The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-11-22
MINE OF MEERSCHAUM
BIG FIND OF PRICELESS PIPE
 CLAY IN NEN MEXICO.
Said to Equal in Quality Best Tur- kish Product-Is Valuable as Gold-Kansas Cityan In-
 terested.


 of this city, became interested in an in- vestigation of the commercial value of a peculiar New Mexican clay. or mineral. locally known as the freak formation" The existence of this unusual deposit was known to cowboys and miners for many years, but 1t was not considered of any merchantable value and its real character was never dreamed of by them. No ih- telligent effort has ever been made, prior to the spring of 1902, to solve the problem presented by the strange formation. Mir. Kathrens. in company with James l.. Hill. of New York city, visited the scene of the discovery. They found a white cropping, cutting through granite and following a true north and south course for nearly a mile The vein was apparently without a break and clearly defined. Old miners in the country de- clared that they had never seen anything just like 1t. and agreed that it upset all their geological theories.
 Entry was made upon the full length of the outcropping, and subsequently, shaft was sunk on one of the claims to a depth of seventy feet. developing a vein as white as alabaSter, nearly nine inches thick, and standing perpendiculariy be- tween the walls of serpentine rock
 Samples of the product were sent to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington and also to several of the great univer- sities. with requests for a report as to the character of the find. Many scien- tific gues'ses were indulged, but the exact mineralogical status of the deposit was not disclosed. Finally MT. Kathrens gave piece of the mineral to an acquaintance who was going to Europe and who vol unteered to make some inquiries in the pottery fields of France and Germany A vase manufacturer in one of the sub urbs of Paris was the first person ap- preached, He at once pronounced the sample meerschaum, and advised that further inquiry should be directed to tho pipe merchants of Vienna. The visitor acted promptly, and two days later wit messed a Croatian artist in Vienna carve a superb cigarholder from the irregu ar chunk of clay he had carried over the Atlantic and more than half way across two continents.
 It Is reported on the authority of the British foreign office that the Turkish crown has enjoyed for several centuries an exclusive monopoly of the worlds out put of meerschaum. This does not mean that Turkish sultans possess any special ability in the construction and mainte- nance of trusts, but simply this: The world goes to the Turk for it's meer- schaum for the sufficient reason that the Turk controls the only source of supply If this New Mexico discovery is half so good as 1t Is reported 1t will not be long until the sultan will experience a decided slump in his meerschaum business.
 Meerschaum is ranked among the rarest and most valuable of the mineral products of the earth. Prospectors in every land have even followed with pick and pan the slightest indication that promised either gold, platinum or meerschaum. Gold and platinum have been uncovered in count less places all over the globe, but meer- schaum, like the sacred jade of China has escaped for centuries their anxious quest
 Experts Tn, the employ of a powerful Austrian syndicate trailed the draws and canons of the Rocky Mountains for more than twenty years diligently searching for this precious pipe clay. About ten years ago the exploration was abandoned and reported mo meerschaum in America" The same patient, painstaking and costly investigation was conducted throughout the mining regions of South America and with the same result.
 Vienna is the seat of the meerchaum pipe industry. Fully 90 per cent of the meerschaum of commerce passes through the hands of Jewish syndicate in the Austrian capital, that has controlled the market for nearly 200 years. Nearly ev- cry pipe smoker in the world has con- tributed something to the coffers of this meerschaum tsust In turn these fabu- lously rich pipe makers pay high tribute to the Sultan of Turkey for the exclusive right to buy all the rneerschaum mined in Turkish territory, which under the cir cumstances, amounts to an absolute mo- nopoly.
 The only known meersohaum mines in the world are located in the sultan's Ar menian possessions in Asia. The prin- cipal pits or mines are in the neighbor- hood of Sair-Son and Eskishehr. about 100 miles distant in a southerly direction from Constantinople More than 1lO persons find profitable employment clean ing and shaping into blocks the crude meerschaum produced at the mines of Eskishehr
 An inquiry addressed to the director of the United States Geological Survey con- cerning the occurrence, production, etc., of merschaum in the United States brought the reply that meerschaum was not among the discovered mineral pro- ducts of the United Statesf and that the department had published no information on the subject. The British foreign of flee, however, has issued an exhaustive report upon meerschaum from which the following interesting bits of information are taken:
 For more than a century a Viennese syndicate operating under a franchise from the Turkish Government has con- trolled the output and sale of all the meerschaum of commerce. Meerschaum is a species of clay-a hydrous silicate of magnesia. Its origin is unknown. There are several theories put forth by geolo- gists that tend to show that it arises from | the decomposition and waste of the cor bonates in older rocks.
 The largest known deposit exists in Asia
 Minor, and is the property of the Turkish crown. The Sultans Government imposes | a tax of 12 1-2 per cent. at the mines on all the meerschaum produced and a | fIirther tax of F 1-2 per cent. on the sale | of the same product.
 l Meerschaum is useful in many branches ! of the arts and sciences, but owing to the constantly increasing demand by to- bacco-pipe manufacturers it is devoted almost exclusively to that single commer-
 cial purpose. The demand far exceeds the output and for that reason the price of | genuine merschaum is very great. It is more costly than silver and closely ap- proximates the value of gold.
 It is found in pockets" and veins, the latter condition being less frequent. Most of the deposits being worked in Asia Mi | nor are of the pocket" or scattered | class Pieces from the size of a hickory nut to irregular kidney-shaped chunks measuring three to five cubic feet repre- sent the extremes in the output of this | product
 Pipe manufacturers pay from to 20 cents per cubic inch for pure meerschaum Where the deposit exists in a vein forma~ tion instead of pockets" the output runs into money very rapidly. The great vaIua of such deposits may be approxi-
 mated when 1t Is realized that a cut four