Bisbee daily review., 1908-07-30
HE ROBERTS
 COLLECTION IF
 PRECIOUS ORE
Manager w. L. Edwards of the Copper Queen Hotel lnStallS in Lobby Finest Private Col lection in the Country.

Manager N. L. Edwards of the
 Copper Queen Hotel has placed per
 haps the finest and most valuable pri'
 vate precious metal ore collection in
 the United States in the lobby of the
 b yeL It is the collection of George
 4Sbberts of this city and represents
 the result of a fad he has followed for over ten years. The collection con
 tains some of the rarest ore speci-
 mems. Quite a number of them have
 no duplicate so far as is known.
 These specimens have been examined
 by scores of mining experts and to all they nave been a source of admi- ration and wonder.
 The collection is in reality the
 combination of three collections that Mir. Roberts owns. They are arrang- ed in a five shelf case in the Copper Queen lobby They weigh close to a ton and number between 400 and 500 specimens Some time ago Mir. Rob erts was offered his expenses and $2,- 509 to bring the collection to the Alaska exposition waich is to be held the coming year at Seattle. Busi- snessf Interests here prevented his ac- 'ceptance. For one of the collections, before their combination, Mir. Roberts was offered a short time ago S3.S00 The whole collection as it stands to- day would command SSO00 or $10,000 in many eastern banking houses and financial institutions Mr Roberts, however. has never placed a price on the collection, preferring to keep it in his possession.
 While MT. Roberts himself secured many of the specimens others were given to him by friends engaged in the mining business. For others he paid sums ranging as high as $50. One of the rarest of the pieces of ore is a little bunch of cot ton copper. 1t is so fragile ones breath moves it and is fastened to a dull rock formation. The cotton cop per is a bright red. The specimen came from the Spray mine, In fact, nearly the whole collection came from the mines of the Warren dis trict, though there are many from mines in other parts of Arizona, some from Mexico and New Mexico and other parts of the country. %
 A sofa pillow formation of azurite is one of the most unique pieces of ore. 4 splendid and valuable gold sample from the Snake river mine in New Mexico is well to the front in the collection. One of moss copper On tale found six years ago in the Hoibrook is said to be the only such specimen ever found. Col. Greene was the donor of a native copper spec imen from the mine at Cananea. IL is in a glass tube. Another native cop per specimen is from the Calumet mine It is as bright almost as fl 1t had been polished. Native sheet copper from the Warren district and Cananea are at opposite corners Ot one shelf. The Cananea specimen is whiteish in color, while the Warren district sample is red. A crystal for nation from the Cuperack, adjoining the Shattuck mine, is much admired. 4 gold specimen from Charley Mic Cows mine, the Bisbee West, also at tracts attention. Another fine gold specimen is from the Fl Tigre in So nora.
 There are amethysts from the Hua- chucas, white and red chrystals Of fantastic design, some having the ap- pearance Of the most expert workman ship, copper in azurite ruby copper of the most delicate form, rare moss coppers, chrystalized lead specimens from the Mammoth out from Tucson cube iron and jack ore from Galena, Kansas, and scores of others too num- erous to mention and impossible to describe only by an expert
 One of the specimens that MT. Rob erts prizes highly was taken from the old Copper Queen incline at the 2O0 level. It is a piece of green malaehite dug up over 25 years ago. It was given to Mir. Roberts by Johnny Blair Ed Austin furnished another hne sample of ore from Copper river country property in Mexico in which Bisbee capital is at present being in terested.