The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-12-24
FEvER|SH HASTE
TO GET OUT ORE
Every Day Is Precious to Les
sees of Rich Ground
in G0ldfieId.
MEN CAN DICTATE TERMS
"HiGH GRADERS" STEAL THOU,
SANDS WITH IMMUNITY.
MEN CAN DICTATE TERMS

Urging and praying, coaxing and ours
ing by turns, the lessees of the richest
mines at Goidfieid are straining every
nerve to keep their men at work, while
the strike specter threatens to curtail
their golden harvest.
Every hour is precious. The fate of the
permanent operators means nothing to
the lessees. if only they can keep the hu-
man machines in motion until that morn
ing in January when the pieces OF pre-
ciOus ground revert to their owners. The
picks and shovels must be kept at work
at any sacrifice and at any cost
Interest centers largely in the Hays
NIonette lease. Men are playing for a
fabulous stake here and for once the Ia
borer can almost dictate terms.
Lease Expires Jan. 8.
The richest ground in Goldfield, or the
whole world, for that matter. is leased
until Jan. S. Until that time everything
belongs to the men who have rented
the ground and they may gOuge out what
they can. The mines are worked IN
three shifts. of as many miners crowded
into the place as can work, and there IS
never a moments rest. the blasting and
the thud of the picks going on night and
day
But this frantic desire of the lessees
to CLEAN while they can has given rise
to a situation in this camp of gold, the
like of which was never seen before.
The term high grader has huge sig
nificance in Goldfield.
Union Real Arbiter.
The miners union at Goldfield num-
beers about 1900 members. This union is
the real arbiter of the camp. The capi-
talist. the prospector, the broker may
swagger around, the newly-made mill
lionaire bask in the limelight of the
world but the miner runs the roost
" road leads
from the Hays-Monette are hundreds OF
tiny shacks. too small almost, for a
beam of light to penetrate, and yet these
shacks make the real live story of Gold
field.
The miners, dressed in heavy, loose
coats and blue overalls. go down into the
mines. Ceaselessly all day they raise
and drop the pick, and with almost every
stroke a lump of precious ore drops into
the capacious pockets of the jumpers and
Overalls Much of the ore in the Hays
Monefte, this little mine of a half acre
in area. assays $50 to the pound
Lose $4,000 a Day.
The Hays Monette people figure that
] they lose $1,000 worth of ore Gay. yet
| so rich is the ground. so enormous the
sums taken out. that these four men
who have leased the mines, must grit
their teeth and ignore the thefts.
High grading which is the Goldfield
| term for stealing, is not winked at by
/ the mine operators. 1t is gTimly endured,
] for the men have already barred their
/ teeth at the suggestion of trouble over
/ these ''perquisites.
The Frances Mohawk tried to institute
/ searching rooms and at the first mani
/ festation of putting the rooms to use
there was trouble. The miners would
not submit and the matter was dropped.
Assayers Reap Harvest.
The miner walking down the road after
the close of work, stops surreptitiousiy
in little shack, behind which crouches
| an assayer like some fat black spider,
| watching for prey. These shacks CORE
| spond to the fence pawnshOps. for
/ here a man may bring gold by the peck
| etful and no questions asked The
miner these cold. windy nights steps In
| and his gold ore is weighed. or course,
| like every other thief. he gets nothing
near the real value of his plumber, few
| dollars a pound being handed him for
| ore worth many times as much. And
| the man in the jumper takes his dollars
and in some gambling room or dance hail
it disappears like fall of snow III
| April. He goes back next day as poor
| as before to carry away another load
| When a man is caught high grading
at the Hays Monette he is not arrested
and tried. He is simply turned Off, for
| fear of trouble with the union. The les
sees know that thousands of pounds OF
| their richest rock is being stolen. yet
they are powerless to help It.
Two Sides of 1t.
Many of the miners are old hands al
| the business desperate men from the
| Colorado mines. How can we stand it?
declared one of these lessees. we have
| got to stand il. there's nothing else &c
do. We can't watch the whole mine. and
If we did we would probably get them
| suIlen and queer the whole game
Then, there is another side, the side
of the sturdy chaps. who work out OF
the sunshine, in the depths of the earth
| toiIing away that some other man may
become rich
There's nothing to it," said one of the
miners on the Hays onette, with q
grin. They get theirs, we get ours
THEY get thousands and millions. we get
hundreds They can't work the mines
| without MS They had better let us have
our little Take-off, and they know 1t d.
| WE'LL