Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1906-06-23
NEVADA MINING LETTER.

Manhattan, Nevada, June 15.-The
governor OF the state stnding on ton
OF Gold Hill and banning" like an or.
binary prospector-that Is the sight
to which Manhattanites were treated
few days ago. Governor Sparks had
been touring the mining camps of
southwestern Nevada, called there by
rumors of labor troubles happily with
out foundation. He whirred into Man.
haitian on his big auto last Monday
and straightway made to Gold Hill
curious to run down the somewhat fab.
ulous stories of riches which were com
ing from there.
He went down the shaft of the Stray
Dog first. In the shaft of the 135-foot
level, two miners were sinking their
picks into stopped soft, brownish
looking rock. Carelessly, Governor
Sparks stopped, scooped up a handful
just thrown back by one of the picks
stuck it into the pocket of his khaki
jacket, and said, Lets go up again. >
The party went up. At the top
the governor said, Bring me a par
and bucket of water"
AT the nod of Superintendent Camp
bell, a man went off and came back
with little iron mortar, hand-drill
bucket of dirty water, and a small
broken-handled frying-pan The gov
ernor dug into his pocket, drew out a
handful of rock. threw it into the NOR
tar, and, inverting the drill to use its
handle as pestle, began to pound and
grind the soft rock.
1t was a strange sight. The sun was
going down in the west and a golden
glow was on the hill. Black upon the
glow was a group of men, looking
down curiously. In the center, a big
square-shouldered man squatted, grind
ing dirt in mortar with an inverted
drill. And that man was the chief ex
ecutive of the state.
Suddenly, he snapped up to his full
height. and, taking the little broken.
handled frying-pan, he emptied into il
the contents of the mortar. now ground
into fine dust. One of the men lifted
the bucket and splased it full of the
dirty water. Holding the frying-pan
in his right hand, the governor dipped
the fingers of his left hand into the
chocolate-colored stuff and mixed it
thoroughly, as if druggist engaged in
some medicinal preparation. Then,
shaking the pan from side to side
with a slight rotary twist, he began
splashing the liquid out over the side.
The sun was lower now, and the
golden glow of its reflection grew till
the whole hill was as if phosphores
cent with it-veritably a Hill of Gold,
standing there a symbol. a promise to
the population. But the little group
on the hill did not notice that-their
eyes remained upon the little frying
pan in the governors hands.
The governor was shaking it in his
big, firm right hand. With a careless
ness that seemed almost indecent he
was singing the liquid out over the
side in big splattering drops that fell,
to be Immediately swallowed in the
arid SOIL At intervals, the man with
the bucket poured more liquid into it,
The dirt at the bottom became less
and less and finer and finer. A long,
whispered "ah!" came from the cir
Gle of watchers. In the chocolate-col-
ored silt at the bottom of the pan, lit
tie bright points were appearing, like
the glints in the eyes of brown-eyed
lassie.
The sun had set now. A diaphanous
cloak of violets, puppies, and mauve,
was falling upon the mountains in the
distance. The golden glow had van
ished from the hill. But the gold of