Arizona republican., 1903-05-20

at Tombstone, closely clustered within plain view against a background of bare, treeless hills, lie nearly a dozen famous mines which quickly sprang in to production after Edward Schieffelin's discovery. Not all of these mines will be operated from the giant central shaft, of course; nine hoisting plants have been put in repair for mining in- dependently of the main shaft But from that shaft pours the water which is rap idly draining the entire district and which will permit sinking on all the properties in the group. Everybody was elated at the splendid manner in which the pumps are handling the water. Al though the machinery has been in oper- ation but q brief period. the water level Of the surrounding country has been lowered to a marked degree-three miles away. for instance it has fallen fully thirty feet. Thus the theory is already completely demonstrated that the water bugbear at which so many half-infoTm- ed people have shaken their heads is a thing of the imagination, and that the water in the Tombstone mines comes into a catch basin slowly from a drain age area which is limited in extent. When this basin is once drained. as it will be. undoubtedly. with a few hun dred feet of additional depth in the shaft. the inflow of water will become a plaything for the pumping plant which has been installed.
 Danger from fire has been reduced to minimum by the new company. The antiquated idea of having any sort of house over the shaft has been aban- doned. A fire-p proof steel and iron building covers the boilers and hoisting machinery, the machine shop and other buildings are of steel. and a towering gallows-frame of steel stands over the shaft. And by the shaft stands a tank which holds many thousands of bar rels of water. No smoking is permit ted on the premises. and the shaft and underground workings are lighted by electricity
 shipment of ore was made from the mines yesterday, and was notable as marking. merely, the reaching of the period of production by the Consolidat- ed company Ore is taken out at pres ent simply as an incident to cleaning up" and getting the mines in shape, and it is hardly to be expected that production will begin on large scala before fall. To anybody at all familiar with mining operations it is not easy to comprehend that so much has been accomplished by MT. Gage and MT. Staunton since they took charge.
 Aside from the visit to Tombstone, the most interesting event of the weeks journey was the visit to the famous rOld Boot" copper mine, Of the Silver TO O-T1Bf ,la- southwest of Tucson.
 These properties. comprising more than fifty claims. have been taken over by the Development Company of Amer ica. and the forHaf-t-azrsfer- be made at Tucson today. A company known as the Imperial Copper company has been formed for the purpose of op- erating the property. The selling own CTS are: J. N. Curtis, Albert Steinfeld and Zeckendorf & Co.,, all of Tucson, composing the Silver Bell Copper com pany, and the consideration is under stood to be in the neighborhood of three quarters of million dollars, cash. The mines were brought to the atten- ton of the Development company by former Governor N. O. Murphy. the Phoenix representative of the company, and the preliminary negotiations were chiefly through him. The Development company, of which MT. F. NJ. Murphy is president, only decided to take the property after it had been thoroughly examined in succession by some of the most eminent mining engineers in the business. For illustration, Mir. Charles Karns. q veteran expert noted for his conservatism and intelligence, made an inspection and report. He was followed by Mir. Percy Williams, a specialist without a superior on copper. mines. Next. MT. Staunton, general manager of the Tombstone and Congress mines, made an examination. Ordinary min ing investors would be very glad to place their money on Mir. Staunton's judgment alone. Following these ex- aminations, MT. Gage, himself direc- tor of the Development company, and man who knows mines as most men know their next-door neighbOrs, went over the properties very carefully. in company with MT. George Beaton of New York, a leading director and manager of the Development company. Then, MT. Karns returned to the group, and in company with MT. w. c. Bash ford. thorough-going and well-bal- anced judge of mines. went over the whole property once more, carefully checking the measurements of the ore bodies which had been made previous ly.
 And finally, the property and its pro- posed purchase had the approval of President Murphy, after he had critic ally examined all the reports and had looked the situation over on the ground.
 These different steps are mentioned merely to show the extreme care and conservatism with which the Develop ment Company of America proceeds in it's operations. The company became convinced that the ore actually in sight and without reference to future devel- opment would pay net returns more than equal to the investment It might be remarked in passing, that if all in vestors in mines would move on the same safe lines there would be no oc- casion for anybody to doubt the safety of the mining business.
 In order to make the overland jour nov aS4 short as DoSSible the visiting