The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1908-09-09
MINING in ARIZONA
DESCRIBED by A
LAURENS MAN.

parents, Mr.. and Mrs. }. +. Sloan, by
Mr.. Karl w. Sloan, who holds posi-
tion of responsibility and trust in a
large banking house in the far West
and has an opportunity of seeing many
sights almost unknown in this part of
the country:
"Globe, Arizona, Aug 3rd, 1908
Dear Father and Mother | am one
day late in writing this time for the
reason that | went out yesterday and
took in the copper mines from top to
bottom.
'I will tell you little about what
saw, but if you are like | was before |
saw big mine it will be right hard for
you to understand what mammoth
thing a mine really is.
'"rhe old Dominion mine is about
three-fourths of a mile from Globe,
just nice little walk. A friend sug-
gested that we go over and see it, so at
$50 o'clock we went, but we had to
wait until 7.30 until we could get pass
from the night superintendent, and
when he gave it to us he also kindly
volunteered to show us through himself.
eve got on an elevator level with
the top of the ground and in less time
than it takes to write it we were at Il
station one thousand feet below the
surface. We got Off and followed tun-
nelS first one way and then another,
one of the tunnels wide enough for Il
narrow gauge railroad running straight
out through the hill distance Of mile
or more through rock. All along the
route were men at work, stripped to the
waist. digging out the rich ore, loading
cars and pushing them back to the Gle
vator, where they were hoistcd in Il
twinkling to the top, where it is ground
into dust and the copper sftcd out by
numerous processes
eve got on the elevator after about
an hour here and were dropped another
six hundred feet to the bottom level
Think of that, one thousand six hun
dred feet down in the earth through
solid rock almost all the way.
They have three big pumpS; whose
capacity is one thousand five hundred
gallons per minute each to pump the
water out They work all the time.
Think of the awful loss of life by
drowning if these pumps should give
out and refuse to work. The mine is
all lit up by electricity, and on every
level, one hundred feet, they have as
many engines etc, as you would find
in big cotton mill.
There is about one hundred miles of
railway track down there. Fresh air
is pumped in by machinery. In some
places one feels as comfortable as on
top but some are awful hot. When we
came out there was not Il dry thread on
us. We took off our top shirts and col
lars and put on overall and soft hats to
go down. The work goes on all the
time, day and night, three shifts work
ing eight hours each. 1t is great
sight to see the men at the top ready
to go down. They superintendent told
n lND l,l
the four thousand foot level, but al
ready they were in reach of ten million
dollars worth Of copper which will take
years to get out and work up. They
have invested now upwards of ten mil
lions OF dollars, SO he says, and going
deeper and deeper every day. There is
station every one hundred feet where
the men get off to go to their work.
One man working on the sixteenth level
said he had rheumatism bad when he
went to work here but he had swcatrd
it out and is as strong as his side part
ner, mule.
They have mules down there to pull
cars about and they have seen DAYLIGHT
when they go down the last time. They
never bring them up any more until
they are dead.
"Way up on top is little cage where
a man sits with his eyes on the signal
boards all the time. He knows how to
regulate the electricity and air and wa
ter pumps by the signals from below.
If he should make mistake hundreds
might pay for it with their lives All
these people have worked here until
they seem to think no more about it
than you do to get ON your horse and
ride out around the farm
"Well will close. With love to al, ,
81 am your son,
II II -