The Saint Paul globe., 1903-11-08

country, and in which the Standard Oil
company is one of the parties against
him. BY a ruling of the courts he gets
title to property valued at more than
$40, ,OOO, 900, and so sweeping is the de-
cision that already such concerns as the
Amalgamated Copper company have
banked the fires of their smelters and
withdrawn thousands of men from the
mines which they claimed as their own.
Mr.. Heinze is not yet quite thirty-four
years old. He was born in Brooklyn. He
graduated from Columbia university in
1889 as a mining engineer and went to
Montana thirteen years ago, where he
took a job as an ''inside engineer" with
the Boston & Montana company.
Studying the Conditions.
He worked on the day shift from
in the morning to at night, and in the
evening when he came out Of the mine
he put on his good clothes and took part
in the social life of the mining camp
He was about the only man in that coun-
try. at that time, who ever appeared at
dinner in "full dress clothes, and he
soon became known as the dude" In
two years he mastered the copper smelt-
ing business, learned thing or two about
politics and business as they are mixed
in the West, and determined to take a
hand in the battle Of the giants that was
constantly being fought among such men
as Marcus DAILY, w. A. Clark and other
millionaires. Just here a relative died
leaving $50 600 apiece to Augustus and
to each of his two brothers. Augustus
went to Germany them and studied met
allurgy and mineralogy for two years, and
on his way back to Montana stopped in
New York and got his brother Arthur to
go with him. Arthur is a lawyer and
August knew he would need him.
Operations began at once. Heinze leas-
ed the Estrella claim from James A. Muir
ray, another of the famous coterie Of
Montana's mining gamblers and schemers,
and built a small smelter. Within year
he was in the courts. The contract with
Murray provided that Heinze should pay
a 25 per cent royalty on all ore running
over II per cent copper to the ton. Murray
claimed that much of the ore from the
Estrella ran more than II per cent. but
that Heinze evaded the payment of royal
ties by mixing enough low grade ore and
rock with the ore produced from the mine
to keep the percentage of copper below
12 They went to law. Heinze then prov
ed that every drop of blood in his veins
was of the fighting kind and that the law
court was his battle ground He fought
Murray for months and he won.
Getting the Sinews of War.
His ventures prospered. He paid $685.
600 for controlling interest in the Rarus
mine in the heart of the copper district
and was recognized by this time as one
of the shrewdest mining men in the state
But even then the other big men did
not properly gauge the resourcefulness and
latent strength of the young man who
was willing to dispute at every point their
title to the earth. With his brother
Heinze studied the mining records and
found them in hopeless confusion, with
titles to claims. questions of priority, and
similar matters in the greatest uncer-
tainty. He tucked this knowledge away
and in 1895 went to British Columbia
and built smelter and a railroad eight
cen miles long to Rossland. There was the
Leroy mine, the manager of which was
George Turner, later a member of the
Alaskan treaty boundary commission,
which has just made it's award In London.
Turner made $1,000,000 out of the Leroy
property. Taking advantage of a row
among the stockholders, Heinze got suf-
ficient of the stock to force contract
with the company to haul the ore over his
railroad. and smelt it in his smelter
He built other branch roads and did so
much business that the Canadian Pacific
threatened to parallel his lines. When
Heinze showed them where he stood and
the grip he had they paid him 81, 200 900
for his property. though he reserved
something like 100000 acres of mineral
land before he made the deal
Returning to Butte in 1897, Heinze COM
menced to use his intimate knowledge of
the records he had studied, and then be-
gan the sensational litigation which has
eliminated in the recent victory. Few
people understand the intricacies of min
ing law, and the suits in which Heinze be-