The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1901-09-26
AND NECK n. @, THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER s6, 1901 80.

IA - V014 - 4.ANAA1AV - -
FACTS ABOUT GOLD.
It's Value Due 70 Color, Durability
and Brightness.
SPECULATION AS 70 WHEN AND
HOW THE PRECIOUS METAL
WAS DISCOVERED.
St. Nichols.
The only abundant metal In the
world that Is yellow is the most pre-
cious OF them all-gold. Brass is not
. true metal, but an alloy compound
And the color which gold shares with
tho sun has great deal to do with its
value. 1 do not think 1t would be pos
sible that We should ever have come
to love and admire any metal 90 much
to choose it for our highest currency
and our ornaments, no matter how
rare or ductile It might be, If it were
of dark, dull, gloomy color. The
human eye meyer 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.
I like sometimes to think back to
the first man Of all men that ever held
that crock of the sun" In his savage
hand, and to imagine how he found 1t,
and how it made his sharp eyes twin
kle and how he wondered at its weight
and pounded it with one smooth rock
upon another, and found that he could
fatten 1t. Ali 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 insome gravelly
stream bank ; and the prehistoric man,
in his tunic of skins chancod that way
and found 1t.
It may be that the poor barbarian
who picked up tho first yellow nugget
sank with it still grasped in his swar-
thy fists.
THE FIRST GOLD SEEKER.
We do not know even the name OF
the man who first discovered gold, ncr
where he lived nor when. But it YVES
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 Egyptians got their
gold from Nubia, 80 very likely the
discovery was made in Africa. At all
events 1t dates back to the very child
hood of the race and before men had
invented the letters Of the alphabet
mankind had achieved the prettiest
plaything it eyer found.
ALI gold began in "veins" in the
earth's rocky ribs but Time, with his
patient hammers of wind and rain and
frost, has pounded vast acres OF these
rocks to sand and the gold broken
from great bands to Jumps, has dIifted
with bones OF the mountains into the
later heaps of gravel. The processes Of
gold which still remains in its
original home in the rocks are much
more complicated. There is vast
of boring to be done into the
fllnty 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 50 chemically changed that 1t does
not look like gold at all, and requires
special chemical process to coax it out.
In all gold mining mercury is one OF
the most important factors. It is the
mineral sheriff, swift TO arrest any
fugitive feck of gold that may come In
It's way. The sluice boxes in extern
sive placer mines and the "shset" In
stamp mills are all charged with
which sayes vast amount
of the finer gold dust that otherwise
would be swept away by the current
of water for water il equally essential
in both kinds Of mining.
There is no such thing as "pure
gold," often a. We hear the phrase.
Natures purest, her "virgin gold" Is
always alloyed With silver; and the
very finest 10 SO or 80 per cent. gold.
No doubt at the bottom of that stupen-
dous 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 20 deep down ~ that. The
eea water Itself carries gold In solution
IA fraction Of 4 grain Of gold to every
ton Of water, q q famous chemist has