The sun., 1908-06-18
A GOLD STRIKE IN HODOKEN
IT'S THERE ALL RIGHT. TONS or
1T. SPEAKING ROUGHLY.


Excsvatins for stevens ''Prep" scaioyl
and Some 0s IL Assays %. 30 TO the Ton
But There 10 No Stampede 70 Mine.
ooshi but twas exciting In Hoboken
yesterday
II II wasn't one thing II was another, but
II usually was one thing. Events kept
trsnspiring, az the patent insides moulders
Of public opinion remark, 30 rapidly that
Hobokenites got fairly dizzy trying to keep
pace with them and long about sunset
number Of seasoned observers had TO take
the tunnel to New York city just 10 get
chance TO rest up before guthin' also hap
pened.
Perhaps the first Of the real hard blows
that had only just begun to recover from
from her happy Hoboken fiat to the gilded
joys Of the Hotel Plaza. Manhattan, was
the news that Chicken-Hawk Gablen,ann.
been taken away.
All Hoboken knows Chicken-Hawk and
knows him for tho oldest volunteer mour-
ner In town. For years he has been In the
habit Of soenting out funerals. and whom
once on the trail he will not be shaken of
short Of the cemetery. Respectfully he
follows In the wake OF the hired hacks.
plodding slowly along. with his eyes cast
on the ground. earning the second Of his
popular appellations per contra.
But Chicken Hawk has gone TO board at
Snake Hill at the oounty's expense for the
summer. being sent thither on the flimsy
charge that he had no visible means Of
support, when everybody knows that his
legs could be seen all the way across Wash
ington street. In consequence the tobacco
trade expects quiet summer, for the rea-
son that Chicken Hawk smoked incessantly,
though certain OF his critics have alleged
that he wasn't above sniping since the
financial stringency that set in last Octo-
ber.
But setting all that aside, the community
had scarcely rallied from the shock OF
Chicken Hawks departure when 1t gasped
again at the news that a big gold strike
had been made in an excavation owned by
Stevens Institute. Rumor ran high as to
the extent Of the find and soon the news
was flashed to New York that work on the
addition to the Stevens Preparatory School
had been suspended pending inyestiga-
ton by mining experts and that II their
report was satisfactory the mine would be
developed to it's full extent. For time it
looked as IL a regular Cripple Creek boom
was likely to set in and many prophesied
that Hetty Green would be good and sore
as soon as she learned that abe had left
Hoboken just when 1t was going to develop
big pay streak.
Reporters were hurried to the scene OF
the big strike and demanded to see the
rich ore that had been taken out, They
were taken kindly but firmly by the hand
and led over to River street, where a little
heap Of reddish pink broken rock was
pointed out. They were assured that this
was indeed the famous quartz, that it had
been taken from the prop" school excava-
ton and that some Of it had assayed $3.50
to the ton.
All gazed. properly awestruok. The
quartz was mixed with bunch Of broken
bricks, half a heap Of mortar sand and
busted wheelbarrow: 1t did seem careless.
There were no guards and any fellow who
pocketsful Of the stuff-the quartz, not
the wheebarrow. Nor were there any signs
OF a new mining camp springing up. Indeed
1t can be said that there isn't faro bank
or q roulette wheel within blocks of the
strike.
Prof. Thomas Bliss Stillman of Stevens
institute, according to the first accounts
sent out. wae the disooverer of the gold.
Prof. Stillman, these accounts said, was
professor Of biology of Stevens Institute.
knew that he ives professor Of chemistry
predicted confidently that no would be
pretty sore on that biology business when
he heard about it. He was-but il doesn't
matter especially what he said about it.
1t was really he who noticed that the rock
excavated for the prep school addition
looked suspiciously like quartz. and at his
suggestion his son. Albert l.. Stillman, who
is Columbia University school of mines
man, selected some of the most promising
quartz and assayed it.
1t was young Mr.. Stillman who reported
later that the samples assayed showed gold
at the rate Of $3.50 a ton.
It can be asserted definitely. however,
that nobody is thinking OF tearing down
Stevens Institute to dig for gold. Eight
dollars and half ore Is profitable ore if
you've got enough Of it and the machinery
to get it out and separate It. But the known
geological facts about Hoboken do not lead
anybody to suspect that the town is built
on gold mine. There's too much of that
shale stuff and that green serpentne lying
around loose TO give much encouragement
in the gold line. In fact, even before Ho-
boken heard about the big strike yesterday
the callous workmen who had dug up the
precious quartz had covered over with
concrete the excavation whence they dug
1t out.