New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-11-06
SEEING VANCOUVER.
Gold, Salmon, Cinnamon and Opium
Joints.


nav In Vancouver a little startling" says
charles Hanbury- Williams. IN "Blackwcod's." Ell
.ound my friend sitting behind beautifully poll
,.beS set Of steel bars that reached from floor to
ceiling He looked quite happy and contented.
and was debating letter TO very pretty type
liter. When he saw me he rose. took key from
lie pocbet opened his cage. and then locked
securely inside
..Rv end by another entered carrying a
heavy parcel tied round with string and scaled
With many seals. This he passed in between the
hsrs ard II. took 1t, cut the strings csrelessly.
rtied out lot Of gritty yellow dust on 10 a pair
:, scales weighed II, put It into tin box, locked
a. m wrote out receipt, and handed that together
nth key TO the man outside, and then returned
- he seat. A few minutes later a big specialized
20, IN his shirt sleeves. said he guessed he was
readv now. and NJ and followed him into the next
cage
Here there were four gas furnaces with coils of
,s,es forking of underneath them. Each furnace
bas hollow Id that fastened over IL, and they
,o,le5 ike big sewing machines. When the lid
rs down Il was so cool that you could rest your
ma On II quite comfortably; when II was open
~ had to be careful not TO look too close. for fear
e re,.ing your eyes scorched. The big man took
. -,,cshle like large flower pot and put in a few
oor,pls Of white powder from some bottles that
- labelled Borax Glass. and Carb. Potass. Carb
co5s and Pot Nitrate. Then he threw in the gold
r-s+ stirred the contents up. and put them on the
.u-,sce Then he shut down the lid and waited
.sI3v and by he opened It again. and the mixture
ves dull semi-opsque brown Next time II was
bright red and next glowing white the COOK
D,cked I'D a crowbar made Of plumbago and began
N stir peering at his work through his spectacles
ana then turning away and blinking Inc as
e,s-ant cook brought up a heavy iron mould, nicely
oiled I'd inside and put It on the kitchen table.
rIose IN the furnace: his boss took pair Of iron
rincers hung them hook on the ceiling, gripped
hold OF the cruclble. and swung the hook round TIL
q hung over the mould. Then he pulled on
ar Of asbestos gloves that looked as II they we're
made Of very thick, rather dirty cotton and uted
the not Up the contents running out IN a stream
Of faint translucent red.
This he allowed TO stand for quarter OF an
hour or so when the surface had cooled and caked
% the shiny black OF patent leather and then ne
turned the mould over and whacked it with ham
rner when he lifted the mould up there remained
on the table brick Of brassy yellow. crusted over
with black varnish. which he dropped Kissing into
e bath Of sulphuric acid. It was a good deal
cleaner when picked It out but the varnish still
remained, adhering here and there to the rough
ened surface. so he put ii under a running tap
and Clipped of the larger bits Of Stag with a blunt
nail and brushed the whole thing with a wire
brush, till there remained brick of pure gold
That is relatively speaking. pure gold because the
exact fneness had still to be determined For
this purpose he took a keen chisel and shaved
thin slice off each OF two diagonal corners. and
handed them 20 the assayers IN the back office
was scrupulously clean and tidy. Each assayer
takes his little slice Of gold. Weighing quarter Of
ounce and rolls it into thin ribbon, which Is
cut In pieces. From box Of silver buttons he
takes enough chemically pure silver to make PA
parts Of silver one of gold and wraps the result
I'D IN e sheet Of chemically pure lead, and puts il
IN a cupel,' which looks exactly like a bit OF
billiard chalk, and is made Of bone ash The cupel
is put in z furnace and heated up to 900 degrees
Centgrade; this burns of the lead which is de-
posted in green stain on the bone ash and leaves
e bead OF gold and silver like small pill Then
he takes tiny basket of platinum, divided off into
thirty-siX little compartments, each of which holds
e baby thimble. He drops the pill into thlTnoie'
and lifts the basket by plain wire hook-Just
bit of Dent wire which you would not stoop 10 PICK
ID ir the strickland lowers ii into little metal
bath full OF nitric acid, half strength This sep
crates the gold from the silver, and the whole ap-
paratus costs ESQ or &c., the hook alone costs e.
The remaining gold is then weighed, and the weight
compared with that of the original sample.
Meanwhile the other assayer has been working :
independently his sample. and if the two results
do not agree 10 two parts in ten thousand the
whole process has TO be gone over again The
~ md tbaS are Kent under glass case
I 1asTliTi am 6e w. Us an iyor rli1e tnarked off
into twenty divisions, on each side OF the index;
The assayer asked the Boston girl if she could
spare him q hair Of her head and she pulled one
out and handed il TO him He remarked smllnsy
that II vas much too heavy, and, shipping a my
piece OF one end. so small as 70 be almost Invisible
ne cropped II with PAIR OF me tweezers mo ne
scale Whereupon the mex ran s"4ItIy dlolS llle
rule and stopped al No 9. These men can guess
the approximate hneness Of their samples at
glance with extraordinary accuracy, out they say
that the precision ana close attention required IN
The work tells horribly on the nerves
We gold in dust, and gold IN nuggets, and
gold cakes ike soap, and gold in slabs. and gold
chemically pure, and worth Sc to $27 per ounce IN
trinsical!y; commercial value is. OF course sun
out into the sunlit street.
The run of salmon was pretty nearly over by
This time, bull IL would never 90 10 pc at no
Coast and not 70 the canneries. The trouble
was that the canneries didn't appear TO be partIcu-
larry anxious 10 see US, for they were placarded
consplcuously, No Ambulance without order
from the office and when | went to the Office to
turned TO the barrier, and approached long des-
over one ear, and asked him how We could get in
70 see the show.
prise,
4" Then along with me- and he unlocked
side wicket. and escorted US into big shed where
!abberng crowd OF Cinnamon were busy soldering
up innumerable tins Of salmon in bright red chunks
He pointed out the cooking retorts and the little
most through a shutter and swiftly deca pitat-
ed; and the cleaning tanks; and the punch
crimson disks; and the great annex where
TIE FISH we're two and q half feet deep on the
hooT last Sun0ay,'-rattling of his explanations at
ss och Pace that we gave up following g, him IN
Despair. Then he carried ps Of to the Office and
escaped our notice, flung the door open, addressed
the boss ahectionately by name, waved an intro
ductory hand toward our party. said My friendsl'
he hadn't the rernotest notion who We were-apd
sank INK, into e chair. sun IN his shirtsleeves.
put Jay back In his seat and told Us ali about the
Nor only the people in the streets. but the
streets themselves have an English look about
them: you even see private carriages with coach
men and footmen on the box. II is true that in
ae on the rns 2 marx e ysio
S Eut ne houses are not the heh: nas
with a Chinese quarter You enter a handsome
shop that might belong TO a tobacconist in the