The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1902-02-23
COPPER KING OWNS NO MINE.
How . shrewd Montana Laborer
Amassed Fortune.

1kA&oSS0 - VA k0ASs
Butte {dont.) Correspondence of Chicago
A copper king, without owning a cop
per mine, is the somewhat novel position
occupied by Michael McGinty Of this city.
He e a millionaire in all that the s,, WORD
ground and his employees are fewer than
twenty-five. What he does not know
about ores, levels. shifts and the like
would MI q big book. yet Michael is rec
ognized as one Of the copper magnates OF
the State.
An this because ne has brains and is
Many years ago McGinty was a COM
mon iaborer. employed IN one Of the big
copper mines. He drew his $3.50 day
and was as happy AZ the other miners.
Now his income Is well up In the tens Of
thousands. and he has not the worry Of
owners of this district
McGintys fortune came from battered
tin cans. scrap iron, brains ana native
shrewdness.
In ali Butte you cannot find = tin can
lying around, nor will a long search re-
veal piece of iron larger than a nail
that is going to waste. These things are
valuable in Butte. and It was the brains
of McGnity that made them so.
There was 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
|
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
bled by the water that continually weiled
up in the various shafts. 10 keep 1t
pumped out was an expensive matter,
and for time more than one Of the
mines was abandoned.
Michael McGinty, employed as a laborer
in one OF the mines, was a happy go
lucky fellow, always ready to quit when
tine whistle blew for the men to go of
shift No matter where he was he
note of the big siren was heard. II his
pick was in the air, all well and good
he let it fall with crash. If the head
was buried IN the earth, better still; 1t
mattered not to the careless workman.
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 eDdeavor to
remove an obstruction that threa tened
to dam the little brook OF hot water. The
next morning, when he went on shift
again. he was astonished to find the iron
head covered with thin coating Of pure
| copper.
| thought. Then he walked up to the shift
| boss. said he was going to quit. stalked
away from the mine and called upon a
banker of the town with whom he en-
l
announced that he was going to put in a
| bid for pumping the water out of the
mines and that he hoped to secure the
| contract.
And secure the contract he did, for his
bid was so low that the mine officials
laughed at their former employee, who,
| they figured, wsuld lose many thousands
Of dollars 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 questions he made but
| one reply:
II know what I am doing"
His next move was to direct the water
from the mines into these watts. where It
\ trickled over the tin and the iron as IL
rolled on down the hill toward the fats
below. Every month or six weeks the
| course of the little stream is directed
ones are cleaned out.
1t Is In the cleaning that McGinty made
and still makes-his money. The water
from the mines carries a large amount of
copper compounds in solution. and as the
fluid passes over the tin and the iron
copper liberated by chemical decomposf.
| ton Is precipitated on the metals, which
are IN turn eaten away. Then the cop
per sinks to the bottom Of the watts in a
dirty red sediment, where 1t remains un-
| I'll the monthly cleanup takes place.
-McGinty has been made independently
| rich and has nothing to do but to buy
old tin cans and scrap iron to make him
SELF richer. The water will always run
| from the mines. now that the proper ma
chinery Is In place. and each day the for
mud held copper in solution grows to
larger proportions