The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-02-21
OWN BIG VOLCANO
AMERICAN PROMOTERS BUY
 PoPoEATEPETL.
The Great Pile of Earth Was Once the Sole Property of One
 Man, Gen. Casper s.

Popocatepetl the famous volcano ter miles southwest of the City of Mexico. has been pur- chased by a syndicate of New York and Penn sylvania capitalists. who will combine busi- with pleasure by mining the immense beds of sulphur that are contained in the era ter and by building summer resort half way up the tide of the mountain, says The Brook lyn Eagle. A modern hotel. with every facil- ity for enjoying life. from odept mixer Of cocktails and perfect golf links to view that would satisfy the soul of poet. will pur- vey to the weary ones who travel to the place a. cog wheel railroad from the for capital of the Aztecs.
 Captain Charles Holt, of New York, is now in Mexico making the final arrangements for the transformation of "Old Father Popo" as Captain Holt went south from this ely with full powers to deal with the owners if the vol cano. Behind him are the powerful influences of the Standard oil crowd and the Pennsyl- vania Railroad. William Rockefeller, of New York: Samuel Green of Pittsburg. and his brother John P. Green. vice president of the its behind the deal. Associated with them are a number of the foremost capitalists of the East
 Mine of Great Treasure.
 Popocatepetl is mine of inexhaustlbIe treasure. and the possibilities before the syn dicate that has taken It's future in hand e boundless. Sulphur. which sells for $40 a ton in the open market and which has constant ly risen in price during the past few years. is to be found in vast quantities in the crater of the volcano. For nearly hundred years
 
 peons who climb down into the crater, cut away the nearly pure sulphur and carry 1t in baskets to the refinery located about a mile and a half down the side of the mountain. This work has been done by General Caspar S. Ochoa. who owns the whole mountain but recently, owing to the higher price of labor and the great cost of this primitive manner of mining. he has discontinued the work. Then he found that he had mountain on his hands and proceeded to let the world know that he wanted to sell 1t.
 How He Got the Volcano.
 The manner in which he came into possess sion of the volcano is almost romantic. When he was young man he met Alexander von Humboldt. then in the zenith of his fame as a traveller and explorer. Humboldt had just completed an ascent of the mountain and in the course of conversation he said to young could own that mountain you would make a fortune, for there inexhaustlble deposits of sulphur there which are all easy of ac- cess. By means of a gravity road you could bring the sulphur rock down to the vallty and refine 1t there"
 ochoa never forgot the hint that the fa- nous scientist gave him, and when, after the revolution, he had friends in high office he preached the question of a concession The government agreed that if he could prsye that there was sulphur in the mountain and couli mine it, 1t would be given to him This was easily done. for even before his day Ignaclo Reyes of Amecameca had mined the sulphur deposits of the mountains. but without any concession. Later John Mugica Osirio had put sulphur ovens at Tiamacas and had made SONie money OChoah bought out the rights Of both these men for a song. and then started to build a wagon road to the summit Of the mountain.
 Under his active management the output of sulphur from the volcano increased from 1000 @ @arro6as 'or about I75.ooo pounds to over .- Voo'ooo pounds year. Ills method of mining haS eeen primitive.
 Syndicate Has Novel Plan.
 The American syndicate has plan in view which has been pronounced by engineers as PeTIectly feasible Although the surface of the the surface the sulphur is still in a molten Taking advantage Of this fact the American syndicate plans to bore a hole in the side of the mountain 600 or 700 feet below the edge or the crater It is the hope of the engineers 10 tap the molten sulphur at a point where Will How through the shaft ino reservoirs that are to be built. Gravity will bring the sulphur down the inclined floor of the shaft and the reservoirs will be within easy touch with the ovens But the work of purifying the sulphur, when once 1t is obtained, will be