The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1907-08-08
INTERESTING FACTS
ABOUT MINING CITY,
Butte, a City of Wonders
of the Western World,
Graphically Told.

Or. q. W. Malone writes from Butte,
Montana, to the Sandersville Herald,
an Interesting letter, as follows:
Butte, the city of mines is built on
fairly level plain at the FOOT OF Butte
mountain, and is about 5000 feet above
sea level. There are probably one hun
dred mines here, and there are 20 900
miners who work in these mines, which
run day and night, Sunday not except
ed. They work s hours per day, shifting
every hours, day or night. These
men get on an average of 80 cents per
hour, or 81 per day for their labor.
While one squad works another sleeps,
while the third .is drinking and gam
bling. The pay roll to these men
amounts to about 81 SOC, 600 per month,
and pretty nearly all of it is spent in
revelry. 1t is said that the tunnels un.
der Butte are twice as many miles as
the city streets amount to. Engineers
claim that there is enough ore in sight
at the present ratio of digging to last
50years. They also claim that it would
take one five years to traverse ell the
tunnels made under the city.
The population of Butte is 8e,120
They have 43nchurches here and about
925 saloons, to say nothing of the other
evils.
The output of the copper mines here.
is one-foarth of the worlds productions
Last year the outgoing freight from
Butte was 180,O00,OO0 tons. One Of the
street railroads here upon which we
rode has 70 curves within one-sixth of
mile, which gives come idea as to how
the ground lies, At the smelter for the
copper ore they have concrete stack
S25 feet high and 25 feet in diameter at
the base, which was constructed at a
cost of $3.50 900, and which it is claimed
will pay for itself in five years, through
its saving of mineral matter therein.
Butte is no doubt city of wonders
of the western world, and every trav-
eler should by all means stop over for
a few days.
1t is said that pre- tty nearly 10 pc
cent. of Butte's population is killed
each year, either by accident in mines,
suicides or fighting, which is an enor-
nous death rate from the three causes
alone, to say nothing of the others.
Some of the larger mines have a shaft
sunk for $500 feet in the ground, and
use anywhere from 1000 to 5000 horse
power engines, which lower the miners
and bring out the ore at the rate OF o.
600 feet in less than minute. The car
or elevator is moved by large cable
made of steel ~ inches in diameter,
which goes almost at gravity rate with
% tons of ore in 1T. These cables are
wound on large driver or spool about
20 feet in diameter, and, to a casual OBJ
server, they go at an enormous speed
Stations are made all along down these
shafts about 100 feet:apart, so that each
miner has his location to get off, like
travelling on railroad.
Horses are carried down in the mines
to pull the ore to the different stations.
They are kept there, stabbed and fed +,
and never brought up.
1t takes about 1000 horse power
engine regularly pumping to furnish
air to these men and to keep the water
out of the way SO that they can work
When the blasting is done, which is
usually just before II O'Clock in the
| day, all the miners are brought out or
up for hundred or two feet, so that
the jar from the explosion will not af-
| feet Them"