didn't their jaws would clog up so
they couldn't get big, nine-syllable
words out at all, and when the
wind stopped blowing they cleaned
up little over $4,000 apiece.
II know these facts to be true
because | got them from a man
whose mothers sisters son I know
personally. l do not suppose
person could get the water-right at
any price now, but there are sever
al locations along the source of the
Catgut canyon gold-bearing trade
winds for sale. They are going to
be stocked for New York market.
They will sell, too; people will
swarm for them as thick as Han
cock veterans in the south"
Real Estate Transactions.