El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-01-16

iron and nickel and other metals ar
burning and sending us light. We know
from the meIeorites that. even as OIL
earth, iron is the most common of tn,
metals of space. We have seen the dia
monds from the sky in the meteori,
rock that fell only a few years ago il
Canon DIablo in Arizona.
The three natural kingdoms. miner
al. vegetable, and animal are but prov.
inceS of mineralogy, and botany am
zoology only picture a creation whicf
is made up entirely of minerals, except
| for that visible spark we call life
which, in the common sense minerals
do not possess. Absolutely everything
is mineral, and there is nothing else
| Science has of late got up the grand
divisions of organic world and inor-
ganic world. But think a moment and
see if the statement which l have just
made is not true. The Tree is made up
of mineral gases and mineral ashes.
There is no other kind of gas or of ash
The body of man, the body of animal,
the blood, the flesh, the bones, each is
an aggregation of mineral matter. as
we know through the science of chem
istry. The invisible spark, life, is not
analyZable simply because we do not
know what it is. In the face of these
facts that no power can confuse or blur
who is not willing to concede to miner
alogy the foremost seat in the intellec-
tual arena of human wisdom?
Considering that mineralogy belongs
to the nineteenth century. considering
that chemistry. Its strongest ally and
assistant. is no older. the progress
made in the two sciences is indeed
great. And this progress is simply
no % Nf IA r,I s,1,
portance of the two sciences. because
the world as it is today absolutely
could not exist We're it not for the great
help these two sciences afford IL.
While A. was once a matter of luxury
to student to possess a few Speci-
ments, collections are today objects of
the greatest pride and Importance in
great institutions of learning the world
over. And even private men, both
priests of the science and laymen. take
pride and exercise the most strenuous
efforts to get together collections sim
ply for the study of the minerals and
rocks which afford knowledge to them
selves and to the world at large OF
late the accumulation of mineral col
lectionS has become phenomenal
There is no town of considerable i'm
portance but has it's mineralogist and
it's mineral collector.
One of the most striking examples of
this enthusiasm in the collection of eX-
hibitS is the Field Columbian Museum
in Chicago. In the year 1898 at the
close of the Columbian exposition there
was a great meeting of the leading bus
mess men of Chicago. the object of
which was to perpetuate the great good
brought about by the exhibit at that
fair. 1t was unanimously agreed that
there could be nothing else so beneh-
cial as a permanent exposition of the
ores and minerals and rocks to be go.
from all over the world. These men
never thought of commemorative and
perpetuating the good it did with a gal
lery of fine arts, or museum of anato-
my. They thought unanimously that
the founding of museum of minerals
was the best thing for the welfare OF
Chicago. These ever alert, wideawake
business men. at once set their
thoughts on the minerals. because they
knew well that the greatness of Chi
cago was due to the minerals brought
to that city and it's vicinity and to the
mineral products more than to any
thing else under the sun. And when
the subscription was started to endow
this institution with the necessary
funds with which to maintain itself,
Marshal Fend, opening the list with
81 100000, made the remark that lie
considered it one of his best and most
lucrative investments, because he
knew that it was the several ores
brought there that kept the Thousand
factories around Chicago busy, and he
well knew That the ores alone not only
could maintain Chicago in its present
splendor. but could make it vastly Iarg-
er and ricner. An act of this kin1
promoted and accomplished by bust
ness men who are known entirely by
their great success in money getting.
should be sufficient demonstration to
you, gentlemen. of the necessity of fos-
tering and promoting the mining and
metalurgical industries of the coun-
try.
Also look at tnis. At the early In
ternational eXpOsitions of % to 90
years ago, neither the mining industry
nor metalurgy was considered worthy
of a district representation. 1t was at
the Crystal Palace in London. and the
Smithsonian National Museum in
Washington where the thought was
born of putting mining and metalurSy
emphatically to the front. At the CEN
tennial exhibit in 1876 mining had as