Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1902-03-15
M'CINTY.
The Montana Copper King Owns
Neither Mine or
Ground.
Means by Which n Shrewd Irish
LabOrer Made For
tune.
Utilized Water Pumped From
Mines in Vicinity of
Butte.
He KNEW WHAT He WAS DOING

A copper king without owning copper
mine is Michael McGinty of Butte,
Mont. He is millionaire, yet owns not
foot of mining ground, and his em-
ployes are fewer than twenty-five. What
he does not know about ores, levels.
shifts and the like would fill big book,
yet he is recognized as one of the copper
magnates of the State. All this because
he is shrewd.
Years ago McGinty was laborer, em-
ployed in one of the big copper mines.
He drew his $3.50 day and was as happy
as the other miners. Now his income is
we'll up in the tens of thousands and he
has not the worry of fighting lawsuits, as
has the real mine owners of this district
McGinty's fortune came from battered
tin cans, scrap iron, basins and native
shrewdness. In Butte no one may find
tin can lying around, nor will long
search reveal piece of iron larger than
nail that is going to waste. These things
are valuable in Butte, and it was the
brains of McGinty that made them so.
There was a time when the streets of
the greatest mining camp on earth"
were Uttered with tin cans, because all of
the food that is consumed in the city is
of necessity taken in on trains and most
of it in tins. Now all is changed and the
change has brought fame and fortune to
McGinty. In the early days of Butte
the owners of the various mines were
greatly troubled by the water that con-
tinually welled up in the various shafts.
To keep it pumped out was an expensive
matter and for a time more than one of
the mines was abandoned.
One night when the whistles sounded
Michael had just dropped the head of his
pick into the small stream of water that
ran through the mine, in an endeavor to
remove an obstruction that threatened to
dam the little brook of hot water. He
left it there, like the laborers in the
comic pictures who will not finish blow
with the sledge when time is up. The
next morning when he went on shift
again he was astonished to find the iron
head covered with a thin coating of pure
copper. For a time the workman was
lost in thought. Then he walked up to
the shift boss, said he was going to quit,
stalked away from the mine and called
on banker of the town. Next day he
announced that he was going to put in a
bid for pumping the water out of the
mines. His bid was so low that the
mine officials laughed at their former
employee, who, they figured, would lose
many thousands of dollars a year in
undertaking to keep the mines free of
water. Michael said nothing, but began
putting in machinery to remove the
water. Next he built ON the hillside,
midway between the mines and the city
proper, series Of large watts or tanks,
which he filled with old tin cans and
pieces of iron of all kinds To all ques-
tions he made but one reply: II know
what am doing"
His next move was to direct the water
from the mines into these watts, where il
trickled over the tin and the iron as il
rolled on down the hill toward the flats
below. Every month or six weeks the
course of the little stream is directed into
second set of watts while the old ones
are cleaned out. II is in this cleaning
that McGinty made-and still makes
his money. The water from the mines
carries large amount of copper COM
pound in solution, and as the fluid passes
over the tin and the iron, copper liberated
by chemical decomposition is precipi-
tated on the metals, which are in turn
eaten away. Then the copper sinks to
the bottom of the watts in a dirty red
sediment, where it remains until the
monthly cleanup takes place. McGinty
has been made independently rich and
has nothing to do but buy old tin cans
and scrap iron to make himself richer.
The water will always run from the
mines, now that the proper machinery is
in place, and each day the fortune of the
man who discovered that the fluid held
copper IL; solution grows to larger pro.
portions.